Senator Barabara Boxer, D-Calif., says she expects a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee debate on the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act to take place tomorrow, though Senate Republicans are threatening to stall progress on the bill.

A new study finds that the majority of wind energy projects funded with economic stimulus money are owned by foreign companies.

Controversy surrounds an economic stimulus-funded 600+ megawatt wind farm planned for Texas that would create 2,000 jobs for Chinese workers and only about 300 for Americans.

A piece in Poder360 says the clean energy economy promises to create new jobs for Latinos.

Voices calling for $15 billion in annual clean energy research and development are growing louder.

The Obama administration recently devoted $3.4 billion in grants to developing the tools needed to make the nation’s energy grid smarter.   A piece at The Daily Green wonders if Americans will use them.

The current issue of Newsweek features an in-depth piece on Al Gore, whose new book, Our Choice: A Plan To Solve the Climate Crisis, is due to be released this month.

Making use of suburban sprawl through agriculture - or agriburbia - is an idea that’s starting to get more attention.

Local Green: Representative John McHugh, R-NY, was one of only eight Republicans to vote for the Waxman-Markey clean energy bill. McHugh is now serving in the Obama administration, and his seat in New York’s 23rd Congressional district is up for grabs.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of Guillermogg / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says a global agreement to regulate greenhouse gases could create 10 million jobs. Blair is in New York City where Climate Week is underway.

President Obama warned that inaction on climate change could lead to “irreversible catastrophe.”

Energy Secretary Stephen Chu said that reaching an international climate deal in Copenhagen this December would be an important victory, but the development of clean technologies is the most important. In his GridWeek address, Chu also announced $100 million in funding for a smart grid workforce training program.

The Department of Transportation announced that 43 municipal transit agencies would share $100 million in clean transportation grants.

Recently announced federal fuel efficiency standards would allow auto makers to offset emissions from vehicles that deviate from the new regulations with credits generated by more efficient vehicles.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D. - California) hopes to introduce climate and clean energy legislation to the Senate by October 5th.

Senator Sherrod Brown (D. - Ohio) wants to add money for clean energy manufacturing to the climate bill. Senator Brown’s IMPACT ACT - a plan to implement a $30 billion dollar revolving loan fund to strengthen green manufacturing - was influenced by the Apollo Alliance’s GreenMAP.

The E.P.A.’s “Change the World, Start with ENERGY STAR” tour is educating kids on energy efficiency.

Spinning flywheels - a centuries-old technology - is helping to make energy move smoothly and cleanly.

Local Green: The California Energy Commission wants televisions sold in the state to consume 33 percent less energy by 2011.

Sacramento, California kicked off the “Got Your Bags?” campaign last week to raise awareness about the importance of plastic bag recycling.

–Christopher Greenspan

The House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act on Friday, which calls for America to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

The bill includes provisions to help American manufacturers retool their plants to produce components for clean energy projects.

President Obama praised the bill’s passage, but criticized a provision that would levy trade penalties on nations with no system for limiting CO2 emissions by 2020.

Today President Obama announced new energy efficiency measures that include standards on lighting and an accelerated distribution of $346 million in Recovery Act funds slated for energy efficiency.

Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman likened climate change denial to a form of treason.

The Democratic Party’s Congressional moderates and conservatives may be the biggest obstacle to party leaders’ ambitious climate and health care agenda this year.

The clean energy industry worries that funding for new projects will dry up when stimulus package money runs out.

Biosolar is introducing environmentally friendly alternatives to petroleum-based solar panel components that cut can costs by 25 percent.

Local Green: West Coast ports fear that they will lose business to Canada and Mexico without improved railway corridors for transporting Asian imports.

Sacramento County, California chose a builder for its smart grid, which will serve about 600,000 homes.

–Christopher Greenspan

Vice President Joe Biden gave the keynote address at yesterday’s Senate Democratic Green Jobs Summit. Apollo Alliance president, Jerome Ringo, also spoke about how boosting the clean energy manufacturing sector can create jobs.

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) introduced a bill that would create a $30 billion loan program to help small and mid-sized manufacturers transition to the clean energy economy. Apollo played a large role in crafting the legislation, and estimates the bill will create over two and a half million jobs during the next five years.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved an energy bill that sets a federal renewable energy standard and revamps federal clean energy financing. The bill also repeals mandatory royalty waivers for some offshore oil and gas drilling operations.

The White House will give high profile support to Congressional energy and climate legislation next week to counter criticism that it is not doing enough.

The Congressional debate over a massive expansion of the country’s energy grid is being “driven more by politics than policy wisdom.”

World leaders will meet in Copenhagen later this year to put together a post-Kyoto Protocol climate treaty. Scientific American looks at some possible courses of action and the obstacles to their adoption.

Boeing says bio jet fuels have outperformed standard fuels in recent tests.

Automobile air conditioners account for six percent of the nation’s fuel consumption, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The Lab wants to improve the devices’ efficiency by 33 percent.

Duke Energy is testing a smart grid project it has dubbed the ‘virtual power plant.’

–Christopher Greenspan

The Obama administration announced federal automobile fuel efficiency standards of 35 miles per gallon by 2016.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is finalizing legislation that includes a renewable electricity standard.

House Republicans submitted hundreds of amendments to the American Clean Energy and Security Act.

Dozens of retired military leaders warn that America’s current energy policy and aging electrical grid threaten national security.

The United States has not joined the newly created International Renewable Energy Agency - yet.

Ocean Power Technologies says its Autonomous Power Buoys are cheaper and easier to install than offshore wind turbines.

Network technology giant Cisco will develop smart grid technology.

Ecogeek explains the fundamentals of cap-and-trade.

Local Green: Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown said that clean energy businesses need more funding to create quality jobs. He spoke at the Ohio Conference on Labor in the New Energy Economy, which was sponsored by the Apollo Alliance and Policy Matters Ohio.

State lawmakers in Oregon approved the creation of the climate corps - a volunteer-based group to be managed by the University of Oregon - that will advise people and businesses on how to reduce their carbon footprint.

–Christopher Greenspan

Road projects receive $28 billion in stimulus money today with a hope of creating and keeping 150,000 jobs in the next two years.

State legislatures are being urged to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act, but unions and their allies are fighting back.

G.M. says the auto industry faces its deepest slump since the end of World War II.

Remarks made by Energy Secretary Steven Chu indicate the department will make a radical departure from its decades-long focus on OPEC in order to concentrate on clean energy.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will discuss the future of a national smart grid at a hearing tomorrow.

A piece at Grist calls President Obama’s proposed cap-and-trade program, which prices CO2 at $14.30 per ton, “a start, but a very slow one.”

The U.S. House of Representatives abandoned plans to make its offices carbon neutral. The Green the Capitol program initiated the idea of a carbon neutral House .

Pressed by the tight financial market, OptiSolar sold $400 million in solar projects to thin-film panel developer First Solar.

Green-collar job training programs are cropping up across the country, as many workers anticipate the Obama administration’s proposed green jobs corp.

A commercial real estate development association claim that an energy efficiency mandate is unreasonable is based on a flawed and limited analysis.

Local Green: Two young social entrepreneurs in Ohio have siezed the opportunity in the economic downturn to create jobs with a weatherization program.

Some critics say Washington state Senator Chris Marr’s proposed changes to the state’s clean energy mandate would “effectively nullify” it.

In Philadelphia, green-collar industries are emerging on old industrial brownfield sites.

–Christopher Greenspan

The U.S. House of Representatives approved an $819 billion stimulus package by a vote of 244-188.   The package allocates 30 percent to fund benefit programs like unemployment and food stamps and to buffer state budgets.  Most relevant to Digest readers is the money allocated to stimulate investment in the clean energy economy.

The Senate is considering legislation that would double the number of plug-in hybrid purchases eligible for a tax credit.

Al Gore appeared before Congress yesterday to push for a cap-and-trade system.

The Sierra Club’s executive director Carl Pope (and Apollo Alliance board member) argues that “a well-designed package of market reforms — not austerity — will lead to a prosperous, low-carbon future.”

A new Federal Energy Regulatory Commission report finds that demand response and advanced metering - both components of smart grid technology - are gaining ground across the country.

On the heels of Monday’s massive job cuts, more American companies announced large layoffs yesterday.

It’s not rocket science, but home weatherization may be the next big green boom industry.

Local Green: California residents and businesses installed 158 megawatts worth of solar panels last year - nearly double the amount installed in 2007.

A requirement that diesel fuel sold in Oregon be blended with at least two percent biodiesel may take effect as early as September.

A $20 million dollar pledge to the University of Louisville - the largest donation in the university’s history - will help fund the new Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research.

–Christopher Greenspan

Google and General Electric announced a partnership to develop an energy “smart grid” that would improve “power generation, transmission and distribution.”

Bill Gates is investing millions in Sapphire Energy - a start up that hopes to introduce a “commercial-scale facility to produce oil from algae.”

Stockhouse argues that despite market turmoil, “investing in clean energy companies seems like a safe bet.”

The Senate is expected to make major changes to the energy bill passed on Tuesday by the House.

House Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY) published a piece in The Huffington Post on the energy bill.  The title of her piece is “The New Energy Future For America,” which is very close to the title of an Apollo Alliance report of 2004.

Senator John McCain will be the keynote speaker on energy at this year’s annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting.

Local Green: The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy released an ad attacking the Florida Public Service Commission’s draft report on clean energy.  The ad says the proposal’s renewable energy mandate is much weaker than what environmental groups and Governor Charlie Crist have proposed.

A study released by the California Air Resources Board found that if the state meets its mandated goal of rolling back greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, then that would create “100,000 new jobs, boost the state economy by $27 billion and increase personal income by $14 billion.”

Berkeley, California adopted a city-backed loan program for property owners that eliminates upfront costs on solar panel installations.

Talking Union argues that growing economic inequality plays a major role in the current financial crisis.

–Christopher Greenspan