The fifty billion dollar (yes, that’s $50,000,000,000) Hurricane Sandy Relief Bill (the "Relief Bill") is headed to President Obama’s desk for his signature. The Full Text of the bill is available here
The Relief Bill provides several different opportunities for the Federal government to encourage states to adopt up-to-date building codes by tying distribution
There is a lot of discussion lately about domestic energy production and American energy security. For the Obama Administration, moving towards the goal of energy independence has been a clear priority since day one. When President Obama took office, the United States imported 11 million barrels of oil a day. The President has put forward a plan to cut that by
Contrary to common belief that nothing is really happening in green building at the Congressional level these days, I provide the following two counterexamples.
An amendment to the Senate Appropriations Bill for Energy and Water introduced by Senators Wicker
Ask Dr. Riccardo Signorelli, CEO of clean-technology company FastCAP Systems, what role the government may have had in getting his business off the ground and his answer is brief.
“The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act made FastCAP possible,” Signorelli said. “Simple as
The solar industry is gaining steam in both Asia and the U.S. This week, two large deals were signed that signal strategic growth for the solar energy industry.
Suntech, the world’s largest producer of solar panels entered into an agreement with Sunborne Energy to provide Sunborne with 100 MW worth of solar panels
One important component of our energy policy is to provide American families with the tools that they need to make choices that will reduce costs and save energy. Every time families fill up their gas tanks or look at their energy bills their pocket books feel the pinch. That’s why we are looking toward new and innovative solutions to
The health of our communities and prosperity of our economy are inextricably linked. From businesses and educators to state and local governments, communities across America are spearheading the innovations that will help us win the future. President Obama's plan that he highlighted in the 2011 State of the Union Address to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build
Earlier this week, President Obama set a goal of making the United States the first country in the world to put one million advanced technology vehicles on the road. This goal is part of the President’s plan to rebuild our economy by investing in innovation to create the jobs and industries of the future.
Sometimes when one gets so focused on the daily tasks at hand, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture around us. But when you take a step back, it is an impressive canvass. Thanks to the hard work of everyone at the Department of Energy over the past year, we’ve made remarkable progress in laying the foundation for a new energy future, advancing groundbreaking
From the earliest days of the Obama administration, we have been working to promote innovation and competitiveness in high-growth sectors like renewable energy and energy efficiency (RE&EE). President Obama’s Recovery
Will the political change in Washington spell doom for meaningful progress in clean tech? That’s the question being asked by many since the mid-term election swept a Republican majority into power in the House of Representatives. With deficit reduction as the rallying cry of the legions that have taken half of Capitol Hill, the survival prospects for clean energy legislation
In an interesting show of how established solar energy has become, on Monday, October 12, the New York-based Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) gave one of its 2010 Innovation Awards to Lakota Solar Enterprises, a renewable energy company owned entirely by Native Americans and located on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) sued the Feds this week to reinstate the PACE program. The PACE program was a component of the Recovery Act, which allowed the upfront costs of property owners’ clean energy and energy efficiency projects to be financed by local governments, and paid back by homeowners as an increase in their
In August of 2009, the White House announced a stimulus package worth $2.4 billion to move the electric vehicle industry closer to commercialization. The bulk of the money went to companies involved in producing batteries to help speed up the cost reductions that are felt to be necessary to make EVs affordable to most consumers.
Now 14 months later, very little of that money