More than 2,000 U.S. economists and climate scientists sent a letter to the Senate pressing for legislation that would cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Representative Ed Markey, D-Mass., explains how the Recovery Act is creating jobs and developing new clean energy industries.

A new bill crafted by South Carolina legislators could bring some financial relief to rural energy consumers and create up to 40,000 jobs.

A piece at Grist argues that small legislative clean energy victories can slowly help broaden support for “smart clean energy policy.”

Earth Day organizers are planning a rally in Washington, D.C., to urge the Senate to pass comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation.

A new Gallop poll finds climate change denial disinformation is having a disproportionately strong effect on the views of conservatives.

Local Green: A-Power Energy, U.S. Renewable Energy Group, and American Nevada Group are building a wind turbine manufacturing plant in Nevada that will create about 1,000 permanent jobs.

Delaware Gov. Jack Markell introduced the Delaware Clean Energy Jobs Act, which, among other things, would require the state to generate 30 percent of its power from renewables by 2029.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has dropped plans to build an 85-mile clean energy transmission line (dubbed the Green Path North) due to opposition from some environmentalists.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of innuendo / CC BY 2.0

Recalling the immense funding required by the Manhattan Project , Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the U.S. should be spending tens of billions of dollars annually on developing the clean energy economy.

Tuesday and Wednesday were big days on Capitol Hill for clean energy, as President Obama and Senators involved in crafting climate legislation held lengthy discussions with industry leaders on the subject.

The month-long “Race for American Jobs: Clean Energy Leadership” campaign wrapped up in Washington, D.C. yesterday.

In an exclusive Wonk Room interview, Representative Jay Inslee, D-Wash., told Senators to “put away your fear” and pass a job-creating clean enery bill.

Greentech Media’s continuing “Green Kingpins” series recently profiled venture capitalist John Doerr, who says that China is investing ten times more than the United States in clean energy as a percentage of its GDP.

Sundrop Fuels says its new system that converts biomass into synthetic fuels using solar energy is twice as efficient as current methods.

Local Green: Colorado passed a renewable energy standard that requires the state to generate 30 percent of its energy through renewables by 2020.

Oakland, California’s new Ironhorse Apartments offer residents 99 affordable rental units, all equipped to harness energy from the sun.

GCL-Poly Energy Holdings, China’s largest polysilicon producer, is opening an office in San Francisco.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of PNNL / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

President Obama met with Cabinet members and a bipartisan group of Senators yesterday in an effort to reinvigorate clean energy and climate legislation efforts.

Senator Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., expects a new draft clean energy and climate bill will be ready before Easter.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) asserts that comprehensive climate and energy legislation will create more jobs and reduce dependence on imported oil more than a “piecemeal,” energy-only bill.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu reiterated his support for a carbon cap, speaking yesterday at CERAWeek in Houston, Texas.

A Joint Center poll found that 75 percent of African American voters will consider climate change issues when voting in the upcoming midterm elections.

Shell Oil President Marvin Odum explains why the oil giant is sticking with the U.S. Climate Action Partnership.

I.B.M. and Stanford University researchers say they have developed continuously recyclable plastics.

A piece at Grist reports on the worldwide “solar water heating revolution.”

Some smart grid companies say marketing to commercial and business customers, rather than homeowners, is the best strategy for expanding their markets.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Winged Photography / CC BY-NC 2.0

Senators John Kerry, D-Mass., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., are discussing the shape of a new climate and clean energy bill with business groups this week.

A piece at Grist explains that oil industry “support” for a possible carbon fee may help the industry blame U.S. efforts to combat climate change for higher gas prices.

Energy efficiency will be the focus of hearings in both the House and Senate this week.

In response to recent anti-science legislation passed in Utah and South Dakota, former White House science advisor Jeff Schweitzer proposes some new resolutions of his own.

All three of the benchmark clean tech stock indices made significant gains last week, reports TheStreet.com.

It should come as no surprise that federal stimulus money for clean energy projects has been going in part to foreign companies, argues a piece at Forbes.com, as the United States has for too long lacked a “national clean energy strategy.”

Transonic Combustion says it has developed a fuel injection system that could increase the efficiency of gasoline-fired engines by 50 percent.

A DiscoveryNews piece addresses some popular climate change myths.

Local Green: A piece in the Toledo Blade says clean energy legislation has bipartisan support in Ohio.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Cliff1066 / CC BY 2.0

Despite skepticism of climate science having become a “litmus test” of Republican solidarity, support for a federal clean energy bill seems relatively stable, in part because many Americans see such legislation as an economic stimulator.

Science Studies professor Naomi Oreskes’ timely new book, Merchants of Doubt, chronicles four decades of effective anti-science campaigning intended to “mislead the public and deny well-established scientific knowledge.”

Fuel efficiency standards and a growing green public consciousness will drive electric vehicle sales in coming years, speculated a panel at the this past weekend’s MIT Energy Conference. But manufacturers hope to contribute to the vehicles’ desirability by marketing them as fun.

Avatar director James Cameron’s wife, Suzy Amis Cameron, wore the winning entry to the Oscars in the “Red Carpet Green Dress” contest yesterday.

A piece at Grist profiles digital designer Steve Price, whose flash animation projects depict how blighted, urban landscapes could be transformed into sustainable, walkable spaces.

Streetfilms’ new series “Fixing the Great Mistake” examines how American cities were transformed to accommodate the automobile in the early 20th century.

Local Green: A bill in the Colorado legislature would increase the state’s renewable energy portfolio by 50 percent, while boosting support for small, local energy projects.

The Columbus Dispatch profiles Senator Sherrod Brown’s (D-Ohio) efforts to balance the interests of the state’s older industries and the emerging clean energy sector.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Green For All / CC BY 2.0

A new study published in Science finds “methane venting” in the East Siberian arctic shelf could “trigger abrupt climate warming.”

A new Center For American Progress report warns that without government incentives like those offered to clean energy companies in Germany, Spain, and China, the United States risks missing out on one of the most important economic opportunities of the 21st-century.

India’s 2010-11 budget increases funding for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy by over 60 percent.

A new Blue Green Alliance report says increasing high speed internet use could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help create jobs. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is set to release its National Broadband Plan later this month.

T. Boone Pickens’ pre-recession plan to erect more than 600 wind turbines in the Texas Panhandle has been stymied by a tight credit market and transmission issues. But the 81 year-old billionaire says he will release details of a smaller, revised plan sometime within the next month.

Google released its PowerMeter energy-monitoring web application this week, which could allow people to get home energy use information without a smart meter.

Treehugger reports that eight green processes and fabrics are “revolutionizing fashion manufacturing”.

Local Green: The U.S. Virgin Islands will work with federal agencies to aggressively transform the territory’s energy supply. The Virgin Islands could reduce its dependence on fossil fuels by 60 percent within 15 years.

An attempt to wed new and old energy technologies in Florida is tying what will become the world’s second largest solar array to a traditional fossil-fuel power plant.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation

The Apollo Alliance and Center for American Progress are co-hosting a conference in Washington, D.C. today that is convening several of America’s leading lawmakers and economic policy experts to explore the future of U.S. clean energy competitiveness. Watch it live here.

The Apollo Alliance also released a report today with Good Jobs First which suggests that the U.S. must commit to developing a domestic manufacturing sector capable of meeting the demands of the growing clean energy economy.

The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) Summit brought investors, researchers, politicians and entrepreneurs to Washington, D.C. this week to discuss breakthrough clean energy technology.

The Chicago Tribune hosts a reader-driven Q&A on climate science (via ClimateProgress).

Climate scientists are fighting back against the growing cacophony of anti-science voices in the media, reports the New York Times.

The 2009 National Household Travel Survey finds that trips made on foot, bicycle, and public transit have increased sharply over the past decade.

A piece at Grist welcomes Bill Gates’ entry into the clean energy technology discussion, but fears some aspects of his agenda could lead to “climate inaction.”

Local Green: PlanetGreen provides a preview of some of the green events taking place at this month’s South by Southwest music showcase in Austin, Texas.

California hopes nearly $100 million in federal stimulus-funded incentives and a possible sales tax exemption for green manufacturers will bring more clean energy jobs to the Golden State.

Wyoming approved a $1-per-megawatt-hour-tax on wind energy, becoming the first state to institute a wind tax.

EnergyBloom looks at some of the clean energy legislation New Jersey has passed in recent months.

–Christopher Greenspan

President Obama spoke about the HOMESTAR energy efficiency rebate program in Georgia yesterday. HOMESTAR is based partly on last year’s popular Cash For Clunkers program.

The Los Angeles Times spoke with Arun Majumdar - head of the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).

The NRDC Action Fund’s Heather Taylor-Miesle encourages young people to let their Senators know that they support clean energy and climate legislation.

The Energy Action Coalition’s “Define Our Decade” meetings will bring young people from across the country together to help shape the nation’s clean energy future. Events will be held March 15-26.

A Wonk Room analysis identifies 15 state legislatures that are considering plans to prevent greenhouse gas emissions limits.

“Why do [... ] other pseudo-science conspiracists remain on the lunatic fringe, while climate change deniers have become all but middle-of-the-road?,” asks a piece at OnEarth. Follow the money.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University identified areas where U.S. hospitals can cut down on waste in an analysis published in Academic Medicine.

General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt warned that the U.S. risks losing clean energy growth opportunities to the developing world if it does not adopt “a broad perspective on job creation, innovation, and technology growth.”

Local Green: California is considering a bill that would require utilities to add energy storage to the power grid.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Sister72 / CC BY 2.0

The E.P.A.’s Re-Powering America’s Land program (RE-PAL) aims to reclaim brownfields for solar, wind and biomass projects that could create local jobs and revitalize blighted communities.

A piece at Grist explains why the new Senate climate bill must not look like the Waxman-Markey bill the House of Representatives passed nine months ago.

Speaking at an AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting, Vice President Joe Biden reaffirmed the Obama administration’s commitment to creating jobs and building the economy of the 21st century, in part through the expansion of the clean energy economy.

Despite job scarcity and a weak economy, “This isn’t the time to surrender to feelings of hopelessness and despair,” writes R&B singer Omarion. “It’s time to tell our friends, neighbors and elected officials why clean energy is good for our communities and our country.”

An Iraq war veteran from West Virginia argues that comprehensive climate and clean energy legislation will be necessary to “ensure our way of life this century.”

The Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) is developing technology that uses sound waves to reduce energy consumption.

Local Green: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is considering a carbon surcharge for Department of Water and Power customers in order to help the city move toward more renewable energy sources.

A piece in the Wall Street Journal calls an emerging feud between Texas wind and natural gas interests “a testament to renewable energy’s rapid maturation.”

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of joguldi / CC BY 2.0

The new clean energy and climate bill being crafted in the Senate seeks to rein in carbon emissions in three key areas, but may lack cap-and-trade provisions, reports the Washington Post.

Al Gore writes that he wishes a couple of mistakes discovered in over 20 years of intensive climate science research could demonstrate “that the climate crisis [is] an illusion,” as many climate change skeptics would have the world believe.

New York Times columnist Thomas Freidman talked with Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., about the clean energy movement and its relevance to the Republican Party.

Google says it has developed a new solar mirror prototype that could cut the cost of solar thermal energy in half.

Ecouterre caught some runway action and talked with some green designers at last month’s GreenShows at New York Fashion Week.

Local Green: A Canadian company wants to build a $3.8 billion underwater transmission line to bring clean energy from Labrador to New York City.

Last week, Dow Chemical announced three new clean energy projects that could create nearly 7,000 jobs in Michigan. But a piece at Grist says the company is supporting a front group advocating “complete inaction” on climate change.

A bill in the Arizona state legislature was pulled after a wide range of groups complained it could kill the state’s fledgling solar energy industry.

Controversy over whether or not devices used to convert cow manure into energy are themselves polluting has caused California regulators to stop issuing permits for them.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Storm Crypt / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0