Barack Obama is openning the doors to some serious climate policy that idiot Bush just never seemed to comprehend nor understand. Finally, a LEADER who we as a people can stand behind and beside in the push to clean this atrocious environmental mess Bush created and ignored.
To perhaps avoid the truth that was so inconvenient to President Bush, on Tuesday Barack Obama will meet with Al Gore to discuss energy policy and climate change. The talk, which will take place in Chicago, will also cover how energy and climate can fit into job creation and the economy.

Don’t expect to get any coverage from the event, though: the meeting will be held in private. And you probably shouldn’t expect that the meeting means Gore will come out with a position in Obama’s cabinet; Gore’s team already have said that he’s not interested in such a job, even the new “climate czar.”

But the meeting seems to point to a change in government policy – Obama has previously said he’d like Gore to be a large part of climate decisions, and Gore’s influence in environmental groups could mean that Obama would be more likely to work with them, too.

Obama’s environmental policies may start with the federal government itself. In a radio address, he said that a first step would be to make government buildings more energy efficient, something that individual states have already addressed. Considering how much it’s saved those states – some $21 million a year for Michigan, for example -, that goal might help the economy, too.

Although Gore likely won’t be a part of the administration, there’s a chance Obama could be asking him for advice tomorrow about who will fill those spots. And maybe Gore will have something to say about clean coal, which he’s opposed in a recent ad campaign.

Posted on December 8, 2008 by Shari Shapiro
Email This

Print

Comments
Trackbacks I have been reading here, there and everywhere that green is a safe haven in this time of economic turmoil. Today’s information about Pennsylvania’s Energy Fund proves otherwise.

In the summer, Pennsylvania passed a $650 million progressive Energy Bill, with financial incentives for solar, high performance buildings, energy efficiency and so forth. See article here by the folks over at Red, Green and Blue.

Everything seemed to be progressing nicely, setting the stage for an increase in renewable energy in the Keystone State. Unfortunately, much of the $650 million Energy Fund was supposed to come from a bond offering. Today, Pennsylvania state officials announced they were putting off floating the bond because the bond market has dried up. Pennsylvania is not alone. Apparently, New York/New Jersey Port Authority tried to borrow $300 million, and they got no takers.

This is very bad news for the sustainability community. First, lack of access to financing makes governmental incentives almost impossible to fund, taking away one of government’s best tools to use market drivers to encourage sustainable practices. Second, lack of government incentives reduces the market of renewable providers. Third, in a moment of low gas prices, lack of government incentives makes renewables less cost competitive. In short, it is a lose, lose, lose situation.

Al Gore has it right in how to get the lazy Americans off of fossil fuel in taxing what we burn vs taxing what we earn. The only way to get us off of oil is to tax those that burn the oil.
Critics say weaning the US off fossil fuels is not possible within a decade.

Mr Gore, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his work on climate change, insists his goal is achievable and affordable.

We have a hundred years of infrastructure with trillions of dollars of investment that is not simply going to be made obsolete

Robby Diamond,
Securing America’s Future Energy

“The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels,” he said in a speech in Washington.

“When you connect the dots, it turns out that the real solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to renew our economy and escape the trap of ever-rising energy prices.”

To secure this green revolution, Mr Gore said the single most important policy change would be to “tax what we burn – not what we earn”.

When 99.99999% of the world figures this out, APWR is going to SOAR!!!!
According to a CNBC report, China’s oil demand edged up in October. A Reuter’s graph of China’s imported oil demand clearly indicates a 4.3% increase in October from one year ago. Oil demand recovery, along with the undergoing strong Chinese stock market recovery (see my previous article, “Chinese Stock Market Bottoms: What Should U.S. Investors Do?”), is a pretty certain signal that oil prices may have bottomed. However, this does not mean investors should go long oil, but rather taht renewable energy will definitely be triggered for more growth.

The 5th Round of China-U.S. Strategic Economic Dialogue ended on December 5, 2008, and the two parties agreed to further cooperate on energy and the environment. China’s renewable energy market is an important topic in this dialogue.

There is another reason why investors should turn bullish on renewable energy companies which develop products in China, and that is the recent weakening Chinese RMB. The RMB has been rising over 20% against the dollar in the last two years, and analysts predict the Chinese RMB will depreciate in the next 6 -12 months to boost exports. In the last 3 trading days, USD/RMB has depreciated from 6.83 to 6.88. If this trend continues, renewable energy companies such as A-Power Energy Generation (APWR) will benefit from the forex exchange rate and become more competitive