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Energy Intensive Sectors, IT Industry to Receive Recovery Act Funds WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced plans to provide $256 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support energy efficiency improvements in major industrial sectors across the American economy. The funding is targeted at reducing the energy consumption of America's manufacturing and information technology (IT) industries, while creating jobs and stimulating economic growth. These programs will help create manufacturing jobs quickly, along with jobs for technicians and experts who will be needed in the long-term to maintain and operate the new equipment. "Supporting the development of the latest industrial technologies plays an important role in helping U.S. industry to lead the world in energy efficiency and productivity," said Secretary Chu. "Working together with American manufacturing and IT industries, we will be able to create new jobs, reduce industrial energy use and limit damaging greenhouse gas emissions."

Offshore areas along the U.S. coastline hold great potential for wind energy development as the resources are located near the nation's highest areas of electricity demand - coastal metropolitan centers, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said last week. "Yes, we can build a clean energy future, but it will require American energy, American ingenuity and American courage to tackle our dependence on foreign oil and the growing perils of climate change." -- U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar "More than three-fourths of the nation's electricity demand comes from coastal states and the wind potential off the coasts of the lower 48 states actually exceeds our entire U.S. electricity demand," Salazar told a summit meeting of 25X'25 America's Energy Future, a group working to lower America's carbon emissions.

I've got another guest post from Neil Howes up at TOD, this one proposing a rough plan for North AMerica to obtain 50% of its power from wind by 2030 - A North American Wind Energy Scenario. Would a "50% of electricity generated by wind scenario" work in North America by 2030? In this post, I make a rough cut estimate of what might be required to make such a transition in about 20 years time. Most proposals that are being made rely on a very big increase in carbon free energy, both to charge electric vehicles (EV's) and to replace oil and natural gas (NG) presently used for hot water and space heating. In this post, I lay out a path by which 50% of North American energy might come from wind by 2030, including replacement of a large share of oil and natural gas use by electricity. ... High quality wind resources (wind speeds greater than 6.9m/sec) in the US are estimated to be >5,500GWa, about x10 all of N America's present electricity production of 550GWa. Canada's potential appears to be similar or greater than the US, while Mexico's wind resources are more limited (these figures do not include deep offshore resources that could be harnessed by floating wind turbines or higher altitude wind resources that could potentially be harnessed by airborne wind turbines).

Our American way of life is unsustainable; rather than attempting to perpetuate it, we must transition beyond it-quickly. Should we fail to do so, our society will collapse-in the not-too-distant future… Message to mainstream America: our American way of life-300+ million people enjoying historically unprecedented living standards-has been enabled by our increasingly dysfunctional ecological and economic behavior over the past 200 years. Our existing way of life is therefore unsustainable; in fact, America is facing imminent societal collapse.

Will support energy efficiency efforts nationwide that will create 87,000 jobs and cut energy bills for families Washington DC -- Vice President Joe Biden and Energy Secretary Chu today detailed an investment of nearly $8 billion in state and local weatherization and energy efficiency efforts as part of the President's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. With an investment of about $5 billion through the Weatherization Assistance Program and about $3 billion for the State Energy Program, the Department of Energy will partner with state and local governments to put 87,000 Americans to work and save families hundreds of dollars per year on their energy bills. To jump-start job creation and weatherization work, the Department of Energy is releasing the first installment of the funding - about $780 million -- in the next few days. The Department will release additional funding over time as states demonstrate that they are using the funding effectively and responsibly to create jobs and cut energy use.

By office office office office office building green-and retrofitting existent buildings-the countries of North America could cut hothouse gas emissions by some-more than twenty-five percent North American homes, offices as good as alternative buildings minister an estimated 2. 2 billion tons of CO dioxide to a ambience each year-more than a single third of a continent's hothouse gas wickedness outlay. Simply constructing some-more energy-efficient buildings-and upgrading a insulation as good as windows in a existent ones-could save a whopping 1. 7 billion tons annually, says a brand brand new inform from a Montreal-based Commission for Environmental Cooperation( CEC), an general classification determined by Canada, Mexico as good as a U. S. underneath a North American Free Trade Agreement to residence continent-wide environmental issues.

American Standard- Climate Control System: ACONT900 7 Day Digital Programmable Thermostat

According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), US wind producers enjoyed another record year of growth in 2008-the third in a row. The country now has an installed wind power capacity well in excess of 21,000 megawatts (MW), enough to supply electricity to over 5.5 million American homes. According to Randall Swisher, AWEA Executive DIrector, "Wind energy installations are well ahead of the curve for contributing 20% of the U.S. electric power supply by 2030 as envisioned by the U.S. Department of Energy."

Vice President Joe Biden and Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced plans to invest $3.2 billion in energy efficiency and conservation projects in U.S. cities, counties, states, territories, and Native American tribes. The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program, funded by President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will provide formula grants for projects that reduce total energy use and fossil fuel emissions, and improve energy efficiency nationwide. "These investments will save taxpayer dollars and create jobs in communities around the country," said Vice President Biden. "Local leaders will have the flexibility in how they put these resources to work - but we will hold them accountable for making the investments quickly and wisely to spur the local economy and cut energy use."

On Thursday, while visiting Jefferson City, Mo., with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Vice President Joe Biden announced that, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, more than $3.3 billion in smart grid technology development grants and an additional $615 million for smart grid storage, monitoring, and technology viability were being made available. "By investing in updating the grid now, we will lower utility bills for American families and businesses, lessen our dependence on foreign oil and create good jobs that will drive our economic recovery-a strong return on our investment," Biden said.

It seems the new initiative would certainly become handy in the times of recession.

President Obama today announced over $467 million from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act to expand and accelerate the development, deployment, and use of geothermal and solar energy throughout the United States. The funding announced today represents a substantial down payment that will help the solar and geothermal industries overcome technical barriers, demonstrate new technologies, and provide support for clean energy jobs for years to come. Today's announcement supports the Obama Administration's strategy to increase American economic competiveness, while supporting jobs and moving toward a clean energy economy. "We have a choice. We can remain the world's leading importer of oil, or we can become the world's leading exporter of clean energy," said President Obama. "We can hand over the jobs of the future to our competitors, or we can confront what they have already recognized as the great opportunity of our time: the nation that leads the world in creating new sources of clean energy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy. That's the nation I want America to be."

BOYCOTT ALL LIBERAL MEDIA SPONSERS PASS IT ON

Twenty-five years ago, when I was CEO of Intel, I had an unusual experience while visiting a customer. It was during a period of tight availability of microprocessors, our main product. This was not an unusual state of affairs. Supply and demand ebbed and flowed as the computer business had its ups and downs. Sometimes we had too many chips sitting in inventory; other times, like this one, we had too few. My main purpose in visiting was to reassure the customer that we were working hard to boost production and that relief was on the way.

An MIT class has estimated the carbon emissions of Americans in a wide variety of lifestyles -- from the homeless to multimillionaires, from Buddhist monks to soccer moms --

The strangest and longest battle of the American West was fought not between early settlers and Indians but between two collectors of fossils. The Bone Wars, as the bitter clash became known, raged in the shadow of remote cliffs, in desert encampments, in university laboratories, and on the pages of academic journals.

A bunch of polls have come out that find the public supports strong climate action in spite of aggressive and widespread Republican fear-mongering about energy prices. For instance, the new Washington Post/ABC poll of 1,072 Americans (here) found: While majorities across the board support government regulation of greenhouse gases, it peaks among liberals (88%) and under 30s (80%), vs. 61% of conservatives and 64% of seniors. Support also ranges from 85% of Democrats, 65% "strongly," to 64% of Republicans, 39% strongly. Concern about its cost is broader, and stronger, among those who'd presumably be hit hardest - lower-income adults.