Senator Charles Schumer, D-NY, says a 600+ megawatt wind project in Texas should not receive federal stimulus money due to the project’s heavy reliance on Chinese-manufactured equipment.

At the White House Tribal Nations Conference yesterday, Energy Secretary Steven Chu discussed federal efforts to develop clean energy sources on tribal lands.

U.N. officials say they are scaling back expectations for next month’s international climate summit in Copenhagen.

Though many fear a strong international climate treaty is unlikely to be produced at next month’s global climate summit in Copenhagen, many green tech businesses believe domestic incentive programs will be enough to help clean energy flourish.

American Businesses for Clean Energy wants Congress to pass clean jobs and green energy legislation.

Efforts to close the earth’s ozone hole have been successful because of international agreements to abandon hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), replacing the commonly used refrigerant with hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). HFCs, however, add CO2 to the atmosphere at roughly 1,000 times the rate of HCFCs. Scientists say that a new class of fluorochemicals - hydrofluoro-olefins - and natural refrigerants are a more climate-friendly alternative.

A New York Times editorial charging that Al Gore’s climate change education efforts are little more than a ploy to make money neglects to mention that Gore donates the profits gained through his work to climate change awareness charities. Gore recently appeared on The Daily Show to talk about climate change and his new book.

Betting on a bright future for plug-in hybrids, Panasonic bought Sanyo Electric Co. for $4.5 billion. According to the Wall Street journal, the two companies produce “most of the batteries currently used in hybrid cars.”

Did you know that the nearly 30 million fireplaces across America utilize only about 20-30 percent of the energy they generate? Green Inc.’s home energy efficiency series investigates ways to up the usable energy quotient.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Saebaryo/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted 10-1 in favor of passing its version of the climate and energy bill, despite a Republican boycott of the vote. It remains unclear how much progress the Senate will make toward passing comprehensive climate legislation prior to December’s UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen.

Ninety-four percent of economists surveyed in a newly released study said they believed the United States should sign on to an international climate change agreement.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change chair Rajendra Pachauri told Yale E360 that he was “cautiously optimistic” that global climate negotiations in Copenhagen next month would produce an international greenhouse gas emissions reduction agreement.

The United States and European Union announced they will share energy technology and security information through a trans-Atlantic Energy Council.

In an interview with Katie Couric, Al Gore made the case for “American made renewable energy that creates jobs[...] that cannot be outsourced.”

Clean energy legislation could create 850,000 manufacturing jobs, according to a new study by the Blue Green Alliance.

The Recovery Act helped save or create nearly 650,00 jobs, according to the Obama administration. Passing the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act is essential to building on its success, argues a piece at Alternet.

CNET reviews some online resources that can help you save money and conserve energy this winter.

While billionaire investor Warren Buffet’s $34 billion purchase of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad may not be a direct invest investment in America’s clean energy future, it could trigger greater private investment in transit, argues Worldchanging.

Local Green: Clean energy incentives are helping Oregon farms produce their own renewable energy.

–Christopher Greenspan
Photo courtesy of James Chen/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

A full cost analysis demanded by Republican senators will likely stall debate on the Clean Jobs and American Power Act for at least five weeks. “There is no reason…to do additional analysis and spend more taxpayers’ dollars…when the work has been done,” argued Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. “Now is the time for us to act on national clean energy legislation.”

An EPA analysis of the differences between the House clean energy bill passed earlier this year and the Senate bill currently being debated concluded that the “two bills were so similar that they will likely have the same impact on costs, energy use, and other variables.”

African nations united yesterday, calling for the suspension of global climate negotiations until developed nations make “substantial progress” on emissions cuts.

European nations are stepping up pressure on the United States, saying the world’s richest nation must agree to make a firm commitment to specific CO2 emissions reduction targets.

In an address delivered before the U.S. Senate, German Chancellor Angela Merkel highlighted the importance of reaching an international accord on global greenhouse gas emissions reductions at next month’s climate summit in Copenhagen.

Local Green: Harvard will purchase 10 percent of its Cambridge and Allston campuses’ energy from a New England wind power company as part of the university’s efforts to cut emissions 30 percent below 2006 levels.

SolarReserve hopes to build a 150 megawatt solar facility near Palm Springs that will be capable of storing seven hours worth of energy after sundown.

A new solar mirror factory could bring as many as 300 new jobs to Pittsburgh.

Long haul tractor-trailers average about six miles per gallon at 55 miles per hour. A new report says the technology to double their fuel efficiency already exists.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Pat Hawks / CC BY 2.0

A coalition of nearly 200 organizations (including the Apollo Alliance) sent a letter to Sen. Barabara Boxer, D-Calif., asking that important new energy efficiency provisions be included in the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.

Prominent climate change denier, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., says his plan to boycott this week’s Environment and Public Works Committee mark-up of the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act has unanimous Republican support on the committee. Democrats have suggested they may move forward with the bill regardless of Republican absence.

Apollo Alliance Chairman Phil Angelides praised the unlikely alliance between Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in an op-ed in Roll Call, calling it a crucial step toward achieving a clean energy, good jobs economy that protects and creates jobs, enhances national security, and reduces climate-changing emissions.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar hosted a Clean Energy Economy Forum yesterday, focusing largely on public lands’ potential to create green jobs.  Salazar also announced that he expected a decision on the controversial Cape Wind project - which could be the nation’s first offshore wind farm - to be made by year’s end.

Its Getting Hot In Here reports on a series of youth-led clean energy forums taking place across the country.

The Department of Energy gave $5.5 million to the Automotive X Prize, which awards grants to start up companies developing automobiles that can achieve a minimum of 100 miles per gallon.

Presidential Climate Action Project President William Becker published the first in a series of Road To Copenhagen articles.

The commercialization of methanol fuel cell-based energy charging devices is moving forward.

AFL-CIO Now Blog has some highlights from last week’s Building the New Economy conference held in Washington, D.C.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of 350.org / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Senator Barabara Boxer, D-Calif., says she expects a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee debate on the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act to take place tomorrow, though Senate Republicans are threatening to stall progress on the bill.

A new study finds that the majority of wind energy projects funded with economic stimulus money are owned by foreign companies.

Controversy surrounds an economic stimulus-funded 600+ megawatt wind farm planned for Texas that would create 2,000 jobs for Chinese workers and only about 300 for Americans.

A piece in Poder360 says the clean energy economy promises to create new jobs for Latinos.

Voices calling for $15 billion in annual clean energy research and development are growing louder.

The Obama administration recently devoted $3.4 billion in grants to developing the tools needed to make the nation’s energy grid smarter.   A piece at The Daily Green wonders if Americans will use them.

The current issue of Newsweek features an in-depth piece on Al Gore, whose new book, Our Choice: A Plan To Solve the Climate Crisis, is due to be released this month.

Making use of suburban sprawl through agriculture - or agriburbia - is an idea that’s starting to get more attention.

Local Green: Representative John McHugh, R-NY, was one of only eight Republicans to vote for the Waxman-Markey clean energy bill. McHugh is now serving in the Obama administration, and his seat in New York’s 23rd Congressional district is up for grabs.

–Christopher Greenspan

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

Clean energy jobs and traditional energy jobs were a hot topic of debate during yesterday’s Senate hearings on climate and clean energy legislation.

Senatorial testimony opposing clean energy jobs legislation ironically reinforced arguments in favor of it, illustrating how the “do nothing” federal policies of the last eight years have decimated blue collar industries.

The Sierra Club’s Carl Pope explains why reducing CO2 emissions 20 percent by 2020 is not nearly as ambitious as critics of the Senate’s Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act claim.

$2.2 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds will help hundreds of public power companies strengthen their renewable energy portfolios.

A new study published in Science suggests the greenhouse effect of methane gas has been underestimated.

A joint U.S.-China wind power project - the largest between the two nations so far - will bring more than 600 megawatts of clean energy to Texas. The project is expected to create 300 construction jobs.

Renewable Funding - a company that helps home and business owners with clean energy and energy efficiency project costs - announced it had received more than $12 million in new venture capital funding this week. The company helped Berkeley, Calif., develop its flagship municipal clean energy financing program.

Local Green: Grist’s continuing series investigating how Senators are likely to vote on the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act profiled Senators Mark Udall (D-Colo) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo).

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Amanito / CC BY 2.0

As part of the White House’s intensified efforts to push for climate change legislation, Obama administration officials met with business executives to talk cap-and-trade policy.

Administration officials say they believe the U.S. will be a progressive force at December’s international climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

A piece at Grist dives into the details of the Solar Technology Roadmap Act, passed last week by the House of Representatives.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis spoke about clean energy and green jobs at the Solar Power 2009 conference.

The Clean Energy Empowerment Zone Act, introduced by Representative Dan Meffei, D-NY, would lure clean energy businesses to cities with an already existing industrial workforce and infrastructure.

America needs a manufacturing strategy that will capture the good paying green jobs of the emerging clean energy economy, says AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka.

The Natural Resources Defense Council’s Rob Perks takes a state-by-state view of a new national study that says climate legislation could create nearly 2 million jobs.

Climate scientists have already debunked the “global cooling myth” proposed in the bestselling book Superfreakonomics.  Now economists are attacking the book’s arguments from an economic standpoint.

Local Green: The newly constructed, LEED-certified, Eltona Apartments offer affordable homes to low-income residents of the South Bronx.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Ivan Makarov / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Stay up to date on this week’s Senate climate bill hearings with Daily Kos’s live blogging.

Vice President Joe Biden was on hand when luxury car maker Fisker Automotive announced it would use a defunct GM manufacturing plant to build its plug-in electric hybrids.

Obama administration officials are stepping up efforts to build support for Congressional climate legislation.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a Senate panel that the United States has “fallen behind” in the global clean energy race, but believes “we can make up the ground.”

The E.P.A. announced it would finalize regulations reducing emissions from oil and coal-burning plants by 2011.

A new report from Deutsche Bank and Columbia University’s Earth Institute says feed-in tariffs are a safe investment for those looking to back clean energy ventures.

A piece at the Huffington Post lists eight good reasons to be optimistic about the fight against climate change.

New software from Autodesk gauges buildings’ energy performance and estimates how efficiency makeovers can improve performance.

Local Green: Massachusetts college students organized a “sleep out,” hoping to pressure Governor Deval Patrick into supporting a bill that would require the state to generate 100 percent of its electricity through renewables by 2020.

–Christopher Greenspan

President Obama will announce details of a $3.4 billion project to modernize the nation’s energy grids today. The plan is expected to create tens of thousands of jobs.

A new report says strong clean energy policies will create nearly 2 million new jobs and bolster the overall strength of the U.S. economy.

Senator Jeff Merkley says the Senate climate and energy bill “put[s] us on a path to building industries and creating clean energy job[s], weaning our nation from foreign oil, and reducing pollution in order to avoid the catastrophic effects of global warming.”

The Wall Street Journal sums up some of the main points to be addressed at this weeks Senatorial hearings on climate and energy legislation.

A piece at Mother Jones outlines how the Senate climate and energy bill allocates CO2 emissions permits.

The Department of Energy announced the winning entries in its Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy competition, which awards grants to high-risk, high-return projects that reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and improve energy efficiency.

Solar, wind and water power could supply all global energy needs by 2030, according to a study published in Scientific American.

Local Green: Supporters of sustainable transportation are often derided as elitists, but a new photography exhibit in Los Angeles makes clear that the people it would most benefit are those who are economically and medically dependent on public transit.

A New Yorker staff writer explains why New Yorkers should be recognized as some of America’s greenest citizens - without even trying.

–Christopher Greenspan

An E.P.A. analysis of the Senate climate bill finds it would only modestly increase household energy spending.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., released the official climate bill to be debated in this week’s Senate hearings.

The Senate climate bill may not be perfect, argues a piece at SolveClimate, but if passed, legislation is likely to be strengthened over time.

“The nation that wins this competition will be the nation that leads the global economy,” President Obama told a crowd gathered to hear the president speak about the future of clean energy.

“The elements of a [climate] deal [in Copenhagen] are on the table,” writes U.N. leader Ban Ki Moon in a New York Times op-ed. “All we require to put them in place is political will.”

Cleantechnica lists 10 easy ways that major polluting businesses can grow greener.

Local Green: Minnesota Steelworkers are already benefiting from clean energy developments in the region, and stand to gain more if Congress passes a strong climate bill.

The E.P.A. is proposing legislation that would reduce reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Great Lakes-going vessels.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Hyperbolation / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0