Last week we reported on a series of forged letters sent to freshman Congressman Tom Perriello, purportedly from constituent groups, but in reality from an employee for “grassroots” lobbying firm Bonner & Associates. The letters urged Perriello to vote against the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.
A total of 12 forged letters, sent to three House Democrats, have thus far been uncovered. As well, as Perriello, who voted for ACES, Kathy Dahlkemper and Chris Carney of Pennsylvania also received letters claiming authorship from community organizations. Dahlkemper and Carney voted against ACES.
Usually, I just laugh at Glenn Beck and his musings, but when he goes after clean energy and green jobs, my laughter quickly fades away. Beck yesterday spent consider time on his Fox show attacking the Apollo Alliance, which is a coalition bet...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Freshman congressman Tom Perriello, a Democrat representing the 5th district of Virginia, had a hard decision to make in voting for the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES). His hard fought seat and freshman status left him vulnerable to Republican attacks vehemently opposed to the bill, yet he voted for the legislation nonetheless, believing it the right thing to do.
The decision to do so was made even harder after he received five letters from local constituency groups, including a Hispanic advocacy group and a local chapter of the NAACP, opposing the legislation. Or so he at first thought. According to an investigation by DailyProgress, it turns out those letters weren’t what they appeared to be and were in fact forged by Washington DC-area lobbyists.
Yesterday in Lansing, Michigan, more than 500 activists from all corners of the state lent their voices to a call for a massive investment in clean energy and moving the state beyond coal.
A professor and student team have designed a network of modular floating docks to harness clean energy for New York City.
The eco-docks would generate the energy by harnessing tidal power from the city’s rivers; they should also help to add much needed green space above the dirty waters.
If this country get serious about energy efficiency - for
instance, by passing a climate and clean energy bill like Waxman-Markey
- then we can sharply reduce existing emissions at a large net savings
to the public and U.S. businesses.
On Monday, Joe Romm of Climate Progress publicly attacked us for publishing an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle—called “Will America lose the clean energy race?” (a longer version was posted here at Huffington Post.). Here’s our response.
The U.S. wind energy industry installed 1,210 megawatts (MW) of new power generating capacity in the second quarter, bringing the total added this year to just over 4,000 MW – an amount larger than the 2,900 MW added in the first six months of 2008, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said today in its second quarter (Q2) market report [click here].
The state posting the fastest growth in the 2nd quarter was Missouri, where wind power installations expanded by 90%.
“Missourians know that in order for us to grow our state’s economy and create the jobs of the twenty-first century, we must embrace new technology and advances like the ones presented to us through renewable wind energy,” said Missouri Governor Jay Nixon. “So I’m proud that the American Wind Energy Association’s quarterly report shows no state has capitalized on these growth opportunities more aggressively over the last three months than Missouri has. But that isn’t enough. Missouri will continue to look for ways to enhance our energy supply and independence by using common-sense and cost effective expansions of clean, renewable wind power.”
Paging Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) — your vote is needed on a climate and clean energy bill. As is the vote of members from other fast growing wind states:
Pennsylvania and South Dakota ranked second and third in terms of growth rate in the second quarter, expanding by 28% and 21% respectively.
With growth like this comes more than a dozen new and expanding factories around the country — and the jobs they bring:
AWEA explains what this means for clean energy jobs:
New installations will generate approximately 1,000 construction jobs in Q2 and a projected 4,500 construction jobs for 2009 in its entirety. The wind industry in the U.S. currently employs 85,000 people but could be cut by half without a strong RES in place, meaning a loss of more than 40,000 jobs in an already depressed economy.
While the pace of new wind farm installations and manufacturing announcements is substantial, AWEA said it is seeing a reduced level of activity in manufacturing of wind turbines and their components, a development it termed troubling in view of the fact that the U.S. industry was previously on track for much larger growth and the global wind power industry is continuing to expand.
The U.S. is the only developed country without an RES in place. And if the RES as it stands in the House climate bill is not strengthened, the U.S. risks losing 75% of the global wind jobs overseas.
Last week we reported on a series of forged letters sent to freshman Congressman Tom Perriello, purportedly from constituent groups, but in reality from an employee for “grassroots” lobbying firm Bonner & Associates. The letters urged Perriello to vote against the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.
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