Dear Daily Digest reader,

Effective tomorrow, the Apollo Alliance will no longer distribute The Daily Digest. However, we would like to refer you to myriad online clean energy news sources that exist today, many of which are free and offer daily or weekly emails, RSS feeds and more. Please see the bottom of this email for a few staff recommendations.

Thank you for your continued support of the Apollo Alliance and your commitment to clean energy and good jobs!

– Apollo Staff

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar defended the federal government’s plan to lift a ban on offshore oil and gas drilling, calling it a “new direction for our country.” Salazar said the shift was a necessary part of a comprehensive energy plan that would help the U.S. decrease dependence on oil imports. A New York Times piece claims the plan has elicited “muted support” from Republicans and the oil industry, while environmental groups have denounced it.

ClimateProgress pointed to a U.S. Energy Information Administration report which found that lifting the ban on offshore oil drilling  would have a negligible impact on gas prices by 2030.

The UN’s top climate official, Yvo de Boer, doesn’t expect an international climate deal to be reached until the end of 2011.

The federal government will double its stock of electric hybrids by adding 5,000 vehicles to its fleet this year.

The electric-vehicle energy storage market could double by 2015, reports Lux research.

Electric car battery component maker Polypore International Inc. will see its shares increase by more than 46 percent in the fourth quarter “as investors bet on a global shift to low-polluting automobiles.”

Local Green: Cape Wind inked a deal to purchase 130 wind turbines for its controversial and as yet, unapproved offshore wind project on Nantucket Sound.

With the help of a plastic bag tax (5 cents per bag), Washington D.C. has reduced its bag usage from 22 million to 3 million a month.

More Clean Energy News Sources:

• Google News daily alerts on “clean energy” and “green jobs.”
• The Climate Progress newsletter, administered by Center for American Progress.
• Alliance to Save Energy’s daily “News You Can Use” email.
• Green Energy News: free to subscribe; weekly emails sent in text-only format; RSS feed available.
• Renewable Energy World: RSS feed and e-newsletters available.
• Science Daily: RSS feed available.
• Clean Edge: RSS feed available.
• Alternative Energy News: RSS feed available.

–Christopher Greenspan

China and the U.S. — the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases — have agreed to bring specific emissions reduction targets to Copenhagen, which could “reignite stalled progress for a global climate agreement” argues a piece at Bloomberg. But others say the targets amount to nothing more than business as usual.

An agreement among the world’s wealthiest nations to contribute at least $10 billion annually to help poorer nations combat the effects of global warming would go a long way toward making climate talks in Copenhagen end in success, said U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer.

Grist’s Copenhagen Central supplies a wealth of background information on the climate talks, as well as up to the minute twitter coverage of related news.

A series of studies published in British medical journal The Lancet found that cutting greenhouse gas emissions could save millions of lives each year.

The world’s largest corporations are investing 3-5 percent of their annual revenues in clean technologies. SolveClimate looks at how investment is spurring green job growth.

With climate legislation once again on the Congressional back burner, a Senate jobs bill may be an “interim opportunity to get some solid green jobs legislation passed,” according to Its Getting Hot In Here.

Researchers at M.I.T. believe they’ve developed a way to harness gadgets’ waste heat for energy use.

Local Green: A new solar panel manufacturing plant in Philadelphia could create 400 to 500 new jobs.

California regulators approved a new transmission line that will carry solar energy from the inland desert to the state’s coast.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of jimg944/ / CC BY 2.0

The world should spend $300 billion annually to combat climate change, according to the U.N. Environment Program.

As negotiations in Bonn, Germany ended yesterday, head U.N. climate official Yvo de Boer complained that the pace of negotiations needed to be picked up. “It would be incomprehensible if this opportunity were lost,” said de Boer.

The Center for Clean Air Policy found evidence that a clean tech heavy approach to emissions reductions rather than emission caps could be crucial in developing nations.

T. Boone Pickens and Ted Turner make the case for strengthening domestic natural gas and renewable energy supplies, arguing that economic, climate and energy security depend on it.

Swing state U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (D. - Pennsylvania) will not stand in the way of climate bill proceedings.

Four other Democratic Senators are calling for a weakened climate bill that would concentrate on a renewable energy portfolio but eliminate cap-and-trade provisions.

Venture capital plays an important role in clean energy development, but good old government spending - perhaps a green bank - will be needed to underwrite a “green business revolution.”

“Every hope we have to [...] create enough Information Age jobs to maintain a stable and prosperous middle class sits on the shoulders of people who understand and practice the scientific method,” argues a piece in The Juneau Empire.

Wattsup is a new facebook application that helps users of the social networking site measure home energy consumption and CO2 output.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of NASA.

The U.N.’s chief climate official said he was “confident that governments can reach an agreement and want an agreement [on climate change],” as international talks closed in Bonn on Friday.

The development charity Christian Aid complained that rich countries may ‘wreck’ this year’s crucial round of international climate talks.

The media is abuzz about the Energy Secretary’s low-tech assertion that white rooftops could help stem global warming.

If we could make 25 percent of our electricity needs with renewable energy by 2025, then up to 850,000 jobs could be created.

FutureGen - a public/private carbon sequestering project killed by the Bush administration - is back on track, says Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

Clean tech start-ups proliferated at this year’s Launch: Silicon Valley - a competition for venture capitol funds.

Caterpillar showcased its first hybrid bulldozer last week.

Movements to ban or limit plastics bags are growing across the world, but paper bags may be no less wasteful.

Local Green: Energy and climate change are chief among the topics to be tackled at the Western Governors Association Conference.

The Midwest Renewable Energy Association’s annual energy fair calls itself the “world’s largest renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable living educational event of its kind.”

Declining rust belt cities consider a progressively planned shrinkage along the lines of turning parking lots into parks.

–Christopher Greenspan

The U.N.’s chief climate official doubts that a full, international climate accord will be achieved by the end of the year.  He also complained that industrialized nations are falling short on pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The International Trade Union Confederation - a coalition of unions that includes the A.F.L.-C.I.O. - is in Bonn to address employment and the role of unions in climate negotiations.

International aid agencies called for focus on the ‘humanitarian angle‘ of climate change at the next round of climate discussions in Copenhagen later this year.

When it comes to climate change, developed countries “seem to be trying their best to do as little as possible while getting the most possible credit for their actions,” finds one observer in Bonn.

It appears increasingly likely that the House of Representatives will pass the Waxman-Markey energy bill before the July 4th recess.

Agricultural offsets are shaping up to be a key issue in the bill’s fate.

Researchers say they’ve found a simple, direct relationship between CO2 emissions and global climate change.

Non-food biofuels could someday replace conventional jet fuels (as we mentioned earlier this week,) but a major problem developers face is how to produce quantities large enough to make a difference.

Chromasun wants to commercialize technology that can use solar energy to power air conditioners.

–Christopher Greenspan

The Bush administration opened 2 million acres of land to oil shale drilling and set discounted royalty payments for developers.

The head of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, Yvo de Boer, called President-elect Barack Obama’s commitment to global warming action “a very important signal of encouragement.”

Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) won majority support from the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee to become chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The newly formed American Wind Wildlife Institute is a collaboration between environmental groups, conservationists and wind energy companies to protect wildlife while developing wind energy.

Wal-Mart said it will power 360 stores in Texas with 226 million kilowatt-hours of wind energy, which is approximately 15 percent of the energy used in Texan stores.

Van Jones addressed the Greenbuild Conference in Boston.  Also, Apollo Alliance President, Jerome Ringo, moderates a panel on social justice and economic development today.

One final development from Greenbuild - the U.S. Green Building Council announced revised Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards.

The Daily Green asserts that a national “smart grid” is essential to the nation’s shift to clean energy.

Local Green: Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced an initiative to encourage big-box retailers to go solar.

Vermont hopes to harness methane gas from local landfills because many of its electricity contracts will run out in a few years.

A controversial energy transmission line proposal that would have passed through a state park and Native American tribal land in southern California has been revised with a new route.

Mitchell Technical Institute will house South Dakota’s first wind turbine technology training program.

–Christopher Greenspan