The Department of Energy announced nearly $105 million in funding for new clean energy and energy efficiency projects.

An overhaul of the E.P.A. and Department of Energy’s EnergyStar program could create a number of new energy efficiency rating labels.

A Washington Post editorial calls on President Obama to rise above a stalling Senate and bring “a number or a range of numbers that reflects the level of emissions reduction the United States can achieve,” to climate negotiations in Copenhagen next month.

“What will it take,” asks a piece at YaleE360, “to rally Americans behind the need to take strong action on cutting carbon emissions?”

Pourtugal’s EPD Renewables announced it would invest $4 billion in the American wind energy market.

“Clean-energy sectors[...]are creating opportunities for those communities hit hardest by the recession: low-income communities and communities of color,” writes Green For All CEO Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins.

Fossil fuel interests spent $115 million last year attempting to sway public opinion on energy matters, reports the I.R.S.

Local Green: From feed-in tariffs to renewable mandates, the Nation looks at how states and municipalities across the country are boosting clean energy locally.

From the Midwest to the Deep South and the Northeast, states have been issued federal grants to determine how workers can boost their green jobs skills.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Think Panama / CC BY-NC 2.0

A new report warns that several Asian nations are poised to outperform the United States in the clean energy race.

Public outrage over a deal giving China’s A-Power $450 million in economic stimulus funds for a project that would create only 30 U.S. jobs has prompted the company to announce a second U.S. venture - a wind turbine factory - it says will create 1,000 domestic jobs.

Many businesses believe existing government incentives will propel the clean energy economy, despite uncertainties surrounding the future of domestic and international climate change regulations.

Senator John Kerry, D-Mass., says the World Bank could be instrumental in reducing “energy poverty” while addressing climate change.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman lays out the “green hawk” position: The world’s next great economic engine will be “energy technology based on clean power and energy efficiency…the country that invents and deploys the most E.T. will enjoy the most economic security, energy security, national security, innovative companies and global respect.”

Whether you believe in climate change or not, argues Natural Resources Defense Council President Frances Beinecke, “the need for America to generate jobs and strengthen our national security is paramount, and clean energy is the fastest way to achieve that.”

A group of evangelicals has joined efforts to lobby Congress for climate change legislation.

Local Green: California approved the nation’s first energy efficiency regulations for televisions.

–Christopher Greenspan

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

President Obama’s trip to China resulted in an agreement to strengthen clean energy cooperation. Obama also said that the U.S. and China hoped global climate talks in Copenhagen next month would produce an agreement with “immediate operational effect.”

Despite U.S. media reports to the contrary, there is still hope that Copenhagen will produce a meaningful climate agreement, argues a piece at Grist.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., says the Senate will not begin working on clean energy jobs and climate legislation until the spring.

Republicans are gearing up for the 2010 elections by vilifying Democrats that support clean energy and climate legislation, according to Treehugger.

An Environment California Research & Policy Center study says investing in energy efficiency and renewables would be quicker and makes more economic sense than developing a nuclear power industry.

A Center For American Progress factsheet breaks down America’s clean energy economy in terms of jobs, investment, competitiveness, savings, and the cost of inaction.

With so much controversy swirling around the idea of a cap-and-trade system, a piece from the New Republic (via CBS News) looks at Europe’s system, finding promising results.

Local Green: Maine’s Fox Islands Wind Project began operating this week. It is New England’s largest wind farm.

Houston’s new hybrid electric vehicle program is just one of a host of reasons that some are speculating the city could become an electric vehicle hot spot.

–Christopher Geenspan

Photo courtesy of the White House

A climate change deal is key to fighting hunger, said U.N. leaders at the organization’s World Food Summit in Rome.

Senator John Kerry, D-Mass., believes Congress will pass climate legislation by early spring.

A piece at Grist argues that a delayed global climate deal may not be “as bad as it looks.”

What do climate talks in Copenhagen mean now that an international treaty is no longer expected?, asks a piece in the Los Angeles Times.

Large portions of the nearly $37 billion in Energy Department stimulus money will fund renewable energy development and efficiency measures, making this “the biggest opportunity in the clean energy field in 30 years,” says the department’s chief renewable energy officer, Steven Chalk.

The Electrification Coalition brings together auto manufacturers, utilities, venture capitalists, battery makers, and others pushing for a swift transition from fossil fuel-powered to electric vehicles.

Vertical farming could reduce agriculture-related greenhouse gas emissions and recycle city waste water.

The Wall at Repower America is an online platform that allows users to add their voices to the call for clean energy action.

Local Green: China’s Suntech Power announced it will open its first U.S. plant near Phoenix, Ariz.

Last night, New York’s Legislature passed a bill authorizing municipalities to establish sustainable energy programs that will finance the installation of renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvements across the state. Known as Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), the program eliminates the upfront cost for energy improvements by allowing property owners to pay for them over time through an increase in their annual property taxes.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of DWinton/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

President Obama came into office vowing to overturn eight years of stagnancy on federal climate change policy, but a divided Congress and vague international efforts to combat global warming have been a considerable obstacle to the President’s efforts.

With a climate bill merely inching its way through the U.S. Congress and disagreement among key players on what an international treaty on greenhouse gas emissions should look like, leaders around the world have resigned themselves to the fact that next month’s climate summit in Copenhagen will be “a steppingstone to [a] final deal.”

The “steppingstone” approach, proponents argue, would keep next month’s talks from being viewed as a failure, extending long-range plans to finalize a deal into 2010.

Federal stimulus money is helping to make the elusive goal of clean energy storage a reality.

The Los Angeles Times ran an in-depth article on the emergence of America’s green jobs market.

America’s lack of a coherent economic development policy and “labor market strategy” is essentially an “economic suicide pact,” warns a piece at Daily Kos.

Nissan officially introduced its all-electric Leaf to the U.S. market. The Japanese automaker says the Leaf will be competitively priced with vehicles in its size class.

A team of scientists uncovered evidence that even as record high temperatures are becoming more and more common, record lows are becoming less frequent.

–Christopher Greenspan

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

As President Obama heads to China with climate change at the top of his agenda, “it is important to recognize just how much has changed in the past year,” writes NRDC President Frances Beinecke in the Huffington Post.

The White House announced it will hold a jobs creation summit in December to brainstorm solutions to America’s growing unemployment rate.

The U.S. Green Building Council’s new green jobs study says green construction trades will contribute over half a trillion dollars to the nation’s economy while supporting approximately 8 million jobs over the next four years.

The Energy Information Administration expects oil prices to continue to rise as the global economy slowly recovers.

Nostalgic for the clothes lines of yore? Project Laundry List promotes the eco-benefits of the picturesque art of air-drying.

Churches across the globe will ring their bells 350 times on Dec. 13 – the opening day of global climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

Local Green: A new Environment Ohio report finds the state’s global warming-related pollution is up 10 percent since 1990. More clean energy legislation like Sen. Sherrod Brown’s IMPACT Act could help clean up the atmosphere, create good green jobs, and strengthen national security.

The University of Montana is accepting applications for its new environmental science and natural resource journalism graduate program.

The Boston area’s green spirit got a boost this week from the MIT Enterprise Forum’s Ignite Clean Energy Prize and the New England Clean Energy Council’s Green Tie Gala.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of 1981Adam / CC BY-NC 2.0

Venture capitalist Jonathan Silver is the Obama administration’s new clean energy loan chief.

In honor of Veteran’s Day, a piece at the Huffington Post looked at Operation Free - a group of traveling Vets spreading the message of clean energy and national security from city to city.

A new Apollo Alliance feature story profiles veterans who are using the skills they developed in the military to reduce America’s energy usage and combat climate change.

The clean energy debate occurring in the Senate and across America marks “a pivotal moment in our nation’s history,” argues Robert Redford, in his plea to all of us to “raise our voices loudly and fully” so that Washington is prompted to take action.

A new report finds that the market share of thin-film solar cells will double by 2013.

The E.P.A. announced that America has produced its millionth Energy Star home.

Local Green: Clean energy supporters celebrated the completion of phase one of Utah’s Milford Wind Corridor project - the state’s largest wind farm, which will generate power for Southern California.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) - the nation’s largest public utility - is looking into geothermal energy sources as part of its effort to generate 40 percent of its electricity through renewables by 2020.

New Jersey utility PSE&G is increasing its solar loan program by $143 million.

Local opposition to Nantucket Sound’s Cape Wind Project - what could be America’s first offshore wind farm - is one high profile example of growing green NIMBYism, reports CNET.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of TaberAndrew / CC BY-NC 2.0

The International Energy Agency warned that failing to produce a climate treaty could lead to a doubling of energy prices for the world’s largest fossil fuel consumers. $500 billion will be added to global energy costs for each year that passes without an agreement.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon urged U.S. Senators to speed up efforts to produce a clean energy and climate bill before next month’s international climate summit in Copenhagen.

President Obama said he would attend the Copenhagen summit if “we are on the brink of a meaningful agreement and my presence in Copenhagen will make a difference in tipping us over edge.”

Energy Secretary Steven Chu is heading to China and India this week to promote clean energy partnerships with the two nations.

News that much of our economic stimulus funding allotted for clean energy projects is going to China and other nations has sparked controversy and outrage recently. But the U.S. has always been dependent on foreign clean energy manufacturers, argues a piece at the Energy Collective, which should serve to remind Americans that we need to invest in domestic clean energy manufacturing.

The Applied Research Center’s Green Equity Toolkit provides resources for ensuring “women and people of color have access to high-quality jobs and careers.”

The Daily Climate ran the first installment of a three part special report on the Consequences of Copenhagen.

Local Green: Delaware, Maryland and Virginia are combining efforts to advance offshore wind power projects in the tri-state region.

New York City’s Transportation Department announced a 26 percent increase in bicycling for 2009.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Senor Codo / CC BY-SA 2.0

The Senate’s Finance and Energy and Natural Resources committees will look at the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act’s job-creating potential today. Grist warns that the committee’s scheduled speakers are a collection of “polluter lobbyist” representatives hostile to the bill.

The E.P.A. submitted its finalized proposed finding that greenhouse gas emissions are a danger to human health to the White House yesterday.

Under the Clean Energy Partnership Act, farmers, land owners, and cities could generate revenue by turning unused spaces into carbon-absorbing greenery.

Citing a recent study finding 55 percent of Americans unaware that cap-and-trade legislation was even being considered by the federal government, a piece at Greenbiz questions whether the American news media are adequately covering climate change issues.

Zerofootprint’s smart new TalkingPlug is an electrical socket design that allows energy users to monitor electricity consumption.

Local Green: Representative Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., is urging the Interior Department to approve the Cape Wind project - what could be America’s first offshore wind farm - before next month’s international climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

A piece at the Huffington Post summarizes Colorado’s clean energy accomplishments and suggests additional ways to push the state and nation forward.

Rather than relying solely on tax credits and subsidies, New Jersey has become the nation’s second largest producer of solar energy, in part through its market-based, tradable credit system .

In other Garden State news: the largest solar array to serve a single manufacturing plant commenced operations yesterday.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of ICPJ.

Despite growing evidence that next month’s global climate negotiations will not produce a legally binding treaty on greenhouse gas emission reductions, the U.N.’s chief climate official says a pact may be ready by 2010.

Some participants at last week’s climate summit in Barcelona said the advancement of the Senate’s clean jobs bill was cause for optimism for next month’s climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

Even if Copenhagen fails to produce a new treaty, evidence that business leaders, politicians and religious leaders are beginning to take climate science seriously is a huge step in the right direction, argues a piece at Treehugger.

ClimateWire reports on the challenges and successes associated with the government’s efforts to scale up the federal weatherization program to improve energy efficiency in homes of low-income citizens across the country.

We can “strengthen our economy and national security by becoming energy independent,” writes Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in a recent op-ed.

Presidential Climate Action Project’s Bill Becker says President Obama needs to produce “audacious big-picture ideas that capture the imagination, stir the emotions, speak to the souls, rally the support, and win the involvement of the American people.”

New European Union laws aimed at reducing the number of products containing hazardous chemicals could close an otherwise promising market for a U.S.-based solar panel manufacturer.

Just how much is a ton of emitted carbon worth? A new report from the Institute for Policy Integrity asked 144 economists to weigh in.

A rapidly growing user base is pushing Facebook to consider more energy-efficient data centers.

Local Green: Electric Vehicles International moved its headquarters to Stockton, California and the company is preparing to introduce a lot of new products.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Chris Campbell / CC BY-NC 2.0