Natural Resources Defense Council President Frances Beinecke is confident that the relationship between job creation and clean energy legislation will have a “prominent place” in President Obama’s State of the Union address today. NRDC Action Fund Director Heather Taylor-Miesle suggests five climate and clean energy talking points for the president.

The State of the Union address “is an opportunity for this president to pick up the baton the last one had no intention of carrying, and elevate clean energy solutions and energy independence to the top of his domestic agenda,” argues Its Getting Hot In Here.

A piece in the Denver Post recapped Ken Salazar’s first year as Secretary of the Interior.

A peer-reviewed National Climate Data Center study refutes a 2009 report that questions the validity of U.S. surface temperature records, saying its conclusion “runs contrary to the actual data.”

The American Wind Energy Association said wind energy capacity grew by 39 percent last year.

Can the “Made In America” label once again come to represent quality manufacturing?  ”The answer is yes,” argues a piece at Grist, “if we focus on products for the growing low-carbon economy.”

Whirlpool has created an easy-to-use website to help consumers access the Department of Energy’s Cash for Appliances program, a Recovery Act-funded program created to encourage the use of energy efficient appliances.

Local Green: General Motors’ plan to produce electric motors at a Baltimore transmission plant could lead to the creation of 1,700 jobs.

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle used his State of the State address to make the case for clean energy technology and manufacturing as job-generating forces.

New Mexico’s largest utility submitted a renewable energy proposal that includes the creation of up to 80 megawatts of new solar energy.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Caveman_92223 / CC BY-ND 2.0