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Posts Tagged ‘President’

From a news release issued by the American Wind Energy Association: WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. wind industry broke all previous records by installing nearly 10,000 megawatts (MW) of new generating capacity in 2009 (enough to serve over 2.4 million homes), but still lags in manufacturing, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said today in its Q4 report. These new projects place wind power neck and neck with natural gas ¹ as the leading source of new electricity generation for the country. Together, the two sources account for about 80% of the new capacity added in the country last year. “The U.S. wind energy industry shattered all installation records in 2009, chalking up the Recovery Act as a historic success in creating jobs, avoiding carbon, and protecting consumers,” said AWEA CEO Denise Bode. “But U.S. wind turbine manufacturing – the canary in the mine — is down compared to last year’s levels, and needs long-term policy certainty and market pull in order to grow. We need to set hard targets, in the form of a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), in order to provide the necessary stability for manufacturers to expand their U.S. operations and to seize the historic opportunity we have today to build up a thriving renewable energy industry.” Early last year, before the Recovery Act (ARRA), the industry anticipated that in 2009 wind power development might drop by as much as 50% from 2008 levels, with equivalent job losses. The clear commitment by the President to create clean energy jobs and the swift implementation of ARRA incentives by the Administration in mid-summer reversed the situation. Recovery Act incentives spurred the growth of construction, operations and maintenance, and management jobs, helping the industry to save and create jobs in those sectors and shine as a bright spot in the economy.

I have seen a number of interesting stories on Venezuela this week. First was: The Chávez Spiral With petroleum prices down around $71 a barrel from a high of $147 the Venezuelan government is struggling to make up for the revenue shortfall to save programs that placate the poor by providing cheap food, fuel and other government giveaways. Making matters worse, the once mighty Venezuelan petroleum industry has been laid low by politicization, corruption and mismanagement; rather than producing 3.3 million barrels per day, industry analysts believe the production is closer to 2.3 million. Instead of maximizing profits by producing its quota, Venezuela’s state-run oil fields are either underperforming or have collapsed altogether. I have warned numerous times about the risks Chavez was taking by siphoning off oil revenues to fund other programs. If you are going to do that, you must do is to make sure you aren’t siphoning off too much, as the oil industry is capital intensive. If you pull out too much, then you kill the goose laying the golden eggs . Norway has a very successful model for how the oil industry can be used to benefit society as a whole. One thing they didn’t do was siphon off all of the oil companies’ revenues. But because reelection is coming up, don’t expect Chavez to shift course: Venezuela’s Devaluation a Boon for PDVSA in Short Term Venezuela’s currency devaluation should give state oil company PdVSA an immediate and much-needed boost to its budget. But President Hugo Chavez is likely to procure a large part of that windfall for social spending ahead of this year’s congressional elections. Then there was the story about Chavez searching for scapegoats when his decisions start to have consequences: Chavez sacks energy minister after rolling blackouts Venezuela President Hugo Chavez has indefinitely suspended rolling blackouts in capital city Caracas just a day after they began, and sacked his electricity minister. Chavez said that the minister was responsible for mistakes in the way the rationing plan was applied. Mr Chavez’s announcements were a significant strategic shift in his attempts to prevent a widespread power collapse in the coming months through rolling blackouts of up to four hours a day across the country. But no worries. He believes that after stealing the assets of oil companies , he can invite them back in and they will come running: Venezuela Expects $8.3 Billion Field Investment, Universal Says Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) — Petroleos de Venezuela SA, Venezuela’s state oil company, said it expects bids today totaling $8.3 billion to develop the Mariscal Sucre offshore natural-gas project, daily El Universal reported. The company known as PDVSA seeks partners to take stakes of as much as 40 percent in the project, Eulogio del Pino, vice president for exploration and production, told the Caracas-based newspaper. PDVSA and the Energy Ministry asked companies including Russia’s OAO Gazprom, Norway’s Statoil ASA and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. to participate in the bidding, del Pino said. I don’t know. I will be surprised if these companies trust Chavez enough to put serious money down on any of these projects. As he has shown before, if the profits start to look good, he will change the terms. Who wants to take risk only to let Chavez reap the reward? On the other hand, these aren’t the same companies Chavez cheated the first time around, so maybe they will be a little more trusting. But if so and they lose their investment, shareholders shouldn’t be the least bit surprised.

Last summer, India announced an ambitious new National Solar Mission to transform the rapidly developing nation into a world leader in solar power. The government announced a sweeping plan that included $100 billion in government investment over the next twenty years to support the nation’s drive to become a world solar leader and install 20 gigawatts of solar power by 2020. In my latest column at theEnergyCollective.com, I present an interview with the President of Applied Materials India (AMat is the world’s largest producer of the equipment used to manufacture solar cells) and discuss the latest on India’s sweeping solar plans. Read the full post here.

Or should I say, the obviously abhorrent… The incredibly destructive coal mining practice known as ” mountaintop removal ” causes “pervasive and irreversible” damage to human health and the environment, according to an authoritative scientific study released today. The comprehensive and far-reaching scientific review, entitled “Mountaintop Mining Consequences”, was conducted by members of the National Academy of Sciences and is being published in the prestigious journal Science . The study summarized dozens of pre-existing scientific papers analyzing the impacts of mountaintop removal mining, a type of surface coal mining that uses huge amounts of explosives to blast away the tops of mountains to expose coal seams. The resulting debris (aka the former mountain) are typically disposed of through a practice known as “valley fills,” where tons of mining debris are dumped into neighboring valleys, burying miles of headwater streams and valley ecosystems . According to a press release on the study: …the authors outline severe environmental degradation taking place at mining sites and downstream. The practice destroys extensive tracts of deciduous forests and buries small streams that play essential roles in the overall health of entire watersheds. Waterborne contaminants enter streams that remain below valley fills and can be transported great distances into larger bodies of water. Mountaintop removal mining has already buried more than 800 miles of Appalachian streams and destroyed hundreds of square miles of woodlands in one of America’s biodiversity hotspots, all while both the U.S. EPA and state environmental agencies have allowed the destructive practice to continue . That’s left it to activists to slow these projects down and prevent their irreversible damages. The new scientific study condemned federal and state regulation of mountaintop removal mining operations, concluding that “Current attempts to regulate [mountaintop mining and associated valley fill] practices are inadequate,” and that “Regulators should no longer ignore rigorous science.” Environmental and Appalachian community advocates hailed the study as a powerful indictment against mountaintop removal mining, according to Appalachian Voices , an environmental non-profit working to bring coalfield residents together to end mountain removal. Opponents of mountaintop removal expressed disappointment over the Obama Administration’s fluctuating stance on mountaintop removal , citing inconsistencies with statements made by President Obama about restoring science to a more prominent position in agency decision-making. The new study was released just days after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the expansion of the largest mountaintop removal coal mine in West Virginia . Appalachian coalfield residents have long been aware of the obvious and major impacts mountaintop removal mining has on the health of local communities and verdant Appalachian ecosystems. Appalachian Voices is hopeful that the study will embolden the Obama Administration to take more decisive action to ultimately end the practice. In a recent interview the President told the political news organization, Politico, “It’s about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it’s inconvenient-especially when it’s inconvenient.” Yet last year, the Obama Administration released a multi-agency plan that called for more strict enforcement of laws regulating mountaintop removal but stopped short of prohibiting the practice “The scientific study released today comes as little surprise to us living in the Central Appalachian coal mining region,” says Nina McCoy from Martin County, Ky., site of a large coal sludge dam break that overtook the county in 2000. “This should be the evidence the Obama Administration needs to close the floodgates on new mountaintop removal permits and stop the poisoning of our people.” The EPA recently told National Public Radio’s Diane Rehm Show that the agency does not believe it has the authority to stop permitting mountaintop removal outright. Critics counter that there are other avenues through which the Administration could effectively end the practice. “The EPA has made commendable efforts to reduce the impacts of mountaintop removal on downstream water quality, but this study shows that mitigating and regulating the wholesale destruction of Appalachian Mountains is just not effective,” said Dr. Matthew Wasson, ecologist for Appalachian Voices and director of the campaign to end mountaintop removal on iLoveMountains.org . “The President has the power to end mountaintop removal through any number of agency actions,” Wasson added, “and he should call on Congress to pass the Clean Water Protection Act , a bill designed to end mountaintop removal-but the message from this study is that he’s out of excuses for allowing mountaintop removal to continue.” Ken Ward Jr. has more at Coal Tattoo , and David Roberts has more at Grist . See iLoveMountains.org for more resources on mountaintop removal, and to take action.

The Cleantech Group just released a ranking of the top 10 clean-tech universities in the United States for 2010, with MIT, Berkeley, UT Austin, Stanford, and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor occupying the top five slots. Universities and colleges have a critical role to play in accelerating the transition to a clean energy economy and reclaiming U.S. competitiveness in the global clean-tech race. Universities perform 54 percent of the nation’s basic research, a fundamental building block of the technological innovation we need to spark the clean energy revolution. Universities and colleges are the training ground for the next generation of scientists, engineers, teachers, and leaders in government and industry. And universities are the launching ground for numerous entrepreneurial ventures to bring those innovations to the marketplace. Indeed, it’s common knowledge that universities like Stanford played a defining role in the information technology revolution, birthing companies like Google, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun Microsystems. However, as President Obama reminded us in a speech today at the White House, “despite the importance of education in these subjects, we have to admit we are right now being outpaced by our competitors… To continue to cede our leadership in education is to cede our position in the world.” As we found in our recent report, “ Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant ,” Asian nations like China, South Korea, and Japan are launching massive government investment projects to dominate the clean-tech sector, which promises to be one of the largest new growth sectors of the next few decades. In order to catch up, American students should work with their university and college administrators to secure greater educational resources related to clean energy technology and policy, including better curriculum, professors, classroom and laboratory resources, career development opportunities, support for student entrepreneurship, and research. Every significant institution of higher education in the country should have an energy-related institute that incubates cutting-edge education, research, and innovation. Students are flocking to schools with the best clean-tech programs , and university administrations are increasingly paying attention. And at the federal level, the United States needs a national clean-tech education strategy on par with the National Defense Education Act of 1958, similar to the National Energy Education Act we proposed back in 2008. The Obama administration’s RE-ENERGYSE proposal was a step in the right direction, but unfortunately it was rejected by Congress last year . Will the administration and Congress advance a new proposal in 2010 on the scale we need to win the clean energy race? Stay tuned. Here’s the full university ranking, cross-posted from Cleantech Group: Top 10 cleantech universities in the U.S. for 2010 January 4, 2010 by Shawn Lesser Where will the cutting edge companies that transform the industries of cleantech going to come from? Odds are that it will be from one of the top cleantech universities. While many dotcom companies were started by students out of their dorm rooms or basements, don’t look for a similar trend in the cleantech world. You need a lot more than a desktop and a good Internet-based idea. You need specialized resources that you usually can find at a university. Venture capital firms now have to keep tabs on chemical and engineering labs at some of the best U.S. universities as potential sources of new companies. A few months ago, I ranked the best U.S. states for cleantech, as well as the top 10 cleantech countries (see The top 10 U.S. states for cleantech in 2009 and The top 10 cleantech countries of 2009 ). In my latest rankings, I sought to identify the 10 U.S. academic institutions best suited to take advantage of this trend. I looked whether there exists—and to what degree—a pipeline of collaboration of businesses, universities, state initiatives, investors and research dollars. The mix has to be just right to accomplish the end goal of a commercially viable product. Here are the top 10 cleantech universities in 2010, in my estimation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT is a true cleantech spinoff machine. The Cambridge, Mass.-based institution is also home to the MIT Clean Energy Prize, the premier student clean energy innovation and venture creation competition in the country. The annual $200,000 prize is awarded to the top student energy venture in the country. In 2009, 113 teams entered from 40 universities around the country. MIT Clean Energy Prize has helped launch several energy ventures, including FloDesign, FastCap Systems, Levant Power, Husk Insulation, and Covalent Solar. Another reason for the top ranking has been the establishment of the MIT Energy Initiative in September 2006, as an institute-wide initiative designed to help transform the global energy system to meet the needs of the future and to help build a bridge to that future by improving today’s energy systems. Notable cleantech spinouts include: A123 Systems , FastCap Systems, Levant Power, Trophos Energy, Promethean Power , 1366 Technologies , Sun Catalytix, and Agrivida . University of California at Berkeley One of UC Berkeley’s goals is to connect students and the business community to the high-level research done at the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs and on-campus labs. Berkeley is home to several partnerships with big players in the industry. The most important ones are the Energy and Biosciences Institute—a partnership of UC Berkeley, Berkeley Lab, and the University of Illinois, funded by BP with $500 million over ten years (see BP funds biofuel research with $500M )—and the Bio Energy Institute, which is a partnership of three national labs and three research universities in the San Francisco Bay Area, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy with $125 million over five years. Finally, the proximity to Silicon Valley and the East Bay Cleantech Corridor gives students the opportunity to get in touch with the entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and consulting companies that are driving the growth of the new energy sector. Notable cleantech spinoffs: Amyris Biotechnologies , Adura Technologies , Seeo , Aurora Biofuels , and Progressive Cooling Solutions. The University of Texas in Austin The University of Texas at Austin is a historical leader in energy innovation, R&D and teaching. With abundant oil and gas on its own lands, and deep connections to the energy industry, UT has directly profited from its energy leadership and its graduates have populated the highest executive ranks of the world’s energy companies (CEO of ExxonMobil, CEO of ConocoPhillips, President of Shell are just a few examples). The good news is that UT is using its leadership of the conventional energy industry as a launching pad for continued leadership in the cleantech revolution. Those same oil and gas companies are investing aggressively into cleantech and they turn to UT for the expertise and people to make those innovations work. The inventor of the lithium-ion battery, John Goodenough, is a professor of mechanical engineering at UT. The university also is a leader in algae based biofuels. UT is a part of a multimillion dollar DARPA-sponsored project to produce jet fuels from algae. UT Austin was also awarded $35 million in research on carbon sequestration by the Department of Energy. Notable cleantech spinouts include: ActaCell , Advanced Hydro , Graphene Energy , Organic Fuels, and Inspired Solar. Stanford University , Palo Alto, Calif. Stanford University is on the cutting edge of clean technology. Stanford has developed an ambitious, long-range, $250 million initiative to sharply reduce the university’s energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The university also has established a $100 million research institute, the Precourt Institute for Energy, to focus on energy issues (see Stanford launches $100M energy research institute ). More than $30 million in yearly funding is now spent on energy research at the university. Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) is the entrepreneurship center at Stanford’s School of Engineering. STVP is dedicated to accelerating high-technology entrepreneurship education and creating scholarly research on technology-based firms that, in turn, provides new insights for students, scholars and business leaders. Notable cleantech spinouts: Amprius, Nanostellar , Rolith, D.light Design , Driptech , and Veranda Solar . University of Michigan in Ann Arbor With research expenditures of over $1 billion and an innovation pipeline unparalleled among the nation’s public universities, the University of Michigan can rightly take its place among the leading Cleantech universities in the U.S. Student engagement in Cleantech Entrepreneurship is at a all-time high, driven by the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies in the Business School, the Center for Entrepreneurship in the College of Engineering, and the student organization MPowered. The student-led Wolverine Venture Fund and the Frankel Commercialization Fund managed by the Zell Lurie Institute made recent investments in Environmental Operating Systems, and Accio Energy. The Universities TechArb program is poised to leverage a rich entrepreneurial ecosystem to stake out a leadership position in the emerging green economy. Notable cleantech spinouts include: T/J Technologies (acquired), Sensicore (acquired), Sakti3 , and Flexsys Wind Energy . University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado at Boulder is viewed as being at the forefront of the sustainability and cleantech revolution. The university was recently recognized by Sierra Magazine as the No. 1 sustainable campus in the United States. CU Boulder has created a new joint energy institute with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The new institute, The Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI), partners leading researchers from CU-Boulder and NREL on cross discipline research across multiple areas. Currently there are 19 major corporations that sit on the RASEI leadership council including such companies as Xcel Energy, ConocoPhilips, Toyota, SAIC, Good Energies, Wells Fargo and Vestas. In addition, dozens of companies are involved in collaborative research with the university and its partners across several major cleantech initiatives. With more than $350 million of annual research funding, the University of Colorado at Boulder leads the Rocky Mountain region in world class research. Notable cleantech spinouts: Ion Engineering and OPX Biotechnologies . University of Wisconsin at Madison University of Wisconsin has been a leader in cleantech research for decades. The Solar Energy Lab, founded in 1954, is the oldest of its kind. More recently, the university has become a focal point for research in bio-energy and is home to one of three Department of Energy-funded Bioenergy Research Centers and the only one based at an academic institution (see Not everyone applauds new U.S. biofuel research centers ). In 2009, the College of Engineering entered into a long-term partnership with Vestas . In May, the University of Wisconsin snagged 10 of 71 funding awards from the U.S. Department of Energy for advanced nuclear research, totaling more than $5 million. To coordinate the energy-related research and education, a group of professors came together in 2006 to create the Energy Institute. Focused on sustainability opportunities through “real world” design and engineering practices. Notable cleantech spinouts include: Virent Energy Systems and AquaMost . Cornell University , Ithaca, NY With world-class research in the physical sciences, engineering and nanotechnology fields, Cornell is a natural spawning ground for cleantech. And Cornell is leading New York state’s task force to promote high-tech development through industry-higher education partnerships. Cornell’s campuswide Center for a Sustainable Future is unique in fostering innovative multi-disciplinary research into new energy sources, environmental and biodiversity initiatives, and economic development projects for global implementation of these programs. Notable cleantech spinouts include: Novomer and iFyber. Georgia Institute of Technology , Atlanta, Ga. Georgia Tech is one of the nation’s top research universities with over $500 million of sponsored research activity currently. The Advanced Technology Development Center is a nationally recognized science and technology incubator that helps Georgia entrepreneurs launch and build successful companies. Commercialization Services helps move innovations out of Georgia Tech laboratories and into the marketplace by assessing the commercial potential of research results and assisting in the development of new companies through the VentureLab program. VentureLab is currently advising a number of cleantech startup companies (see Cleantech industry in the U.S. South emerging from stealth ). Notable cleantech spinouts: Suniva , RideCell, and CoolClouds. Washington State University , Pullman, Wash. With legacy expertise in agriculture, power and applied engineering, WSU’s Clean Technology program is rapidly growing in the cleantech-centric Pacific Northwest. Plant science is the engine behind the opening last year of the Bioproducts Science and Engineering Laboratory, Battelle’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratories and the recently funded Washington State Algae Alliance. One of the main objectives is the commercialization of aviation biofuels with partner Boeing Commercial Airlines. Notable cleantech spinouts: GoNano, Ajuga Biosciences, BioGasol , Schweitzer Engineering Labs, and Integrated Engineering Solutions. Shawn Lesser is the president and founder of Atlanta-based Sustainable World Capital, which is focused on fund-raising for private equity cleantech/sustainable funds, as well as private cleantech companies. For information, visit his Web site .

In signing the fiscal year 2010 appropriations bill for various federal agencies, President Obama green-lighted funding for high-speed rail projects, public transit systems, and energy efficient housing. The bill also directs more than $400 million towards international clean energy projects.