Ethanol and biodiesel industry groups reacted quite differently to EPA’s decision to extend public comment period on the Renewable Fuel Standard.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday said it was extending the comment period on a draft rule that aims to cut the greenhouse gases emitted by biofuels. The proposed changes to the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard, known as RFS-2, are an attempt to make the production of corn-based ethanol more efficient and increase the output of advanced biofuels.

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“I believe in climate change for a very important reason,” said Colbert during his show last night, “so I can market the new Colbert Report Green. It’s just like the regular Colbert Report except we reduce emissions by jumping on the bandwagon.” Watch it:

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Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Senator Harry Reid announce plans to fast-track commercial-scale solar power development on public lands.

In a plan announced on Tuesday, federal agencies will work with western leaders to designate tracts of U.S. public lands in the West as prime zones for utility-scale solar energy development; fund environmental studies; open new solar energy permitting offices, and; speed reviews of industry proposals.

Under the zoning portion of the initiative, 24 tracts of Bureau of Land Management land located in six western states, known as Solar Energy Study Areas, would be evaluated for their environmental and resource suitability for commercial-scale solar energy production. Those areas selected would be available for projects capable of producing 10 or more megawatts of electricity. The Solar Energy Study Areas (maps) located in Nevada, Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah encompass about 670,000 acres.

Speaking alongside Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Secretary Salazar vowed to have 13 “commercial-scale” solar projects under construction by the end of 2010. He set a goal of producing a total of 100,000 megawatts of solar electricity.

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According the survey, more than three quarters of African Americans would back federal policy action on climate change. Conducted by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, that survey found that a majority of African Americans (54 percent) characterize global warming as a major problem, with another 24 percent thinking it a moderate problem, while 81 percent believe that the federal government should take strong action to deal with global warming. The poll also found strong support (72 percent) among African Americans for legislative action that would mandate the U.S. to begin achieving the goals of the Kyoto treaty on climate change.

On balance, the survey found that while African Americans do not believe dealing with global warming will be cost-free, they do believe that not dealing with global warming will be more costly, and that a clean energy economy represents a better future.

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‘Former Clinton adviser’ clings to his 15 minutes

Apparently Fox News tele-pundit and GOP cheerleader, Dick Morris, thinks the only way people will consider him relevant is if he tells everyone that he was once an adviser to President Bill Clinton. What Morris—or anyone introducing him at Fox News—fails to mention, is the reason his stint as a top Clinton adviser ended so abruptly; he was involved with a D.C. prostitute and even (allegedly) let her listen-in on private conversations he was having with President Clinton.

I am not denying that Morris at one time held a very important position and had a tremendous amount of influence. Rather, I am suggesting that Mr. Morris should stick to what he knows best; bashing Bill and Hillary Clinton. In stead, Morris has now transposed his hatred of the Clintons and his apparent need for retribution onto President Obama, whom he attacks in his new book, Catastrophe (a book that is being sold at Amazon for almost half-off its cover price just one week after being published).

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Invoking a custom of the House which allows party leaders as much time as they should need to discuss a bill or amendment, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) wrapped-up the Republican Party’s case in opposition to the Waxman-Markey climate bill by busting-out a filibuster, of sorts; poring through an amendment to the bill that was delivered late the night before.

Repeatedly highlighting the fact that it was submitted at 3:09 A.M., Boehner read aloud portions of what he called, “Speaker Pelosi’s National Energy Tax”, often pulling bits and pieces completely out of context to launch into the Republican talking points about how the bill will kill the American economy.

When asked why he read portions of the cap-and-trade bill on the floor Friday night, Boehner told The Hill, “Hey, people deserve to know what’s in this pile of sh*t.”

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Invoking the now-familiar messages heard throughout both his campaign and much of his presidency, like growing new jobs, moving off foreign sources of energy and building a clean energy economy, President Obama implored the U.S. Senate to move forward with a version of the Waxman-Markey climate bill passed by the House of Representatives on Friday.

“My call to every senator, as well as to every American, is this,” Mr. Obama said in his weekly address, “We cannot be afraid of the future. And we must not be prisoners of the past. Don’t believe the misinformation out there that suggests there is somehow a contradiction between investing in clean energy and economic growth.”

Mr. Obama focused on the passage of Waxman-Markey in his address despite reportedly having already recorded an address focusing on health care legislation. Watch it:

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Chipotle Mexican Grill is once again breaking from the fast-food model.

The Denver-based chain known for its clean flavors and burly burritos is pledging to use a set amount of local produce at each of its more than 730 restaurants around the country — when produce is in season.

This summer, Chipotle is purchasing twenty-five percent of at least one produce item for each of its stores from small and midsize farms situated within 200 miles of the store.

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The ad, relying simply on the words of the President, stands in stark contrast to the fear-laden ad released on Monday by the Newt Gingrich-led and billionaire-sponsored American Solutions for Winning the Future.

“The President’s voice is the most powerful, but he is only one of the millions of Americans who want to move to a 21st Century sources of clean, American energy,” LCV President Gene Karpinski said in a release. “In 30 years in Washington, the coalition that has formed in support of this bill is one of the most powerful I’ve ever seen because the vote in question is the most critical we’ve ever faced.”

With all signs pointing to a Friday vote in the House of Representatives on the Waxman-Markey climate bill, the right-wing political action committee behind the “Drill here, drill now, pay less” campaign of last summer, yesterday launched a last-ditch effort to block climate change legislation by scaring the crap out of you.

The ad, produced by the group American Solutions for Winning the Future, urges you to contact your Representative to tell them how scared you are of the devastating economic impacts of climate and energy legislation. The new commercial was released on the heals of a Congressional Budget Office report that found the annual cost of the Waxman-Markey climate bill would be an average of $175 per household — far less than previous GOP cost estimates.

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Led by former Republican Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, American Solutions for Winning the Future is no garden variety political organization. Financed by a host of high-profile billionaire-backers including Casino Kingpin and third richest person in America, Sheldon Adelson; co-founder of PayPal and staunch libertarian Peter Thiel; Cincinatti businessman and second-biggest contributor to the GOP, Dick Farmer, and; Texas textile magnate and patron of right-wing causes for almost 50 years, Roger Milliken, the organization has emerged as one of the most powerful and, perhaps, reactionary PACs on the American political landscape.

With Speaker Nancy Pelosi likely bringing climate change legislation to the House for a floor vote later this week, a newly-released report by the Congressional Budget Office found that the per-household cost of The American Clean Energy and Security Act was far lower than previously estimated costs.

According to the report, released late Friday afternoon, the annual cost of the Waxman-Markey climate change bill would be an estimated $175 per American household. In addition to the project low cost of Waxman-Markey, the CBO report also suggests the bill would achieve emissions reductions of approximately 17% below 1990 levels by 2020.

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As Congress engages in the major debates surrounding climate and energy legislation, a broad coalition of consumer, economic and environmental advocacy groups has published a report on the substantial consumer savings that stronger energy efficiency and renewable energy standards would bring.

Published by the Consumer Federation of America, Environment America, Energy Future Coalition and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, the report (pdf) indicates that studies of the technical potential for easily implemented efficiency improvements show efficiency could lower demand by as much as 30 percent in states from all regions of the U.S. at costs well below the current cost of electricity.

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Manchester, Tennessee- The first day of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, a day which has traditionally been a day of travel and arrival for most festival attendees, greeted an estimated crowd of seventy-five thousand music fans from around the world with some good old fashioned southern rainshowers. And this wasn’t a light rain, by any definition. The rain, which began shortly after the four-day festival’s first performances, didn’t dampen the mood of the smiling festivarians, but it didn’t help the speed with which people were able to enter the festival grounds and set up their encampments.

The elements may have slowed the entrance for many, but delays were nothing like those in years past. In 2002, for example, at the inaugural Bonnaroo, it took this author about 18 hours to cover the last 45 miles!

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In just seven years the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival has emerged as the premier music festival in the United States, if not the world. With the biggest names in music from genres across the musical spectrum taking to thirteen stages and providing festival-goers with four days of good music, danceable beats and pleasing melodies, this year’s Bonnaroo, from June 11-14 in Manchester, Tennessee will be no different from the last seven.

But in addition to the mountains of music and non-musical activities, the festival, which last year was named one of eighteen music festivals worldwide to receive the Greener Festival award, added several new green dimensions to its already impressive greening efforts.

Like the much newer Rothbury Festival up in Michigan, festival organizers at Bonnaroo have been hard at work finding new ways to green the festival scene and engage fans in discussions, seminars and educational programs about important sustainability topics and the pressing environmental issues of today. In addition to incorporating an environmental mission statement into every vendor contract, festival organizers have built upon past successful sustainability efforts and mixed in some new ones to give festival attendees a greener music festival experience.

Below are a few of the pre-festival green highlights, but stay tuned to Green Options for green updates, photos, interviews and reports from the ground at this year’s Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

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The first-ever report exclusively focused on the global human impact of climate change indicates that more than 300 million people are seriously affected by climate change at a total economic cost of $125 billion per year.

Earlier today, former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, President of the Global Humanitarian Forum, announced the results of a report on the human impact of climate change. The study, Human Impact Report: Climate Change – The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis, emphasizes the present impacts of a changing climate, pulling the debate away from a focus on “future generations.”

Speaking at a press conference in London, Mr. Annan said, “Climate change is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time, causing suffering to hundreds of millions of people worldwide. As this report shows, the first hit and worst affected are the world’s poorest groups, and yet they have done least to cause the problem.”

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Herbert and Huntsman don’t see eye to eye on climate change

Just two weeks after President Barack Obama’s choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, was replaced by new Kansas governor, Mark Parkinson — who quickly ended a nearly two-year standoff by granting an air permit for a new coal-fired power plant in the southwestern part of the state — another one of the President’s high-profile political appointees will be replaced as governor by a politician less concerned about the environment.

After President Obama tapped Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, a Republican, as the next U.S. Ambassador to China, some attention shifted to his likely replacement, Utah Lt. Governor Gary Herbert, and the direction the new governor plans on taking the state. While observers don’t expect any sudden policy reversals, Herbert’s position on the human-causes of global warming stands in striking opposition to his predecessor’s.

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Google’s plan to roll-out home energy monitoring systems took a step towards reality Tuesday when the company announced the first round of utility partners for its PowerMeter demand-side energy management software.

The pilot program for Google’s foray into smart grid and energy management infrastructure will be available to select customers at a group of eight utilities that have installed—or are in the process of installing—smart meters. With the move, Google will be making the company’s first significant play in energy-use data, an entirely new dimension of consumer data for the company.

By having real-time information about home energy usage on a desktop (running as a Google Gadget), those using the meter will be able to use their energy more efficiently, save money on their monthly bill, and be able to monitor/reduce household carbon emissions.

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When President Obama tapped Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as his choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services, groups fighting to maintain the precedent-setting decision to reject the permit for a new coal-fired power plant were rightly concerned the new governor would reverse the decision… and rightly so.

Just six days into his shortened term as governor of Kansas, Mark Parkinson ended a two-year stalemate between the State of Kansas and a group of power companies vying to expand a coal-fired power plant in southwestern Kansas. The case became the unlikely front in the legal/institutional battle over regulating carbon in the United States.

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New BioGreen water bottles are biodegradable, recyclable and reusable.

It is getting hard to keep track of all the containers you should and shouldn’t be eating and drinking out of, let alone what happens to the stuff when it gets thrown away or recycled. While the latest claims about stainless steel water bottles being generally better for you than plastic ones (some more dubious than others) are generally spot-on, you can’t squeeze stainless, and sometimes, you just gotta squeeze.

Filling that niche is a new BioGreen water bottles made by California Springs Water Bottles.

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