Economics | ModeShift

Earth, Wind, Fire On Day of Onrushing Risks

by Keith SchneiderApril 28, 20100

The accelerating consequences of the warming Earth, the hazards associated with increasing reliance on fossil fuels, the promise of big clean energy projects, and the difficulties in advancing a national climate and energy policy fit for the 21st century came into sharp focus today in Washington and across the nation. In Boston, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that aftter nine years of public confrontation, the United States had reached a decision to approve crucial permits …

Next: Stimulus Is Just The Start, Galbraith Argues, To Federal Leadership in Clean Energy Development

by Keith SchneiderMarch 26, 2009January 26, 20120

In mid-January, as the House of Representatives and the incoming Obama administration readied the nearly $800 billion economic stimulus bill, James K. Galbraith joined a 10-member delegation from the Apollo Alliance in Washington to make the case for a big investment in clean energy and green-collar jobs. On Tuesday, February 17, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which contains $11 billion to build a state-of-the art national energy grid, $6 …

Obamaâ€™s Clean Energy Salute to Greensburg, Kansas

by Keith SchneiderFebruary 25, 2009January 26, 20121

Last night, in his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama commended Greensburg, Kansas, â€œa town that was completely destroyed by a tornado, but is being rebuilt by its residents as a global example of how clean energy can power an entire community, how it can bring jobs and businesses to a place where piles of bricks and rubble once lay.â€ America loves its small towns, and two presidents now have …

Carol Browner Needs Focus on The Stimulus

by Keith SchneiderFebruary 14, 2009February 14, 20090

This afternoon Carol Browner appeared on the CNN Situation Room where she didn’t do nearly as good a job answering questions about clean energy and the stimulius as the President and the nation need her to. The stimulus contains more than $115 billion dollars in investment in energy efficiency, renewable energy development, transit, fit-it-first road repair, research and development, experimental projects on carbon sequestration, and manufacturing for next generation vehicles. The scale and comprehensive nature …

In Countryâ€™s Center, A Gale of Clean Energy Opportunity

by Keith SchneiderJune 16, 2008January 26, 20121

One of the most noticeable features on Newton, Iowaâ€™s Web site is a map of the Newton Union Cemetery. For a time over the last two years, the map seemed a fitting metaphor for the town of 16,000, which lies 35 miles east of Des Moines. After all, the Whirlpool Corporation in 2006 purchased, and a year later closed the Maytag Corporationâ€™s offices and plants in Newton, putting 1,800 people out of work and ending …

The Unfolding Clean Energy Economy

by Keith SchneiderMay 1, 2008May 1, 20084

Last November Senator Hillary Clinton delivered a major policy speech in Iowa, during which she described her clean energy and jobs proposal. Three months later, in a speech in Seattle, Senator Barack Obama outlined his clean energy plan. Every week now, in many of their public appearances, both Democratic presidential candidates mention the millions of “green-collar jobs” they anticipate from an energy strategy that stresses clean renewable sources and moves the nation away from a …

Obama, His Shorthand, Energy, and the Frustration of Self-Interest

by Keith SchneiderApril 16, 2008April 28, 20081

SAN FRANCISCO — A couple of people I know out here in the Bay Area attended one of the San Francisco fundraisers more than a week ago, during which Barack Obama talked about white working class Americans in Pennsylvania and the Midwest who “get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who arenâ€™t like them.” The comment attracted no attention at all among the liberal, well-heeled Democratic donors gathered in theÂ …

Marty Lagina and the Pursuit of A Clean, Green Economy

by Keith SchneiderApril 13, 2008January 25, 20154

Nearly 13 years ago, in a first floor conference room of the Park Place Hotel in Traverse City, Marty Lagina and Frank Mortel sat side by side across a large wooden table, glowering at me through narrowed eyes. Lagina (with wife Olivia above) was the founder and chief executive of Terra Energy, an independent that had grown to become the most active driller and one of the largest producers of natural gas in Michigan. The …

Take Back America, The Narrative

by Keith SchneiderMarch 17, 2008June 18, 20141

WASHNGTON — The Hip Hop Media Lab, an online non-profit that introduces low-income kids to the possibilities of making money with their creative talent, is a partner this week in producing the annual Take Back America conference. So is MoveOn.org, Living Liberally, Netroots Nation, and USAaction. This is the sixth edition of a three-day fest designed to introduce liberal America to some of the movement’s new icons — the New Organizing Institute, Hip Hop Caucus, …

Van Jones; An Economy For Problem Solvers

by Keith SchneiderMarch 14, 2008March 14, 20082

PITTSBURGH â€” On the day after he buried his father, Van Jones, arguably the most thoughtful and dynamic young leader in the American environmental movement, addressed the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference this morning. Jones, who bore his grief in occasional tears, told the more than 600 people in the room that this gathering was such a seminal event in the construction of a new green/labor/business governing coalition in the United States that his father …