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Obama

Ahead of Proposed U.S. Power Plant Rules, the Spin Scramble Begins

Ahead of Proposed U.S. Power Plant Rules, the Spin Scramble Begins

written by CleanTechies.com Contributor

U.S. President Barack Obama’s announcement of new limits on carbon emissions from the nation’s existing power plants is nearing, but the political messaging battle over what is likely to be Obama’s most significant action on climate change already is heating up.

The pending rules from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are widely expected to set emission-reduction targets for existing power plants and allow states to craft their own plans for how to meet the standard. Those options could include increasing efficiency, retrofitting existing plants, and boosting the production of energy from renewables and natural gas.

The EPA released the proposed rules for future power plants last fall. But new rules for emissions from existing plants—which account for 39 percent of energy-related U.S. emissions—could have a much greater impact. The stakes are huge for the coal industry, which accounts for three quarters of those power sector emissions and stands to be hit hardest by new standards, and for states such as Kentucky and West Virginia that depend heavily on coal for power generation. (See related story: “Clean Coal Test: Power Plants Prepare to Capture Carbon.”)

The stakes also are huge for Obama, who has little chance of pushing major climate legislation through a divided Congress but has vowed to take meaningful action against emissions that raise carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. (See related story: “Can the Senate Force Approval of the Keystone Pipeline?“)

The announcement expected on Monday will come less than a month after the White House released a sweeping assessment of climate change’s impact on the United States. The report echoed scientists’ warnings that climate change is increasing the risk of extreme weather, food and water shortages, health problems, and other society-changing impacts. (See related story: “Federal Climate Change Report Highlights Risks for Americans.”)

Unlike the scientific community, U.S. politicians and interest groups are deeply divided over climate change and questions of how much government should do to address it. Many Democrats, environmentalists, and others support Obama’s move, while many Republicans and pro-business groups say the new carbon restrictions amount to an expensive overreach in regulation.

That chasm has been on full display this week in Washington, where interest groups and analysts have used a barrage of reports and briefings to praise or criticize the likely parameters of Obama’s plan.

“Show of hands: Who is *not* releasing a report sometime in the next week about EPA’s carbon pollution rules for power plants?” Ken Ward Jr., a reporter for West Virginia’s Charleston Gazette, wrote on Twitter last week.

“Pivotal Battle”

A leading voice in favor of Obama’s plan is the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental organization whose own antipollution plan is widely seen as a template for what the administration will propose.

During a briefing the NRDC held Wednesday, David Goldston, the group’s director of government affairs, said that the coming restrictions aimed at reducing carbon emissions represent “the pivotal battle on climate change for U.S. domestic politics. Really for the first time, climate is going to be front and center as the national issue.” (Take the quiz: “What You Don’t Know About Climate Change Science.”)

The NRDC said that by 2020, the new standards could cut carbon pollution levels 35 percent below 2005 levels, prevent thousands of premature deaths from respiratory disease, lower consumer electric bills, and stimulate investments of up to $121 billion in energy efficiency and renewables.

As the NRDC team spoke, the pro-business U.S. Chamber of Commerce was releasing a considerably darker assessment of the expected EPA standards, using NRDC’s proposal as a basis. The chamber predicted that the new rules would cost the U.S. economy more than $50 billion in productivity because of “spending in pursuit of regulatory compliance rather than economic expansion,” result in 224,000 job losses, and add up to $17 billion in consumer costs each year for the next 15 years.

“Our analysis shows that Americans will pay significantly more for electricity, see slower economic growth and fewer jobs, and have less disposable income, while a slight reduction in carbon emissions will be overwhelmed by global increases,” Karen Harbert, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy, said in a statement. It was a reminder of the skepticism that conservative and business groups have expressed over whether other nations—particularly China, which is responsible for about a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions and is burning increasing amounts of coal—will follow Obama’s lead in restricting such emissions. (See related story: “How Much Is U.S. to Blame for Made-in-China Pollution?“)

The chamber argues that the costs for companies to comply with the new regulations, along with higher energy prices and lost jobs, will reduce productivity, particularly in the southern Atlantic states, because of the “need to replace large portions of coal generation.”

The NRDC anticipated the chamber’s announcement in its own briefing. “Even in the business community, there are a lot of companies that support moving ahead with carbon standards,” said Peter Altman, director of the NRDC’s climate and clean air campaign. “The U.S. Chamber does not speak for the United States business community.”

He noted that several companies have defected from membership in the chamber because of its stance against emissions regulations.

Churning Out Sound Bites

Other organizations have put out statements along predictable lines.

The industry group American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity has bashed Obama’s plan in advance by saying, “We crunched the numbers. There’s a lot the NRDC isn’t telling you.” The coal group has joined other industry-aligned organizations in claiming that new standards on carbon will hurt the economy and raise consumers’ electric bills.

On the other side, organizations including the Environmental Defense Fund, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Clean Air Task Force have argued that the new standards will offer an economic boost by encouraging investment in clean energy and efficiency, along with desperately needed action on emissions that will help address climate change and reduce health impacts from air pollution.

At least one analysis from the research group World Resources Institute (WRI) suggests that the dire predictions over the impact of the pending rules could be overblown. WRI and others say that several states will be able to meet the new standards via measures that already are in place.

For example, nine states in the Northeast, as part of a regional cap-and-trade program that sets overall limits on carbon and then allows states to trade permits to pollute, have committed to cut emissions by 45 percent during the next year and by another 2.5 percent a year after that until 2020. And for the ten states that WRI analyzed—including coal-reliant Pennsylvania and Ohio—achieving “moderate to ambitious carbon reductions” would be within reach if those states boost efficiency, add renewable and natural gas capacity, and upgrade existing coal plants. (See related story: “California Tackles Climate Change, But Will Others Follow?“)

Passion Surrounds Debate

“Moderate to ambitious” seems like an almost suspiciously bland characterization when compared with some of the other superlative assessments of the plan’s potential from both sides. In a conference call Wednesday organized by the environmental group Earthjustice, Alan H. Lockwood, professor emeritus of neurology at the University at Buffalo who has written about the effects of coal burning on health, called the regulations “the most important public health measure of our generation,” while the Clean Air Task Force said they are the Obama administration’s “single most important climate initiative.”

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, on the other hand, said that Obama’s plans are “threatening to tip our country over the edge” economically. Perhaps most colorfully, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin said earlier this month that because of the plan, “a lot of people on the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum [are] going to die.”

Such comments reflect the passion surrounding a debate that almost certainly will be fueled by Obama’s announcement of the new emissions rules. The EPA will consider public feedback on the proposal for a one-year period, and then states will have another year to put together their implementation plans after the final rule is issued in 2015. (See related story: “Has Obama Kept Climate Promises Since Last State of the Union?“)

The NRDC’s Goldston said he expects challenges to the new rules in Congress, at the state level, and in the courts. “We are prepared for all those battles,” he said.

Article by Christina Nunez of National Geographic, appearing courtesy 3BL Media.



June 2, 2014 0 comment
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Obama Bypasses Congress and Turns to Big Business to Make Energy Efficiency Happen

Obama Bypasses Congress and Turns to Big Business to Make Energy Efficiency Happen

written by Elisa Wood

It’s never a bad thing to have the leader of the free world in your corner. And President Barrack Obama made clear again last week that he’s with energy efficiency.

At a Walmart in Silicon Valley, Obama laid out his next round of green energy expansion plans. Sexy solar got much of the play in the media coverage. But staid energy efficiency was in no way ignored by the president.

“More and more companies like Walmart are realizing that wasting less energy isn’t just good for the planet, it’s good for business,” Obama said at the event. “It’s good for the bottom line.”

Obama convinced several household-name businesses to make new investments in energy efficiency – not just Walmart, but General Mills, General Motors, Whole Foods, UTC, Hilton and others.  To put their commitments in perspective, Obama said that Walmart alone has agreed to reduce energy use across 850 million square feet. That’s more than half the size of San Francisco.

The businesses were joined by schools, local governments and organizations in the latest round of commitment to the federal Better Buildings Challenge.

Part of Bigger Effort

The Obama administration started the public/private program in 2011 to reduce energy use in buildings 20 percent in a decade. The initial effort drew 190 organizations and 600 manufacturers, which together are cutting their energy use 2.5 percent per year. So far, the participants have saved 36 trillion BTUs and $300 million, according to the White House.

The federal government is working on upgrading its own buildings, as well, with an additional $2 billion over three years in energy performance contracts. This adds to an initial $2 billion in the federal contracts.

Obama also announced:  

  • New appliance standards to reduce energy use 1.2 trillion kWh over 30 years, about as much electricity as US households use in a year. (The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy says the standards are the most important part of the announcement. See related article by the Appliance Standards Awareness Project.)
  • Support by the Department of Energy for the latest commercial building energy code, the 2013 edition of ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1, to provide an additional 8.5 percent energy savings over the previous standard.
  • More outdoor high performance lighting through a federal accelerator program. This includes replacing 500,000 outdoor lighting poles and developing best lighting upgrade practices for cities. The first cities to participate will be Detroit, Michigan.; greater Kansas City, Missouri; West Palm Beach, Florida.; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Huntington Beach, California
  • Expansion of financing for multi-family housing through Fannie Mae and HUD/Federal Housing Administration. Building owners must commit to achieve energy and water savings equal to at least five percent of the mortgage loan amount.

The green energy plans are part of what Obama calls the power of his phone and his pen – a series of executive actions that bypass a seemingly immovable Congress. They come as the U.S. Senate appears to once again be fumbling the Shaheen-Portman bill, the one piece of significant, clean energy legislation with a glimmer of a chance of passage in recent years. The bill would strengthen building codes and boost energy efficiency incentives and research. But it appears to be mired in political wrangling over unrelated issues once again, this time the Keystone pipeline.

Timing

Obama’s new energy efficiency push also comes as the industry awaits an announcement by the Environmental Protection Agency that could bring even greater activity to energy efficiency markets. Expected on June, the rules would set carbon dioxide limits for existing power plants. ACEEE recently issued a study to show how the EPA can use energy efficiency to meet the new carbon standard.

“The energy efficiency commitments made by the president today will not only benefit the environment by lowering carbon pollution, they are good news for our pocketbooks too,” said Neal Elliot, ACEEE associate director for research, “Energy efficiency can save money in every nook and cranny of our economy-these actions will reduce energy waste in industrial plants, commercial buildings, low-income housing, restaurants and supermarkets, water treatment plants, federal buildings, and more.”

This article is published under a cross licensing agreement with EnergyEfficiencyMarkets.com



May 14, 2014 0 comment
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The Keystone XL Pipeline: More Symbol Than Substance

The Keystone XL Pipeline: More Symbol Than Substance

written by

The State Department is delaying its decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, pushing the controversy past this fall’s midterm elections. That removes it from being an election political football, but not from the front pages, where’s it’s the environmental hot topic that won’t cool down.

The proposed project, which would carry carbon-heavy crude from Alberta’s oil sands fields to Gulf Coast refineries, has become the rallying point for liberal environmental activists and conservative Republicans alike. Activists have tagged it as symbolic of President Obama’s rejection of fossil fuels and of commitment to renewable energy. Republicans have termed it a symbol of job creation and energy security, and of “can do” technological know-how. But the pipeline may be more powerful as a rhetorical trope than as a real game-changer in our energy future.

The numbers tell the story. The oil that would move through the Keystone pipeline is estimated to add 18.7 million metric tons of carbon to the atmosphere annually—less than one percent of annual American greenhouse gas emissions, 5.5 billion tons, and a tiny part of the annual global total, 32.6 billion tons of carbon pollution. No wonder that those in the know are looking to new EPA regulations that would require deep cuts in emissions from coal plants and cars, the principal sources of GHG in the U.S., to make a real difference in addressing climate change. Here’s hoping that there’s a room in all the overheated political rhetoric for a cooler look at solutions that might have a major effect on climate change.

Article by John Howell



April 25, 2014 1 comment
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A Strategy to Cut Methane Emissions

A Strategy to Cut Methane Emissions

written by

In June 2013, President Obama gave a speech at Georgetown University where he laid out both the case for action on climate change and the steps his Administration will take to address it. The Climate Action Plan that the President announced includes steps to cut carbon pollution, help prepare the United States for the impacts of climate change that are already on the way, and continue American leadership in international efforts to combat global climate change.

In his Climate Action Plan, President Obama directed the Administration to develop a comprehensive, interagency strategy to cut methane emissions. Today, the White House released the Climate Action Plan – Strategy to Cut Methane Emissions. Learn more about the strategy in the fact sheet below, and check out the full Strategy here.

FACT SHEET: Climate Action Plan – Strategy to Cut Methane Emissions

With an all-of-the-above approach to develop homegrown energy and steady, responsible steps to cut carbon pollution, we can protect our kids’ health and begin to slow the effects of climate change so we leave a cleaner, more stable environment for future generations. That’s why last June, President Obama issued a broad-based Climate Action Plan, announcing a series of executive actions to reduce carbon pollution, prepare the U.S. for the impacts of climate change, and lead international efforts to address global climate change.

Since June, the Administration has made substantial progress in meeting the ambitious goals laid out in the Climate Action Plan in a way that advances our economy, our environment, and public health. In just the last few months:

  • The Department of the Interior (DOI) announced permitting the 50th renewables-related project on federal lands during the Administration – bringing us closer to meeting the goal of siting enough wind and solar projects on public lands by 2020 to power more than 6 million homes.
  • President Obama directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation to develop fuel economy standards for heavy-duty vehicles to save families money at the pump and further reduce reliance on foreign oil and fuel consumption.
  • The Department of Energy (DOE) has issued two proposed energy conservation standards for appliances and equipment and finalized two energy conservation standards. That’s on top of the five proposed and two final energy conservation standards DOE has already issued since June. These standards will help cut consumers’ electricity bills by billions of dollars.
  • The Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced seven new “climate hubs” to help farmers and ranchers adapt their operations to a changing climate and the President’s Budget proposed a $1 billion in new funding for new technologies and incentives to build smarter, more resilient infrastructure to help communities prepare for a changing climate.
  • The Administration announced the Climate Data Initiative, an ambitious new effort bringing together extensive open government data and design competitions with commitments from the private and philanthropic sectors to develop data-driven planning and resilience tools for local communities. This effort will help give communities across America the information and tools they need to plan for current and future climate impacts.
  • The Administration has continued the work of the U.S.-China Climate Change Working Group that’s working to promote clean energy and transportation solutions in both countries. And we’re working closely with India to accelerate its clean energy revolution and address the impacts of climate change in vulnerable communities.

Today, the Administration is releasing another key element called for in the President’s Climate Action Plan – a Strategy to Reduce Methane Emissions. The strategy summarizes the sources of methane emissions, commits to new steps to cut emissions of this potent greenhouse gas, and outlines the Administration’s efforts to improve the measurement of these emissions. The strategy builds on progress to date and takes steps to further cut methane emissions from landfills, coal mining, and agriculture, and oil and gas systems through cost-effective voluntary actions and common-sense standards. Key steps include:

  • Landfills: In the summer of 2014, the EPA will propose updated standards to reduce methane from new landfills and take public comment on whether to update standards for existing landfills.
  • Coal Mines:  In April 2014, the DOI’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will release an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to gather public input on the development of a program for the capture and sale, or disposal of waste mine methane on lands leased by the Federal government.
  • Agriculture: In June, in partnership with the dairy industry, the USDA, EPA and DOE will jointly release a “Biogas Roadmap” outlining voluntary strategies to accelerate adoption of methane digesters and other cost-effective technologies to reduce U.S. dairy sector greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020.
  • Oil and Gas: Building on success in reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas sector through voluntary programs and targeted regulations, the Administration will take new actions to encourage additional cost-effective reductions. Key steps include:
    • In the spring of 2014, EPA will assess several potentially significant sources of methane and other emissions from the oil and gas sector. EPA will solicit input from independent experts through a series of technical white papers, and in the fall of 2014, EPA will determine how best to pursue further methane reductions from these sources. If EPA decides to develop additional regulations, it will complete those regulations by the end of 2016.
    • Later this year, the BLM will propose updated standards to reduce venting and flaring from oil and gas production on public lands.
    • As part of the Quadrennial Energy Review, and through DOE-convened roundtables, the Administration will identify “downstream” methane reduction opportunities. Through the Natural Gas STAR program, EPA will work with the industry to expand voluntary efforts to reduce methane emissions.

Taking action to curb methane waste and pollution is important because emissions of methane make up nearly 9 percent of all the greenhouse gas emitted as a result of human activity in the United States. Since 1990, methane pollution in the United States has decreased by 11 percent, even as activities that can produce methane have increased. However, methane pollution is projected to increase to a level equivalent to over 620 million tons of carbon dioxide pollution in 2030 absent additional action to reduce emissions.

Reducing methane emissions is a powerful way to take action on climate change; and putting methane to use can support local economies with a source of clean energy that generates revenue, spurs investment and jobs, improves safety, and leads to cleaner air. When fully implemented, the policies in the methane strategy will improve public health and safety while recovering otherwise wasted energy to power our communities, farms, factories, and power plants.

Article by Dan Utech, Special Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change.



March 28, 2014 0 comment
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Climate Data Initiative Launches with Strong Public and Private Sector Commitments

Climate Data Initiative Launches with Strong Public and Private Sector Commitments

written by

Across the country, state and local leaders are on the front lines of climate change—and it is impossible for them to ignore the consequences.  In 2012 alone, extreme weather events caused more than $110 billion in damages and claimed more than 300 lives.

While no single weather event can be attributed to climate change, we know that our changing climate is making many kinds of extreme events more frequent and more severe. Rising seas threaten our coastlines. Dry regions are at higher risk of destructive wildfires. Heat waves impact health and agriculture. Heavier downpours can lead to damaging floods.

Even as we work to curb greenhouse gas emissions and expand renewable energy generation, we need to take steps to make our communities more resilient to the climate change impacts we can’t avoid—some of which are already well underway.

That’s why today, delivering on a commitment in the President’s Climate Action Plan, we are launching the Climate Data Initiative, an ambitious new effort bringing together extensive open government data and design competitions with commitments from the private and philanthropic sectors to develop data-driven planning and resilience tools for local communities. This effort will help give communities across America the information and tools they need to plan for current and future climate impacts.

The Climate Data Initiative builds on the success of the Obama Administration’s ongoing efforts to unleash the power of open government data. Since data.gov, the central site to find U.S. government data resources, launched in 2009, the Federal government has released troves of valuable data that were previously hard to access in areas such as health, energy, education, public safety, and global development. Today these data are being used by entrepreneurs, researchers, tech innovators, and others to create countless new applications, tools, services, and businesses.

Data from NOAA, NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Department of Defense, and other Federal agencies will be featured on climate.data.gov, a new section within data.gov that opens for business today. The first batch of climate data being made available will focus on coastal flooding and sea level rise. NOAA and NASA will also be announcing an innovation challenge calling on researchers and developers to create data-driven simulations to help plan for the future and to educate the public about the vulnerability of their own communities to sea level rise and flood events.

These and other Federal efforts will be amplified by a number of ambitious private commitments. For example, Esri, the company that produces the ArcGIS software used by thousands of city and regional planning experts, will be partnering with 12 cities across the country to create free and open “maps and apps” to help state and local governments plan for climate change impacts. Google will donate one petabyte—that’s 1,000 terabytes—of cloud storage for climate data, as well as 50 million hours of high-performance computing with the Google Earth Engine platform. The company is challenging the global innovation community to build a high-resolution global terrain model to help communities build resilience to anticipated climate impacts in decades to come. And the World Bank will release a new field guide for the Open Data for Resilience Initiative, which is working in more than 20 countries to map millions of buildings and urban infrastructure.

Every citizen will be affected by climate change—and all of us must work together to make our communities stronger and more resilient to its impacts. By taking the enormous data sets regularly collected by NASA, NOAA, and other agencies and applying the ingenuity, creativity, and expertise of technologists and entrepreneurs, the Climate Data Initiative will help create easy-to-use tools for regional planners, farmers, hospitals, and businesses across the country—and empower America’s communities to prepare themselves for the future.

Article by John Podesta and John P. Holdren.  John Podesta is a Counselor to the President. John P. Holdren is Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.



March 19, 2014 0 comment
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Shift Happens

written by Walter Wang

When I heard in late December that Bill McKibben had written another article for Rolling Stone, I was thrilled. His July 2012 piece for that publication — “Global Warming’s Terrifying Math” — started a firestorm. McKibben had determined that the public was losing interest in battling climate change because there was no clear enemy. With no titanic

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January 7, 2014 0 comment
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Obama and the Nordic Countries Agree on Climate Change Goal

written by Walter Wang

President Obama met with the King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden before flying to St. Petersburg for the G-20 Summit.

His visit was the first bilateral visit by a President of the United States to Sweden.

President Obama and leaders from Denmark,

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September 9, 2013 0 comment
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President Obama Unveils Sweeping U.S. Plan to Tackle Climate Change

written by Yale Environment 360

President Obama unveiled yesterday a long-awaited national strategy to tackle climate change, a sweeping plan that will include cutting carbon emissions at power plants, protecting the coastline from rising seas, and a greater U.S. role in global climate talks. Calling the need to address climate change a “moral obligation,” Obama asked the U.S. Environmental Protection

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June 26, 2013 1 comment
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Program Targeting Diesel Emissions Will Be Cut by 70 Percent

written by Yale Environment 360

A federal program that has cleaned up or removed 50,000 high-polluting diesel engines from U.S. roads is scheduled to be cut by 70 percent under President Barack Obama’s latest budget.

The program eliminated 230,000 tons of soot and smog-causing pollutants, slashed more than two

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May 3, 2013 0 comment
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Obama Unveils New Actions To Combat Climate Change in Second Term

written by Yale Environment 360

Making good on his promise to fight climate change more aggressively in his second term, President Obama is unveiling two major initiatives to reduce the U.S.’s reliance on fossil fuels, including a new $2 billion Energy Security Trust to fund the next generation of green vehicles, as well as new reviews of federal projects to assess their climate impacts.

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March 18, 2013 0 comment
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Solar Says ‘Good-Bye Solyndra’

written by Lisa Ann Pinkerton

No company has done greater damage to the image of the American solar industry than Solyndra. It was therefore a source of great delight to me last week as I drove along Interstate 880 through Fremont, CA for what I didn’t see. The signs on the old factory were gone. Those persistent thorns in the side of American solar, had finally vanished, closing

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February 20, 2013 4 comments
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Can the Government Itself Achieve Obama’s New Energy Efficiency Goal?

written by Walter Wang

During his State of the Union Address, President Obama set the goal for the entire US economy to become 50% more energy efficient in the next 20 years. This objective is being hailed as an ambitious but achievable target, one that was endorsed by the non-partisan Alliance commission on National Energy Efficiency Policy.

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February 19, 2013 0 comment
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Two New Polls Show Strong Support for Obama Action on Climate

written by Yale Environment 360

Roughly two-thirds of the American people support President Obama taking significant action on climate change, according to two polls released the day after Obama’s State of the Union address.

A poll for the League of Conservation voters showed

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February 15, 2013 0 comment
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Obama and the Reinvention of Energy Efficiency

written by Walter Wang

The energy efficiency industry received a nice boost this week during President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. Obama called for cutting energy use by half over the next 20 years.

Such attention comes at a significant point in the history of the energy efficiency movement. It appears

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February 14, 2013 0 comment
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