March 22nd, 2010

(In this piece, reprinted from a collection of essays assembled by the World Economic Forum, a Switzerland-based non-profit commited to improving the state of the world, U.S. Secretary of Energy argues that making buildings energy efficient can rack up substantial energy savings. Chu also discusses why businesses and individuals have previously failed to pick up on this opportunity.)

By Steven Chu

Steven Chu, U.S. Secretary of Energy

For the next few decades, energy efficiency is one of the lowest cost options for reducing US carbon emissions. Many studies have concluded that energy efficiency can save both energy and money. For example, a recent McKinsey report calculated the potential savings assuming a 7% discount rate, no price on carbon and using only “net present value positive” investments. It found the potential to reduce consumer demand by about 23% by 2020 and reduce GHG emissions by 1.1 gigatons each year — at a net savings of US$ 680 billion.

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August 4th, 2009

From Green Right Now Reports

As the economy shows early signs of picking back up, commentators are abuzz about whether the revival will be a “job less” recovery.

Green advocates hope the recovery with come not just with jobs, but with new employment in clean energy, alternative power and other green industries.

Green jobs will be back atop the agenda at the Clean Energy Summit 2.0 next Monday in Las Vegas. The second annual summit, again hosted by US Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and the Center for American Progress Action Fund has attracted a long list of dignitaries and green leaders.

Summit leaders announced today that former President Bill Clinton will attend, along with Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Others already on the list of those expected:

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February 25th, 2009

By John DeFore
Green Right Now

A high-powered conference on the future of energy in America was held Monday in Washington; while it produced some consensus about the foundation necessary to meet future needs, it suggested there might be conflicts ahead in getting there.

Attendees, who ranged from former president Bill Clinton to officials at state utilities, heard plenty about the necessity of a new “smart grid” capable of shuttling electricity cross-country from renewable sources like wind and solar farms to the high-density cities that need the juice.

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December 29th, 2008

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

For years, California has been a leader of environmental policy — writing it’s own stricter rules for pesticide controls, air pollution and waste disposal as it sees fit, regardless of whether the nation is following along.

In the 1990s, the state pushed the leading edge of a technology that many of us wish had been pursued more aggressively when it hosted a test of modern electric cars, a fairly successful experiment that was regrettably shoved into neutral by U.S. automakers.

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