Hill Heat

On Wednesday, February 4, 2008, at 10:00 a.m., in room 2167 of the Rayburn House Office building, the Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment will receive testimony to gather information regarding various technologies and approaches for sustainable infrastructure in wastewater treatment facilities.

Full summary

• G. Tracy Mehan, III, Principal, The Cadums Group, Inc.
• Brian McLean, Director, Office of Atmospheric Programs, Office of Air and Radiaion, EPA
• Caterina Hatcher, National Manager, Energy Star, Public Sector, Office of Air and Radiation, EPA
• Rich Brown, Environmental Scientist, Environmental Energy Technologies Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• Jeanette A. Brown, Executive Director, Stamford Water Pollution Control Authority, Water Environment Federation
• Alan Zelenka, Consultant, Kennedy Jenks Consultants, Oregon Association of Clean Water Agencies
• Andrew Fahlund, Vice President for Conservation, American Rivers

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.

• 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.

• 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

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, will hold a press conference to release her principles for global warming legislation.

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) invites you to a briefing to discuss the opportunities for green jobs in the United States and the policies needed to support them. Amidst the growing global recession, debate among American policymakers is centering on the need to create well-paying, secure jobs and stimulate the national economy. At the same time, there is a call to reduce our dependence on foreign energy and our climate change-inducing greenhouse gas emissions. The renewable energy and energy efficiency industries can meet these needs, if bolstered by federal policy that accounts for these positive externalities and levels the playing field with long-established energy industries.

This briefing will focus on a recently released green jobs report by the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) and Management Information Services, Inc (MISI). The report provides a sector-by-sector analysis of opportunities in the rapidly changing renewable energy (RE) and energy efficiency (EE) industries as well as a case study of the development of the RE industry in Colorado. A key finding of this report is that the RE and EE industries provide more than 9 million jobs and more than $1 trillion in revenue in the United States (as of 2007) and could generate another 37 million jobs by 2030. Speakers will also discuss policy options such as a national renewable portfolio standard, long-term extension of the production tax credit, effective net metering policies, and policies that improve access to electric transmission infrastructure, and their potential impact on the development of a green-collar workforce. Furthermore, the panel will explore the success of Germany’s renewable sector – a global leader which already generates $240 billion in annual revenue, employs 250,000 people, and is expected to provide more jobs than the country’s auto industry by 2020.

Speakers for this event include:

• Brad Collins, Executive Director, American Solar Energy Society (ASES) and Publisher, SOLAR TODAY magazine
• Roger Bezdek, President, Management Information Strategies, Inc.
• Mario Soos, Counselor on Environment and Energy, German Embassy in Washington, DC

This briefing is free and open to the public. No RSVP required. For more information, please contact Amy Sauer at asauer@eesi.org or (202) 662-1892.

• Albert A. Gore, Jr, Former Vice President of the United States

The Senate Finance Committee will mark up legislation that includes more than $32 billion in energy tax incentives tomorrow, but House and Senate tax writers are split over including a new grant program for renewable energy projects in the economic stimulus bill.

Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee approved H.R. 598, a set of tax measures that included roughly $20 billion in energy incentives. The proposal before the Finance Committee tomorrow mirrors that plan in several respects, including a three-year extension of the availability of production tax credits for wind, geothermal, biomass and other projects.

Both measures would also allow developers to use the investment tax credit – which currently applies to solar and fuel cell projects – in lieu of the production tax credit.

Other common features include: lifting caps on the dollar value of 30 percent investment tax credits for residential wind, solar thermal and geothermal projects; extending tax credits for energy efficiency improvements to existing homes through 2010 and increasing the value of the credit; increasing the size of credits for installing alternative fuel pumps at gas stations; and a 20 percent credit for energy-related research spending in areas including renewable energy and carbon sequestration.

They also share an additional $1.6 billion in so-called clean energy renewable bonds to help fund an array of renewable energy projects. The bonds are intended as a funding instrument for public and cooperative power providers, which are not eligible for the production tax credit. Both packages also provide more than $2 billion worth of energy conservation bonds for state and local projects to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Senate plan has manufacturing credit but no DOE grants

But differences have emerged over how best to give an increased jolt to renewable energy investments that are jeopardized by the economic downturn.

The Senate Finance Committee plan lacks a House provision that allows wind, solar and other renewable energy projects to receive Energy Department grants rather than federal tax credits to help fund projects. The House provision applies to projects placed in service this year and next year.

This funding has emerged as a priority for the renewable energy industry, which says that current tax credits – a mainstay of project financing – do not work in an economic downturn because project backers lack the tax liability to use them. Also, several key banks and other funders – such as Lehman Brothers – have either gone under or face other problems.

The Senate plan would, however, extend the carryback period for business credits - including renewable energy credits - from one to five years, at an estimated cost of $11 billion over a decade.

Elsewhere, it includes up to $2 billion worth of energy-related manufacturing investment credits. These 30 percent “advanced energy manufacturing” credits would go toward creating or retooling manufacturing facilities to make components used to generate renewable energy, storage systems for use in electric or hybrid-electric cars, power grid components that support the addition of renewable sources to the grid, and making equipment used in carbon capture and storage projects, according to the Finance Committee.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) is championing this proposal. “We know that the right incentives will bring vital manufacturing to American soil. When enacted, it will put our country in a much better position to capture the economic potential associated with growing demand for technologies that harness renewable energy resources,” he said in a statement Friday. Bingaman is also on the Finance Committee.

Lawmakers may also seek additions to the bill when the Finance Committee considers it tomorrow. Two members of the committee – Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) – recently introduced a bill, S. 271, that expands incentives aimed at speeding up production and use of plug-in electric vehicles.

The Senate Appropriations Committee’s package – first unveiled Friday evening – largely focuses on the same policy priorities as the House version when it comes to energy and infrastructure, though there are some differences in spending levels.

All told, the Senate legislation contains $51 billion for projects that are designed to develop alternative energy technology and significantly expand renewable energy use.

The single biggest energy item in the legislation is $40 billion that will be given to the Energy Department for the development of “clean, efficient, American energy,” though few specifics have been offered on just how that money will be spent.

The energy portion also provides $2.6 billion to replace older vehicles owned by the federal government with alternative fuel vehicles, $6 billion to repair federal buildings in a way that uses energy efficient technology, $1.3 billion for energy efficiency and “green” energy retrofits and $613 million for Defense Department energy efficiency and alternative energy projects.

The bill also contains a grand total of $140 billion for programs that are classified as being for infrastructure or science, including:

• $27 billion for highway construction and repair and $8.4 billion for transit that would be dolled out under an existing federal formula.
• $5.5 billion for competitive grants to state and local governments for surface transportation investments.
• $4.6 billion to build and repair water resources infrastructure and an additional $1.4 billion to construct, repair or rehabilitate water infrastructure in the western United States.
• $1.1 billion for development of rail transportation.
• $3.4 billion for repair and restoration of public facilities located at parks, refuges and other public lands.
• $3.2 billion that will be used for energy efficiency projects and to improve the repair and modernization of Department of Defense facilities.
• $830 million for construction and repair of roads located on park, forest, tribal and other public lands.

On top of those dollars, the bill contains at least $15 billion for environmental cleanup and clean water initiatives, including $6.4 billion for environmental cleanup of former weapon production and energy research sites; $6 billion for sewer, wastewater and drinking water infrastructure to be handed out through the U.S. EPA’s Revolving Funds program; $1.4 billion to support loans and grants for rural area water and wastewater infrastructure; and $1.4 billion for EPA environmental cleanup programs such as Superfund.

And on the science front, the bill provides $1.4 billion for National Science Foundation research and $1.5 billion for NASA, including $500 million for research involving the Earth’s resources and climate.