energy efficiency

Boulder, Colo., announced this week that the city is ready to become the first in United States to get smart grid technology up and running. The $100 million “SmartGridCity” is a project of Midwestern electricity supplier Xcel Energy and will provide real-time data on energy use for consumers and utilities with the goal of [...]

With President Obama playing a cameo role in a recurring TV ad sponsored by American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCE), you may be wondering just what the administration’s priorities are for energy innovation. Rest assured, under the stimulus bill passed by Congress, “clean coal” research will get less than a quarter as much federal [...]

President Obama has promised a multi-pronged approach to a greener future, but with legislation to reduce carbon emissions now on hold, energy efficiency measures have become the focus of the administration’s environmental efforts.
Following yesterday’s revelation that cap-and-trade legislation would not be included in the fiscal year 2010 budget, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Vice President [...]

This morning, Vice President Joe Biden and Energy Secretary Steven Chu rolled out an $8 billion weatherization program, which they hope will create 87,000 jobs, save energy and help low-income Americans pay their utility bills.
The plan has two components: the $5 billion Weatherization Assistance Program and the $3 billion State Energy Program. The former will [...]

Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag — who was as involved as anyone with the drafting of the budget outline President Obama rolled out this morning — just held a conference call with progressive media outlets and bloggers, and I took the opportunity to ask him about cap-and-trade in the budget.
He explained the [...]

My previous post reports on a UC Berkeley study showing how California’s environmental policies have boosted that state’s economy.
The National Conference of State Legislatures, in conjunction with the University of Maryland and the Center for Integrative Environmental Research, is releasing reports that also show that economic and environmental interests are aligning in other states.

Members of industry have long contended that environmental protections are incompatible with economic growth. That was one reason the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act didn’t get passed this year.
But a new economic study released today crunches some numbers and finds that environmental and economic interests are often aligned.