Saying he hoped to rekindle “the furnace that forged our middle class,” President Obama signed the Manufacturing Enhancement Act into law yesterday, which cuts tariffs on some manufacturing-related imports. Obama used the signing ceremony to call on Congress to approve $5 billion in clean energy tax credits.

Congress rescinded $1.5 billion in clean energy stimulus funds, which could cost the growing clean energy economy $35 billion in private sector funding, according to the Center For American Progress, which recommends money for the federal medical assistance percentage instead be raised by cutting some of the $45 billion in oil company tax breaks that will be handed out over the next decade.

A new website “tracks the flow of oil, gas, and coal money in [the] U.S. Congress.”

Energy policy veteran Elizabeth “Betsy” Moler discusses the Republican Party’s “confounding” turn away from its own market-friendly concept of cap-and trade.

Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune says its time for climate legislation supporters to become more assertive. “We need to bring the stick back,” Brune told YaleE360, “but we don’t want to put away the carrot either.”

A new state-by-state Stanford University poll finds that the vast majority of Americans believe humans are responsible for global warming.

Feed-in tariffs are responsible for 75 percent of global solar energy and 45 percent of wind, according to a new National Renewable Energy Lab report. The tariffs, says the report, are the “most widely used renewable energy policy in the world.”

A piece at Grist ties “deficit hysteria” to the slashing of America’s public transit budgets.

Local Green: An op-ed in the Boston Globe counters inflated estimates of the price of energy that would be generated by the Cape Wind offshore energy project.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress

The Daily Digest will return on Tuesday August 17.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite data shows January’s land and ocean surface temperatures to be the fourth highest on record.

A National Climatic Data Center study finds that U.S. weather stations may be slightly underestimating temperature increases.

The global clean energy market could be worth $2 trillion in 10 years, and the nations with the smartest clean energy policies will be cashing in, says a piece at the Huffington Post.

Nike, Starbucks and other Northwestern businesses are calling on Congress to pass legislation that will help American companies take advantage of the coming clean energy boom.

A piece at Grist argues that the best way to green the Olympics is to stop moving them around.

New York Fashion Week’s Green Shows are evidence of a growing interest in sustainable design.

Local Green: Businesses, politicians and environmental groups are urging Maryland lawmakers to approve solar energy incentives they say will help the state reduce its greenhouse gas emissions while creating new jobs.

San Francisco and Houston are preparing their energy infrastructure for the first wave of mass-marketed electric cars, which are expected to hit the streets later this year.

Students at the Univesity of Wisconsin are calling on state legislators to include clean energy education and training provisions in the state’s Clean Energy Jobs Act.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Joe Shlabotnik/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

More than 80 business, labor, religious, environmental and national security groups have joined forces to kick off an ad campaign urging Congress to pass clean energy and climate legislation.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, introduced a resolution yestderday that would prevent the E.P.A. from regulating CO2 emissions. Senator Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., called the move an “extremely damaging[...]political stunt.”

Newly elected Senator Scott Brown, R-Mass., is drawing a mix of optimism and concern on clean energy and climate issues.

A Rolling Stone piece on Lisa Jackson says the E.P.A. chief is the most progressive the organization has ever had.

A new survey suggests Americans would be more likely to support climate legislation if they associate the bill with reducing oil imports and creating American jobs.

Local Green: California incorporated the nation’s first LEED-based model into its statewide building codes.

Wisconsin’s proposed Clean Energy Jobs Act would require the state to generate 25 percent of its energy through renewables by 2025 and would create thousands of jobs. The Forest County Potawatomi Community launched an ad campaign in support of the measure.

Some clean energy advocates say Indiana’s proposed net metering bill would be a bad move for the region’s clean energy future.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of oooh.oooh / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

A draft E.P.A. plan to regulate CO2 emissions would spare small emitters and target only larger operations like utilities, manufacturers and refineries.

A coalition of environmentalists and Native American groups are suing the State Department over its approval of a pipeline that would transport tar sand oil from Canada across the U.S. border.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon warned that the world must make “rapid progress” on climate negotiations to avoid the worst effects of global climate change. “Our foot is stuck on the accelerator and we are heading towards an abyss,” said Ban.

Cleaner fuels and vehicles won’t be enough to substantially reduce CO2 emissions unless Americans avoid traffic jams and drive less.

Earth2Tech explores what to expect on clean energy and climate when Congress returns from its summer recess.

About half of the U.S. oil trade market is controlled by speculators - a 30 percent increase since federal regulations were eased in 2000.

The 2009 GoingGreen 100 list recognizes the efforts of private companies that develop the next wave of clean energy.

From kindergarten to college, Grist’s green cheat sheet helps your kid make the back-to-school grade in green.

Local Green: Google-funded geothermal energy company AltaRock Energy Inc. is putting a California demonstration project on hold due to “geologic anomalies.”

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of American Art Museum/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

In a major economic speech yesterday, President Obama reaffirmed clean energy as one of the “five pillars” of economic recovery.

The E.P.A.’s proposal to recognize C02 and other greenhouse gases as public health threats has cleared a White House review process and will enter a 60 day public comment period. The decision puts pressure on Congress to pass comprehensive climate regulation to preempt Executive level regulation.

How cap-and-trade permits are to be allocated and who will receive them are two issues that have not yet been adequately addressed by proponents of comprehensive Congressional climate legislation.

Environmental and labor groups are teaming up to tackle the Employee Free Choice Act and climate legislation.

A National Center for Atmospheric Research study finds that a 70 percent reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions could spare the planet most of the worst effects of climate change.

One Michigan engineer is working to develop solar energy harnessing devices that blend seamlessly into daily life.

Experts say the commercialization of tidal energy is still a distant prospect.

Local Green: Home builders in Wisconsin go green with zero emission houses.

The University of Toledo will open a School of Solar and Advanced Renewable Energy.

–Christopher Greenspan

Ten Mid-Atlantic states who have been leaders in greenhouse gas emissions will take another step toward further reductions by developing a low carbon fuel standard.

The 111th Congress was sworn in today minus a Senator from Illinois and Minnesota.  Certified Minnesota winner and green-collar jobs advocate Al Franken decided not to go to Washington until legal challenges to his seat are over.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says that she has the votes for a cap and trade law, but probably won’t do anything in 2009 because the legislation needs to be carefully crafted.

Climate Central is a new effort by journalists and scientists to tell the story of climate change accurately.

Expect the price of gas to continue on its roller coaster ride.  Last summer gas cost over $4 a gallon with oil well over the feared $100 a barrel price.  Oil prices dropped to a low of $33 a barrel last month but are up 40 percent.  An op-ed argues that we should ride the coaster with care.

The New Yorker profiles Van Jones, an Apollo board member.

John Nichols of The Nation recognized the Ohio Apollo Alliance as the Most Valuable State or Regional Group of 2008.

It’s January, which means prediction time for 2009 and the clean-tech community is no exception.

Local Green:  California’s solar power capacity almost doubled in 2008 despite the economic slowdown.

– Heidi Pickman

As Exxon Mobil announced it earned the “fattest operating profit in U.S. corporate history,” Barack Obama said that Washington “has failed the American people on energy” and insinuated that John McCain would give America four more years of the same approach. Obama discussed his own energy policy in Iowa, which includes investing $150 billion over ten years in alternative fuels.

An analysis released by the Consumer Federation of America found that lifting domestic oil drilling bans would enrich oil companies, but offer no relief to consumers at the pump.

As a stalemated Congress prepared for its month long vacation, Democrats and Republicans admitted that legislative action on the energy crisis would have to wait until September.

California filed another lawsuit against the E.P.A., arguing that it failed to properly regulate greenhouse gas emissions produced by “ships, aircraft and industrial equipment.” As reported here earlier this week, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed in response to the agency’s decision to forbid the state from setting its own tail pipe emission regulations.

Two new studies address scientific advances that could cut the costs of storing cleanly generated electricity.

Researchers at Iowa State University say a fungus can cut ethanol production costs.

Clipper Windpower and BP Alternative Energy will build the world’s largest wind farm in South Dakota.

Two renewable energy projects were approved for Nevada on Wednesday.

Anheuser-Busch’s Fairfield, California brewery will run on renewable energy by the end of the year.

Demand for wind turbine technicians is growing so quickly that students in training programs are hired before finishing their coursework.

A bipartisan group in Congress challenges Democratic and Republican National Convention-goers to bike 25,000 miles.

The popular automotive guide Kelley Blue Book introduced the Kelley Blue Book Green.

–Christopher Greenspan