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Veterans to be trained for green jobs under U.S. program

Thursday, July 2, 2009

nationwide Wednesday to receive a share of $7.5 million to train veterans for green jobs.

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis announced the agency grants to provide about 3,000 veterans nationwide with training and employment in green jobs. In California, the Long Beach site will get $500,000 to train about 100 veterans in Los Angeles County and find work for them. An additional $300,000 will aid 75 veterans in the San Francisco Bay Area. (link)

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Ex-Wall Street bankers launch clean-tech advisory firm

Thursday, July 2, 2009

 team of former Wall Street bankers have launched a financial advisory firm focused on the alternative energy and clean technology (clean-tech) sectors.

Headed by Jeffrey McDermott, former joint global head of investment banking at UBS Investment Bank, Greentech Capital Advisors will advise on project finance, mergers and acquisitions, restructurings and private placements.

“For these companies to thrive, and for America to transition to a cleaner and more energy efficient economy, there is a need for a dedicated team of experienced bankers,” McDermott said. “Alternative energy and clean-tech companies need bankers with deep industry knowledge, a wide array of product skills, and relationships with large industrial, power and utility companies who are the ultimate customers, strategic partners and consolidators for these companies.”

McDermott is joined at the New York City-based firm by former members of Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Citi, among others. These include Robert Schultz as COO, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley Fund Services; Timothy Vincent, formerly a managing director at Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas; and Craig Wellen, formerly a senior banker at Citi.

Richard Kauffman, CEO of renewable energy and energy efficiency industry investor Good Energies, said: “After many years, the renewable energy sector is finally growing up. The sector needs capital and good advice.” (link)

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Ideology Over Reason: Conservative activists wage war on Republicans who voted for climate bill

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Republican House members who provided the margin of victory in last week’s narrow passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act are taking heat from the right for their votes.

Just eight GOP lawmakers voted in favor of the measure: Mary Bono Mack (Calif.), Mike Castle (Del.), Frank LoBiondo (N.J.), John McHugh (N.Y.), Dave Reichert (Wash.), Chris Smith (N.J), Leonard Lance (N.J), and Mark Kirk (Ill.). Without those votes, the measure would have failed.

Conservative pundits have taken to calling them the “Elite Eight” (with “elite” serving as code for aloof and deaf to the man on the street) or “Cap-and-traitors.” Several of the eight are being told they may face primary challenges next year from more conservative candidates.

“Wanted in the United States of American: For selling out taxpayers,” reads a Photoshopped image on the blog of conservative opinion writer Michelle Malkin. It includes faux mug-shots of all eight, and decries the bill as “cap-and-tax.”

“Congrats, congresspeople, you helped the Democrats pass a junk science-based, massive national energy tax,” Malkin wrote. “Headed to Disney World now?”

Conservative television host Glenn Beck has promoted the use of the phrase “cap-and-traitors” to describe the pro-ACES Republicans, as has Human Events.

The masterminds behind the conservative “tea parties” earlier this year have also created a website, www.capandtr8tors.com, calling on the eight to change their vote when the bill comes back to the House for a final vote, or risk a primary challenge from the right. “They have 5 Days from the time of their vote to change them, or we will work to vote them out of office,” the site threatens. The authors are also using the #capandtr8tors tag on Twitter to track conversation about this topic (which I suggest following if you want some insight into how the other side thinks). (link)

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Senate May Pass U.S. Climate Bill, Reject Treaty, Kerry Says

Thursday, July 2, 2009

The U.S. Senate may pass legislation to slow climate change and then fail to approve a global treaty that commits nations to do so, Senator John Kerry said.

Kerry, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, will be a leader in Senate efforts to place the first domestic curbs on greenhouse gases, after the House approved a measure last week. Even if a Senate bill passes, there may not be enough support to ratify an international accord incorporating the U.S. commitments, the Massachusetts Democrat said in an interview.

A possible Senate rejection poses a threat to the 192- nation effort to forge an agreement, which scientists say can help slow warming that’s raising sea levels and changing rainfall patterns globally.

“We are definitely going to make more progress if there is a strong international agreement that the U.S. is a party to,” said Nigel Purvis, who in the 1990s worked as a U.S. negotiator on the Kyoto climate treaty that the U.S. didn’t ratify. Passing domestic climate-change legislation remains the most crucial step, Purvis said.

Senate ratification of a treaty would require 67 votes, compared with 60 for legislation.

“Sixty-seven votes is a big target here,” Kerry said last week, before Congress left for a one-week break. “We may be able to pass something that puts America on track to accomplish our set of goals. But we may pass it with 60 votes, or 61 or whatever, and that’s not 67.”  (link)

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Obama’s climate leadership faces test at G8 forum

Thursday, July 2, 2009

U.S. President Barack Obama, buoyed by a domestic victory on climate policy, faces his first foreign test on the issue next week at a forum that could boost the chances of reaching a U.N. global warming pact this year.

Obama, who has pledged U.S. leadership in the fight against climate change, chairs a meeting of the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters at the G8 summit in Italy on July 9.
Known as the Major Economies Forum, the grouping includes 17 nations that account for roughly 75 percent of the world’s emissions, making any agreement from its leaders a potential blueprint for U.N. talks in Copenhagen in December.
Meetings of the forum, which Obama relaunched earlier this year, have so far failed to achieve major breakthroughs.
Developing countries want their industrial counterparts to reduce emissions by 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, while rich nations want developing states to commit to boosting their economies in an environmentally friendly way.
Those debates and others will be featured at the Italy meeting, the first at a heads of state and government level, and all eyes will be on Obama, whose climate initiatives European leaders have lauded while privately pressing him for more. (link)
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EU: China, India must make emissions cuts

Thursday, July 2, 2009

The chances of concluding a new global climate change pact remain dim unless China, India and Brazil make significant cuts in carbon dioxide emissions as well a senior Swedish climate change official said Thursday.

Lars-Erik Liljelund, special climate change adviser to the Swedish government, said cuts from richer countries in the 27-nation bloc or planned cuts in the United States will not be enough to meet aims to cut at least 25 percent of emission from 1990 levels.

“The problem at the moment is that if you take the contributions made so far by the United States, the European Union and Japan then we don’t come up to that minus 25 percent,” he told reporters. He said cuts from those richer countries and regions would only reach two-thirds of that minimum target.

“We will have serious problems if China, India, South Africa and Brazil” also do not pitch in, said Liljelund. “We are entering a climate crisis.”

Those countries were exempt under the 1997 Kyoto protocol climate change pact which runs out in 2012. (link)

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Nice Commercial, But Where’s The Beef?: BP shuts alternative energy HQ

Thursday, July 2, 2009

BP has shut down its alternative energy headquarters in London, accepted the resignation of its clean energy boss and imposed budget cuts in moves likely to be seen by environmental critics as further signs of the oil group moving “back to petroleum”.

But Tony Hayward, the group’s chief executive, said BP remained as committed as ever to exploring new energy sources and the non-oil division would benefit from the extra focus of being brought back in house.

BP Alternative Energy was given its own headquarters in County Hall opposite the Houses of Parliament two years ago and its managing director, Vivienne Cox, oversaw a small division of 80 staff concentrating on wind and solar power.

But the 49-year-old Cox – BP’s most senior female executive, who previously ran renewables as part of a larger gas and power division now dismantled by Hayward – is standing down tomorrow. (link)

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Australia to launch carbon labels in 2010

Thursday, July 2, 2009

A carbon reduction labeling scheme will be launched in Australia next year, informing shoppers of the overall carbon footprint of products.

Australian environmental group Planet Ark has this week announced it is to partner with the UK government-backed Carbon Trust to set up its Carbon Reduction Label program Down Under.

Under the scheme, products on store shelves will display the amount of carbon dioxide emissions generated from their manufacture through to disposal. They also have to commit to reducing the product’s carbon footprint on a year-by-year basis, if they want to continue to carry the label.

The Carbon Trust launched the programme in the UK in 2007, and now has more than 60 companies carrying the label on some or all of their products.

In total, 2,500 different products now display the label ranging from fruit juice to paving stones. A number of high-profile brands have adopted the labelling system including Walkers potato crisps, Tropicana juice and Innocent Smoothies. Meanwhile, supermarket giant Tesco has vowed to roll out the label across all its own-brand products. (link)

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U.S. Department of Energy Approves 16 State Energy Spending Plans as Part of Stimulus Push, Long-Range Investment

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

The U.S. Department of Energy has approved 16 State Energy Program spending plans authorized as part of the federal economic stimulus package signed into law in February. With the approval of these plans, 16 of the nation’s State Energy Offices are receiving $508 million, representing 50% of full program funding. Remaining funding will come as states implement their programs and deliver results.

The 16 state plans approved so far include: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and Washington.

DOE continues to review State Energy Program spending plans from 39 other states and U.S. territories. Action on the plans is expected by the end of July.

These energy stimulus plans fulfill state obligations under the federal State Energy Program, one of a number of stimulus-funded programs operated by the 56 State and Territory Energy Offices. Total stimulus funding for the State Energy Program is $3.1 billion.

The State Energy Program is a key part of the Obama Administration’s national strategy to support green job growth, while making an historic investment in economically viable clean energy projects.

“This funding will provide an important boost for state economies, help put Americans back to work, and move us toward energy independence,” said DOE Secretary Steven Chu. “It reflects our commitment to support innovative state and local strategies to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy while insisting that taxpayer dollars be spent responsibly.”

To learn more about funding plans and programs in each state, contact specific State Energy Offices. A complete list of State Energy Offices is accessible at http://naseo.org/members/states.  (link)

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Senate Climate Bill Hinges on Moderate Democrats

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

The fate of global warming legislation in the Senate may hang on the votes of 19 Democrats who have varying reasons for worrying about its political implications:

Rust Belters Democrats from Ohio and Michigan had the hardest time supporting the House climate bill, fearing that the cap on fossil fuel emissions could hurt their home state auto and manufacturing industries. Senators from those states have the same fears.

Sherrod Brown, Ohio - Carl Levin, Mich. - Debbie Stabenow, Mich.

Midwest and Farm Staters As in the House, where members of the Agriculture Committee threatened to sink the bill, farm state lawmakers fear that a cap-and-trade measure will raise the price of fossil fuels and hurt small farms. They are also pushing for farms to profit by getting a greater share of credits for actions such as planting of trees that offset carbon emissions. A key senator to watch will by North Dakotan Byron L. Dorgan, who is up for re-election in 2010 and represents a farm state that relies heavily on coal. In the House, North Dakota Democrat Earl Pomeroy, an at-large member who faces the same constituent pressures as a senator, voted against the bill.

Evan Bayh, Ind. - Kent Conrad, N.D. - Byron L. Dorgan, N.D. - Claire McCaskill, Mo. - Jon Tester, Mont. - Ben Nelson, Neb.

Coal Staters While some studies show that a cap-and-trade program could create as many as 750,000 new jobs in clean energy industries, polluting industries such as coal could be hit hard, and lawmakers from coal-mining states such as Pennsylvania and West Virginia could have the toughest time supporting the measure. In the House, a key coal-state Democrat - Nick J. Rahall II of West Virginia, who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee - voted against the bill, as did Pennsylvania Democrats from coal mining districts.

Bob Casey, Penn. - Arlen Specter, Pa. - John D. Rockefeller IV, W. Va. - Robert C. Byrd, W.Va.

Southeasterners Southeasterners object to a renewable power standard in the House bill that would require up to 20 percent of the nation’s electricity come from renewable sources such as wind as solar by 2020. States in the southeast with limited wind and solar resources say that could unfairly penalize them. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas lobbied hard to lower the renewable requirement in Senate draft energy legislation to only 15 percent. The Senate energy bill is likely to be merged with a global warming bill, and any effort to restore a stronger renewable standard could lose hard-won support from southeasterners.

Blanche Lincoln, Ark. - Mark Pryor, Ark. - Jim Webb, Va. - Mark Warner, Va. - Kay Hagan, N.C.

Freshmen Freshmen who will face tight 2010 election races, such as recently appointed Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand of New York, fear that Republicans could target them for a “yes” vote on the climate bill. Alaskan Mark Begich, who last year won office in a traditionally Republican state helped in part by the legal troubles of Republican Ted Stevens, could get slammed at home for any vote perceived to hurt the oil industry, which underpins his state’s economy. (link)

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