Global Climate | ModeShift

Comprehensive Energy & Climate Bill Passes the House

by Keith SchneiderJune 29, 2009May 27, 20110

The House of Representatives passed a sweeping climate and energy bill last Friday, the first time a U.S. chamber of Congress has passed a bill that sets mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions. The American Clean Energy & Security Act passed the House with a vote of 219-212; 211 Democrats and 8 Republicans supported the bill. In his weekly address a day after the vote, President Obama said the legislation was â€œhistoricâ€ and would â€œopen …

Recovery Bill is Breakthrough on Clean Energy, Good Jobs

by Keith SchneiderFebruary 17, 2009May 27, 20111

In signing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act today President Barack Obama ensured that $113.5 billion will be spent over the next two years on developing clean fuels, modernizing rail transit, pursuing energy efficiency, developing high-mileage electric vehicles, and scaling up electrical generating stations powered by the wind, sun, and heat of the earth. The magnitude of the clean energy investment â€“ consistent with the sums spent to launch the Interstate Highway System in the …

Energy From Apollo Alliance

by Keith SchneiderSeptember 23, 20080

Congress this week took up legislation to decide Americaâ€™s energy future.Â The question in Washington is the same as it is in the presidential campaign – â€œdrill baby drillâ€ or a policy that promotes real solutions, a plan for a reasoned future that invests in clean energy and good jobs. The Apollo Alliance is pushing back against drilling proposals that wonâ€™t solve our energy crisis and promoting a much better one that will, The New …

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 …

Casual Carpool Plus Transit, A S.F. Commute

by Keith SchneiderApril 12, 2008April 15, 20082

SAN FRANCISCO — Since late March I’ve been living in a one-room cottage behind an old Craftsman-style home in Berkeley, and commuting to downtown San Francisco. It’s not your typical daily trip. But as gas prices rise, congestion mounts, and family incomes fall, it may well become a new kind of commuting norm in the United States. Of course it may not, too. This being San Francisco. And the weather is just unbelievably good most …

The Dream Reborn, Onward to New Governing Coalition

by Keith SchneiderApril 1, 2008April 3, 20080

Two weeks ago, at the Take Back America conference in Washington, Majora Carter took a moment to explain the motivation behind The Dream Reborn, a celebration this weekend in Memphis that honors the life and marks the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death. “The work now is solutions-based,” said Carter, who founded and directs Sustainable South Bronx, a seven-year-old non-profit environmental and economic development organization in New York. “We’re applying our knowledge, …

Majora Carter and the Green Energy Economy

by Keith SchneiderMarch 18, 2008March 18, 20084

WASHINGTON — Last week in Pittsburgh, Van Jones, the 39-year-old founder of Green For All and one of the people who introduced the idea of “green-collar jobs” to both Democratic presidential candidates, brought more than 600 veteran union and environmental organizers to an awed hush. His address on the potential of the green energy economy to produce millions of jobs and a pathway out of poverty for disadvantaged inner city residents was a tour de …

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 …

Green Collar Jobs

by Keith SchneiderMarch 13, 2008March 13, 20082

PITTSBURGH — A long time ago as a young reporter in Pennsylvania I attended a conference in Philadelphia that focused on the ties between jobs, the environment, and the economy. Essentially, said speakers from the state’s environmental community, there were more ties linking working people and environmentalists than hindrances. It was a novel thought then. It’s less so today. In fact, given the rising cost of energy, the threat of global climate change, and dwindling …

Multi-Media Environmental Journalism at Circle of Blue

by Keith SchneiderJanuary 21, 2008October 23, 20120

Since the day back in 1981, when Inquiry Magazine dispatched me to the mountains of Cherokee County to find out why a popular defoliant was causing so much trouble in the forests and small towns of western North Carolina, I’ve been an environmental reporter. Today, Circle of Blue, where I serve as a senior editor and producer, posted “Reign of Sand,” an online multi-media report on the transition from grass to dust that is occurring …