The E.P.A. officially rejected the challenges to its ruling that industrial CO2 emissions pose a threat to human health. Opponents of the ruling, which include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Peabody Energy (the world’s largest private-sector coal company), have based their position largely on the discredited “Climategate” emails.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., introduced the Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Accountability Act this week. While the bill cannot replace broader clean energy and climate legislation, it makes progress in several important areas, explains a piece from the Center For American Progress.

The Denver Post came out in support of the House of Representatives’ CLEAR Act, which would lift oil spill liability caps and provide $5 billion in incentives for energy efficiency measures and alternative fuels.

BP may begin working this weekend on a “static kill” operation that experts say is likely to permanently plug its broken oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. The company says a temporary cap has contained the flow of oil since July 15.

The Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969 initiated a massive and immediate change in the way Americans think about natural resources, argues the Associated Press’ Frederic Frommer, but a comparable response to the BP spill may take longer to develop.

Local Green: The Natural Resources Defense Council released its 2010 Smart Cities list this week, which highlights the achievements of 22 cities “leading the way in green power, energy efficiency and conservation.”

Worried that legal challenges could hold up Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) loan programs for some time, California is diverting $30 million in federal funds intended for PACE to other energy initiatives.

California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown sees his support for the state’s landmark climate change legislation as the key difference between himself and Republican opponent Meg Whitman.

Florida’s Clean Energy Investment Program taps $36 million in federal funding for clean energy technology and energy efficiency efforts.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of WWF France

The seven U.S. states and three Canadian provinces that make up the Western Climate Initiative hope their cap-and-trade system (which, if approved, would take effect in January 2012) will serve as a carbon pricing model for the rest of America. The program would be the first economy-wide cap-and-trade system in the U.S.

The future of clean energy and climate legislation may be uncertain due to political inertia, but an optimistic group of recently elected Senators wants to inject enough energy and passion into the issue to get it moving forward again.

Despite the drastically scaled-back form of the Senate’s new oil spill bill, some Republican Senators are complaining that its provisions are unacceptable.  Broader clean energy and climate legislation was removed from the Congressional docket largely because it lacked substantive Republican support.

The Department of Defense and the Department of Energy signed an official agreement to share information about clean energy in order to bolster national security and build the economy.

A piece in the New York Times explores why the electric vehicles industry has focused on direct industry incentives rather than collectively pushing for clean energy and climate legislation.

Local Green: A cracked pipeline dumped over 800,000 gallons of oil into a Michigan creek. The spill contaminated 20 miles of the Kalamazoo River.

A new report named Utah and six other western states as particularly well-positioned states to transition to clean energy over the coming decades.

Delaware Governor Jack Markell signed a package of bills into law that, among other things, boosts the state’s renewable energy portfolio and updates the Green Energy Fund.

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., emphasized the importance of strengthening the energy efficiency of New York City’s large commercial buildings in a Huffington Post op-ed.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of brewbooks

The Senate introduced legislation responding to the BP oil spill yesterday. Bills in both the House and Senate seek to revamp offshore oil drilling regulations, subsidize home energy efficiency projects, and incentivize electric and natural gas vehicles. Calling the nation’s current energy policies “unsustainable,” President Obama said the legislation is only a “first step” and vowed to keep pushing for “broader reform.”

Over 360 groups representing more than 12 million people signed a statement chastising the senators who obstructed this summer’s attempt at comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he is willing to tack provisions that would save Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) loans onto his scaled-back energy legislation if a Republican supporter can be found.

A tugboat collided with an abandoned oil well in a Louisiana bayou 65 miles south of New Orleans yesterday. The Gulf of Mexico is littered with over 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells.

The sticker price on GM’s electric Chevrolet Volt will be just over $40,000 when it hits the market later this year, but a $7,500 federal tax credit intended to speed up the adoption of electric vehicles gives buyers a hefty discount. A leasing program offered by Chevy will make the vehicle available for as low as $350 a month.

Local Green: American Transmission Company (ATC) is interested in building a 150-mile transmission line that would carry clean energy to Western Wisconsin.

Developers, officials and clean energy supporters celebrated the groundbreaking of California’s Alta Wind Energy Center. The 600-turbine, 1,550-megawatt project could become the world’s largest wind energy project.

Clean energy projects in the Golden State worth as much as $30 billion are being held up by federal foot-dragging, complain California officials.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of straight, no chaser

A new World Resources Institute (WRI) report (pdf) says that even aggressively applying existing state and federal regulations will not enable the U.S. to achieve its greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal of 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, for “a robust carbon price is still very much needed.”

Although the Senate has scrapped plans to bring comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation to the floor this year, some observers–including former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle–think 60 votes can be gathered for a national renewable energy standard.

A piece at Grist puts forward five reasons climate legislation didn’t make it this year.

Two clean energy investors suggest a few ideas that could bolster support for clean energy legislation when the Senate picks it up again.

The Energy Department announced it would award up to $122 million over five years to a team of scientists trying to develop fuels generated by sunlight. The money will help fund a multidisciplinary hub based in California that will focus on simulating photosynthesis.

AFS Trinity announced it was granted a patent for its hybrid vehicle battery technology that uses ultracapacitors. The company said its development could allow small hybrids to get up to 150 miles per gallon.

GE is investing in SynapSense, a California start-up that develops sensors for increasing the energy efficiency of data centers.

A new study says crop failures induced by climate change could drive millions of Mexican migrants to the U.S. by 2080.

Local Green: A new Chicago Tribune/WGN poll finds that residents of Chicago’s surrounding suburbs want to see greater investment in public transit than roads.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Manu-Chan

Relief well operations resumed yesterday as efforts to plug BP’s leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico were set back at least a week, according to retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government’s top clean-up official. BP will likely replace CEO Tony Hayward with American Robert Dudley.

Scrapping clean energy and climate legislation in Congress “could become the worst policy move for the country in years,” says a piece at the Energy Collective.

Republicans’ unified inaction on clean energy and climate change may “pay political dividends in November,” writes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., “but down the road we’ll all be paying for our inaction.” Just a day after the Senate gave up on passing clean energy legislation this year, Reid also  expressed strong skepticism about producing a federal renewable energy standard.

Early U.S. wind energy pioneer Jim Dehlsen says uncertainty regarding government support has handicapped America’s ability to develop its clean energy potential.

A piece at ScienceNews reports that the diminishing size of solar cells could mean huge new possibilities for how we generate energy.

The U.S. Navy - which plans to run half of its fleet on renewables by 2020 - is testing an algae fuel developed by San Francisco-based company Solazyme.

Japan’s Brother Industries says its Vibration Energy Cell can be recharged simply by shaking it.

Local Green: Creating green jobs is a cornerstone of Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) gubernatorial candidate Matt Entenza’s campaign platform, reports Minnesota Public Radio. Entenza says he will create 50,000 of them if elected.

Maryland and Delaware want the federal government to join in their efforts to jump-start a mid-Atlantic wind energy manufacturing hub by purchasing local offshore wind energy.

A four-city tour showcasing new clean technologies and energy conservation methods is traveling across Montana, beginning in Lewistown this Wednesday.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Deepwater Horizon Response

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says Democratic leaders in Congress are calling off efforts to pass a clean energy and climate bill in the near term. Reid acknowledged his party was unable to secure enough votes to pass substantial legislation, but said the focus would be shifted to legislation addressing the BP oil spill.

Senators Barbara Boxer (D. - California), Jeff Merkley (D. - Oregon), and Kristen Gillibrand (D. - New York) introduced legislation yesterday that would put property assessed clean energy (PACE) financing back in action. PACE home financing programs across the country have come to a halt due to opposition from federal mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

A bill sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders (I. - Vermont) that would provide federal funds for state solar energy programs moved a step closer to becoming law this week.

A proposed $7 billion pipeline that would transport Canadian tar sands oil to the United States hit a setback this week when the E.P.A. criticized the scope of a recent State Department environmental impact report.

The United Nations is looking to revamp the way international climate change agreements are made.

Chinese companies’ ability to bring down the cost of solar energy is quickly pushing the industry to grid parity, reports Bloomberg, but also allowing China to capture a huge portion of the global market.

Global spending on clean energy research, development, and demonstration (pdf) peaked at around $23 billion in 2009, in large part due to various countries’ economic stimulus packages. But the International Energy Agency reports that this amount needs to become the annual RD&D floor rather than a temporary peak.

The size of newly constructed American homes dropped in 2009 for the first time in three decades, reports the National Association of Homebuilders.

Local Green: Utah’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate Peter Corroon outlined an energy plan that focuses on increasing efficiency and enacting policies that will help the state generate 25 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2025.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy Kate B Dixon

Twelve Democratic Senators sent a letter (pdf) to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D. - Nevada) urging him to ensure clean energy and climate legislation puts a price on carbon emissions.

A piece in the New York Times looks at potential clean energy policies from an economic standpoint and weighs in on the likelihood of their implementation by Congress.

A piece at Politico examines the odds of a climate bill being passed by the Senate before the August recess.

A storm forming in the Caribbean threatens to shut down work on relief wells BP is building to stop the flow of oil from its ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Local Green: New York Governor David Paterson signed three clean energy and energy efficiency bills into law, one of which requires the state to reduce the amount of sulfur in home heating oil.

Salt Lake City’s new City Creek Center development boasts a mixed use design that encourages walking and public transit use.

Petra Solar’s utility pole-mounted solar panels in New Jersey will use AT&T’s wireless network to communicate with local utility PSE&G.

Terra-Gen Power says it has secured more than $1 billion to finance four southern California wind farms that could, together, generate up to 3,000 megawatts of power.

A new University of California, Berkeley study finds that, like all other places where they have been implemented, feed-in-tarrifs could generate explosive clean energy growth for California.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Micah A. Ponce

Nine countries set record high temperatures this year — the largest number of national heat records ever set in a single year, reports ClimateProgress.

Officials from over 20 countries who gathered in Washington, D.C. this week produced 11 clean energy initiatives that Energy Secretary Steve Chu says “will promote economic growth, create jobs and cut greenhouse gas emissions.”

United Steelworkers delivered over 100,000 letters to Congress yesterday that call for manufacturing policy to stimulate clean-energy development.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency will decide today whether or not to give a 30-month Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) loans pilot program the go-ahead. The agency virtually froze PACE financing earlier this month.

A new Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study says light-colored roofs and roads could significantly offset global climate change.

Google announced it will buy 114 megawatts of wind energy a year from a NextEra Energy facility in Iowa.

Preliminary research conducted by George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication indicates that presenting climate change as a public health issue may elicit positive responses.

Local Green: The U.S. could miss massive opportunities for economic growth if it fails to learn from the clean-energy example set by Colorado, says Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.

Democratic candidate for the Montana State Senate Russ Doty says increasing the state’s renewable energy portfolio to 30 percent would produce huge economic benefits.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of PR®

60 members of Congress sent a letter to President Obama urging him to push for reinstatement of the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) loans program.

“Without major changes to the way we produce and use energy, we will confront untenable risks to our collective energy security,” Nobuo Tanaka of the International Energy Agency told officials gathered in Washington, D.C. this week. Delegates from 21 nations are taking part in a Clean Energy Ministerial to discuss possible clean energy initiatives.

The White House is hosting a meeting on sustainable buildings and green jobs this morning.

A piece in the New Republic looks at what’s worthwhile in the clean energy and climate bills circulating in the Senate if cap-and-trade provisions are omitted.

The Center For American Progress weighs the benefits of American Power Act provisions like the Green Construction Careers Demonstration Project against the costs of rising energy bills.

In a new VoteVets.org ad, Brigadier Gen. Steven Anderson says clean energy legislation is “not only a military priority, but an American mission.”

Reflecting on decades of work protecting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts from offshore oil drilling, one activist considers how drilling moratoriums merely shift the burden to less fortunate locations unless they are accompanied by a commitment to making clean energy cheaper than fossil fuels.

Local Green: Changes taking place in Lake Superior are being viewed by some scientists as clues to what will happen as climate change advances globally.

Nearly 120 economists signed a letter warning that delaying California’s landmark global warming legislation (AB32) could hurt the state’s job growth and security. A campaign spearheaded largely by out-of-state oil interests is working to postpone the implementation of the legislation.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of maryaustinphoto

Officials from 21 nations are gathered in Washington, D.C. this week for a two-day meeting on clean energy.

BP’s broken oil well has been capped since Thursday, but a letter to BP from retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad W. Allen identified “undetermined anomalies” at the well head. Late yesterday, engineers detected seepage near the well.

The Center For American Progress laments the shortcomings of the clean energy bills currently in the Senate, but says combining the best elements of each could produce worthwhile legislation.

Clean energy and climate legislation in the Senate is in danger of being hijacked by big utilities, whose demands “threaten the health and safety of all Americans” write Green For All’s Phaedra Ellis-Lamkin and NAACP President Ben Jealous.

A piece at Greentech Media looks at the transformation of Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) loans from predictable, stable funding sources to investments condemned by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) as “risky,” and speculates on how the clean energy home financing program might be saved.

Selections from the Nation’s Freedom From Oil special issue can be read here.

Local Green: Invenergy proposes to build a 200-megawatt wind farm in Nebraska. The state recently approved legislation aimed at attracting private clean energy investments.

New rules reducing incentives for home solar energy systems in Oregon could have dire consequences for the state’s growing solar industry.

Expecting clean energy to be the state’s “next big thing,” firms across New Jersey are pumping billions into the industry, reports NJ.com.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of ehpien