While we may never get the full extent of government spying on citizens in machine-readable formats, the Census, FDA testing, EPA and myriad other data will offer a treasure trove of information for years to come. And by making it open and machine readable, it will presumably be harder to bury such data in physical warehouses or behind crazy fees.

The executive order is here. Essentially it requires the government to do the following:

• Figure out what data the agencies have, and make an index
• List all of their publicly available data in a public place
• List all of the information that could be made public, even if it is not yet available

But the order attempts to address an almost existential question about moving from an organization where data is assumed TO BE hidden to one where it assumed to be open. John Wonderlich over at the Sunlight Foundation put it well in his blog on the announcement:

“Most importantly, though, the new policies take on one of the most important, trickiest questions that these policies face — how can we reset the default to openness when there is so much data? How can we take on managing and releasing all the government’s data, or as much as possible, without negotiating over every dataset the government has?

How can the public (or policymakers) request what they don’t know exists? How can CIOs manage what they haven’t surveyed?”

He concludes that this order will address a lot of these issues, and I hope that will actually happen. As someone who has submitted Freedom of Information Act requests only to get back boxes of redacted and almost meaningless documents, the hunt for government information — or information that is supposed to be publicly available — can be daunting, exhausting and ultimately fruitless.

Of course, as was shown when the SEC started making its records available online using XML, the greater visibility of those documents, notably the Reg-D filings that indicated a private company had picked up funding, prompted the agency to include less information in those documents. They still made them public online, but also made them less useful in some cases.

Also, this order notes that privileged information, law enforcement information, national security information, personal information, or information that agencies can’t disclose because it is prohibited by law, are all off the table when it comes to the order. This isn’t unexpected, but it can be used to create loopholes where agencies (or private companies working with the government) can attempt to hide data it doesn’t want to share.

But, as the White House release notes, government data such as Global Positioning System data and weather data have been open for decades and have helped create some awesome new services for citizens. I’m sure that today’s news will open up plenty of great data sets that entrepreneurs can start using to build amazing new apps.

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President Obama nominated Genachowski to the commission in 2009, where he oversaw some fairly momentous -– and controversial — FCC actions: the creation of the National Broadband Plan, the quashing of AT&T-Mo and the approval of Verizon’s plan to cooperate with the cable companies on residential broadband.

Here’s the full text of Genachowski’s statement:

“Over the past four years, we’ve focused the FCC on broadband, wired and wireless, working to drive economic growth and improve the lives of all Americans. And thanks to you, the Commission’s employees, we’ve taken big steps to build a future where broadband is ubiquitous and bandwidth is abundant, where innovation and investment are flourishing.

“To connect all Americans to broadband, we adopted a landmark overhaul of multi-billion dollar universal service programs, modernizing them from telephone to broadband and creating the Connect America Fund and the Mobility Fund, an unprecedented commitment to broadband infrastructure.

“To unleash the enormous opportunities of mobile, we pioneered incentive auctions and other cutting-edge spectrum policies.

“To fuel America’s innovation economy, we put in place the first rules to preserve Internet freedom and openness.
“To drive competition and empower consumers, we opposed and modified transactions where necessary, deployed technology to drive transparency, and took unprecedented enforcement actions.

“We helped harness the power of digital technologies to give students a better chance, people better health care, and make Americans safer in their homes and communities, while also guarding against digital threats and strengthening cybersecurity.

“Today, America’s broadband economy is thriving, with record-setting private investment; unparalleled innovation in networks, devices and apps; and renewed U.S. leadership around the world.

“While there are challenges ahead in this fast-moving, globally competitive sector, a revitalized FCC is prepared to continue taking them on. I’m deeply grateful to President Obama for his vision, friendship, and the opportunity to serve our country.

“I’m proud of what we’ve done together to harness technology to advance the American dream for the 21st century. I know you’ll continue to fight hard to fulfill this agency’s vital mission, and I look forward to continuing to work together until my last day at the agency, and to count you as family and as an inspiration for long after that.”

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The evidence of that was ample at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco this week. Through keynote speeches and panel discussions, the conference emphasized opportunities in the traditional energy industry and a growing symbiotic relationship between cleantech developers and big energy companies.

Behind the trend

Several forces have emerged in recent years that have been contributing to this trend. First off, venture capitalists have been shying away from investing in cleantech startups in areas like new types of solar panels, or biofuels. Many of the investors have yet to make their money back, due to the long timelines and large capital requirements needed for the companies to mature. It could also be that “righteous investing” gave them blinders to good investments.

With the lack of investments from VCs, startups are increasingly looking to corporations to help them with funding. And the companies that tend to be interested in investing in next-generation energy technologies, are — not surprisingly — the traditional energy companies. For example, natural gas provider Encana recently backed thermoelectric tech startup Alphabet Energy, Shell has been hunting for startups through its GameChanger program, and Total has made a variety of investments into cleantech companies over the years, including SunPower.

Meanwhile, the emergence of abundant and cheap natural gas has changed the energy game in the U.S. It’s providing traditional industry jobs to many states, and has been embraced by the Obama administration as a clean energy opportunity. There will be massive opportunities when it comes to selling next-generation technologies to natural gas firms and helping natural gas providers avoid environmental problems.

The growth of the renewable electricity sector will be tied to natural gas. Solar and wind generation can’t produce power around the clock, and utilities will have to match clean power with 24/7 energy like natural gas. Natural gas proponents have stepped up efforts to form alliances with renewable energy players, some of whom see the pairing as a practical approach to promote clean power generation.

Cleaning up fossil fuels

Energy executives “are all excited about the unconventional oil and gas in North America, and they know it will only take one or two environmental disasters for the game to be over,” said Wal van Lierop, co-founder and CEO of cleantech venture capital firm Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, when I caught up with him at the Cleantech Forum.

To gain public confidence, comply with regulations and, in some cases, reduce risks and production costs, oil and gas producers are hunting for technologies that clean up wastes, recycle water and boost production. And if any of these technologies can earn a low-carbon designation and help with public relations, then all the better. The Texas Tribune ran an interesting story this week that looked at oil companies attempts to recycle dirty water from oil production.

Chrysalix is fond of backing companies that can serve oil and gas, as well as mining, companies. It’s invested in GlassPoint Solar, which designs steam generation equipment to help oil companies boost production; Axine Water Technologies, which offers a way to get pollutants out of wastewater from industrial operations and cities; and Seair, a public wastewater treatment company whose CEO, Ric Charron, spoke about his experience working with oil and gas companies at the cleantech conference.

While helping oil and gas producers boost production and win public support isn’t the same as saving the planet, van Lierop argued the results are no less worthwhile: “It’s a very important goal to ensure that you clean up traditional energy sources.”

Fossil fuels not going anywhere

The oil and gas industry is here to stay for a very long long time. Strong federal support for oil and gas exploration — part of President Obama’s “all of the above energy strategy” — continues to protect entrenched energy players and allows oil and gas companies to continue their grip on transportation and electricity generation. These companies operate at such a massive scale that it’s hard to a tiny startup to compete with them.

Fossil fuel companies are partly investing in renewable energy sources as a defensive move. It’s a hedge against any quick change in government policy and public sentiment. Chevron made some small investments in renewable energy technologies, and probably was glad it didn’t invest more when it realized later that its investments weren’t as lucrative as it had expected. The growth of the biofuel business, in particular, will require the support of major oil industry players.

Some venture capital investors maintain that cleantech investing is still a financially viable option — that a cleantech 2.0 investing wave will come some day in the future. But for now, in a year when “cleantech” has become a dirty word, it makes sense for cleantech companies to go make friends with the dirty fossil fuel industry.

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Update: A spokesman from the FCC Chairman’s office declined to comment on the Journal story.

Genachowski replaced Kevin Martin (and interim FCC chairman Michael Copps) in 2009 after being nominated by Obama. Genachowski worked on Obama’s first presidential campaign as chairperson of his Technology, Media and Telecommunications Policy Working Group. The working group germinated the seeds of Obama’s National Broadband Plan, which Genachowski oversaw when he took over the reins of the commission.

Since then Genachowski has been in the spotlight on many occasions, advocating the need for more cellular spectrum and proposing the reallocation of TV airwaves for mobile broadband use. Some of those spectrum proposals, however, landed Genachowski and the commission in hot water, such as the conditional waiver -– later retracted — they granted LightSquared to use its satellite spectrum for a terrestrial LTE network.

Perhaps the most controversial period of his tenure, though, was the nearly one year that the FCC weighed and eventually quashed AT&T’s planned acquisition of T-Mobile. The decision is considered a victory for the competitive market and consumer choice after a long period of unfettered consolidation in the telecom industry.

Not all of the commission’s decisions have been so consumer friendly under Genachowski. The commission let pass Verizon’s spectrum deal with the cable operators, which has big implications for competition in the residential broadband market.

Genachowski’s retirement, if true, doesn’t come as a huge surprise. News reports have indicated that the forthcoming departure of Republican FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell clears the way for Genachowski’s departure as well, as it leaves the commission with a 2-1 Democratic majority.

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The moves show how Obama is getting creative at a time when Congress isn’t likely to approve budget increases for clean energy support, or other policies like a cap and trade program or carbon tax. The stimulus package, which injected some $90 billion into clean energy projects and incentives, has largely been spent or the funds expired, so clean energy companies and projects are facing a steep drop in federal support in 2013.

Yet, many will note that the moves are piece meal and not as aggressive as Obama originally proposed when he first ran for office. And some of Obama’s concessions to the natural gas and oil industry will likely anger environmentalists and some clean energy advocates. The Washington Post reports that the Obama administration plans to rewrite its proposal to regulate greenhouse emissions using the Environmental Protection Agency, making the proposal weaker and potentially delaying regulations.

The proposal for using $2 billion in federal leases will emerge over the coming weeks. Obama brought up this plan in the State of the Union speech, calling it an Energy Security Trust that will drive new research and technology to shift our cars and trucks off oil for good. Obama said “If a non-partisan coalition of CEOs and retired generals and admirals can get behind this idea, then so can we.”

The use of the infrastructure law is a new idea, and will no doubt prove controversial. A manufacturing association told Bloomberg that the notion had them “freaked out.” The law originally was used to protect water, air and soil from infrastructure projects that could have negative environmental effects.

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President Obama, who was celebrated by some as the “first internet president” after taking office — thanks to his use of a BlackBerry, as well as various web-based open government initiatives — has showed even more flair for the web and social media in the past year or so, in part by hosting events such as the Twitter town hall in 2011 and a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” feature during the election campaign last fall, in which he took questions from users of the online community.

More open, or more controlling of the media?

While all of these tools and strategies make the president seem more approachable and human to some, however, to members of the traditional press it is part of an attempt by the Obama government to do an end-run around the media and get its message out directly without any fear of being challenged (although the traditional media seem to have had no problem covering up the existence of a drone base in Saudi Arabia when asked to do so). According to Politico:

“President Barack Obama is a master at limiting, shaping and manipulating media coverage of himself and his White House [and] the mastery mostly flows from a White House that has taken old tricks for shaping coverage (staged leaks, friendly interviews) and put them on steroids using new ones (social media, content creation, precision targeting).”

As the Politico piece notes, governments have always tried to engineer their own messages, whether through hokey PR stunts like Calvin Coolidge’s radio addresses or government-produced propaganda shown in movie theaters, or through friendly reporters who are willing to write uncritically — as many have accused writer Judith Miller of doing at the New York Times when she covered the build-up to the Iraq War. But social media provides so many more tools (and real-time ones) for governments to use.

Just as Elon Musk of Tesla used his blog — and some of the user data that his electric car produced during a New York Times review — to argue his case against the newspaper, the Obama government has almost as many tools (if not more) at its disposal as any of the media entities it used to rely on for coverage. It can produce and distribute news stories, audio interviews and video clips just as well as anyone, and media companies who have cut costs are always looking for free content. One photographer said the White House has “built its own content distribution network.”

The balance of power has shifted

As Politico describes it, the “balance of power between the White House and the press has tipped unmistakeably towards the government.” The Obama administration is said to be eschewing unscripted scrums in favor of orchestrated media campaigns like the Reddit AMA, which was widely criticized for not being as hard-hitting as a traditional interview (although I took issue with that description). Former Clinton-era press secretary Mike McCurry told Politico:

“The balance of power used to be much more in favor of the mainstream press [but now] the White House gets away with stuff I would never have dreamed of doing. When I talk to White House reporters now, they say it’s really tough to do business with people who don’t see the need to be cooperative.”

That word “cooperative” sums it up in a nutshell: in the past, governments had to cooperate with the media because they needed it to get their message out, just as companies like Tesla used to. But that’s not the case any more — or at least not as much as it used to be. The playing field has been leveled. Is that a good thing or a bad thing for democracy, or for society in general? Is more information better, even if it comes directly from the government?

Images courtesy of Shutterstock / Picsfive and Flickr user jphilipg

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Obama proclaimed:

If Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will.

Obama attempted to take these types of actions a few years ago when he worked with the Environmental Protection Agency on a controversial plan to attempt to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. Now that Obama is in his second term, and doesn’t have to worry about being voted into another term, he seems to be getting more aggressive on his original campaign goals on clean energy and fighting climate change.

In addition to Obama’s discussion of fighting climate change with market means, the president issued several other promising declarations on energy:

• Make natural gas cleaner: “My Administration will keep cutting red tape and speeding up new oil and gas permits. But I also want to work with this Congress to encourage the research and technology that helps natural gas burn even cleaner and protects our air and water.”
• Create an Energy Security Trust for R&D for non-oil transportation: “I propose we use some of our oil and gas revenues to fund an Energy Security Trust that will drive new research and technology to shift our cars and trucks off oil for good. If a non-partisan coalition of CEOs and retired generals and admirals can get behind this idea, then so can we.”
• Energy efficiency: “I’m also issuing a new goal for America: let’s cut in half the energy wasted by our homes and businesses over the next twenty years. The states with the best ideas to create jobs and lower energy bills by constructing more efficient buildings will receive federal support to help make it happen.”
• Fight power grid cyber attacks: “Earlier today, I signed a new executive order that will strengthen our cyber defenses by increasing information sharing, and developing standards to protect our national security, our jobs, and our privacy. Now, Congress must act as well, by passing legislation to give our government a greater capacity to secure our networks and deter attacks.”

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“… America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries — we must claim its promise. That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure. . . “

Obama used his first term to provide an unprecedented amount of resources for clean energy projects and companies through the stimulus package, but some of the Department of Energy’s loans and grants went to energy companies that struggled or went bankrupt. Examples include the now infamous solar maker Solyndra, battery maker A123 Systems, solar company Abound Solar and electric car maker Fisker Automotive.

As a result, clean energy became highly politicized and the Energy Department’s support was criticized by House Republicans. Many of Obama’s original “Green Dream Team” are leaving, including reportedly the Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

Obama was also criticized by Democrats for not being aggressive enough on climate change-targeted policies in his first term. He seemed to stop using the term in prominent speeches in recent months, and abandoned a carbon cap-and-trade policy early on in his first term.

The President’s direct mention of climate change and sustainable energy sources in his inauguration on Monday morning came as a surprise to many in the clean energy sector. Obama’s definition of clean energy sources — which he called “sustainable energy sources” in his speech — includes natural gas, clean coal and nuclear, as well as renewable energy like solar, and wind power.

Updated with reactions from the clean power sector:

Rhone Resch, president and CEO of Solar Energy Industries Association: “We praise the President for emphasizing that a transition to sustainable energy sources is vital – and that the U.S. must lead it. . . Over the next four years, solar will grow to be the largest new source or energy, and employ more than a quarter million Americans.”

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Check out our ultimate guide to streaming the 2013 inauguration below:

Dates and times: The official swearing-in will occur Sunday at 11:55 a.m. ET (8:55 a.m. PT), and includes Chief Justice John Roberts swearing in President Obama at a ceremony at the White House.

However, the big bash that everyone is going to watch will be one day later: Monday, starting at 11:30 a.m. ET, President Obama and Vice President Biden will take part in the ceremonial swearing-in on the West Front of the capitol. That’s also when Obama is going to give his inaugural address.

Later that day, we are going to see the inaugural parade (2:55 p.m. ET) and the Commander In Chief Ball (8:30 p.m. ET).

The Presidential Inaugural Committee is going to stream all of these events live on its website as well as through its iOS and Android app.

The White House is also going to stream the inauguration live on YouTube on Monday, starting at 11 a.m. ET.

ABC News will live stream the entire inauguration ceremony on its site, starting on Monday at 9:30 a.m. ET.

NBC News will feature a live stream on its site and its iOS app starting Monday at 10 a.m. ET.

CBS News is going to stream Monday’s event on Ustream, starting at 9 a.m. ET.

Fox News will begin its online live coverage Monday at 10:30 a.m.

Univision’s Spanish-language live stream of the inauguration starts Monday at 11 a.m. on YouTube.

CNN is not only streaming Monday’s events starting at 11:30 a.m. ET, but also Sunday’s official swearing-in of President Obama (11:55 a.m.) and Vice-President Biden (8:15 a.m.).

MSN News will stream the inauguration live on its site.

Hulu is featuring live streams from Fox News, ABC and Yahoo News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. For detailed times, check Hulu’s live streaming page.

C-SPAN will stream pretty much everything on its site, starting Sunday at 7:30 a.m. ET.

The Wall Street Journal will be on YouTube with a live stream as well, which will also be available through its WSJ live apps  on the iPad, on Android devices and various Smart TV platforms.

The Washington Post is live streaming the event on its site as well, and the paper is offering an inauguration grid page with live updates, video and photo from the ground and around the web.

Ustream has links to a bunch of additional feeds, including live feeds from citizen journalists covering the events, on its blog.

Twitter is providing curated tweets on its #inauguration micro-site.

We will update this list frequently until Monday night, so check back often – and feel free to leave any additional links in the comments!

For more on how to watch news and other TV programming without paying for cable, check out my ebook Cut the Cord: All You Need to Know to Drop Cable.

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If true, it’s an end of an era for the Obama administration, and as Mother Jones points out, it’s a farewell to Obama’s original Green Dream Team of its first term. Chu was a true scientist leader — he won the Nobel Prize in Physics — and he supported open collaboration in science; he even had a nerdy sense of humor.

At the same time Chu was criticized, and grilled, by House Republicans during the Solyndra hearings. And clearly not all the large loan guarantee bets made on clean energy companies through the stimulus package were home runs. He also didn’t always know how to play the politics of Washington D.C.

Regardless, Chu will be sorely missed by many in the cleantech sector, and clean power advocates. Here’s photos of Chu that we took over the years:

Solyndra’s ground breaking ceremony in 2009

Solyndra’s ground breaking ceremony in 2009

Steven Chu, Harry Reid

Steven Chu giving an interview in the hallways at ARPA-E

Chu & Brown on the solar factory tour

Steven Chu speaking at COP 15 in Copenhagen

Testifying before House Republicans

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