by Michael Moynihan
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Removing roadblocks to the growth of renewables 0
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago On Friday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration released new monthly statistics for renewable energy output as well as output of traditional forms of power. The good news is that renewable energy in May, the latest month for which statistics have been compiled, is at its all-time highest level, accounting for 13% of total power. The bad news, however, is that the vast majority of this, about 9.4%, comes from traditional hydropower. The other renewables—wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal—accounted for just 3.6%. Wind accounts for 1.8%, biomass 1.3%, geothermal 0.4%, and solar 0.3% of the total.All of the… Read More
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free bird, free trade?
Can trade policy and climate policy work hand-in-hand? 4
Posted 4 months ago This past weekend, while traveling in India, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received the message, courteous but firm, that India has no intention of capping carbon. Read More -
New energy at DOE
Autos, smart grid and clean tech: DOE turns on the money 2
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago Last week the Department of Energy released part of the $25 billion in loans provided for through the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, included in Section 136 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The delay in releasing these funds had been one of the longest running scandals in clean tech policy. Upon taking office, the Obama Administration vowed to expedite their release and Secretary Steven Chu had made finalizing rules needed to administer the program a key priority. In the first installment of the loans, Tesla, the VC-backed California maker of an all-electric sports… Read More -
tech your children well
Clean technology innovation: reaping the rewards 2
Posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago Clean technology has more potential for wealth creation than information technology. Yet despite numerous breakthroughs, the clean energy and technology space has yet to generate the type of home runs on a company level or growth on an economy-wide level needed to reinvigorate the American economy and get wages moving upwards again. What can be done? Read More -
The CAFE is closed
Fuel economy in context 13
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago Fuel economy standards are among the least precise tools for addressing climate change. Read More -
Embracing the compromise on auctioned permits
Cap and Market This Year 0
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago New York City -- Later today, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is expected to release the Chairman's Mark of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, also known as the energy and cap and trade bill, for markup next week. The new text will reflect a deal made Tuesday on the key issue of giving out versus auctioning of allowances for greenhouse gas emissions. With those agreements -- which give out 35% of the credits to local utilities and 15% to trade-intensive industries -- the bill clears a major hurdle and is now more likely to pass… Read More -
Celebrating the Earth Day
Let’s make this Earth Day about cooperating 0
Posted 7 months, 1 week ago Cross posted at the NDN blog.Forty years have passed since John McConnell, a peace activist and plastics pioneer, proposed the first Earth Day at a Unesco conference in San Francisco as a way to focus attention on our role as stewards of the planet. In that period, environmentalism has grown into a worldwide passion so ingrained that we routinely recycle bottles, paper and plastics and on Earth Day, at least in my small New York town, walk instead of drive children to school. In that sense Earth Day and environmentalism have been astonishingly successful.
At the same… Read More -
At a (potholed) crossroads
Sustainable funding for sustainable infrastructure 0
Posted 8 months, 2 weeks ago This past Friday, Princeton University's PRIOR Center and New York University's Rudin Center convened a conference on what's next in transportation. The speakers, who included Mort Downey, former Deputy Secretary of Transportation and leader of the Obama transition team for transportation; Tony Shorris, former head of the New York and New Jersey Port Authority; current PA chairman Anthony Coscia; and others, agreed that we are at a crossroads in transportation policy.On the one hand, there has never been more enthusiasm for new modes of transportation such as high-speed rail and new approaches such as vehicle mileage tolling and congestion… Read More
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Clearing the decks for the next expansion
To make the most of this recession, we will need an economic expansion that restores our climate 2
Posted 10 months ago Cross-posted at the NDN Blog.-----
As the economic recovery and investment package backed by the administration works its way through Congress, and more evidence about the nature of this recession surfaces, an interesting exercise is to think about how we want to emerge once it is over. In the midst of current economic turmoil, it may seem difficult to imagine the post-recovery world, let alone accurately predict it. Nonetheless, starting with an outcome and working backwards to a policy prescription is far preferable to policy based purely on the passions of the moment. Following are my thoughts… Read More
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It's all in the structure
Emergency stimulus requires an emergency board 0
Posted 11 months, 3 weeks ago Cross-posted from the NDN blog.-----
Clean infrastructure stimulus is coming and it is coming fast, perhaps as soon as Jan. 20, given the new accelerated timetable of President-elect Obama and the Congressional leadership. For us at NDN, this is an exciting moment, as we have been advocating on behalf of a large green stimulus package that works for the long term as well as the short term for quite some time.
Clean infrastructure stimulus has the ability not only to create jobs in the near term -- particularly in sectors and regions hard hit by the now… Read More
