By Zachary Shahan •
January 31, 2010
Hollywood, as a whole, is one of the most powerful entities (can I call it that?) in the world. Some of its biggest stars are getting involved in the politics of climate and clean energy now.
A great new video on the web featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Felicity Huffman, Forest Whitaker, Ed Norton, Justin Long, and others nails the key points of climate and energy legislation with the most popular language.
One of the stars even decides to drop his pants because of the heat (climate change).
By Zachary Shahan •
January 31, 2010
Probably the biggest news piece this week was Obama’s State of the Union address. David Roberts of grist seemed to hate it. Whereas often like-minded and equally critical Joe Romm of Climate Progress actually seemed to love it.
Dan Harding of CalFinder had mixed reactions, first “feeling passion stir deep within [him] and tingles of inspiration buzz beneath [his] skin,” then thinking that “[Obama's] speeches have grown more and more centrist.”
Immediately after reading those first two reviews (David and Joe’s), the idea for this article came to my mind. Who’s more powerful than the President of the United States of America?
By Susan Kraemer •
January 26, 2010
If the USA was smart, we would make a massive switch to renewable energy now, while we still can. By 2012 we could be out of luck.
By Zachary Shahan •
January 24, 2010
That takes my breath away. In one of the biggest renewable energy deals in the history of the world, a Korean consortium led by Samsung* has agreed to build 2,500 megawatts of wind and solar power capacity in the Canadian province of Ontario.
Samsung C&T and the Ontario government signed the deal on Thursday, January 21st. The agreement will bring thousands of jobs and clean energy for more than half a million homes to Ontario.
Building off of this new deal, Korean trade officials plan to make Ontario their base of operations for all of North American.
By Zachary Shahan •
January 12, 2010
Email may be the norm of the day for expressing your opinion on political issues, but the phone still has its place. The organization 1Sky is hosting a national call-in day to the Senate — TODAY — to help push for good clean energy and climate legislation.
The national call-in event has already been picked up by the New York Times, so hopefully it will be quite successful.
We’ve got quite a few readers on this site, and I think that most of you are strong advocates of clean energy and good climate legislation. You can help 1Sky and the world by making this day one for Senators to remember.
1Sky provides you with a very quick and easy system for calling using their toll-free number. You call your Senators for free, don’t even have to find their phone numbers, and have a little guide with some talking points, or you are free to us your own.
By Zachary Shahan •
January 10, 2010
Transportation is one of the biggest parts of our lives, whether we think about it or not. How will 2010 help shape the future of transportation in the US? How should it do so?
And, more specifically, what is going on in government on this matter? With an expired (in September of 2009) and extended and extended and extended and extended (yes, four times) 6-year transportation bill, what is coming in 2010?
The following discussion goes into my own thoughts on some of the major issues with the help of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ (AASHTO’s) “Top Ten Transportation Topics” list and other stories.
By Susan Kraemer •
December 2, 2009
In a move sure to anger the Let’s-do-nothing-about-climate-change-till-China-and-India-do crowd, President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India launched a secret Green Partnership to do something about climate change.
The secret arrangement was made while the President was on his failed Asian trip resulting in pre-Copenhagen announcements from China and India; of 40% cuts, and 20% cuts respectively, in carbon emissions. (His secret Red partnership with China is another story)
India and the US will launch partly publicly-funded joint R&D centers in both countries, to accelerate technologies in the renewable energy innovations needed to reduce carbon emissions in both greenhouse gas giants; India and the US.
By Dave Levitan •
October 31, 2009
The seven Republican members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will boycott next Tuesday’s planned markup of the Kerry-Boxer climate legislation. Ah yes, the “screw you guys, I’m going home” tactic. How productive.
By Timothy B. Hurst •
October 28, 2009
Only 2% of companies are covered by the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, but that 2% represents 70% of US emissions, says Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), the bill’s co-sponsor.
By Andrew Williams •
October 19, 2009
In an unexpected U-turn, the U.S. Senate has agreed to continue to back research for the next generation of hydrogen cars - funding that the Obama administration had earlier proposed to cut.
The move came last Thursday as Senate members voted to commit $187 million to hydrogen research, almost as much as was promised before the indecision.
By Zachary Shahan •
October 4, 2009
Nike just announced that it is leaving its position on the US Chamber of Commerce board of directors because of the business organization’s opposition to climate action.
Nike doesn’t beat around the bush on why it is leaving the board.
