White House hosts Young Leaders

The President and his Administration invited a group of young leaders to the White House on December 2nd for a Clean Energy Economy Forum. The event brought together emerging leaders from non-profits, businesses, and community groups along with experts from federal agencies, members of the Cabinet, and White House officials.

Presenters included EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, and Cabinet Members Steven Chu (Energy), Ken Salizar (Interior), and Hilda Solis (Labor). The meeting was webcast live and included an online discussion open to all.

The Video of the forum is below:


FYI: the guy wearing glasses in the lower right of the video image above happens to be my son, Jason Kowalski, Policy Coordinator at 1Sky.org.

A link to a video of the online forum is here. One of my favorite online comments that the moderators selected to read was from Meg Boyle who wrote: "Let's see this as a good first meeting. At the next one, I'd like to see student leaders present and admin folks ask questions."
Great comment! I hope that the White House takes it seriously and acts on it.

For a report on the Forum and insights to its significance for young leaders see: "Youth Climate Movement Grows Up… In a Good Way"

CandleLight Vigil for the Climate

[click image to enlarge]

Youth Clean Energy Forum at White House

From: Whit Jones, Acting Field Director, Energy Action Coalition

Last week we announced two exciting victories: Just one week before President Obama attends the Copenhagen climate negotiations, the White House is hosting a Youth Clean Energy Forum to hear from leaders like you.

This is an incredible accomplishment and opportunity. Just two years ago the only people the Bush Administration would speak to about energy policy were the CEOs and lobbyists of Dirty Coal and Big Oil. Now, the Obama Administration is inviting us into the White House, and we need to make sure we are present and heard.

One way to be sure you're heard is to host a viewing party to watch the LIVE webcast of the forum in your area and engage in the LIVE discussion. Throughout the forum, the White House is going to take questions and comments off of the Facebook Live Chat.

This is our opportunity to discuss strengthening emissions targets, ending mountaintop removal, investing in green jobs and pathways out of poverty, and revitalizing our economy. We have to let Obama's team know where we stand before he heads to Copenhagen.

Viewing parties are fun and simple. All you need to do is find a space, invite your friends or a couple of campus organizations, and turn on the live webcast. You can host a meeting in conjunction with it, invite local media so they can hear your responses to the forum, and blog or tweet about it.

Sign-up to Host a Viewing Party. RSVP if you're watching alone so we can keep track of participation.

Here are the details about the forum:

• WHAT: You, a couple of friends, a few campus organizations watching the webcast of the White House Youth Clean Energy Forum

• WHO: Top White House officials, including Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Energy Secretary Steven Chu & the EPA's Lisa Jackson

• WHEN: Dec. 2nd from 4 pm - 7 pm ET

• WHERE: The forum will be webcast live on the White House website at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/live or on Facebook with a live discussion board at: http://apps.facebook.com/whitehouselive/
  

Don't miss it and be sure to host or attend a viewing party!

Energy Action Coalition is a youth-led coalition of 50 organizations working together to fight for a clean, just and renewable energy future. Join the new Local Community and get your neighborhood involved in the national push for a future powered by clean energy and not by dirty politics.

For a list of Energy Action Coalition partners, please visit our Energy Action Partners page.

McKibben to Obama: Stop Climate Spin -- Feel the Heat

Mother Jones
Mr. President: Time to Quit Fibbing and Spinning
By Bill McKibben | Monday, November 16, 2009

The real tip-off of Obama’s unwillingness to lead, however, has been the endless spinning of his climate negotiators. For 12 months they have been fibbing about the science—reiterating over and over again that their goal is the “scientific standard” of 450 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere. That’s no longer scientifically accurate—in the last two years, since the rapid Arctic melt in the summer of 2007, scientists have made it clear that a treaty that aimed at 450 ppm would be a treaty that left the planet free of ice, a planet where many current nations would disappear beneath the waves. We’re at 390 now—we’re already too high.

Read the full report here.Washington Post
Obama needs to Feel the Heat
By Bill McKibben | Sunday, November 22, 2009

As one of the U.S. spokesmen put it, "There was an assessment by the leaders that it is unrealistic to expect a full, internationally legally binding agreement could be negotiated between now and Copenhagen, which starts in 22 days."

This is not just spin, it's pathetic spin. Copenhagen has been on the calendar for years -- it's not a surprise that someone sprung on the president, who shortly after last year's election declared: "Once I take office, you can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in these negotiations and help lead the world toward a new era of global cooperation on climate change. Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high." [emphasis added]

Read the full report here.

DOE Funds Wind Turbine Innovation

There is change in the wind. It's a revolution that won't be driven simply by putting up more conventional windmill farms to generate clean energy. It's about innovation -- radical design changes that will increase efficiency and reduce the cost and size of wind turbines.

“FloDesign Wind Turbine Corporation is going to revolutionize the way we capture energy from the wind,” says CEO Stanley Kowalski III. “Our wind turbine will produce more wind energy with less impact on the environment. Our turbines are smaller, can function in a variety of climates, and can work closer to the ground.”

Kowalski [no relation to me] says his company's turbine design resembles a jet engine, an approach that allows it to capture much more wind energy while taking up less space than traditional turbines. The turbine draws on its jet engine expertise from parent company, aerospace engineering firm FloDesign. The blades are much smaller than those of existing windmills and they are surrounded by a shroud, resembling a jet engine. Wind hitting the turbine flows through the blades as well as around the shroud to create a rapid-mixing vortex, extracting 3 to 4 times as much energy from the wind as traditional turbines.

The turbine spins efficiently at lower wind speeds, and can also sustain higher speeds than conventional turbines. A fin directs the turbine to face the direction of the wind without motorized alignment and maximizes the amount of energy it receives. The smaller size of FloDesign turbine design will lower the shipping costs compared to traditional turbines and permit more turbines in a given area of land.

Watch this informative video to see the innovative design features in action (very cool!):



FloDesign Wind Turbine Corporation has built a small prototype for wind tunnel tests. On October 26, 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on awarded $8.3 million to the company. FloDesign's proposal was among 37 nationwide to receive funding totaling $151 million from DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, who's mission is to develop potential breakthrough energy technologies.

Kowalski said the company currently employs about 20 people and expects to expand to more than 75 by the end of 2010. The jobs to be added will primarily be engineering jobs, he said. “The next newsworthy event for us is the installation of our prototype, somewhere in Western Massachusetts we hope. We’re evaluating sites right now,” he said.

The Massachusetts-based company is hunting for another $25 million to deploy full scale test rigs. Last year, it landed two start-up awards from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, including cash grants of $300,000. The company also received $6 million in venture capital in an initial funding round in 2008.

If everything goes according to plan, the company will start taking orders and build wind turbines that generate one megawatt.

Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act

The Senate climate bill, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, was released by sponsoring Senators Kerry and Boxer on September 30, 2009. This is an independent version of the House of Representatives climate bill, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which was passed earlier this year. If the Senate bill is passed, the Senate and House will then reconcile their versions, vote, and if that version is passed, Congress will send it on to President Obama.

The White House is running its own climate campaign, meeting with more than half the Senate, making calls to almost 100 mayors, and meeting with many governors. Their goal, according to Carol Browner, the president's assistant for energy and climate change, "is to get the bill moving and keep it moving." However, Ms. Browner is not optimisic about the bill being passed before the December's UN conference in Copenhagen.

President Obama welcomed a Senate bill to cut carbon emissions and said he was "deeply committed" to passing it even as the White House played down chances that it would happen this year. Obama, whose international credibility on global warming is largely tied to the Senate's effort, called the draft bill a major step forward in his plans to revamp U.S. energy policy.

Subsequent to the above events, President Obama was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Nobel Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of, and work for, a world without nuclear weapons. Also, "Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened", as stated in the announcement from the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

On the Senate climate bill, you can read an overview, a summary, a section by section summary, or the full bill. Also available is a description of the Pollution Reduction and Investment Mechanism of the bill. The files are available here.

An analysis of the Senate climate bill done by Jason Kowalski at 1Sky is available here.

[UPDATES: Sunday, Oct.11, 2009]
NY Times Op-Ed
Yes We Can (Pass Climate Change Legislation)
By JOHN KERRY and LINDSEY GRAHAM
John Kerry is a Democratic senator from Massachusetts. Lindsey Graham is a Republican senator from South Carolina.

Republican senator backs climate-change effort
By Andy Sullivan | Reuters
Sunday, October 11, 2009; 3:35 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prospects for climate-change legislation in Congress improved on Sunday when a Republican senator broke ranks with his party to outline a compromise with a leading Democrat on the issue.