Green Options

The Environmental Protection Agency has granted California’s waiver request that will allow the state to enforce strict greenhouse gas emissions standards on cars beginning with the present model year. California first applied for the waiver in 2005, but was denied several years later. Now, the EPA grants the waiver based on the need for California to improve its air pollution conditions.

Yesterday was a big day for the biofuels industry. President Obama issued a presidential directive to the USDA to expand access for biofuels that includes $800 million to fuel biofuels research. The purpose of the directive, in part, is to aggressively accelerate the investment and production of biofuels. What the directive does not do, is set dollars aside to help improve the infrastructure for higher ethanol blends including E85 although it encourages production of more flex-fuel vehicles.

This announcement appears to be serious, at least as serious as a government proclamation can really be– they created another committee to oversee that the presidential directive. The USDA, EPA and DOE will form a Biofuels Interagency Working Group with a mission to increase energy independence in part through the development of the nation’s first comprehensive biofuels market development program.

Okay, it’s Earth Day and everything, so maybe I’m imagining things, but it certainly feels like the renewable energy/carbon emissions/let’s-fix-global-warming conversation has picked up steam dramatically in the last couple of weeks. I thought it might be nice to take a step back and review where things stand in Washington and elsewhere.

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson is expected to sign a memo terminating the National Environmental Performance Track program, a voluntary “beyond compliance” partnership designed to enhance environmental policy effectiveness.

In a press conference today, Obama will announce the appointment of Lisa Jackson as Head of the EPA and Stephen Chu as Energy Secretary.

After 8 years of cronyism–that lead to the neglect and dismantling of a myriad of environmental protections–it’s going to seem weird to Mother Earth to actually feel protected.

the President-elect has appointement his Energy and Climate cabinet members: Steven Chu as Secretary of Energy, Carol Browner as “Energy Czar,” Lisa Jackson as Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Nancy Sutley as the head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Obama has already selected many former rivals, such as Hilary Clinton, for his cabinet, but the most important appointee he will make is the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.