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Posts Tagged ‘Obama’

MARK CLAYTON, The Christian Science Monitor, September 17, 2009
With demands on US ocean resources control growing quickly, the Obama administration today outlined a new comprehensive ocean management plan to guide federal agencies in restoring and protecting a badly stressed US coastal and ocean environment.
Today’s policy shift proposed by the president’s Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force [...]

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ALAN OHNSMAN and MAKIKO KITAMURA, Bloomberg, August 12, 2009
Honda Motor Co. is backing hydrogen power for the cars of the future, a stance at odds with the Obama administration’s decision to drop automotive fuel-cell technology in favor of battery-run vehicles.
“Fuel-cell cars will become necessary,” said Takashi Moriya, head of Tokyo-based Honda’s group developing the technology. [...]

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Grist via Agence France-Presse, August 6, 2009
President Barack Obama Wednesday unveiled a $2.4 billion funding boost for the development of new generation electric vehicles and slammed critics of his economic rescue plans.
The president traveled to a jobs crisis blackspot in the economically struggling midwestern state of Indiana to announce a plan he said would create [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, June 17, 2009
The West has been at the forefront of the country’s development and implementation of renewable energy technologies, leading the way in passing effective Renewable Portfolio Standards and harnessing the region’s significant renewable energy resources. The initiatives announced at the recent annual western governors’ meeting offered a collaboration of federal and state efforts [...]

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Electric Light & Power, June 11, 2009
As the Obama administration shapes its policy on transmission planning, siting and cost allocation, the Large Public Power Council (LPPC) has sent a joint letter voicing its transmission policy views and concerns to Energy Secretary Chu, Interior Secretary Salazar, Agriculture Secretary Vilsack, FERC Chairman Wellinghoff, White House Council on [...]

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LES BLUMENTHAL, The Bellingham Herald, May 30, 2009
The Obama administration has proposed a 25% cut in the research and development budget for one of the most promising renewable energy sources in the Northwest – wave and tidal energy. At the same time the White House sought an 82% increase in solar power research funding, [...]

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Editor’s Note:  On September 21, 2009 FERC Commissioner Suedeen Kelly declined a nomination to serve a second term on the panel. Kelly, a Democratic commissioner nominated by President Obama, said she was leaving her post for the private sector.  A FERC spokeswoman said Kelly would remain in her seat until Congress adjourns later this year.
In [...]

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Ocean Energy Council, March 17, 2009
Researchers in Dania Beach, Fla., landed almost $1.2 million in a federal grant to continue working on an underwater turbine prototype that will use ocean currents to generate power.
Researchers at Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Center for Ocean Energy Technology (COET) joined Rep. Ron Klein, D-Fla., today to announced the funding [...]

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EVAN LEHMANN, The New York Times, March 17, 2009
The oceans might not be big enough for sharp-elbowed renewable energy developers. Aspiring power producers are claiming sweeping stretches of sea along the East Coast, sometimes overlapping each other and igniting modern-day allegations of “claim jumping.”
Open water miles from shore is the newest frontier for prospectors, as [...]

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H. JOSEF HEBERT, The Associated Press, March 16, 2009
While the Obama administration has touted offshore renewable energy development, a turf fight between two federal agencies has stymied the government’s ability to issue rules needed to approve wind energy projects off America’s coasts.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday the infighting has got to stop.
“It will be resolved,” Salazar said [...]

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MARSHA W. JOHNSTON, RenewableEnergyWorld.com, March 2009
One hundred and forty-one years ago, the relentless sea off Scotland’s coast inspired the following observation from native son and author George MacDonald:
I climbed the heights above the village, and looked abroad over the Atlantic. What a waste of aimless tossing to and fro! Gray mist above, full of falling [...]

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CHRIS NEWKUMET, Platts.com, March 9, 2009
US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member Joseph Kelliher on Monday said he will leave the agency March 13.
Kelliher was chairman of FERC from July 9, 2005, until January 22, 2009, and has served at the commission since November 20, 2003.
Just before the inauguration of President Barack Obama, Kelliher announced he [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, February 14, 2009
Acting Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Jon Wellinghoff recently published Facilitating Hydrokinetic Energy Development Through Regulatory Innovation. 
Consider it required reading as a backgrounder on US wave energy policy development, FERC’s position on the MMS in renewables and FERC’s perceived role as a government agency in renewable energy, specifically marine energy, development.
Missing from this key [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent from Platts Energy Podium, February 12, 2009
The recently approved Economic Stimulus Plan includes expanding the US electric transmission grid and this may be the just the start of what will be a costly effort to improve reliability and deliver renewable energy to consumers from remote locations, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Acting Chairman Jon [...]

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DANIEL B. WOOD, The Christian Science Monitor, February 11, 2009
Less than a month into his administration, President Obama is making good on campaign promises to move toward a comprehensive approach to US energy and to broaden environmental protections. The administration has moved over the past few weeks to undo many of Bush’s last-minute drilling and [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, February 11, 2009
President Obama chose two Silicon Valley notables as members of his new Economic Recovery Advisory Board.  The 15-member board shall advise Obama on decisions about the US economy and announced to spur Congress into passing legislation for his economic stimulus plan.
President Obama said he created a panel of outside advisers to enlist [...]

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KATE GALBRAITH, The New York Times, February 4, 2009
Wind and solar energy have been growing at a blistering pace in recent years, and that growth seemed likely to accelerate under the green-minded Obama administration. But because of the credit crisis and the broader economic downturn, the opposite is happening: installation of wind and solar power is plummeting.
Factories [...]

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SUSAN CHAMBERS, The World, February 4, 2009
Coos Bay, Oregon — The jobs are coming, so Ocean Power Technologies insists.
OPT spokesman Len Bergstein said Monday the company wants to get stimulus funds from the federal government.
“We have a strong interest in presenting a project that would be jobs-ready right now,” Bergstein said.
OPT wants to get a [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, January 29, 2009
At his first White House press conference, President Obama declared “the days of Washington dragging its heels are over” and ordered an immediate review of the Bush administration’s refusal to give California authority to enforce tougher emission and fuel efficiency standards on gas and diesel automobiles.
For more than two years California [...]

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Editors Note:  On May 11, 2009, PG&E pulled-out of Mendocino WaveConnect, read it here: http://tinyurl.com/qwlbg6 . The remains of the $6M are now solely allocated to Humboldt WaveConnect.
MendoCoastCurrent, January 29, 2009
PG&E caught a major renewable energy wave today as the California Public Utilities Commission approved $4.8 million in funding their centerpiece wave energy [...]

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STEPHEN POWER, The Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2009
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar indicated Tuesday that the Obama Administration could be open to expanded offshore drilling and is considering doing away with a controversial program that allows oil companies to pay in kind for oil and natural gas taken from public lands.
Salazar inherited a Bush Administration [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, January 28, 2009
To Keep Momentum, AWEA Calls for Quick Approval of the Obama Stimulus Package
The massive growth in 2008 swelled the nation’s total wind power generating capacity by 50% and channeled an investment of some $17 billion into the economy, positioning wind power as one of the leading sources of new power generation in [...]

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SCOTT DUKE HARRIS and MATT NAUMAN, San Jose Mercury News, January 27, 2009
As President Barack Obama and Congress hammer out an economic stimulus package expected to be in the $825 billion range, Silicon Valley clean tech leaders are heartened by an energy agenda that starts with an emphasis on “smart grid” technologies that encourage energy [...]

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CASSANDRA PROFITA, The Daily Astorian, January 26, 2009
In a move eagerly anticipated by liquefied natural gas opponents on the North Coast of Oregon, President Barack Obama has named Jon Wellinghoff acting chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
“The move, together with likely changes to the board’s makeup in the coming months and pending challenges to [...]

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PRESTON GRALLA, GreenerComputing.com, January 22, 2009
In a briefing to the Obama transition team in December, IBM CEO Samuel J. Palmisano recommended that Obama require that all federal data centers go green in three years.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Obama advisers had asked IBM shortly after the election to give a briefing about what impact [...]

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JANE KAY, San Francisco Chronicle, January 17, 2009
The U.S. Interior Department, acting in President Bush’s final days in office, proposed on Friday opening up 130 million acres off of California’s coast to drilling for oil and natural gas, including areas off Humboldt and Mendocino counties and from San Luis Obispo south to San Diego.
After a [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, January 17, 2009
Here’s the post from MendoCoastCurrent in the Citizen’s Briefing Book at President-elect Barack Obama’s change.gov site:
Renewable Energy Development (RED) federal task force
Immediately establish and staff a Renewable Energy Development (RED) federal task force chartered with exploring and fast-tracking the development, exploration and commercialization of environmentally-sensitive renewable energy solutions in solar, wind, wave, green-ag, et [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, January 17, 2009
Today at the Citizen’s Briefing Book at President-elect Barack Obama’s change.gov site, I shared this:
Renewable Energy Development (RED) federal task force
Immediately establish and staff a Renewable Energy Development (RED) federal task force chartered with exploring and fast-tracking the development, exploration and commercialization of environmentally-sensitive renewable energy solutions in solar, wind, wave, green-ag, [...]

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JIM TANKERSLEY, LA Times, January 13, 2009
Senators celebrated Steven Chu today as a scientist, administrator and Nobel Prize winner. But in the hearing on his nomination as President-elect Barack Obama’s Energy secretary, Chu was cast in a new role: politician.
Under gentle questioning from the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the physicist and director of [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, January 8, 2009
Key President-elect Barack Obama renewable energy quotes from his January 8, 2009 speech to the U.S. Congress and citizens, on his top economic priorities as he takes office.
“. . .the first question that each of us asks isn’t ‘what’s good for me?’ but ‘what’s good for the country my children will inherit?”
On [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, January 7, 2009
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Joseph T. Kelliher today issued the following statement:
Today I announce my intention to step down as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), effective January 20, 2009. Although my term as commissioner does not end until 2012, I will also immediately begin to recuse myself from [...]

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DAVID EHRLICH, Earth2Tech/GigaOm, December 23, 2008
Ocean energy could have a big part to play under President-elect Barack Obama’s environmentally friendly administration, but a coalition that’s pushing for more wave and tidal power says change is needed to expand the number of projects in the U.S. Right now, there are only a handful of ocean energy projects [...]

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JANE KAY, The San Francisco Chronicle, December 29, 2008
The federal government is taking steps that may open California’s fabled coast to oil drilling in as few as three years, an action that could place dozens of platforms off the Sonoma, Mendocino and Humboldt coasts, and raises the specter of spills, air pollution and increased ship [...]

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Excerpts from article by FRANK HARTZELL, The Mendocino Beacon, December 24, 2008
On January 13, 2009, from 5-7p.m. at Fort Bragg Town Hall, a “top official from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will appear to explain the agency’s strategy on developing what it calls “hydrokinetic” power as an alterative energy source.
Ann F. Miles, FERC’s director [...]

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JOHN M. BRODER, The New York Times, December 18, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to lead the Interior Department, Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado, will inherit an agency demoralized by years of scandal, political interference and mismanagement.
He must deal with the sharp tension between those who seek to exploit public lands for energy, minerals and recreation and those [...]

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CYNTHIA THIELEN, The Star Bulletin, December 21, 2008
Rep. Cynthia Thielen represents the 50th District (Kailua-Kaneohe Bay) in the State House
An unusual consortium comprised of large utilities, environmental groups, energy think tanks and ocean energy developers has just written to President-elect Barack Obama about the tremendous potential of wave energy and the role it can play [...]

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MARGOT ROOSEVELT, The Los Angeles Times, December 12, 2008
California regulators adopted the nation’s first comprehensive plan to slash greenhouse gases on December 11th and characterized it as a model for President-elect Barack Obama, who has pledged an aggressive national and international effort to combat global warming.
The ambitious blueprint by the world’s eighth-largest economy would cut [...]

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ELIZABETH ROSENTHAL, The New York Times, December 11, 2008
Poznan, Polan — Senator John Kerry arrived at the United Nations climate conference here on Thursday and immediately reassured delegates that the United States would take strong measures to combat climate change.
“President Obama will be like night and day compared to President Bush,” Mr. Kerry, Democrat of [...]

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DEBORAH CHARLES, Reuters, December 10, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama’s team to address climate change emerged on Wednesday as Democratic officials said he had chosen a Nobel laureate for U.S. energy secretary and was likely to pick an environmental veteran to serve as coordinator of climate policies.
Announcements to come in the days ahead include several key environment-related [...]

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LORRAINE WOELLERT, Bloomberg, December 2, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama is considering a stimulus package that will include a heavy dose of spending on environmentally friendly projects aimed at creating “green-collar jobs” and saving energy.
While the package will focus on short-term outlays for traditional infrastructure projects to jumpstart an economy now officially declared to be in recession, [...]

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GERRY NORLANDER, Pulp Network, November 25, 2008
President-elect Obama has named Dr. Susan Tierney and Rose McKinney-James to his transition team for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which is organizationally within DOE.
Both appointees, former state utility commissioners of Massachusetts and Nevada, respectively, have a record of supporting electricity industry [...]

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KEVIN FERGUSON, The Information Week, November 24, 2008
Where is President-elect Barack Obama headed with environmental protection and renewable energy? The answer lies not so much in the encouraging but ultimately self-serving video posted on the transition team’s Web site, but rather on links elsewhere on the page. In particular, look at the appointment of senior transition [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, November 17, 2008
Announcements and short biographies of Obama’s Team Leads that oversee renewable energy policy development and associated agencies.
Energy and Natural Resources Team Lead
David J. Hayes is a member of the Obama-Biden Transition Project’s Agency Review Working Group responsible for the energy and natural resources agencies. He is former Global Chair of the Environment, [...]

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TODD WOODY, Green Wombat @ Fortune Magazine, November 13, 2008
The wind, solar and geothermal industries have wasted no time pressing the incoming Obama administration to implement an alternative energy agenda to spur investment and create jobs.
During a conference call Thursday, the leaders of the Solar Energy Industries Association, American Wind Energy Association and other trade [...]

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RYAN RANDAZZO, The Arizona Republic, November 12, 2008
Billionaire T. Boone Pickens said that his Texas wind farm is on hold because natural gas prices have dropped but that his plan for wind power and natural gas vehicles is still viable to reduce foreign oil imports.
The Texas oil tycoon spoke Tuesday to about 650 utility and [...]

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MARTIN LAMONICA, CNET, November 5, 2008
Energy and environmental policy is poised for dramatic change under an Obama administration even with a slumping economy.
With the incoming administration and Congress, renewable energy advocates and environmentalists said they anticipate a comprehensive national energy plan focused on fostering clean-energy technologies.
“The election is over. Now the hard work begins,” wrote [...]

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Publisher Note:  FERC Chairman Joseph T. Kelliher announced his resignation effective January 20, 2009.
GERRY NORLANDER, Pulp Network, November 5, 2008
With the election of a new president comes renewed speculation about leadership change at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in an Obama administration.
The president . . . can designate a new chairman, who generally will belong [...]

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MATT NAUMAN, San Jose Mercury News, September 27, 2008
Al Gore said in San Jose on Saturday that the climate crisis deserves the same type of attention and money from Washington that the financial meltdown is getting.
“Instead of a focus only on a bailout, we need to bail in renewable energy,” Gore said during a 50-minute [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, John Podesta, September 9, 2008
On September 9, 2008, the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank headed by John Podesta, former Chief of Staff to U.S. President Bill Clinton, published a report by entitled “Green Recovery: A New Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy.” This report may serve [...]

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FELICITY BARRINGER, The New York Times, August 27, 2008
Santa Barbara County became a symbol of the national environmental movement’s passionate opposition to offshore oil drilling when an oil spill devastated its coastline in 1969. On Tuesday, it became a symbol of the changing national mood as its board of supervisors debated whether to welcome new [...]

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PETER SLEVIN, The Washington Post, August 18, 2008
DENVER — When Colorado voters were deciding whether to require that 10% of the state’s electricity come from renewable fuels, the state’s largest utility fought the proposal, warning that any shift from coal and natural gas would be costly, uncertain and unwise.
Then a funny thing happened. The ballot [...]

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LARRY ROHTER, The New York Times, August 5, 2008
Senator Barack Obama altered his position on Monday to call for tapping the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower gasoline prices as he outlined an energy plan that contrasts with Senator John McCain’s greater emphasis on expanded offshore drilling and coal and nuclear technology.
In a speech here [...]

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LAURA MANDARO, MarketWatch, June 26, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO – California released a draft plan on Thursday to reduce the state’s projected greenhouse gas emissions by nearly one-third, in part by creating a cap and trade program that could serve as a blueprint for a national carbon emissions market.
The 77-page “climate change draft scoping plan” lays out [...]

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ED HENRY, RICHARD GREENE, BRIANNA KEILER, HUSSEIN SADDIQUE, ALI VELSHI, CNN, June 18, 2007
Washington — President Bush asked Congress Wednesday to permit drilling for oil in deep water off America’s coasts to combat rising oil and gas prices.
“There is no excuse for delay,” the president said in a Rose Garden statement.
Bush also renewed his demand [...]

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