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Cleantech

States that have been leaders when it comes to embracing state cap-and-trade green house gas emissions programs, are now facing a variety of hurdles due to state and federal politics, economics, and lawsuits. Read More »

Cali’s Cap-and-Trade Moves Forward in Tough Economy

Today marks the first day of a 45-day period for the public to comment on a program to force polluters to cap their carbon emissions starting in 2012, and the proposed rules will give away lots of free permits rather than auctioning them. Read More »

 
 

Two weeks from now, voters will decide which federal and state politicians to keep and which to send packing. Here is a list of hot issues and challenges facing cleantech advocates as they lobby for their favorite causes in the coming year. Read More »

10 Things to Know About Lugar’s Energy Bill

The latest twist in the road to comprehensive climate and energy legislation arrived on Wednesday, in the form of Sen. Dick Lugar’s (R-Ind.) proposal for what he calls the “Practical Energy and Climate Plan.” Read More »

A Pared-Down, Oil-Friendly Senate Energy Bill to Be Released Monday

Just don’t call it a cap and trade program. That’s what three Senators — John Kerry, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman — are trying to avoid when they introduce a paired down Senate energy bill, reportedly as soon as Monday. Read More »

The Greentech Voter Guide to the CA Governor Race

California will have a new governor come November, and while the race is still open, it’s looking like it’ll be a contest between Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman. How important will a green platform be to securing the gubernatorial race? Read More »

Obama: Fed's GHG Emissions Must Drop 28% by 2020

A national cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gasses might be in limbo, but that hasn’t stopped President Obama from announcing on Friday an emissions reduction target for federal operations. The president, fulfilling an executive order signed in October, said the federal government will reduce … Read More »

Carbon Offsets Come Under Fire

Mark Shapiro, of Berkeley, Calif.’s Center for Investigative Reporting, has written a scathing report on the carbon offset industry in the February edition of Harper’s. Policymakers crafting U.S. climate legislation, which might include provisions for offset projects, should heed the warning, but the criticism shouldn’t … Read More »

Daily Sprout

Obama Heading to Copenhagen: The White House announced today that President Obama will attend the UN climate talks next month in Copenhagen “and commit the U.S. to a short-term emission reduction target ‘in the range of 17 percent’ below 2005 levels, providing new momentum for negotiations … Read More »

Daily Sprout

Welcome to the Technosphere: “Having mastered indoor ski slopes and mass desalination, Dubai just unveiled its massive Technosphere, a biological bubble oddly similar to Disney’s Epcot Center (or the Death Star), meant to simulate future climates and test sustainable technology.” — VentureBeat Winners and Losers of … Read More »

Daily Sprout

Cap and Trade’s Biggest Losers: A new report by energy consultants Wood Mackenzie finds “cap-and-trade legislation will cost U.S. refiners about $100 billion a year by 2015 and put them at a competitive disadvantage to refiners in Europe.” — WSJ’s Environemental Capital Bright Automotive Bags $1.4M … Read More »

Gore: Road to Copenhagen Goes Through U.S. Senate

The world’s governments will meet in Copenhagen in December to hammer out a new global climate deal. But Al Gore, speaking on Wednesday at the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual meeting in New York, said success hinges on the U.S. Senate’s progress on legislation that would … Read More »

More Must Reads

With so much activity in Washington, D.C., these days — from funding opportunities to policies like cap and trade — that could affect cleantech industries, many startups have sent their executives to the capital or hired lobbyists in the hope of adding their voices to … Read More »

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, continuing its march against government-imposed limits on carbon emissions (see here and here for examples), has added another misleading commentary to the ongoing discussion about a cap-and-trade system. This time it alleges that there is “evidence” that … Read More »

GM to Invest $43M to Build Battery Plant: General Motors said today it will invest $43 million to build a lithium-ion battery pack assembly plant in Brownstone, Mich. for its extended-range electric Chevy Volt and other plug-in vehicles. — Reuters Cap-and-Trade Inventors Call for Carbon Tax: … Read More »

Hilarious. Please watch. Last night Jon Stewart pointed out (in that way that only he can pull off: half ridiculous, half totally true) the very real marketing problem with cap-and-trade legislation: it’s confusing and boring. Many of us in the industry, covering this stuff on a … Read More »

Photos: Tesla Roadster Sport: If you want an electric sports car and the Tesla Roadster isn’t fast or expensive enough for you, here’s what an extra $20,000 can get you. — Jalopnik Palin on Obama Energy Plan: Soon-to-be-ex governor of Alaska Sarah Palin says in an … Read More »

Updated: We’ve heard from a couple of our sources that President Obama is forming an advisory council on energy and economic policy that would be staffed by cleantech leaders, including the CEOs of some buzz-worthy startups along with some high-profile investors. Someone high up on Obama’s … Read More »

The fact that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, now a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, isn’t a big fan of the current energy bill that passed the House on Friday is hardly a shocker. A cap-and-trade system can be “easily abused,” particularly on … Read More »

Mad for Mitsubishi’s iMiEV: Mitsubishi Motors rose the most in almost five months on the Tokyo Stock Exchange today after a report it has started mass production of its electric iMiEV and will start selling it in Japan next month. — Bloomberg The Case for a … Read More »

It’s no easy feat to win approval from the House Energy and Commerce Committee ahead of schedule. But that’s what the climate and energy bill, which if passed will create a cap-and-trade system for limiting greenhouse gas emissions and mandate increased reliance on renewable sources of … Read More »

A “discussion draft” is what Reps. Henry Waxman and Ed Markey called their initial proposal for a climate and energy bill last month. And the discussion has been heating up ever since, fueled in part by multimillion-dollar lobbying efforts. The U.S. oil, gas and … Read More »

It’s been a mixed bag for coal this week, with some companies throwing in the towel on planned coal power plants and others slipping coal plants by regulators with compromises. In a time when Congress is mulling not whether, but how to implement a … Read More »

Ford’s $550M Electric Focus Factory: Ford plans to invest $550 million retooling a truck and SUV plant in Wayne, Mich. to build subcompact cars, including an electric version of the Ford Focus developed in partnership with Magna International. — Detroit Free Press Carbon Cap/Tax Throwdown:Is all … Read More »

With Congress now waist deep in the climate and energy bill proposed by Chairman Henry Waxman and Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey last month, running against the clock to push through a version by year’s end — if not by Memorial Day — we think it’s time … Read More »

EPA Endangerment Finding: The U.S. EPA said today that greenhouse gases pose a danger to the public, paving the way for the agency to place limits on carbon dioxide and other emissions from vehicles, power plants and factories under the Clean Air Act — and increasing … Read More »

Take Tom Delay, the former congressional GOP leader with a longstanding hatred for the U.S. EPA and doubt about climate change, and figure out how, by six degrees of separation, he triggered the Supreme Court ruling that’s now giving Congressional Democrats leverage to push climate policy … Read More »

Compromise on Cap and Trade?: Top science adviser John Holdren hinted yesterday that the Obama administration might agree to auction only a portion (rather than all) of the emissions allowances initially granted under a cap-and-trade scheme — a compromise likely to please utilities and manufacturers but … Read More »

Not What It Sounds Like: Porsche has gone solar. No, not by slapping solar panels on cars, but by installing its first U.S. solar array at a California logistics facility. — Fast Company Building a Better Subsidy: For the first time, clean energy developers can choose … Read More »

Many investors are seeing fund raising slow down, and the CalCEF Clean Energy Angel Fund is no exception. The fund, which in October said it had raised $9.3 million toward its goal of $20 million, is still working to raise the rest of … Read More »

Tesla Model S Factory Update: Tesla Motors said today it’s in “late-stage” negotiations for a soon-to-be named site where it will manufacture its long-promised Model S sedan. — San Francisco Business Times LEED for Data Centers: A coalition of data center industry groups has released a … Read More »

Quizzing the Car Czar: With the U.S. auto industry hanging in the balance, an expected federal “car czar” faces ten fundamental questions, from whether the SUV is dead (or close to retirement) to how close we really are to having mass-market electric cars. — Wall … Read More »

The Edison Electric Institute, which represents about 70 percent of U.S. electricity producers, revealed a new industry wish list for climate change legislation this morning. The group voted last week to support national mandates to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below … Read More »

At the opening dinner for the Forbes Energy conference on Tuesday night in New York, three former secretaries discussed their opinions about necessary energy and climate change policy, and at least two of them were in strong agreement that a cap and trade system in the … Read More »

RGGI Auction Sells Out at $3.07 a Ton: All 12.5 million allowances auctioned last week by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, North America’s first cap-and-trade system, sold for $3.07 each, raising some $38.5 million for the member states – Green Inc. McKinsey Sees Clean Coal Viable … Read More »

Permits for America’s first carbon cap-and-trade scheme will go on the auction block on Thursday this week. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) will auction permits for some 188 million tons of carbon emissions for 2009. At the start of the year, power plants … Read More »

Trading in preparation for America’s first mandated cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse gas emissions started on Friday on the Climate Futures Exchange. Futures and options contracts for 70,000 permits were traded under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cooperative of 10 Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic … Read More »

The Western Climate Initiative, a consortium of seven states and four Canadian provinces, yesterday issued a draft of their proposed plan to institute a regional cap-and-trade system on carbon emissions. The group’s proposal would have states start monitoring emissions in 2010 and reporting them … Read More »

California introduced an ambitious energy road map today to achieve the state’s goal of cutting emissions by 28 percent. The policy mandates that a third of the state’s energy should come from renewable sources, and also boosts the efficiency of appliances, buildings and automobiles. Facilitating … Read More »

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