energy

The Green Report: Obama’s Greenies

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

Browner, Chu, Jackson

Just what we need, a new energy and environmental team. According to Wednesday’s New York Times, Obama’s transition officials said he has selected several key members of this team. For the Secretary of Energy position, Obama has chosen Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Stephen Chu, who also serves as the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. And officials stated he will chose Los Angeles’ deputy mayor for energy and environment, Nancy Sutley, to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Obama’s officials sound as though his selections for head of the Environmental Protection Agency and climate czar are a bit less certain. He has supposedly selected Lisa P. Jackson, New Jersey’s former commissioner of Environmental Protection. If confirmed, Jackson would be the first African American to head the U.S. E.P.A.

And it appears as though Obama’s going to give the top White House position on climate and energy policy to President Bill Clinton’s E.P.A. administrator, Carol M. Browner. If Obama selects Browner, who was an Al Gore follower, she is assumed to have support from several key members of Congress like Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and Representative “Henry A. Waxman of California, who will be the new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Senator Barbara Boxer of California, who is returning as chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.” Hopefully, Obama’s choices will work out well because he has a tough road ahead to meet his goal of reducing global warming emissions and creating more “green” jobs.

Can you believe there are E.P.A. fugitives? Well, believe it! The Environmental Protection Agency has a web site that list all of the fugitives sought by its Criminal Investigation Division. Are you wondering what gets you on the environmental bad guys list? The site gives a case summary and how to report information about them in case you see one. It’s like America’s Most Wanted for environmental criminals. (I can hear the theme song playing. “Whatcha gonna do when they come for you? Bad Boys. Bad Boys.”) Surprisingly, Bush and members of his administration are not listed.

This report wouldn’t be complete without green gifts for the holidays. CleanTechnica has a list of the 8 Best Green Gadget Gifts. Some of the items include a power strip that tells you the energy efficiency of your appliances with a numerical reading, and a wind-powered electronics charger. These are just a few of the gifts. Pretty cool stuff for the greenie in your life.

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International News Roundup

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Suicide Bombs Just Won’t Stop Afghanistan took another grieving day today after a Taliban suicide bomber packed a tanker truck chock full of explosives and detonated it in Kandahar’s temporary council office. Felt throughout the city, the bomb killed six people, wounded 40 and caused five houses to cave in on themselves. Few newspapers or Web sites ever analyze what bomb-wounded really means: these folks may not be dead, but they’re badly burnt, some of them maimed or blinded, nursing gashes and lost limbs. Even one dead or one wounded is still too many.

Another Bomb and…Attending School is a…Sin? And in the same article as above, we learn that in another part of Afghanistan, the Nangarhar Province, not only did a Taliban suicide bomber slam into an American military convoy, killing what media outlets have estimated at between 56 and 74 people, but also that two as-yet-unidentified motorcyclists sprayed eight adolescent girls on their way to school with battery acid. Why? Because they were women attempting to receive an education.

When Will the Congo Heal If it’s not Belgian oppression, it’s widespread rape. If it’s not rape, it’s coerced fighting. Young men in eastern Congo have run from their homes, choosing displacement over membership to rebel forces. These men have explained the rebels beat their home doors down, seeking new ranks, stopping at nothing to gain new hands to help their cause.

Europe Wants no More from Russia (With Love or Not) Tired of facing the fact that more than 60 percent of its energy comes from imports (two fifths of that Russian in source), the EU is planning a supergrid of internal power supplies (e.g. increasing dependence on North Sea area wind farms) that would rely less on Russian monopoly.

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Daily News Roundup: A Quake and Possible Landslide?

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

Early Wednesday morning a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 170 people and leaving an estimated 15,000 people homeless. Rescuers are currently digging and searching for survivors in the a remote valley in Baluchistan, a province bordering Afghanistan. The worst hit was a British hilltop village of Ziarat and eight surrounding villages. “There is great destruction,” said Ziarat Mayor Dilawar Kakar to Associated Press. “Not a single house is intact.”

With less than a week until the presidential election, many people have decided to vote early. And in key swing states like North Carolina, Nevada and Colorado, the number of Democrats early ballots outweigh Republicans ballots nearly 2 to 1.

So, does the electoral math add up to an Obama landslide? According to the most recent Associated Press-GfK poll, Barack Obama is leading or tied with John McCain in eight key states: Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. This poll also showed Obama winning in states among early voters. Furthermore, “the polling shows Obama holding solid leads in Ohio (seven percentage points), Nevada (12 points), Colorado (9) and Virginia (seven), all red states won by Bush that collectively offer 47 electoral votes.” Based on these results, if Obama wins these four states or a magical combination of two or three of them with significant amount of electoral votes, he would almost certainly become president.

Barack Obama takes his final campaign plea to the airways. Tonight, Obama will go on national TV with a 30-minute infomercial about himself and his campaign. Even with the math beginning to add up on his side, many political strategists wonder if Obama’s infomercial could backfire on him.

And just a day before Obama’s video, CNN’s Campbell Brown reminds the American public that Obama reneged on his campaign finance promise. Obama’s decision to not take public financing allowed him to raise more than $600 million dollars (more than Bush & Kerry raised in 2004) so far, and buy 30 minutes of airtime for his infomercial on five different networks.

Although the presidential race has not been decided, a group of conservatives are discussing the political impact of Gov. Sarah Palin. If McCain and Palin win, she puts social conservatism in the White House. If the Republican ticket loses, she will be a potential presidential candidate in 2012 and leader of the social conservative movement. Is Palin the future of the Republican Party?

Perhaps showing she can strut her own stuff and agenda, Republican vice presidential candidate Palin is in Toledo, Ohio Wednesday speaking on her favorite topic, energy. Palin has called for a “clean break” from the Bush Administration’s energy policies, which she says are too dependent on foreign oil.

And in money news, the Fed is expected to cut the key interest rate by a half-point to help combat the worst financial crisis in 70 years and keep the country out of a deep recession. If the slash happens, the federal funds rate would be lowered to 1 percent. This possible interest rate cut caused European stock markets to trade mostly higher on Wednesday. And the U.S. stock market was slightly higher Wednesday after “one of the biggest single-session gains in history” on Tuesday.

Some good news: gas prices continue to fall. For the past 42 days, gas has steadily fallen to a 3-year low. Gas hasn’t been this low since Aug. 18. 2005.

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2008 Environmental Scorecard Reveals Obama and McCain’s Dismal Greenie Voting Record

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

Last Friday, the League of Conservation Voters released their 2008 annual environmental scorecard, which shows how Congressional members voted on key energy and environmental issues. Both presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, both scored low ratings on this report.

Politico reported that Sen. Barack Obama only voted pro-environment 18 percent of the time in 2008, dropping considerably from its 67% percent rating last year. Sen. John McCain scored a dismal zero because he missed every environmental vote (note: no vote = negative vote). No surprise to many greenies, this is Mac’s second year with the league’s lowest ratings.

(more…)

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