Posted by Lane Burt in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment
Ah, Home Star – the legislative proposal that has eaten all my time over the last six months. What more is there to say? Creates jobs!…Slashes energy use!…Saves money! All of that was said today and more, during a hearing...
Posted by Lane Burt in Green Enterprise , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
My fellow efficiency advocates and I have spent countless hours over the last year negotiating with manufacturers of every appliance and piece of equipment imaginable, trying to reach agreements on what the next energy standards will look like. These standards...
Posted by Lane Burt in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee will hold a hearing today to discuss how Recovery Act funds are being spent, with an emphasis on the weatherization assistance program (WAP). The hearing is in response to a report from...
Posted by Lane Burt in Green Enterprise , Solving Global Warming
At Savannah Technical College today, President Obama gave us more information about the proposed Home Star program, also known as Cash for Caulkers. The idea behind this program defines the Washington cliché win-win because it will put contractors and other...
Posted by Lane Burt in Green Enterprise
On Tuesday morning, President Obama is expected to add details to a new program that will create jobs and cut needless energy consumption through home retrofits. This follows Obama’s request to Congress last week to create a new program to...
Posted by Lane Burt in Green Enterprise , Solving Global Warming
Today the New York Times highlighted the growing consensus around a national focus on retrofitting American homes to save money and create jobs, all tagged as "Cash for Caulkers". This is a great idea, and certainly not new (but the...
Posted by Lane Burt in Green Enterprise , Solving Global Warming
President Obama gave the "State of the Nation" address tonight and didn't disappoint. He continues to beat the drum for efficiency and display a big picture understanding of how we can improve our economic outlook and take urgent action on...
Posted by Lane Burt in Green Enterprise , Solving Global Warming
A few days ago I broke down the efficiency policies in play in the recovery bill and said, "...the best case scenario would be for Congress to adopt the House provisions in conference (with the exception of the Senate's version...
Posted by Lane Burt in Green Enterprise
No one says it better than the President. "...why would that be a waste of money?" He is referring to efficiency generally and specifically to federal buildings and home weatherization. He's right. It's not a waste of money. It's a...
Posted by Lane Burt in Green Enterprise , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment
I wrote last week about the joint proposal on efficiency in the economic recovery package from NRDC, the Alliance to Save Energy, Edison Electric Institute, and the Energy Future Coalition. I tried to link to some of the recent news...
Posted by Lane Burt in Green Enterprise , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
On December 19th, NRDC, the Alliance to Save Energy, the Edison Electric Institute, and the EnergyFuture coalition released a comprehensive plan to create jobs and save money through energy efficiency. Peter Lehner, our Executive Director, blogged extensively on the major...
Posted by Lane Burt in Green Enterprise , Solving Global Warming
The green group transition recommendations to the incoming administration were released today, and I want to highlight some of the pieces in the section dealing with the Department of Energy. There are three main issues in this section, detailing how...
Posted by Lane Burt in Green Enterprise
I just returned to DC after a couple of weeks of travel that culminated in attending Greenbuild, the annual conference from USGBC. Somewhere around 30,000 people were involved in this event, a mind-boggling total for a formerly fringe movement. Personally,...
