Hill Heat

This webcasted panel discussion will examine opportunities for U.S. businesses and others to invest in energy efficient and renewable energy projects in Ukraine using the mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol. The panelists will review opportunities for reducing energy waste in Ukraine’s major end-use energy sectors as well as the status and near-term potential for developing Ukraine’s solar, wind, biomass/biofuels, small hydro, geothermal, and coal-mine methane resources.

Panelists

• Brian Castelli – Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Alliance to Save Energy
• John Palmisano – Chairman, IE3
• Rich Rosenzweig – Chief Operating Officer, Natsource
• Ken Bossong – Co-Director, Ukrainian-American Environmental Association

(biographical information on each of the four panelists follows below)

This event, being co-sponsored by the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation and The Washington Group, will be broadcast live on-line in English.

Persons planning to attend in person should arrive by 11:50 am

• (Ukrainian Time: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm)

U.S.-Ukraine Foundation 1701 “K” Street NW Suite #903 Washington, DC 20006

TO SUBMIT QUESTIONS ON-LINE: Questions for the panelists can be e-mailed either in advance or during the discussion to [email protected]. Please type “Kyoto/Energy Panel” in the “subject” line.

TO REGISTER AND FOR MORE INFORMATION: For On-Site Attendance, RSVPs Required. Lunch will be served. Space is Limited.

RSVP by email to: [email protected].

The presentation will be broadcast live online. To register to watch online, please visit this link and follow the instructions.

19/03/2008 at 12:00PM

Witnesses

• C.H. “Bud” Albright Jr., Under Secretary of Energy
• Alexander Karsner, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
• James Slutz, Acting Principal Deputy, Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy
• Kevin Kolevar, Director, Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability

11/03/2008 at 10:00AM

With prices for oil and gas higher than ever, energy independence is at the forefront of almost everyone’s mind. When your constituents ask you how they can take charge of their energy future while decreasing their monthly electric bills, what do you tell them? In some states model interconnection and net metering laws help individuals and businesses become a part of the solution, but in too many parts of the country the opportunities for renewable energy investment and green job growth are held up by nothing more than senseless policy barriers.

Representatives Jay Inslee and Roscoe Bartlett invite you to attend a briefing by the authors of “Freeing the Grid,” a report that details America’s patchwork of policies that make some states leaders in the booming renewable energy industry, while other states are left behind. You will learn how good net-metering and interconnection policies can help America develop a world-class renewable energy market, strengthen our domestic economy, protect our climate and our environment, increase electric grid stability, and reduce our dependence on costly peak energy.

Our panel of experts will also address how federal legislation, like the Home Energy Generation Act (H.R. 729) can address the problems, remove discrepancies between state policies and invigorate renewable energy deployment in your state AND throughout America.

Panelists include:

• James Rose, Network for New Energy Choices (NNEC)
• Chris Cook, SunEdison
• Adam Browning, The Vote Solar Alliance

We hope that you or a member of your staff can attend, and we look forward to seeing you there. For more information, contact Liz Mustin at [email protected] or 202-225-6311.

04/03/2008 at 02:00PM

The Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC 2008) will bring together government, civil society and private business leaders to address the benefits and costs of a major and rapid scale-up in the global deployment of renewable energy technology.

WIREC Participants can expect to:

• Acquire a better understanding of the benefits of large-scale renewable energy deployment on energy security, climate change, air quality and economic growth.
• Gain an appreciation of the multiple policy options and best practices that encourage and enable accelerated renewable energy up-take.
• Develop networks and find partners to explore and initiate renewable energy projects.

These three objectives will be woven into WIREC’s four cross-cutting and policy driven themes: Agriculture and Rural Development ; Technology/Research and Development ; and Market Adoption and Finance.

04/03/2008 at 08:30AM

The American Solar Energy Society unveiled a new report today in a briefing with Sen. Ken Salazar that says that 40 million U.S. jobs by 2030 in renewable energy and energy-efficiency (RE&EE) could be created if policymakers commit to growing the sector.

If U.S. policymakers aggressively commit to programs that support the sustained orderly development of RE&EE, the news gets even better. According to research conducted by the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) and Management Information Services, Inc. (MISI), the renewable energy and energy efficiency industry could—in a crash effort—generate up to $4.5 trillion in revenue in the United States and create 40 million new jobs by the year 2030. These 40 million jobs would represent nearly one out of every four jobs in 2030, and many would be jobs that could not easily be outsourced.

Continue reading for more excerpts.

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) and the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) invite you to a briefing at which a groundbreaking new report will be released entitled Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency: Economic Drivers for the 21st Century. This report from ASES is the nation’s first comprehensive study of the tremendous economic impact of these industries. It aims to answer the questions: how big are the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries and how large are they forecasted to grow? How many jobs and what types of jobs do they create? What are the economic development implications? The briefing will address these questions, as well as provide a special case study, and explore the important policy implications of this powerful research.

Speakers

• Sen. Ken Salazar, (D-CO), Member, Senate Energy and Natural Resources, Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, and Finance Committees
• Brad Collins, Executive Director, American Solar Energy Society
• Drew McCracken, Director, Washington Office of the State of Ohio
• Roger Bezdek, Ph.D, President, Management Information Services, Inc.

While policymakers consider how to tackle climate change and energy policy, the study to be released shows that renewable energy and energy efficiency can offer the economic opportunity of the century – but only if we take advantage of this huge opportunity. Today, these industries generate 8.5 million jobs and nearly $1 trillion in annual revenue in the United States, and they contain some of the fastest growing sectors in the economy. Among the study’s findings are: if the country fails to invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency, it runs the risk of losing ground to global competitors. If policy and regulatory barriers to the sustained development of the industry are not addressed now, other countries like Germany, Denmark, and China will take the lead and reap the economic benefits. However, this new report also illustrates the tremendous opportunity for the United States to harvest these green collar jobs and how these industries, with the correct support, are poised to be economic powerhouses for the 21st century.

This briefing is free and open to the public. No RSVP required. For more information, contact Neal Lurie at the American Solar Energy Society at [email protected] or 303.443.3130×105 or Leanne Lamusga- EESI, [email protected] or 202-662-1884.

08/11/2007 at 10:30AM

At today’s markup of Lieberman Warner (S 2191), changes were made to win the support of Sen. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), ensuring passage by a 4-3 vote (Sanders, Isakson, and Barrasso voting no) to send the bill to the full Committee on Environment and Public Works.

The changes, according to CQ:

• Extending the scope of the bill to cover all emissions from the use of natural gas. The introduced bill covered natural gas burned in power plants and industrial processes but not in commercial and residential buildings.
• Requiring the EPA to make recommendations to Congress based on periodic reports from the National Academy of Sciences. The bill already would direct the academy to evaluate whether changes in the law are necessary, based on the state of the environment and available technology.

These were two of the four specific changes called for by NRDC at the initial hearing on the bill.

Amendments were introduced by Sen. Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Barrasso (R-Wyo.). Changes made by amendments adopted at the markup:

• Advanced tech auto funding limited to vehicles with minimum of 35 mpg (Sanders 3)
• More allocations given to states, taken from international forest protection (Barrasso 4)
• Definition of lower-rank coal eligible for 25% of CCS funding changed from “for example, bituminous and lignite” to coal with a heat content below 10000 BTU/lb (Barrasso 3)

Sen. Isakson reiterated his passion for nuclear power, and Barrasso argued for stronger coal subsidies, a sentiment supported by Sen. Baucus. Lautenberg compared their role to that of doctors faced with a sick patient who could become terminal, asking why anyone would withhold the necessary medicine. The Senators often laughed about their needs to compromise and balance each others’ parochial interests.

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) invites you to learn about the extensive biomass resources that are available in every state and region of the country to be tapped for sustainable production of electric power and heat. In 2005, bioenergy was the largest component of renewable electricity production in the nation, comprising 56 percent of all renewable electricity and 1.3 percent of total electricity. This percentage can be increased significantly since each state has important biomass resources that can be utilized sustainably to produce clean, renewable, domestic energy right now. Despite the skepticism of its opponents, bioenergy has the potential to sustainably reduce greenhouse gas emissions, boost rural economies, provide jobs, revitalize rural communities, support farming, and implement sustainable forest stewardship.

Speakers for this event include:

• Larry Biles, Executive Director, Southern Forest Research Partnership
• Robert H. Davis, President, Forest Energy Corporation/Member, Future Forest, LLC.
• Dr. David Bransby, Professor of Energy Crops and Bioenergy, Auburn University
• Robert E. Cleaves, President, Cleaves and Company/Member, USA Biomass Power Producers Alliance

31/10/2007 at 02:30PM

On July 30, Speaker Pelosi set the agenda for her energy independence initiative, which she had originally hoped to complete by July 4th. The legislative package will be introduced to the floor in two parts:

• the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2007 (HR 2776) from the Ways and Means Committee, reported out at the end of June
• and the New Direction for Energy Independence, National Security, and Consumer Protection Act (HR 3221), which needs to be signed off by the relevant committees

HR 2776 provides tax incentives for renewable electricity production, biofuels, efficient appliances, plug-in hybrids, and renewable energy bonds. It pays for these incentives buy reducing oil and gas royalties and closing the “Hummer” tax loophole.

HR 3221 is a wide-ranging omnibus, under the jurisdiction of the following committees:

• Education and Labor (Title I: green jobs)
• Foreign Affairs (Title II: foreign assistance and trade)
• Small Business (Title III: small business sustainability initiative)
• Science and Technology (Title IV: research funding—HR 364, HR 906, HR 1933, HR 2773, HR 2774, HR 2304, HR 2313)
• Agriculture (Title V: biofuels)
• Oversight and Government Reform (Title VI: carbon-neutral government)
• Natural Resources (Title VII: Energy Policy Act of 2005 reforms, changes in oil and gas royalties, wind energy, CCS, wildlife, oceans)
• Transportation and Infrastructure (Title VIII: public transportation, highways, shipping, public buildings)
• Energy and Commerce (Title IX: appliance, lighting, and building efficiency, smart grid, renewable fuel infrastructure, plug-in hybrids)
• Armed Services (it’s unclear which components are under its jurisdiction)

All amendments to HR 3221 must be introduced by Wednesday afternoon. The Rules Committee will convene Thursday at 3 PM to establish the debate rules and timetable.

After the amendment process and ratification, the package will then go into conference to be reconciled with the Senate energy bill, SA 1502, passed mid-June.

The House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, led by Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA), will hold an oversight hearing on “Renewable Energy Opportunities and Issues on Federal Lands: Review of Title II, Subtitle B – Geothermal Energy of EPAct.” Other renewable programs and proposals for public resources will also be discussed.

Witnesses:

Panel 1

• Mr. Jim Hughes, Director, Bureau of Land Management
• Professor Jeff Tester, Chair, MIT Climate Change Panel
• Mr. Daniel Kunz, President, US Geothermal Inc.
• Mr. Paul Thomsen, Public Policy Administrator, ORMAT Nevada

Panel 2

• Mr. Randall Swisher, Executive Director, American Wind Energy Association
• Mr. Robert Gough, Secretary, Intertribal Council on Utility Policy
• Ms. Lynn Jungwirth, Executive Director, The Watershed Research and Training Center
• Mr. Joshua Bar-Lev, Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, Bright Source Energy
• Mr. Will Lutgen, Jr., Executive Director, Northwest Public Power Association

19/04/2007 at 02:00PM