The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is creating a climate office - similar to the National Weather Service - that will collect and distribute climate data in an effort to mitigate climate change-related problems.

The United Nations has so far received greenhouse gas-cutting pledges from 55 nations around the world, which will take effect when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

Grist lists 10 political races that are likely to have a strong green focus this year.

Noting that a recent New York Times piece on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  fails to quote a single climate scientist, ClimateProgress calls the article “an echo-chamber for the climate disinformation movement.”

Luxury plug-in hybrid company Fisker Automotive is moving its Detroit-based operations to its headquarter city of Irvine, Calif.

Fisker will debut its Karma sports car at the Chicago Auto Show, and Ford will introduce an all-electric connection van.

Portable solar chargers are increasingly used to bring power to off-the-grid locations.

Local Green: A major Good Energies investment is helping Massachusetts-based clean energy and design company Nexamp take on major expansions.

A new Abell Foundation report says offshore wind could supply Maryland with two-thirds of its current energy needs.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of the Experimental Climate Prediction Center

Sierra Magazine released its third annual Cool Schools list, ranking 135 colleges and universities based on their relationship to clean energy, efficiency, transportation and other green credentials.

Nearly 650 colleges and universities have signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, and are working toward carbon neutral campuses.

The Department of Transportation’s popular Cash For Clunkers program, which offers cash incentives to those wishing to trade in their gas guzzlers for more efficient vehicles, will end August 24th.

Researchers at Purdue University studied possible climate change related social and economic problems that could arise in sixteen developing nations.

China has shown a willingness to take on climate change in recent months, argues the Center For American Progress. It is up to the United States to pass substantial legislation while encouraging China to take further steps and show the world that the two largest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions are serious about climate change.

Ford showcased its “green fleet” this week, which includes a plug-in hybrid outfitted with a device that determines the best times to plug in.

Local Green: Oregon’s solar highway is the first project featured in a DC.Streetsblog.org series covering stimulus funded transportation projects.

Massachusetts’ Clean Energy Biofuels Act restricts biofuels designation to waste feedstocks, disqualifying producers of switchgrass, algae, and other second generation fuels from tax incentives.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Lamazone / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Participants in the Major Economies Forum dropped the goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, due to disagreements between developing and wealthy nations.

The prospect of billions of dollars generated by emissions allowances for states may push Republican Senators to support climate legislation.

The Natural Resources Defense Council is circulating a “Top 10 Reasons the Senate should Strengthen and Pass ACES [American Clean Energy and Security Act]” list.

A coalition of environmental groups is suing the federal government over a 6,000 mile energy corridor on Western public land that links to non-renewable energy sources.

American auto manufacturers are strengthening ties with utilities to bring a fleet of electric vehicles to market in the coming decade. Ford says 10 to 25 percent of its vehicles will be hybrids by 2020.

UCLA scientists have found a way to make solar cells without silicon, which dramatically reduces their cost.

The first cargo ship to generate a substantial portion of its energy through solar panels is docked in Long Beach, California.

Local Green: The Tennessee Clean Energy Future Act - signed by Governor Phil Bredesen this week - establishes residential building codes, makes tax incentives available to the clean energy sector and promotes energy efficiency.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D - New York) voiced support for her state’s manufacturing base by announcing support for the The Small Business Health Options Program Act and the Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technology (IMPACT) Act.

–Christopher Greenspan

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

As the United States begins to produce clean, homemade energy, it must make efforts to strengthen the domestic manufacturing base that will supply the hardware.

Thanks in part to incentives in the U.S. economic stimulus package, investors around the globe favor clean energy projects in America.

China currently leads the world in clean energy manufacturing, and its economic stimulus plan was larger and greener.

“A lack of national standards, an absence of strong climate and energy policy, and never-ending subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, have hindered America’s ability to compete with other countries for top talent and investment capital,” according to a piece at It’s Getting Hot In Here.

The 11-state, 34-city, Keep It Made In America bus tour hosted a Capitol Hill teach-in yesterday.

Ford nearly killed President Obama’s landmark fuel efficiency standards deal, which brought together  states, auto makers, and environmentalists.

Local Green: Now that the Obama administration has set a national fuel efficiency standard, California is working on pushing auto emissions reductions to the next level.

The Economist’s “Profiles In Stupidity” tackled Representative Joe Barton (R. - Texas), a prominent climate change denier who reasoned yesterday on C-SPAN that C02 must be harmless because it is found in soft drinks.

An Arizona man says he’s developed the first solar-powered motorcycle.

–Christopher Greenspan

Representative Mike Doyle (D. - Pennsylvania) says the developing House energy bill would give away most emissions permits to polluting industries for 10 to 15 years, rather than auction or sell them.

Eight experts weigh in on the relative merits of carbon cap systems and carbon taxes.

A new Living Cities report evaluates American cities’ commitment to reducing their carbon footprint.

As the Digest reported earlier this week, the E.P.A. decided to calculate indirect land use into the ethanol industry’s carbon footprint. Ethanol industry representatives complain that ethanol’s carbon footprint is the only source of energy being measured this way.

A Stanford University study finds turning plants into electricity by burning them is more efficient than using them as a source of ethanol.

Google claims it has maintained carbon neutrality for two years through carbon offsets.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s research support building in Colorado is billed as “the greenest office building in the world” and will be built with economic stimulus money.

Ford plans to convert what was formerly one of the most profitable S.U.V. manufacturing sites in the country into an electric vehicle production plant.

The Labor Department’s 2010 budget includes a ten percent increase in discretionary funding for worker protection programs.

Local Green: Montana’s top wind producers say two new bills passed by the state legislature will allow utilities to maneuver around the state’s clean energy quotas.

–Christopher Greenspan

Congress is poised to grant wilderness status to over 2 million acres of land. Some people worry that this designation could complicate clean energy transmission.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid proposed a plan that would allow the federal government to override states’ authority and construct long distance power lines that would carry clean energy from rural areas to population centers.

General Electric wants the federal government to step up efforts to produce large-scale smart grids.

Now that Democrats control 58 seats in the Senate, a national renewable energy standard is more likely than ever, but a filibuster-proof majority could be difficult.

National Resources Defense Council President Frances Beinecke (and Apollo board member) rounds up a long list of environmental/clean energy victories that have been won in the short five weeks since the Obama administration took over the White House.

Automakers skipped E.P.A. hearings on tailpipe emission waivers for 13 states that want to set their own regulations.

A Ford spokesperson vowed that a ‘major portion’ of the automaker’s vehicles would be electric within a decade.

Solar panels are more affordable, yet many struggling manufacturers fear they won’t be around to celebrate the boom.

Senator John F. Kerry (D - Massachusetts) says a clean energy revolution is on the way.

This week’s Renewable Energy World podcast features a discussion about creating an equitable green jobs movement with a Green For All senior strategist.

Local Green: The Austin City Council approved what it says is the largest solar plant (30 megawatts) in the United States.

Wisconsin’s We Energies announced a new solar incentive plan for homes and small businesses that includes an upfront payment to make installation financing easier.

DTE Energy Company wants wants Michigan regulators to approve a plan to add 1,200 megawatts of clean energy to its portfolio to meet the state’s renewables mandate.

–Christopher Greenspan

A piece at The Nation argues that Labor Secretary nominee Hilda Solis has the real world experience necessary to shift influence toward Main Street and away from Wall Street. Some of the country’s largest labor unions launched a campaign to counter Republican efforts to disqualify her nomination.

The AFL-CIO Now Blog has a report on last week’s Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference held in Washington, D.C.

At a town hall meeting in Indiana yesterday, President Obama said the nation that can make clean energy competitive with fossil fuels will be “the economic superpower of the future.”

WorldWatch Institute says that the economic stimulus package and the growing global green economic recovery initiatives “will likely be the largest series of clean energy and energy efficiency investments in history.”

Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico) proposed legislation that would require the U.S. to produce 4 percent of its electricity through renewables by 2011 and 20 percent by 2039.

The Wall Street Journal examines utility decoupling as a mechanism for utilities to encourage efficiency.

Scientists are studying the recent discovery of solar collectors on butterfly wings to develop more efficient solar technology.

Ford will introduce its first all electric vehicle - a van - to the North American market next year.

Today, G.M. announced layoffs of 10,000 and salary reductions for 2009.

Local Green: The Michigan Energy Corps is a public works program that intends to employ thousands weatherizing buildings and installing clean energy infrastructure.

–Christopher Greenspan

Ford spent $5.5 billion in cash to stay afloat during the fourth quarter of 2008 - the worst year in the company’s history - in its quest for independence from federal loans.

G.M. suspended work on its Michigan-based Chevy Volt plant.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, BP C.E.O. Tony Hayward said the world needs to adopt carbon pricing to encourage renewable energy development.

Last year U.S. companies set a new record in voluntarily purchased renewable energy.

Local Green: Washington Governor Chris Gregoire announced legislation aimed at creating 25,000 green jobs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

A huge food distribution center in Washington state has become the first cold storage facility to receive LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The California Labor Federation and State Building and Construction Trades Council will jointly administer a $1.2 million green building skills project (download the press release).

BrightSource Energy Inc. - the company that contracted with California’s PG&E to provide the state with 900 megawatts of solar thermal energy by 2011 - says the massive clean energy project could be held up without adequate financial support for renewables in the federal economic stimulus package. BrightSource is a supporter of the Apollo Alliance.

Massachusetts wants to produce 2,000 megawatts of wind powered electricity and increase solar to nearly 35 times its current capacity by 2020, but the recession may affect the state’s clean energy plans.

Texas finalized a wind energy plan that gives 5 companies the rights to build $5 billion worth of electricity transmission lines.

As part of a plan to produce 30 percent of its electricity through renewables by 2020, Austin, Texas may build a solar energy facility large enough to power 5,000 homes.

Two bills introduced to the Maine state legislature are intended to encourage small-scale clean energy investment.

–Christopher Greenspan

Republicans - including Senator John McCain - continue to push for offshore oil drilling as a solution to record high oil prices, despite the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s prediction that to do so would have no immediate and little long-run effect on oil prices.

The New York Times calls McCain’s most recent attack ad, which blames Senator Barack Obama for rising oil prices, “misleading on nearly every substantive point.”

The price of crude oil continued to decline and reached its lowest point since early June.

Thomas Friedman argues that high-priced, carbon-based fuels are the key to developing a “clean energy system.”

Though the Senate voted 94-0 to green light legislation to curb oil speculation, it seems unlikely that any bill will survive further debate.

India’s finance minister joined the growing international call to tighten regulations on oil speculation.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, supports renewable energy.

Local Green-Collar: MinnPost examines the potential for green-collar jobs in Minnesota.

Colorado State University plans to open a school to train green-collar workers.

Greenbiz reports on the growth of green M.B.A.’s.

Forbes.com looks at the Pickens Plan, Al Gore’s clean energy challenge, and the businesses that could make them a reality.

Ford is shifting focus from gas guzzlers to smaller cars.

The Sierra Club’s Carl Pope was on “The Colbert Report” recently:

- Christopher Greenspan