President Obama called on the federal government, the nation’s largest energy consumer, to its increase energy efficiency and to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 28 percent by 2020. According to the White House if the targets are met they “would reduce federal energy consumption by the equivalent of 646 trillion BTUs, equal to 205 million barrels of oil, and taking 17 million cars off the road for one year, according to a statement from the White House press office. That would save $8 billion to $11 billion in energy costs …
Over 2,500 business leaders are flying in from around the world on carbon-spewing planes to the Swiss ski resort Davos for the World Economic Forum (WEF). If they were planning on taking a sports utility vehicle (SUV) or a limousine from the airport to the resort, they better think again: Conference organisers have asked the business elite to leave their gas-guzzling limousines and SUVs, the traditional mode of transport for any self-respecting banker, at home. However, those who insist on turning up in their ostentatious cars will not be banned …
On the campaign trail Barack Obama promised if he were elected president, he would create 5 million “green collar” jobs. Today President Obama announced $2.3 billion in tax credits for a clean energy economy will ostensibly create 17,000 jobs. “Building a robust clean energy sector is how we will create the jobs of the future,” he said in a speech this afternoon. Make no mistake; this government-run plan will kill more jobs than it aims to create. There are a number of serious problems with the goal to create green …
Green energy investments are coming from every direction. Whether it is the stimulus package or the cap and trade bills proposed in Congress, the government is eager to invest taxpayer dollars in renewable energy technology. As Americans become desensitized to the copious amounts of money the government is spending, clean energy investments are growing from millions to billions. And companies are chomping at the bit: Last month, for example, President Barack Obama announced $3.4 billion in government-stimulus grants for power-grid projects. About one-third of the recipients are GE customers. GE …
Spain has spent nearly $30 billion on its green energy economy; each one of these green jobs cost the Spanish government on average $855,000, but the return on investment hasn’t been great. The country’s unemployment rate is not decreasing but rapidly increasing and is now at 19.3%, which is one of the highest in the developed world. In fact, the government’s heavy investments in the solar industry created a bubble than did more to harm to the solar industry than helping it: Though wind power remains the dominant alternative energy …
This morning, President Obama delivered his climate change speech at a United Nations Summit on Climate Change. Stressing the need for urgent action, Obama told the Assembly that the United States, in his first eight months as President, is becoming a leader in the war against a warming planet. Obama began his speech by declaring that the time to act is now: That so many of us are here today is a recognition that the threat from climate change is serious, it is urgent, and it is growing. Our generation’s response …
When news broke that self-proclaimed communist and former Obama adminstration Green Jobs Czar Van Jones signed a 9/11 truther petition in 2004, we wrote: Green Jobs Czar is the perfect job for a 9/11 truther. Just as Popular Mechanics has debunked all of the crazy 9/11 truther claims, research both here in the U.S., and abroad, has repeatedly demonstrated that subsidizing high cost renewable energies destroys more jobs than it creates. Then, this weekend on Meet the Press, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman defended Jones, calling the internet “an open …
Despite the growing rhetoric in favor of affordable and clean energy in the United States, the regulatory trend is moving in the opposite direction. A recent article from Platts emphasizes the increasing regulatory costs for the nuclear industry: “Benjamin Fowke, Xcel’s CFO, said in a second-quarter earnings conference call in late July that nuclear operating costs “probably” will continue to grow as US Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulatory fees and security requirements increase. “We are seeing — and it is not just this year, it has been over several years now …
From E&E News: “House Science and Technology Committee yesterday approved legislation to establish a social and behavioral sciences research program at the Energy Department. The Science Committee also approved three bills to focus DOE research on energy efficiency and advanced energy technologies through programs in advanced vehicle technologies, wind energy and natural gas turbines. Rep. Brian Baird’s (D-Wash.) H.R. 3247, would authorize $10 million annually over six years to better understand why people make certain decisions about energy technologies in an effort to spur greater market adoption, he said.”
In delivering his speech on the Senate floor today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall, D-N.M is introducing a plan for even more green energy and more green jobs – on top of the stimulus package. The plan? According a release from U.S. Senator Tom Udall’s office, Tom continued his fight to enact a federal Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) into law by introducing legislation that would require utilities to generate 25 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources by 2025. The bill, Udall’s first since being elected …
