G.M. will need another $16.6 billion in federal loans, close five more American plants by 2012, and cut 47,000 jobs worldwide, according to a progress report released by the auto giant yesterday. G.M. and Chrysler said it could cost $110 billion to finance chapter 11 restructurings.

Congress may expand federal authority over interstate power transmission to encourage large clean energy projects.

The economic stimulus package could help ignite a lithium-ion battery industry in the United States.

Yesterday’s News Hour With Jim Lehrer featured clean energy and renewable mandates.

Rejecting an eleventh hour Bush administration memorandum, the E.P.A. will consider regulating CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants.

A piece in The Monthly Review argues that while deregulation of the economy and neoliberal policy played a huge part in creating the global financial crisis, growing economic inequality created a situation in which much of the population cannot contribute to demand.

Local Green: Coulomb Technologies wants to install “smart charging stations” for plug-in electric hybrid vehicles at 40 sites across California.

The Clinton Climate Initiative will work with Los Angeles to refit 140,000 street lights with LED’s.

The Texas Energy Future: Green Jobs and Clean Power conference takes place today in Austin.

The Indiana state legislature passed a bill requiring utilities to allow small-scale energy producers the option of net metering.

–Christopher Greenspan

The Energy Information Administration forecasts U.S. carbon emissions will be over 9 percent lower by 2030 than previously estimated.

GM and Chrysler will close 59 factories while the White House decides on the scope of an auto industry bailout.

Fourteen companies are seeking $1 billion in federal aid for a joint venture to develop next generation electric car batteries.

New calculations suggest that the world’s coal reserves may be much smaller than previously believed.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to introduce economic stimulus legislation that would give clean energy developers eight years worth of tax credits in one year.

Dow Corning and Hemlock Semiconductor’s $2 billion dollar expansion in solar technology is being viewed as evidence that legislative mandates requiring utilities to purchase clean energy will help keep renewables afloat during the recession.

Local Green: The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative - a collaborative effort between 10 northeastern states - held its second carbon auction on Wednesday.

California’s green chemistry initiative aims to inform consumers about the ecological footprint of the products they purchase.

Global Wind Systems Inc. is opening a wind turbine parts plant in Michigan with the help of a $7 million state tax incentive.

Detroit Mayor Kenneth Cockrel announced a series of green initiatives that he said “can enhance economic development in the city of Detroit while generating new jobs.”

– Christopher Greenspan

Photo credit:  Andy Davis

President-elect Obama wants former Iowa Governor and vocal supporter of clean energy Tom Vilsack as his agriculture secretary.

Obama’s choice to head the Department of the Interior, Colorado senator Ken Salazar, is widely viewed as a conservationist and supports the 25x’25 Vision.

From opposition to the auto bailout to a $120 million campaign against the Employee Free Choice Act, an op-ed at Alternet says conservatives are waging a war against American labor unions.

A Chrysler executive announced that the auto manufacturer plans to make all its vehicles capable of running on gas or electricity by between 2012 and 2015.

Toyota is halting further construction on a Mississippi Prius factory that was set to begin operations in 2010 because sales are down 34 percent from a year ago.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) will become the first international body to promote clean energy worldwide.

Three clean energy companies are forging ahead with development plans even as the recession deepens.

A U.S. military agency is funding efforts to develop an algae-based jet fuel.

Local Green: Nevada officials unveiled maps that identify potential clean energy sites and how they might link to the power grid.

Riverside, California will receive half of its energy needs through renewables by 2013, in large part due to a deal with the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation to purchase geothermal energy.

–Christopher Greenspan

President-elect Obama officially announced his energy and environment team in Chicago yesterday.

According to Good Jobs First, many critics of the auto industry bailout have supported subsidies to foreign auto companies operating in the U.S.

About twice the number of U.S. labor union representatives attended this year’s U.N. global climate summit over the previous year.

The solar power industry currently employs 25,000 to 35,000 people and the Solar Energy Industries Association estimates that figure will increase 400 percent by 2016.

The recession may help small solar start-ups.

Domestic oil drilling dropped by 12 percent since September, a much quicker decline than expected.

A piece at Yale Environment 360 considers how to make federal stimulus money work to build America’s economy while greening the bottom line.

Local Green: Virginia Governor Tim M. Kaine announced the Renew Virginia Initiative, which aims to make the state more energy efficient and protect the environment.

California became the first state to legislate diesel truck emissions, hoping to reduce soot pollution by 85 percent.

Two new geothermal energy plants (65 megawatts) will begin operations early next year in Nevada.

–Christopher Greenspan

Congressional leaders failed to agree on the auto industry bailout last week. Deliberation on the bailout is on hold, at least until President Bush returns from Iraq. Some speculate that opposition to the bailout was a strategic move to vitiate efforts to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

Global climate talks in Poznan, Poland were mostly lackluster. One bright spot: a pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by developing nations. The director general of the Brazilian Forest Service asked, “If we can talk about decreasing [emissions] 50 percent by 2018, which is in 10 years, why can’t the industrialized countries commit themselves to decreasing 80 percent by 2050, which is in 50 years?” However, negotiations on how to fund climate protection projects in developing nations fell far short of expectations.

Much remains unclear about the power and scope of the newly created White House coordinator of energy and climate policy position to be held by Carol M. Browner.

Some businesses work to reduce their kitchens’ carbon footprint.

Former Intel C.E.O. Andy Grove urged the company to develop batteries for plug-in electric hybrid vehicles.

Climate Progress dissects Stanford professor Mark Jacobson’s latest study on energy related solutions to global warming.

An op-ed in The New York Times worries that women may miss out on green-collar job opportunities.

Local Green: The Clinton Climate Initiative partnered with Arkansas to institute an energy efficiency program that will retrofit state buildings and encourage the adoption of energy-efficient practices.

The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources announced that the state purchased more than the mandated 3 percent of electricity from renewable sources.

Architects, planners, and city officials are collaborating with Urban Re:Vision and Dallas, Texas to design a sustainable city block.

–Christopher Greenspan

President-elect Obama’s top energy and environmental advisers include Nobel prize winning physicist Steven Chu and New Jersey commissioner of environmental protection Lisa P. Jackson.

At his meeting with Al Gore on Tuesday, Obama called climate change a matter of “national security.”

The auto bailout cleared the House, but at the time of this posting seems dead in the Senate. Meanwhile, some call for the nationalization of the Big Three.

U.N. officials at Poznan’s global climate summit will not support plans to build carbon capturing devices at power plants in developing nations.

A National Center for Atmospheric Research study concludes that is will be more difficult than previously expected for poorer nations to invest in greenhouse gas-reducing technologies.

Oil and natural gas will lose their status as the world’s cheapest fuel over the next two decades, according to a “wide-ranging survey of 52 industry professionals.”

Finance & Commerce examines challenges involved in developing deep water wind turbines.

Local Green: The California Air Resources Board meets today to consider how to implement the Global Warming Solutions Act.

Experts and businesses believe wind power will bring jobs to Northeast Ohio.

–Christopher Greenspan

Correction to December 9, 2008 Digest:  The International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced a gain of 40,000 new members in 2008.

President-elect Barack Obama may announce his energy and environment team today or tomorrow.

Congressional Democrats and the White House reached a broad agreement on a $15 billion auto industry bailout, but many members of Congress remain skeptical.

A piece at Gristmill argues that the nation’s turn to renewables is an opportunity to decentralize its energy power structure.

Greenbiz.com reports on the Apollo Alliance’s The New Apollo Program.

As the policy-shaping power of climate skeptics recedes, climate economics has become the new terrain on which the battle between action and inaction is being fought.

The  largest quarterly increase in public transit ridership in 25 years (6.5 percent) happened in the third quarter of 2008.

Junk material is piling up at storage facilities as the recession hits the recycling industry.

Local Green: A sit down strike by laid off workers at a Chicago window and door factory has forced Bank of America to reinstate the company’s line of credit.

The Arizona Corporation Commission approved a 280 megawatt solar energy project.

The E.P.A. and a handful of New Mexico’s state agencies are sponsoring a workshop that will explore ways to generate clean energy on contaminated sites.

A new Michigan law gives gas station owner’s a tax credit for providing ethanol and biodiesel fuels.

–Christopher Greenspan

The auto industry bailout, which seems “very likely” according to the White House, mandates that automakers drop all legal challenges to state laws capping greenhouse gas emissions. A number of fuel efficiency and clean energy initiatives have been proposed by the big three as bargaining tools.

A Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) study argues that GM and Ford can meet California’s emissions standards on a national scale.  The NRDC is an Apollo supporter.

As labor unions around the nation demand action to save the auto industry, an Economic Policy Institute study finds that the collapse of the U.S. auto industry could cost the nation 3.3 million jobs over the next year.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced a gain of 40,000 new members in 2008.

A worldwide climate change pact by the end of next year is unlikely because of the global recession and a changing U.S. administration.

President-elect Barack Obama will meet with Al Gore in Chicago today to discuss energy and climate change.

A piece at Counterpunch opines on why John Bryson is the wrong choice for Energy Secretary.

Local Green: The Green Collar Project is a new initiative started by the Brooklyn-based HOPE Program, which offers job training courses to some of New York City’s poorest residents.

Massachusetts has a green-collar jobs training program for low- and moderate-income residents.

Boston became the newest local Apollo Alliance on Saturday.

Over 90 companies in Ohio can produce wind turbine components, which is motivating Cleveland to become the site of Lake Erie’s first offshore wind farm.

–Christopher Greenspan

photo credit: aflcio2008

The U.S. auto industry continues to meet Congressional skepticism in bailout negotiations. During yesterday’s hearing on Capitol Hill, Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee remarked that “no thinking person thinks that all three companies can survive.” However, the mounting financial crisis puts political pressure on Congress to deliver some type of aid, and Senate Banking Committee chairman Chris Dodd compared allowing the Big Three to fail to playing “Russian roulette” with the U.S. economy.

Solar industry representatives want the federal government to stimulate stalled investment until the credit market rebounds.

Obama’s economic stimulus package may include a green component of $15 billion annually.

Clean energy advocates met in Washington, D.C. yesterday to discuss energy policy ideas for the Obama administration.

The Department of Energy expects big changes when President-elect Obama takes office next month.

New technology may double the charge capacity of lithium batteries used in electric vehicles.

Virgin America offers passengers a carbon offset program through a voluntary fee.

CNN is disbanding its science, environment, and technology unit.

Local Green: The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) wants to purchase 2,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2011.

Lancaster, California hopes that a solar plant will save it from an economic crisis of poverty, unemployment and foreclosures by creating jobs.

–Christopher Greenspan