Politico’s “Green Divide” focuses on energy policy debate

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass) discusses energy policy on Politico's "Green Divide" series.

News organization Politico recently produced a multi-media series of in-depth video interviews with key players in the energy policy debate. “The Green Divide” includes interviews with Carol Browner, Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy; Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC); Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK); Sen. John Kerry (D-MA); AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka; and Executive Vice President of Government Affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Bruce Josten.

Read the stories and watch video of the interviews here:
http://www.politico.com/thegreendivide/

Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage

The Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage will hold a public meeting on May 6, 2010 in Washington, DC. The meeting will provide information about the Task Force and feature experts on capture and storage systems.

The Interagency Task Force, co-chaired by representatives from the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, was created last February with the goal of developing strategies to speed green commercial development and deployment of clean coal technologies.

U.S. green jobs are more assembly, less production

Successful development of green technology manufacturing can mean a resurgence of manufacturing jobs in the U.S.. But in its earliest phases, green jobs policy has created more assembly jobs, as most products are still largely produced abroad, according to a recent New York Times article.

“Rather than ‘made in America,’ much of the green manufacturing to date is ‘assembled in America’ from parts made overseas,” wrote economics reporter Louis Uchitelle. Green manufacturing—including solar panels, wind technology and high-speed rail production—is still largely a product of Asia and Europe. In fact, according to Uchitell, “fewer than 200 factories in the United States are devoted to green production, employing no more than 15,000 workers.”

The motivation to develop green manufacturing is not solely based in job creation. Phyllis Cuttino, director of the Pew Environment Group’s Global Warming Campaign, an advocacy organization said, “We don’t want to swap our dependence on foreign oil for dependence on clean energy.”

Read the full article here.

Report: California climate law may help poor, minority areas

New climate policy in California can offer positive benefits to vulnerable communities if policy makers consider their needs while drafting the law, according to a report issued by faculty at three California universities recently.

The report, funded by a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and written by professors at the University of California, Berkeley, University of Southern California and Occidental College in Los Angeles, suggests the state could cut harmful pollutants along with greenhouse gas emissions by doing some of the following:

- Require the plants that release the most greenhouse gases and other pollutants to cut their carbon emissions at that location.

- Limit trading of so-called carbon credits within certain dirty-air zones and neighborhoods.

- Impose a higher price for carbon credits in highly polluted neighborhoods so industries located there have more incentive to cut emissions.

- Give neighborhoods with the dirtiest air or significant socio-economic problems a share of the money generated from carbon fees. In turn, that money could be used to reduce air pollution even further, the report says.

Read the full article here.

Joint Congressional Briefing on African American and Latino Opinions on Climate Change

The Joint Center and the National Latino Coalition on Climate Change will present “Results of Multi-state Opinion Polls of African American and Latino Communities: Views on Energy, Climate Change and the 2010 Midterm Elections,” a Congressional briefing scheduled for Thursday, April 15 at 10 a.m.

Speakers include The Honorable Emanuel Cleaver, II, U.S. House of Representatives (D-MO), Rafael Fantauzzi, NLCCC Chair, President of the National Puerto Rican Coalition, Inc. and Frank M. Stewart, a member of the Joint Center’s Commission to Engage African Americans on Climate Change and COO of the American Association of Blacks in Energy. Veronica Johnson, Meteorologist for NBC4 Washington and a member of the Joint Center’s Commission to Engage African Americans on Climate Change, will moderate.

Other speakers include Georges C. Benjamin, MD, Executive Director, American Public Health Association and Member, Joint Center’s Commission to Engage African Americans on Climate Change; The Honorable Ben Ray Lujan, U.S. House of Representatives (D-NM); David A. Bositis, Ph.D., Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies; Lori Weigel of Public Opinion Strategies (POS); and Lillian Rodriguez-Lopez, NLCCC Co-Chair and President of the Hispanic Federation

Briefing details:
U.S. Capitol Visitor Center
HVC-215 (House side of the Capitol Visitor Center)
E Capitol St NE & 1st St NE
Washington, DC

For more information and to RSVP, contact Lindsay Boroush at lboroush@jointcenter.org or Andrea Delgado at Adelgado@lclaa.org

Climate Commissioner Undertakes Public Health Research in Ghana

Dr. Mary Hayden, center with hat, with school children in Navrongo in the Upper East Region of Ghana. (All photos courtesy Dr. Hayden)

Dr. Mary Hayden, a member of the Joint Center’s Commission to Engage African Americans on Climate Change, recently traveled to northern Ghana where she joined a team that undertook a household-level survey of 400 houses to investigate the socio-economic determinants of meningitis transmission.

Dr. Hayden, who is a postdoctoral fellow and visiting scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Institute for the Study of Society and Environment, a Guest Researcher with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, collaborated with Navrongo Health Research Centre in Ghana.

Dr. Hayden, center left, and her team conducting an interview with a mother whose 5-month-old baby was just released from the hospital having suffered with meningitis.

The research team gathers under a baobab tree to interview the caregiver of a 15-year-old who contracted meningitis.

Benjamin Jealous on President Obama, the green movement, and more

Benjamin Jealous. (Photo courtsey NAACP)

NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous, a member of the Joint Center’s Commission to Engage African Americans on Climate Change, was recently interviewed by BigThink.com, a website that distributes news via long form interviews. Mr. Jealous assesses President Barak Obama’s job performance, the state of the U.S. criminal justice system, and the need for more African American involvement in the green movement.

In the interview, Mr. Jealous says the way to better connect communities of color with the green movement is to highlight the opportunities for jobs and connections with the global economy. He also stressed the importance of understanding the relationship between environmental health and public health.

Watch Mr. Jealous’s full 42 minute interview here.