How the West is Winning Against Coal

by Mary Anne Hitt

The past month across the western U.S. has been filled with victories against coal:

--After a two year campaign, we locked down the permanent retirement of the Oregon Boardman plant (600-megawatts of dirty coal power) by no later than 2020, and we continue to push for earlier date.

--Los Angeles recently released a draft plan for the nation's largest municipal utility that gets out of one of the dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the country - the Navajo Generating Station in Arizona (though the plan still needs a little work [PDF]).

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Students Call for Clean Energy, Thank EPA

by Mary Anne Hitt

This post was co-written by Kim Teplitzky of the Sierra Student Coalition.

Yesterday, despite some fierce weather in our nation's capital, members of the Sierra Student Coalition hung bright, colorful pinwheels on Capitol Hill and in front of the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters. (Check out photos here)

The pinwheels came from thousands of college students across the U.S., all asking for clean energy and thanking EPA for its hard work over 40 years (Happy birthday, EPA!).

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Will we face "our Sputnik moment"?

by A Siegel

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu just finished a speech at the National Press Club entitled: Is the Energy Race our new "Sputnik" moment?

Chu outlined ways in which the United States either has already ceded or is ceding leadership when it comes to clean energy -- in technology, manufacturing, and deployment.

Secretary Chu seeks to lay out a call to arms, as it may be, for Americans (and, more importantly, the political elite) to recognize that we either decide to invest for the long term in clean energy innovation or we risk abandoning future prosperity to others.

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Weekly Mulch: For Cancun Climate Summit, Activists Consider the Long View

by The Media Consortium

by Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium Blogger

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It’s Not the Climate Bill, Stupid

by Heather TaylorMiesle NRDC Action Fund

The role of federal climate legislation in the mid-term Congressional elections, to paraphrase Mark Twain, is being greatly exaggerated. For instance, Politico was quick to blame last year’s vote on the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) for the defeat of House Democrats.

In reality, 160 Democratic representatives who voted for the House climate bill won their elections yesterday. (This does not include four races that are still too close to call as of this writing.) On the other hand, 19 of 34 representatives who voted against the bill went down in defeat. (This excludes two races that were not decided as of this writing.)

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Wednesday eKos Earthship

by eKos

Welcome to the eKos Earthship, your one-stop-shop for green diaries and series.

Beneath the fold you will find news and notes, community announcements, and our eco-diary roundup.

Peruse the eKos Library to find previously listed diaries. You can also follow eKos on Twitter.

Tonight's editor: LokiMom

All views expressed by today's editor do not necessarily represent those of eKos or eKos listed diarists.

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More Like an Oil Spill Than a Landslide

by Michael Brune

The 2010 election was the year of The Empire Strikes Back. Big Oil, the coal industry, and corporate polluters are desperate to stop the momentum toward clean energy that's been building for years. You can't stop the construction of 139 coal-fired power plants, implement the first-ever fuel-economy standards for medium and heavy trucks, or put the "protect" back into the Environmental Protection Agency without provoking a reaction.

In this case, the Dirty Energy Empire broke all campaign spending records and used their financial Death Star to target any politician who took a stand on clean energy and global warming. It may not have been a subtle strategy, but it was effective. What it doesn't change, though, is that most Americans still disagree with Big Oil and Big Coal about environmental and energy issues.

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Defeat Texas!

by LaughingPlanet

This weekend, we will see a full-page ad in the California newspapers (just in case anyone still reads newspapers).

I heard about the ad via the internets' version of newpaper, or the  newpaper version of the internets.

http://www.sfgate.com/...

Leave it to our California activists to transform the California vs Texas World Series into a chance to make a political statement.

On Sunday, a huge print ad will run in various publications opposing Prop 23 -- the measure that would overturn California's ground-breaking 2006 climate change law.

It's the most creative static political ad I've seen in a long time.

We not only need Prop 23 to fail, we need an EPIC FAIL.

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Sun, Sun, Sun, Here We Come! [No on CA Prop 23]

by citisven

SF Gate reports today that the Interior Department approved a plan to build Blythe Solar Power Project, the largest concentrated solar power plant in the world, in eastern Riverside County by the end of the year.

On the same page of its business report there's an article talking about German clean-tech firms looking toward the Bay Area as their potential North American headquarters.

There's something happening here, and what it is, is exactly clear: California is poised to become a worldwide leader in clean energy, creating new investments, jobs, and a less carbon-emitting economy. It's setting the stage for the rest of the U.S. to follow in the irreversible path of the global market toward a clean energy future.

Meanwhile, big Texas oil refineries are working to derail the bullet train toward the future with Prop 23, a cynical attempt at preserving their right to pollute and keep us stuck on the economic road to nowhere.

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Energy and the Election, Part 2: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

by NRDCActionFund

Congress is considering clean energy legislation that would increase our security by cutting dependence on oil, reduce pollution that contributes to global warming, and create millions of new jobs. Yet this legislation, passed by the House and supported by President Obama, is stalled in the Senate. How can this be in an election year when once again, “It’s the economy, stupid”?

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Virginians want clean energy and politicians who will make it happen

by Heather TaylorMiesle NRDC Action Fund

According to a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling and released this week by the NRDC Action Fund, voters across the country by a wide margin are more likely to vote for someone who supports clean energy legislation -- Virginians are no exception.

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Charles Koch Challenged To Debate Prop 23 By California Student Leader Joel Francis

by bdemelle

Joel Francis, a Marine Corps veteran and senior at Cal State Los Angeles, has issued a debate challenge to Koch Industries' billionaire CEO Charles Koch on his support for the disastrous Prop 23 attack on California's climate and clean energy progress.

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Voters Overwhelmingly Support Clean Energy Candidates

by Heather TaylorMiesle NRDC Action Fund

Americans know a good idea when they see one. No matter how many millions of dollars the deep-pocketed polluters spend on spreading mistruths this election season, new polling released by the NRDC Action Fund today shows that voters in 23 close Congressional races overwhelmingly support clean energy legislation and would be more likely to support candidates who do the same.

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Finally, military intelligence that is not an oxymoron

by DWG

The military has begun to deploy clean energy technology into combat zones. The reasons for the military's interest in clean energy are important because they undercut the disinformation campaign by the fossil fuels industry. For the military, clean renewable forms of energy are reliable, cheaper, and produce less supply chain vulnerability.

With insurgents increasingly attacking the American fuel supply convoys that lumber across the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan, the military is pushing aggressively to develop, test and deploy renewable energy to decrease its need to transport fossil fuels.

New York Times, Oct 5, article by Elisabeth Rosenthal

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California’s Commitment to Clean Energy – Both Parties Agree

by NRDCActionFund

By Kristin Eberhard

Originally posted on The MarkUp.

Now that Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has announced her opposition on Proposition 23, this dirty energy proposition stands as the main issue that she and the Democratic candidate Jerry Brown agree on.  While Whitman’s stance against Proposition 23 is good news for California, jobs and our strong clean air and health standards, it is troubling that she coupled her technical opposition while simultaneously announcing her intent to suspend AB 32 for at least a year if elected Governor.  Her position sounds like she wants it both ways.  Delaying AB 32 would throw a monkey wrench into the implementation of our clean energy polices, and significantly hamper the transition of the state – indeed, the nation – to a clean energy economy.

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Good and bad moon shots

by DWG

Thomas Friedman makes the case for an Apollo program to develop electric cars and get off oil in an editorial in the New York Times. He makes that case with a contrast between two large public investments in China and the US. China is investing trillions in modernizing its air transportation sector, creating a web of high speed trains, creating research and development infrastructure for biotechnology, and focusing on a growth industry for the future - electric cars.

Beijing just announced that it was providing $15 billion in seed money for the country’s leading auto and battery companies to create an electric car industry, starting in 20 pilot cities. In essence, China Inc. just named its dream team of 16-state-owned enterprises to move China off oil and into the next industrial growth engine: electric cars.

And the U.S. moonshot?

Not to worry. America today also has its own multibillion-dollar, 25-year-horizon, game-changing moon shot: fixing Afghanistan.

Ouch.

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Don't Let Big Oil Kill Clean Energy in California

by Steven D

Proposition 23 is the referendum measure in California which would eliminate suspend the state law, the Global Warming Solutions Act (a/k/a AB 32), that calls for lowering California's greenhouse gas emissions until California's unemployment rate hits 5.5% (well that is effectively the elimination of the law).  That law was passed with Republican Arnold Schwartzenegger's active support in 2006.

Not too long ago the polls indicated that Californians rejected Proposition 23 by roughly a 60 to 40 margin.  That was back at the end of July.  Now however, since the infusion of big corporate cash and ad buys from Big Oil, such as the Koch Brothers (which I wrote about HERE), a new poll has been released are showing that the likely voters who are willing to vote for Prop 23 is now roughly equal to those opposed to its passage.

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A Dirty Pledge

by Heather TaylorMiesle NRDC Action Fund

Originally posted on The MarkUp.

On Thursday, House Republicans issuedtheir roadmap for the midterm elections and the next legislative session. It's called the "Pledge to America," but on energy issues, it sounds more like a pledge that makes powerful promises to the oil and gas industry.

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Don’t Do as the Senate Does – Act Now on Climate Change

by jamesboyce

2010 has been a year of missed opportunities for the environment. From no progress or worse on the international climate action stage, to a clean energy bill in the U.S. Senate that is still on ice despite the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, it’s enough to make you want to throw up your hands and buy beach-front property on the Bering Sea.

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An Egregious Case of Journalistic Distortion

by NRDCActionFund

by Edwin Chen

Originally posted on The MarkUp.

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