Hill Heat

Speaker: Steven Chu, US Energy Secretary

Please join Platts reporters and other credentialed journalists as Energy Secretary Steven Chu remarks on the President’s American Recovery and Reinvestment plan. Chu was confirmed by the US Senate in January as the 12th energy secretary, after having been the director of DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. A scientist and co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997, Chu has devoted his recent career to the search for new solutions to energy challenges and stopping global climate change.

Please contact Nancy Covey at Platts at nancy_covey@platts.com.

Location: McGraw-Hill/Platts, Washington Office, 1200 G St., NW, Ste. 1000

On Tuesday, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) stood with fellow Democratic members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works to introduce principles for climate legislation, saying “We know that we have to act, and we intend to act.” David Axelrod, one of President Obama’s senior advisers, told E&E News that the effort by Congress to construct legislation to fight global warming is more than welcome:

We think that it’s healthy that there’s so much momentum in Congress to address this problem. It’s long overdue.

Boxer admitted that December is her working deadline for getting a bill “out of committee.” Other Senate chairs, including Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingman (D-NM) and Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) intend to weigh in on any legislation. “All of those committees,” Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told E&E News, “especially my old committee, EPW, have an important role to play for the Senate to produce a sound cap-and-trade bill that meets the president’s emission reductions objectives.”

At Climate Progress, Joe Romm therefore doubts climate legislation will be passed before 2010: “So this has to get through multiple Senate committees, pass the full Senate, be reconciled with whatever comes out of the House, and then pass both House and Senate again, and finally end up on Barack Obama’s desk.”

Meanwhile, President Obama continues to build a green-powered administration, with the selection of Robert Sussman and Lisa Heinzerling as senior EPA policy advisers, Todd Stern as the State Department climate envoy, climate justice leader Ron Sims as deputy secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and even new assistant White House chef Sam Kass, a strong supporter of local, sustainable, and healthy food.

On February 4th, the EPA and Department of Justice restarted a “national initiative, targeting electric utilities whose coal-fired power plants violate the law,” with a lawsuit against a Kansas utility whose coal-fired power plant has been in violation of the Clean Air Act for more than ten years. The case against Westar Energy had been held up by the Bush administration since 2003. A memo from Stephen Johnson’s deputy Marcus Peacock practically shut down all enforcement activity in 2005.

From the Wonk Room.

In a speech at the Department of Energy today, President Obama announced he was signing a memorandum to direct the department to issue new energy efficiency standards for common household appliances – something Secretary Steven Chu has highlighted in the past as a top priority. He also responded to critics who “ridiculed our notion that we should use part of the money to modernize the entire fleet of federal vehicles,” asking, “Are these folks serious?”

This is what they call “pork.” You know the truth. . . . So when you hear these attacks deriding something of such obvious importance as this, you have to ask yourself, “Are these folks serious?” Is there any wonder we haven’t had a real energy policy in this country?

Watch it:

Conservatives have attacked numerous efficiency initiatives in the recovery plan:

• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees
• $200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for use on military installations
• $5.5 million for “energy efficiency initiatives” at the Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration
• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into “green” buildings

As President Obama explained, federal fleet modernization “will not only save the federal government significant money over time, it will not only create manufacturing jobs for folks who are making these cars, it will set a standard for private industry to match.” This is as true for the green building efforts and other efficiency initiatives. Speaking to an audience of Department of Energy scientists, he concluded:

For the last few years, I talked about these issues with Americans from one end of this country to another. Washington may not be ready to get serious about energy independence, but I am and so are you and so are the American people.

Inaction is not an option that’s acceptable to me and it’s certainly not acceptable to the American people, not on energy, not on the economy, not at this critical moment.

In Obama’s words, it’s time for Congress “to rise to this moment.”

From the Wonk Room.

The Washington Post’s Al Kamen reports Center for American Progress senior fellow Robert Sussman “is returning to the Environmental Protection Agency” as “senior policy counsel to EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, advising her on climate and environmental issues across the agency.” An official announcement is expected shortly. Before joining the Center for American Progress, Sussman was the Deputy Administrator during the Clinton administration, serving under Carol Browner, now President Obama’s White House energy and environment adviser.

Sussman was a regular blogger for CAP’s Wonk Room, writing on the Mary Gade scandal, the Bush administration, and climate legislation. Sussman challenged the argument that laws like the Clean Air Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Endangered Species Act are not applicable to the threat of global warming:

The truth is that our environmental laws were not written to be static. They are flexible tools to address unanticipated or emerging problems that science identifies over time.

Sussman’s work for the Center for American Progress highlighted that approach. He crafted recommendations for regulatory and funding mechanisms to spur the development of carbon capture and sequestration technology for coal plants, “to reconcile reliance on coal for electricity with the need to reduce the threat of global warming.”

From the Wonk Room.

In his first interview as Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu “offered some of the starkest comments yet on how seriously President Obama’s cabinet views the threat of climate change, along with a detailed assessment of the administration’s plans to combat it.” Secretary Chu told the Los Angeles Times that the nation is like a family buying an old house and being told by an inspector that it must pay a hefty sum to rewire it or risk an electrical fire that could burn everything down>

I’m hoping that the American people will wake up.

Chu also worried the nation doesn’t yet recognize how great a threat global warming represents:

I don’t think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen.

One danger Chu highlighted in the interview was rising drought throughout the West, with major declines in the snowpack that waters California. In the worst case, Chu said:

We’re looking at a scenario where there’s no more agriculture in California. I don’t actually see how they can keep their cities going.

Chu described “public education as a key part of the administration’s strategy to fight global warming” – in addition to clean energy research, infrastructure, a national renewable electricity standard, and a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system.

Transforming the economy through environmental solutions — creating good jobs and exploring green technologies that reduce global warming and increase energy independence — is key to our future.

Solving global warming can now be centered on reinvigorating disadvantaged communities. The economy can be focused on buildups rather than bailouts. And the focus of energy independence will shift to clean energy and new technologies.

Connect with 2,000 government leaders and decision-makers, as well as business, labor and environmental organizations at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference for three days of exceptional educational programs, renowned speakers and extensive networking opportunities.

The 2009 Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference will alternate between plenary sessions and workshops. The plenary sessions will provide a stage for prominent national experts while the workshops will allow participants to explore new ideas and exchange best practices. The conference will focus on how solutions to environmental challenges can be used to drive economic development and create successful and profitable businesses.

Green Jobs Expo

• 8:00 a.m. Breakfast
• 8:30 a.m. Morning Keynote
• 9:30 a.m. Plenary Panel
• 10:45 a.m. Breakouts
• 12:00 p.m. (noon) Lunch
• 1:30 p.m. Keynote or Panel
• 2:30 p.m. Break
• 2:45 p.m. Breakouts
• 4:30 p.m. Keynote
• 6:00 p.m. Networking Reception

Location: Marriott Wardman Park

Transforming the economy through environmental solutions — creating good jobs and exploring green technologies that reduce global warming and increase energy independence — is key to our future.

Solving global warming can now be centered on reinvigorating disadvantaged communities. The economy can be focused on buildups rather than bailouts. And the focus of energy independence will shift to clean energy and new technologies.

Connect with 2,000 government leaders and decision-makers, as well as business, labor and environmental organizations at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference for three days of exceptional educational programs, renowned speakers and extensive networking opportunities.

The 2009 Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference will alternate between plenary sessions and workshops. The plenary sessions will provide a stage for prominent national experts while the workshops will allow participants to explore new ideas and exchange best practices. The conference will focus on how solutions to environmental challenges can be used to drive economic development and create successful and profitable businesses.

Schedule

• 7:30 a.m. Registration
• 9:00 a.m. Welcome
• 9:30 a.m. Morning Keynote
• 10:15 a.m. Plenary Panels
• 12:00 p.m. (noon) Lunch
• 1:00-6:00 p.m. Advocacy Day – Capitol Hill / Breakout sessions for those not participating in Advocacy Day

Location: Marriott Wardman Park

Wal-Mart, in partnership with the Wal-Mart Green Jobs Council (W-GJC), will host a briefing for Members of Congress, their staff, Congressional Committees, and the public on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 from 2:00 – 3:00 P.M. EST in the Cannon House Office Building Room 340 to discuss success stories in creating green jobs. The interactive panel will be moderated by Wal-Mart’s SVP for Sustainability, Matt Kistler, and will include:

• Chris Sultemeier, Senior Vice President Fleet and Transportation, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
• Kim Saylors-Laster, Vice President Energy, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
• Dan Lashof, PhD Director of the Climate Center, Natural Resources Defense Council
• Jackie Prince Roberts, Director of Sustainable Technologies, Environmental Defense Fund
• Susan Herndon, Vice President, Lennox Industries
• Chris Spain, Chairman of the Board and Chief Strategy Officer, Hydropoint Data Systems

The panel will build on the key findings of an October 2008 meeting of the Wal-Mart Green Jobs Council at which top companies identified the key catalysts and barriers to green job creation. Many other Wal-Mart executives will be available for discussion after the briefing, as well as several of the Wal-Mart Green Jobs Council participants representing leading suppliers in the fields of renewable energy, energy efficiency, transportation, waste reduction, and water efficiency.

RSVP by 12 P.M. on February 2 to Terrence Bogans at terrence.bogans@wal-mart.com

Senate Finance Committee member Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and House Energy and Commerce Committee member Jay Inslee, D-Wash., will join Laborers’ International Union general president Terence O’Sullivan, Sierra Club political director Cathy Duvall, and clean energy business leaders and workers for a news conference on Tuesday, February 3 at 11 a.m. ET at the United States Capitol to urge Congressional leaders to take bold action to create a new Green American Dream for working people by making sure the newly created green jobs are good jobs that can sustain families and fuel economic recovery.

Speakers will release a new report analyzing the varied quality of existing green jobs (some paying as little as $8.25 an hour), and urge Congress to take bold action to ensure that the major public investments in Congress’ economic recovery and reinvestment plan create a green economy that rebuilds the middle class and renews the American Dream for America’s workers.

The report release comes a day before hundreds of labor, environmental and business advocates go to Capitol Hill — on Wednesday, February 4 — for Green Jobs Advocacy Day to educate lawmakers about the job-creating opportunities that exist in the green economy.

Participants

• Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
• Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash.
• Terence O’Sullivan, general pres., LIUNA
• Cathy Duvall, political dir., Sierra Club
• Michael Peck, dir. Human Resources, Gamesa
• Dennis Wilde, Gerding Edlen Development
• David Foster, exec. dir., Blue Green Alliance
• Perrette Hopkins, trainee, Garden State Alliance for a New Economy