Business Roundup: The Public Utilities Commission of Texas recently approved a $5 billion plan that would transport energy generated by rural wind turbines in West Texas to urban areas of the state.  Onocor and other companies filed bids to build the transmission lines.  In 2006, the installed wind energy capacity of Texas became the largest in the nation.

Dow Chemical Company and the Department of Energy will work together to develop a waste-to-ethanol process that would reduce the cost of cellulosic ethanol.

Green-Collar News: Ecopreneurist investigates the effects of a slowing economy on green-collar jobs.

INVEST, DON’T DRILL: The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is against oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. General President Jim Hoffa said that “alternate energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal power” would create jobs and rebuild the economy.

The Apollo Alliance agrees that America needs a real, comprehensive solution to America’s energy crisis.  Sign our petition that calls on Congress to invest in clean, renewable energy and homegrown fuels.

As G.O.P. lawmakers continue to insist that the nation’s energy crisis requires immediate legislative action (i.e. offshore drilling,) House Republicans defeated a measure to open the Strategic Petrolium Reserve to ease oil prices.

Grist weighs in on the real strength behind Republican oil drilling plans.

A new U.S. Geological Survey study estimates that about 90 billion barrels worth of “recoverable” oil remain under Arctic ice. At current consumption rates, this would supply global oil demand for three years. The Wall Street Journal argues that such a small amount of oil is not the “answer to declining production in oil fields in the rest of the world.”

Stonewalling: E.P.A. chief Stephen Johnson says he won’t explain to Congress how a report he authored on the public health risks of global warming led to his “decision not to regulate greenhouse gases.”

–Christopher Greenspan

Tags: Cellulosic Ethanol, EPA, green collar-jobs, offshore drilling, Sempra, Stephen Johnson, The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, U.S. Geological Survey, West Texas, Wind Energy

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