Current energy security challenges
Representatives from the Center for American Progress, the Energy Security Leadership Council and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are among the witnesses.
Investing in Green Technology as a Strategy for Economic Recovery
- Thomas Friedman, Pulitzer Prize winning author
- John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB)
Approaching Midnight: Oversight of the Bush Administration's Last-Minute Rulemakings
A panel of environmental and regulatory experts will discuss the ramifications of these last-minute rulemakings at a hearing next Thursday before Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
The Select Committee recently released a report detailing these frightening possible significant regulatory rule changes by the Bush administration in its final days. The report is entitled “Past is Prologue: For Energy and the Environment, the Bush Administration’s Last 100 Days Could Rival the First 100.” It highlights the major issues the public and the media should look out for in the closing days of an administration that possesses a sharp deregulatory bent.
Investments in clean energy and natural resources projects and programs to create green jobs and to stimulate the economy
Witnesses
Panel 1- Bracken Hendricks, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
- Kevin Book, Senior Analyst and Senior Vice President, Friedman Billings Ramsey & Company, Inc.
- Malcolm Woolf, Director, Maryland Energy Association
- Joe Loper, Vice President of Policy and Research, Alliance to Save Energy
- Steve Hauser, Vice President, GridPoint
- Dr. Cassandra Moseley, Director of the Ecosystem Workforce Program, Institute for Sustainable Environment, University of Oregon
- Mark Limbaugh, Former Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, U.S. Department of the Interior
- Denis Galvin, Former Deputy Director, National Park Service
Energy independence implications of the auto bailout proposal
As Congress considers a multi-billion dollar program of loans to America’s auto industry, many measures of success or failure exist for the industry and the government’s attempts to help the automakers. Chief among those measures of success is how effectively America’s auto industry, and the industry as a whole, is transformed to build cars for the future that reduce our dependence on oil. Will the auto industry meet the fuel economy rules passed by Congress and signed into law nearly a year ago, which could revitalize the industry? Should American taxpayers expect even higher fuel economy performance in return for their investment of additional billions in loans? Do the auto companies’ plans impair their ability to meet the current fuel economy regime?
A panel of auto industry and fuel economy experts will discuss these issues and other energy implications of the automotive industry loan program at a hearing tomorrow before Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. Chairman Markey authored the House language that became the current fuel economy standards of at least 35 mile per gallon by 2020.
Today an analysis of the car companies’ own data revealed that General Motors and Ford are now positioned to comply with California’s landmark global warming standards if they are applied nationwide, which could represent a significant increase in fuel economy. According to the analysis of the companies’ data released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the two major automakers are in a position to meet the California global warming tailpipe standards. This analysis is important because some lawmakers in the House and Senate have proposed imposing a condition on the auto bailout that would grant the California waiver or prohibit the automakers from fighting the waiver in court or in state legislatures.
Witnesses- Joan Claybrook, President, Public Citizen
- Reuben Munger, Chairman and Co-founder, Bright Automotive
- Dr. Peter Morici, Professor of International Business, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland
- Geoff Wardle, Director of Advanced Mobility Research, Art Center College of Design
- Richard Curless, Chief Technical Officer, MAG Industrial Automation Systems
A National Carbon Tax: Another Option for Carbon Pricing
You are invited to a briefing which will discuss a phased-in, revenue-neutral national carbon tax as a policy option for addressing climate change. This briefing is sponsored by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), the Carbon Tax Center, the Climate Crisis Coalition, Friends Committee on National Legislation and Friends of the Earth.
The briefing will focus on the environmental, economic, economic-efficiency, logistical and political benefits of a national carbon tax, particularly one that is phased-in and revenue-neutral. Many economists have called for enactment of a carbon tax as the simplest, easiest to administer and most transparent approach to carbon pricing, despite the conventional wisdom that a “cap and trade” regime is key to a political consensus.
Speakers for this event include:
- Rep. John B. Larson (D-CT)
- James Hansen, PhD, Director, Goddard Institute of Space Studies, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- James Hoggan, British Columbia Public Affairs Advisor; Chair, David Suzuki Foundation
- Gilbert Metcalf, PhD, Professor of Economics, Tufts University; Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research
- Robert Shapiro, PhD, Co-Founder and Chairman, Sonecon; former U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs
- Brent Blackwelder, President, Friends of the Earth (Moderator)
Issues to be discussed include:
- The need for carbon emissions pricing
- Relative time frames for implementing a carbon tax and a carbon cap and trade system
- Revenue-neutrality vs. targeted investment
- Revenue tax-shift vs. revenue distribution via “dividends”
- Potential implications for cap and trade from the financial crisis
- Lessons from Canada’s recent national election which turned, in part, on a carbon tax proposal, and from British Columbia’s carbon tax which took effect in July 2008
This briefing is free and open to the public. No RSVP required. For more information, please contact James Handley at (202) 546-5692 or [email protected], Charles Komanoff at (212) 260-5237 or [email protected], or Laura Parsons at (202) 662-1884 or [email protected].
Biodiversity in a Rapidly Changing World
Biodiversity in a Rapidly Changing World
Since the biodiversity issue burst on the scene with the 1986 National Forum on Biodiversity, there has been a burgeoning of conservation efforts, organizations, research, education and related activities. Despite many successes, the overall situation is much more precarious today. The driving forces of increased human population, consumption, habitat destruction and degradation, contaminants, and invasive species have been joined by dangerous global climate disruption, globalization, poverty, political instability and other rapid environmental and social changes. Paradoxically, the biodiversity issue has largely fallen off the public agenda, pushed in part by the increased attention to climate change.
There is an urgent need for scientists, conservationists and policymakers to re-examine the biodiversity issue. We must both look retrospectively at a quarter-century of “modern” conservation efforts – what has worked well and what hasn’t, but also prospectively at the greater challenges of the next quarter-century. We need to look broadly at the many scientific discoveries and the many issues involving the use, abuse and conservation of biodiversity including cultivated as well as wild species and ecosystems.
The NCSE conference will bring together some 1000 scientists, conservationists and policymakers to develop a strategy to guide a new US Administration and others working to conserve biodiversity around the world. It will develop an approach for biodiversity management and conservation in a 21st century context, including
- Strategies for Biodiversity, Conservation and Sustainable Utilization
- Scientific Needs for Understanding Biodiversity Values, Losses and Consequences
- Expanding Understanding: Information, Education and Communication
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC Metro: Federal Triangle (orange/blue line)
Green Recovery
At a time of fiscal belt tightening, when some would put environmental priorities on the back burner, there are many who believe that investing in a green economy now is the best way to achieve both short and long term economic solutions. A recent paper by the Center for American Progress and the University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute, “Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low Carbon Economy,” finds that to promote economic mobility, growth, job creation, and regain technological leadership in the global innovation marketplace, we must fundamentally change how we produce and consume energy in this country and transform our economy to a low-carbon model. Investing in clean energy and efficiency will enable the United States to regain technological leadership in the global innovation marketplace, grow our economy, reduce global warming emissions, and invest in national security.
Please join the Center for American Progress and three of the country’s leading advocates for investments in a green economy for a discussion on how each step of an economic recovery package (stabilization, stimulus, recovery, and growth) can be greened, and explore both national and state perspectives on policy solutions towards transforming our economy to a low-carbon model.
Copies of Hot, Flat, and Crowded will be available for purchase at the event.
Introduction by:- Joseph Romm, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
- Governor Ed Rendell (D – PA)
- Thomas Friedman, columnist, New York Times; author, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America
- Carol Browner, Principal, The Albright Group LLC
- Bracken Hendricks, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Moving Cooler: Leveraging Transportation to Fight Climate Change
Day 1: Cooler Heads Prevailing
Background Briefings on Facts, Trends, Policy and Politics
9:40-10:00: U.S. Transportation Policy – Survey of ISTEA-SAFETEA-LU
- Michael Replogle: Environmental Defense
10:00-10:10: Break
10:10-11:00 Where Are We Going? – Demographic, market and policy trends changing the context for transportation * Chris Leinberger: Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Center; University of Michigan; and- Rob Puentes: Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Center
11:00-12:15: Tools for Shaping a Low Carbon Transportation Future Panel Discussion and Q & A
Growing Cooler – smart growth and transit- Geoff Anderson: Smart Growth America; Transportation for America
- Kevin Mills: Rails to Trails Conservancy
- Leslie Barras: ITS America
- Mike McKeever: Sacramento Area Council of Governments
12:15-1:30: Lunch
Lunch speaker – New Vision for American Transportation (12:45-1:30)- Jannette Sadik-Kahn: New York City Department of Transportation
1:30-3:00: Politics and Policy: Transportation and Climate
1:30-1:50: Policy in Brief: A summary of action to date at the state and federal level- Marty Spitzer: Center for Clean Air Policy
- Amy Scarton, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
- Susan Binder: Committee on Environment and Public Works
- Don Ross: Transportation for America
- Art Guzzetti: American Public Transportation Association
- Polly Trottenberg: Building America’s Future
- Joshua Shank: Bipartisan Policy Center
- Bill Ankner: American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
3:30-3:45: Break
3:45-5:30: What’s the Vision: A Proposal for the Green Groups and CLEAN
3:45-4:45: Proposal for Platform, with Group Discussion- Colin Peppard: Friends of the Earth
- David Burwell
- Deron Lovaas: Natural Resources Defense Council
5:30-???: Happy Hour
The Pew Environment Group
1025 F Street NW, 9th Floor
Washington, DC 20004
Telephone: (202) 552-2000
EcoTuesday
EcoTuesday is the Sustainable Business Leaders Networking Forum.
This month’s speaker:
- Lynn Miller
What’s The Big deal about Social Media? Miller Strategic Marketing LLC
Lynn Anne Miller is Marketing Maven at Miller Strategic Marketing LLC where she helps organic, green and tech companies navigate marketing and strategy challenges. Lynn is also the creator and voice of the blog OrganicMania, your guide to making sense of healthy green living.
Location:
Tabaq Lounge @ Cafe Tabaq 1336 U St NW Washington, DC, 20009
RSVP here