Electric utilities stepped up lobbying efforts to influence federal climate and energy legislation in the second quarter of 2009.

Senators Barbara Boxer (D. - California) and John Kerry (D. - Massachusetts) push former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and her myths about clean energy out of office.

A piece at Grist notes the surreal quality of conservatives’ arguments against climate legislation and the media’s inability to address it.

North Dakota’s U.S. Senators sit on committees crucial to the formation of climate and energy legislation, giving the region “as much clout as regions three times its size.”

A Federal Housing Administration mortgage program encouraging energy efficiency renovations is one of many programs likely to appear in the near future for energy-conscious homeowners.

The Hub is a new online resource that collects stories and data on the emerging clean energy economy, put together by the Center for American Progress and features Apollo Alliance’s Signature Stories.

Global warming may decrease low-level oceanic clouds, which in turn may increase warming.

A founding member of Louisiana’s International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Local 1814 talks about the workplace improvements that came with unionization.

Local Green: The growth of wind power in the Northwest poses challenges to those charged with striking a balance between the regions electricity sources.

The Boston Herald examines how clean energy manufacturing jobs are recasting the American dream in a small Iowa town.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Zoomar.

House energy bill co-author, Representative Henry Waxman (D - California), cut a deal with Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, making a yes vote in the House this Friday very likely.

President Obama bolstered support for the Waxman-Markey energy bill yesterday, encouraging the House to support the legislation, because it would “spark a clean energy transformation.”

Environmental groups are divided over the energy bill, some calling its passage a must, while others fear it gives polluters too much for modest emissions reductions.

The United States and Chile signed an agreement yesterday that strengthens scientific cooperation between the two nations, particularly in the area of clean energy.

Blackouts along America’s aging power grid cost the economy $150 billion each year.

The common refrigeration agent hydrofluorocarbon will make a larger contribution to climate change over the next few decades than previously thought.

Zeta Communities aims to design relatively inexpensive, prefabricated, ‘zero energy’ homes.

Local Green: Rhode Island issued nearly $700,000 in grant money to 17 renewable energy projects.

Climate Week NYC will be held in September to boost support for an international climate treaty by year’s end.

–Christopher Greenspan