Yesterday we launched Energy.Data.Gov, the latest installment of our growing family of Data.gov communities to deepen our engagement with stakeholders interested in the analytics to measure our Nation’s energy performance. As with our previous open government communities, in health and law, this
This afternoon the President wrote a letter to leaders of both parties in Congress on the subject of tax breaks for oil companies. The President's letter comes a day after Speaker of the House John Boehner said that eliminating those tax breaks is "certainly something we should be looking at," adding that, "We're in a time when the federal government's
Today President Obama is traveling to the Philadelphia area to hold a town hall event with employees at Gamesa Technology Corporation, Inc. about building a 21st century clean energy economy to win the future. Watch the event live at WhiteHouse.gov/live starting at 2:10 p.m. EDT.
The Obama Administration has taken another step to reduce the Federal Government's environmental footprint and to advance clean energy opportunities. On Tuesday morning, I joined General Services Administration Administrator Martha Johnson in Chicago, Illinois, at the first-ever GreenGov Supply Chain Summit to announce a voluntary collaboration between the Federal Government and vendors and suppliers to create a greener and more efficient supply chain.
The Federal Government purchases $500 billion in goods and services annually, so you could say the Federal supply chain represents an enormous opportunity to support a clean energy economy. Through our new GreenGov Supply Chain Partnership, Federal suppliers can agree to voluntarily measure, reduce, and report their greenhouse gas emissions to help GSA design an incentive-based approach to developing contracting advantages for companies that share our sustainability goals. We've already partnered with 60 small businesses for a pilot program that will explore the benefits and challenges of measuring greenhouse gas emissions for small business participants.
More than 150 companies – large and small – joined us at the summit. Companies shared their corporate sustainability priorities and their experiences greening their own supply chains. Two themes emerged in the conversation. First, we have an extraordinary opportunity to foster innovation and entrepreneurship through the Federal Government's commitment to sustainability and the GreenGov Supply Chain Partnership. Second, to fulfill that opportunity, we've got to develop straightforward incentives that make it easy for small and emerging businesses to work with us.
The Federal Government has a responsibility to lead by example to cut energy use, reduce pollution and save taxpayer dollars. Yesterday's announcement is another step in the right direction.
Article by Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality
A quarter-century after President Ronald Reagan dismantled the solar panels placed on the White House roof by his predecessor, Jimmy Carter, the Obama administration has announced that it will install solar energy panels and a solar water heater atop the White House. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu made the announcement, saying in a statement, “As
Last week, I spoke at two events that helped underscore the extent to which President Obama’s Recovery Act is paving the way for a clean energy economy.
Before an audience of green affordable housing developers at the Communities of the Institute for Professional and Executive Development (IPED) annual conference, I
In the last 15 months, President Obama and his Administration have made significant progress in changing the way America thinks about energy and the environment, making the vision of a 21st century clean energy economy a reality. From historic investments in clean energy infrastructure and technology; improved efficiency for buildings, appliances and automobiles; more diverse energy production from domestic and renewable sources; and reduced emissions that contribute to climate change – the President’s comprehensive strategy has put Americans back in control of their energy future, created new jobs and laid the foundation for long-term economic security, and led by example in exercising good stewardship of our environment.
On Capitol Hill, the ship of state is so bereft of rudder and sail that the crew is jumping overboard. The latest to abandon ship is Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, who minced no words about the dysfunctional Congress he is choosing to leave.
On Capitol Hill, the ship of state is so bereft of rudder and sail that the crew is jumping overboard. The latest to abandon ship is Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, who minced no words about the dysfunctional Congress he is choosing to leave.
Forget for a moment about health care and financial reform. On national energy and environmental issues, which have been stalled in the congressional queue, we have a critical national security threat, a danger to public health and welfare, and national policy that encourages American families to inadvertently fund terrorists.
Those are among the reasons the paralyzing partisanship on Capitol Hill is so serious a dereliction of duty.
CleanTechies is fortunate to have some of the sharpest minds in the energy and clean tech industries as regular readers, but even if you don’t have a Ph.D., you should be able to answer this quick math quiz: “Which price tag is cheaper, $8 billion or free?”
Don’t hurt yourselves!
On Tuesday, President Obama officially announced $8 billion in government loan guarantees for construction of two new nuclear plants in Georgia, the country’s first expansion of nukes in more than 30 years.
A day later, the Vermont state legislature officially began deliberations on the question of relicensure of Entergy’s Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. While there are some transaction costs associated with keeping Vermont Yankee open past 2012, the cost is nowhere near $4 billion.
Given the commitment the president made to clean, domestic nuclear power just 24 hours earlier, you would expect the White House to jump right in on the question of relicensure in Vermont, right? Not so fast.
The National Resources Defense Council Action Fund released a video clip last week designed to echo Obama’s call to move America towards a “clean energy economy” in his State of the Union address.
The video is part of the “This is Your Moment” campaign, which features a host of celebrities, such as Jason Bateman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Felicity Huffman, Justin Long, Edward Norton, and Forest Whitaker, urging Congress to pass the first-ever climate and clean energy bill, currently pending in the Senate.
Economy versus the Environment. This is a slogan for many when they consider the challenges of dealing with Climate Change and the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
In 2007, McKinsey issued Reducing US Greenhouse Gas Emissions: How Much at What Cost? that provided a a significant contribution to this discussion. McKinsey’s conclusion: at an “affordable” cost of well below $50 per ton, in aggregate, the United States can meet necessary 2030 targets for GHG emission reductions. All-in-all, this was quite good news for those advocating acting to deal with Climate Change.
There was (and is) reason why the original study and McKinsey’s continuing work in this arena have been widely discussed / cited over the past two years. And, variants of the graphic on cost abatement have shown up in briefing after briefing, article after article, book after book. Good news.
Or, well, is it? McKinsey’s work provides significant data that addressing the environment will have economic cost. Even if a low number, with many actions providing economic benefit, the McKinsey work has a serious underlying thematic: it will cost to address climate change.