By Bill Sullivan
Green Right Now

Image: cleanenergyweek.org

Legislators wrestling with health care reform, job concerns and a spiraling federal deficit have another group vying for their attention in Washington this week. Thanks to a hastily thrown-together coalition, it’s Clean Energy Week, with environmental activists and business leaders descending on Capitol Hill to press for money for more and better green initiatives.

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From Green Right Now Reports

The Coalition of Legislators for Energy Action Now (CLEAN), a national bipartisan group of state legislators working with the White House to pass federal clean energy jobs legislation, sent a letter to members of the United States Senate today pressing for urgent action on pending clean energy jobs and climate change legislation.

The letter, signed by 1,198 state lawmakers from both parties and 49 states, seeks energy reform legislation that would meet three goals:

• Strengthen America’s national security by cutting dependence on foreign oil
• Grow jobs and economic opportunity to every state in the nation
• Protect the environment by major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions

“Until now, states have been carrying the torch on clean energy reform,” state Rep. Jeremy Kalin (D –Minnesota), the chair of CLEAN, said in a statement. “State legislators have led the way on growing clean energy jobs and addressing climate change. Our ‘Made-in-America’ clean energy solutions are the key to our economic prosperity and national security. It’s time for Congress to pick up the torch and lead America into the 21st-century clean energy economy.”

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From Green Right Now Reports

Miss America Pageant contestants have been known to be green with envy when the winner is announced, but how green are they the rest of the time?

GreenTwithTamara.TV is trying to find out.

The Web TV portal is running a contest to determine which Miss America contender best embodies the notion of “Green is Gorgeous.” Host Tamara Henry has interviewed all 53 contestants about what “being green” means to them. Voters can check out the answers by using an interactive map.

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Eric Thomas
More: Bio, E-mail, News Team

WASHINGTON (KGO) — President Barack Obama is urging Americans to make their homes more energy efficient to save money and create jobs. The president also wants Congress to give people tax incentives for making the upgrades.

The battered U.S. economy is still the bottom line for Obama. He told business leaders and workers Tuesday morning that making homes and businesses more energy efficient ought to be a priority for Congress, because it’s smart and, well, sexy.

“Here’s what’s sexy about it: saving money,” he said.

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From Green Right Now Reports

Anyone who has ever attended a rock concert knows what an un-green scene is often left when the music stops: litter, bottles or other containers and various other items left strewn about. Now concert promoter Live Nation and Houston-based Waste Management, Inc., are launching a Recycling Rocks campaign to promote and encourage recycling to millions of live music fans across the United States.

The two companies announced a multi-year agreement encompassing Live Nation’s venues, concerts, tickets and online platform. Under the agreement, Waste Management becomes the official waste services and recycling sponsor of 66 Live Nation venues across the country. Waste Management will provide waste assessments to help minimize waste and promote recycling at all Live Nation venues, including concessions and backstage areas. Waste Management said it anticipates developing more recycling and waste diversion programs for Live Nation throughout the course of their collaboration.

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Green Right Now Reports

Rallying for a clean energy bill in Massachussetts, noted climatologist Dr. James Hansen told students this weekend that they must take the future in their hands.

Massachusetts Sleep Out (Photo: Ian McClellan)

“Our universe is incredibly unjust and inequitable for young people and future generations. ” Dr. Hansen said. “Unless someone can change the direction, young people are really in trouble. Our governments are not taking actions or planning actions that will achieve this.”

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By Harriet Blake
Green Right Now

It’s not just environmental lobbyists who are gearing their words toward strong action at the upcoming Copenhagen climate change negotiations.

At a recent appearance in New Orleans, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, dubbed the “Green Patriarch” by Al Gore, minced no words about the urgency of addressing climate change:

“We have reached a defining moment in our history…the point where absolute limits to our survival are being reached,” and we “instead of living on income, or the available surplus of the earth, we are consuming environmental capital and destroying its resources as if there is no tomorrow.”

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Green Right Now Reports

Health reform has gripped your attention and dominated your computer and TV screens for weeks now.

In case you’ve got little time to spare to study up on climate legislation coming down the pike soon after this huge debate, the Pew Center on Global Climate Change has boiled it down to a summary report.

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By Abrahm Lustgarten
ProPublica

A version of this story appeared in the Albany Times-Union [1] on Oct. 8, 2009.

A preliminary report [2] from a consultant hired by New York City warns that “nearly every activity” associated with natural gas drilling could potentially harm the city’s drinking water supply and that while the risk can be reduced with strict regulations, “the likelihood of water quality impairment…. cannot be eliminated [2].”

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From Green Right Now Reports

In a nod to greener times, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the Congressional Record is now being printed on 100 percent recycled paper. The Speaker received her first environmentally friendly copy of the Congressional Record Friday from the U.S. Government Printing Office.

Each day the federal government’s General Printing Office produces 4,130 copies of the Congressional Record — despite the document’s availability online. But that number is down more than 75 percent from 1995 because of the Internet.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

January Jones, star of the Mad Men TV series and an ocean advocate, went to Washington this week to lobby for the Shark Conservation Act of 2009 and stronger US leadership for saving the ocean’s top predators.

“We should be scared FOR sharks, not of them,” said the Golden Globe nominee. “The survival of sharks and the health of our oceans depend on it.”

Jones met with various members of Congress, including Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.).

The actress, best known for her role as Betty Draper in the critically acclaimed Mad Men series on the American Movie Channel, became a spokesman for Oceana’s Save Sharks campaign earlier this year.

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By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

Four-time heavy weight boxing champion Evander Holyfield is ready for another fight. Except this time, he is fighting for the planet. Known as the Real Deal in the sports world, Holyfield will also be going by a new nickname, Lean Green Fighting Machine. Friday morning, Holyfield announced that in partnership with Global-NES-Georgia, Inc., he plans to build a 40 acre solar energy farm on his estate in Georgia.

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