It’s Getting Hot In Here

Cross-posted from: The Dernogalizer

So I get an e-mail from the Baltimore Building and Construction Trades Council this morning with the title “Please Help Maryland Save 5,000 Clean Energy Jobs”.  Intrigued, and thinking this might have something to do about Maryland investing it’s RGGI money into energy efficiency, or accelerating solar standards, I open it.  Needless to say, I’m surprised to see that natural gas is passing for clean energy jobs these days.  Clean is all relative in this game.  Natural gas is cleaner than coal.  Oil is cleaner than tar sands oil or shale oil.  Yet I think the notion of calling conventional oil “clean energy” would be utterly ridiculous. Continue reading ‘The Baltimore Building and Construction Trades Council is Lying to Maryland’

As this Grist article recently stated  “Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE,  has taken off like wildfire since the concept was first introduced in Berkeley, Calif. in October ‘07. PACE allows private property owners to pay for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects through an addition to their property tax bill, overcoming the high upfront costs that prevent most property owners from investing in such retrofits.”

Numerous states around the country have adopted legislative changes that allow municipalities within them to set up these kind of clean energy loan programs that give out loans to residents and businesses, and collect the repayments over a considerable period of time through their property taxes.  My student group UMD for Clean Energy at the University of Maryland made this kind of a loan fund for energy efficiency a major election issue last fall in our local College Park city council elections.  With enthusiasm from the city council to establish such a program, we faced a setback when the state of Maryland did not adequately permit municipalities to do this.  Our focus turned to advocating for legislation in this Maryland legislative session that would allow us to create our own clean energy revolution in College Park.  An added positive is it would clear the way for other municipalities all around the state to do PACE as well. Continue reading ‘UMD for Clean Energy calls for Maryland to set the PACE’

Originally an op-ed in the University of Maryland newspaper Diamondback.

You might be surprised who just encouraged Catholics to go green for Lent: the Pope. Pope Benedict XVI has been called “the green Pope” because of his efforts to make the Vatican carbon neutral and his use of religious doctrine to advocate for humanity’s moral responsibility to care for the planet. In 2008, one of the new sins announced by the Roman Catholic Church was “polluting the environment.”

It’s important not to view the leadership of Pope Benedict on environmental issues as an anomaly in the religious community.  Despite the stereotype that environmental disputes such as climate change pit religious conservatives on one side versus godless liberals on the other, environmental stewardship is meteorically rising as a top issue in the religious community. Continue reading ‘Environmentalism and religion: The climate of faith’

I had an Op-Ed out today in The Diamondback on RE-ENERGYSE, a federal clean energy education initiative the Obama administration is proposing.

Clean energy education: RE-ENERGYSE America

As far as states go, this state is fairly ambitious when it comes to producing clean energy, creating green jobs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In 2009, Gov. Martin O’Malley approved a law mandating the state to reduce these emissions to 25 percent below 2006 levels by 2020. This can largely be achieved by reaching for low-hanging fruit, such as energy efficiency and deployment of existing low-carbon technologies. But what about after 2020? What about the other 75 percent? Continue reading ‘Clean energy education: RE-ENERGYSE America’

In case you haven’t heard, Facebook recently announced the development of its first data center in Prineville, Oregon, and instead of buying electricity from a clean source within the state, they’re going to mostly rely on coal electricity. Why? Continue reading ‘Facebook to run on Coal!?’

Yesterday, the hard fought for Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) stimulus grants were awarded to applicants around the country.  These were $1.5 billion worth of for innovative transportation ideas, and boy was there fierce competition.  Requests for funds were about 40 times the $1.5 billion available.  I’m pleased to say the local DC region benefited from one of these grants, including my college town of College Park.  We were awarded one of the largest grants for bus transit, which can be found on page 14 of the TIGER grant recipients list. Continue reading ‘Eye of the TIGER’

Bin Laden has attacked the US and industrialized nations for their greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, and calls for the wheels of the American economy to be brought to a halt to stop global warming.

This month is getting even better as it draws to a close!

As soon as I saw this, I figured the conservatives were going to have a field day, and it turns out they’ve stooped low enough to go beyond the usual absurdity of loose guilt by character association, to guilt by issue association. Apparently, if you believe that rising greenhouse gas emissions are causing dangerous global warming and must be reduced, then you’re in the same camp as a madman terrorist who shoots off rants in the form of tape recordings about all sorts of things. This is supposed to de-legitimize the argument that we should reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

A couple of points. Continue reading ‘Bin Laden joins the Climate Debate, Deniers Rejoice’

There’s a lot of chatter about what President Obama is going to say in his State of the Union address this Wednesday. There’s no doubt that President Obama’a agenda, along with that of the Democrats has taken a serious blow of recent with the loss in Massachusetts. Obama has had a much more fiery, populist tone to his speeches and remarks in the last week, and the two buzzwords I read him focusing on in his State of the Union speech is jobs creation, and policies for the middle class. While I’m sure there will be a nice paragraph or two dedicated to clean energy and green jobs, I think President Obama should make clean energy the centerpiece of his address.

It’s a great opportunity to correct the greatest blunder of the Democrats and Obama’s Presidency. Continue reading ‘The State of the Union: Clean Energy or Bust’

The impression I’d gotten from listening to the pundits talk about the Massachusetts Senate race is that the Democratic candidate Martha Coakley is a shallow choice for the left, and this is why many dissatisfied with the current state of affairs in the country are protesting by staying home on election day (Jan 19th). The race has become a dead heat, the most recent poll showing the Republican Scott Brown with a 4 point lead. A review of Coakley’s record and positions on energy and environmental issues makes clear she is as strong a candidate as any for the climate movement. Her plan is as solid as any I’ve seen. Continue reading ‘Earth to Massachusetts’

It’s got to be tough being Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid these days. His approval rating is 36% and he is trailing Republicans by 8 points for his re-election bid. He is getting absolutely shelled in the media, the right, and some of the left for his bonehead remarks about Barack Obama’s viability as an African American candidate for president. Joe Lieberman is likely the only Senator the progressive left is more frustrated with for the final state of the Senate health care bill next to Reid. Reid has to negotiate with the likes of Senators Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu for every piece of progressive legislation. He’s in danger of losing his Democratic super majority to a Republican in Massachusetts!? You know the dysfunctional Senate that progressives and climate activists have been railing against? Reid is in charge of that mess! Next to Obama, Reid has to bear the brunt of everyone’s frustrations and outbursts over the fact that the Senate screws everything up.

So why in the world should the environmental and climate community have this guy’s back right now? Because with all the crap Reid has on his plate, he has held his ground on two of our most important issues to this point. Continue reading ‘Now would be a great time for environmental groups and climate activists to thank Senator Harry Reid’