Energy, Climate Change,
and Our Environment

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Energy and Environment Latest News

  • GreenGov 2011: Connecting you with sustainability leaders for a leaner, greener, and more efficient government

    Posted by Michelle Moore, Federal Environmental Executive on October 19, 2011 at 4:58 PM EDT

    For the second year, we're hosting the GreenGov Symposium to bring leaders in sustainability together under one roof. Beginning in 2009 when President Obama issued Executive Order 13514, he challenged the Federal Government— the biggest energy consumer in the US economy, to become leaner, greener, and more efficient.

     

    GreenGov

    Held in Washington, DC, the three day symposium is your chance to partake in over 70 educational sessions beginning at 8:30 AM on Monday, October 31. Register now to join in discussions with:

    • The next generation of Clean Energy and Green leaders, including award-winning journalist Simran Sethi, and renowned explorer, social entrepreneur, and environmental advocate Philippe Cousteau Jr., on how they want to see the Federal Government lead by example.
    • Drivers in corporate innovation, in a panel conversation on sustainability strategies, hosted by Mother Nature Network and moderator Dr. Heidi Cullen.
    • Federal leaders like those from the Department of Defense, and their work with the private sector to develop large-scale renewable energy projects. Come meet Dr. Dorothy Robyn, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Installations and Environment.

    And hear directly from these and other experts how:

    • The Federal Government is greening its half-trillion dollar supply chain. Listen to Steve Leeds, GSA's Senior Sustainability Officer, in a conversation with Cindy Drucker, Global Director of Sustainability for SC Johnson.
    • The Federal Government has collaborated to make major strides in greener operations and practices. Join me, along with Mother Nature Network; Brian Deese, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council; Jon Powers, Special Advisor on Energy to the Assistant Secretary of the Army; Michael Robertson, General Services Administration Chief of Staff; and Rachael Tronstein, Clean Energy Advisor at the Department of Energy as they discuss how they are collaborating across government toward greener Federal buildings, fleets, and programs.

    You will also hear from:
    Thomas Armstrong, Director of National Coordination, U.S. Global Change Research Program, White House Office of Science and Technology;
    Tom Hicks, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, U.S. Navy;
    Kathleen Hogan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency, U.S. Department of Energy;
    Jason Miller, Special Assistant to the President for Manufacturing Policy, Executive Office of the President of the United States;
    Robert Peck, Commissioner, Public Buildings Sector, U.S. General Services Administration; and
    Tim Unruh, Program Manager, Federal Energy Management Program, U.S. Department of Energy.
     
    You won’t want to miss GreenGov 2011. Learn more, see the full agenda, and register at www.greengov2011.org.

    Michelle Moore is Federal Environmental Executive at the White House Council on Environmental Quality

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  • Growing Community in Chicago

    Posted by Ronnie Cho on October 19, 2011 at 3:53 PM EDT

    A few months after President Obama entered office, First Lady Michelle Obama broke ground on the first White House Kitchen Garden as part of a broader initiative to promote a healthier and more active way of life. Among the crops planted are spinach, broccoli, lettuces, kale and collard greens, and assorted herbs. Each season, the First Lady brings together people from all over DC, to celebrate the harvest and enjoy the tasty fruits and veggies grown at the White House. The harvest is a great event that helps people better understand the food they eat and the community that grows it. 

    Jill Zenoff

    Jill Zenoff. (Photo from HelloGiggles)

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  • Presidential Citizens Medal Recipients of 2011

    Posted by Megan Slack on October 19, 2011 at 2:28 PM EDT

    For more than 40 years, the Presidential Citizens Medal has honored Americans who have "performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens." Past recipients have included some of America's most respected public figures as well as everyday heroes committed to helping their fellow citizens.

    This year, President Obama asked the public to submit nominees, hoping to recognize exemplary citizens and local heroes who have significantly impacted their communities but who may not have garnered national attention. Watch the video below to find out how the outstanding Americans President Obama selected to recieve the this year's medals responded to the news they'd been chosen, and tune in tomorrow at 1:45 p.m. EDT to watch the award ceremony on WhiteHouse.gov/Live. 

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  • Illinois Team Wins Prize for Innovative Oil Spill Cleanup Technology

    Posted by Tom Kalil and Robynn Sturm Steffen on October 18, 2011 at 10:08 AM EDT

    Last week, the X PRIZE Foundation and philanthropist Wendy Schmidt announced winners of the $1.4 million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. Launched in July 2010 in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the competition inspired entrepreneurs, engineers, and scientists worldwide to develop innovative, rapidly deployable, and highly efficient methods of cleaning up oil spills from the ocean surface. 

    More than 350 teams competed from around the world. Submissions were evaluated by a panel of judges, including Hung Nguyen, Emergency Oil Spill Response Coordinator at the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement; Dave Westerholm, Director of the Office of Response and Restoration at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); and several respected former U.S. Coast Guardsmen.  The 10 top-ranked proposals – including five submitted by teams in the United States – were subjected to rigorous field testing at Ohmsett, the National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility, a Department of Interior facility that boasts the largest outdoor saltwater wave/tow facility in North America.

    Elastec/American Marine – an Illinois-based manufacturer of oil spill and environmental equipment that uses local talent for nearly all its fabrication – won first place, recovering oil at a rate more than three times the best previously recorded in controlled conditions. This significant advance, which involved grooved, high-surface-area spinning discs that grab large amounts of oil while leaving water behind, is all the more exciting given the potential for the novel mechanical solution to have a real impact on the industry. The judges were impressed by teams’ attention to real-world application, ease of deployment and decontamination, and consistency of performance in varied conditions. (Here is an engaging video of how the team developed its solution.) In addition, the competition’s supporting partner, Shell, has committed to bringing oil experts and other industry leaders in to help move the winning technology to market and promote its use.

    We congratulate the winners and all of the finalist teams on their efforts to achieve the important goals of this competition.

    And while the prize itself was privately funded, kudos to the Department of Interior and NOAA for bringing their technical expertise to bear in the judging.  By strengthening the prize and its impact, these agencies advanced important shared goals, stimulating the development of new tools that can be brought to bear in future oil spills and generating a treasure trove of data by testing novel technologies under controlled conditions. 

    This is just the latest milestone in the Administration’s ongoing work to increase the use of competitions and prizes to spur innovation and solve tough problems as called for by President Obama in his Strategy for American Innovation.

    Tom Kalil is Deputy Director for Policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Robynn Sturm Steffen is Senior Advisor to the Deputy Director

    Learn more about Deepwater BP Oil Spill, Energy and Environment, Technology

  • Advancing Partnerships to Better Buildings

    Posted by Krista Sprenger on October 17, 2011 at 4:55 PM EDT

    Editor's Note: The blog introduces readers to Krista Sprenger, Vice President, Director of Sustainability for Lend Lease—  an international property and infrastructure group that was one of the first partners in President Obama's Better Buildings Challenge.

    "The time is not far off when companies will have to justify their worth to society…with greater emphasis being placed on environmental and social impact than straight economics." - Lend Lease Founder, Dick Dusseldorp

    Our founder had a basic principle that our company was part of the community and that we had a responsibility to focus on the environmental and the social value we might add. We strive to apply global best-practices and innovative, responsible environmental design initiatives and are committed to promoting energy efficiency, utilizing alternative energy sources with an overall target of designing communities that are zero net water, waste and carbon neutral. This is why partnering with the Department of Energy and the White House for the Better Buildings Challenge just made sense. 

    To support the Better Buildings Challenge, Lend Lease has set a goal to reduce energy consumption by 20% within our Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI) portfolio over the next 3-5 years. Our participation in the Better Buildings Challenge will mean more than 65.3 million square feet of real estate will be greener and in turn we will help American military families bring energy security home and most importantly create new jobs in the construction industry. 

    The Lend Lease Team

    Recently, representatives from all 10 Lend Lease projects met to validate their commitment to the program. An all-day meeting, focused on the goals and outcomes of the BBC, allowed all participants to understand the program and hear how their project can support. (BELOW) Participants from Lend Lease gather for a photo around the contract they all signed agreeing to do their part to help meet our goal.

    To achieve our reduction goals, we are taking a three pronged approach as part of the Challenge. We will continue our green retrofit program, and have hired residential building science specialists, IBACOS, to help us assess our portfolio and ensure we are implementing innovative and customized whole building energy retrofit and management solutions which reduce consumption and offer more efficient homes. To reduce grid consumption we will be significantly broadening our solar portfolio as well as incorporate additional renewable power options such as wind and geothermal. Finally, we will begin an aggressive behavior management/energy consumption reduction program aimed at teaching the 140,000 people who live or work in one of our communities how they can best conserve energy within their home and take personal responsibility to support a sustainable environment. 

    The Better Buildings Challenge allows Lend Lease to partner with like-minded organizations, like the Department of Energy, to support an initiative we strongly believe in. We are honored to be one of only 14 companies chosen to participate in the initial launch of the program, and look forward to continuing our partnership for years to come. 

    Krista Sprenger is Vice President, Director of Sustainability for the Lend Lease Americas region

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  • A Physician, Scientist and Mother Clears the Air

    Posted by Kari C. Nadeau, MD, PhD on October 17, 2011 at 9:10 AM EDT

    Editor's Note: This blog introduces readers to Kari Nadeau, MD, PhD, an Associate Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine and a pediatrician who specializes in asthma and allergy.

    Recently, both the Clean Air Act and the EPA have been attacked by some who claim that the restrictions on air polluters are too intrusive, too expensive and too burdensome. They go on to question the validity of the EPA's studies. As a physician, scientist and mother of five young children, I believe that it is time to "clear the air". 

    In the United States and particularly in California, we are experiencing an epidemic in asthma and other pulmonary diseases that has reached unprecedented numbers. In the United States, asthma affects approximately 24 million people, of which an estimated 7 million are children. In the United States, asthma is the most common chronic disease in childhood, is one of the most common causes of hospitalization for children, and its incidence has increased dramatically (http://www.aafa.org/display.cfm?id=9&sub=42). According to CDC data, in 1980, 3.6% of U.S. children had asthma. By 1995, that number more than doubled to 7.5% (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad381.pdf). Clearly, something needs to be done, and done quickly.

    As a physician, I see and treat patients with allergies and asthma each day I am in clinic. As research scientists, my colleagues and I follow the evidence to find a possible cause. And increasingly, evidence is pointing to air pollution as the culprit. 

    Our research led us to investigate the effects of air pollution on children in Fresno. According to the American Lung Association's State of the Air 2011, of the top 10 most polluted cities, 6 of them are in California, and one of them is Fresno, the center of our study. Our results were published last fall in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: Ambient Air Pollution Impairs Regulatory T-Cell Function in Asthma(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20920773). Much like the scientific evidence finally proved the link between smoking and lung cancer, our study exposed the critical evidence linking air pollution directly to asthma. Our research showed that the effects of air pollution in Fresno are associated with genetic changes in the immune cells of children. In other words, inhaling polluted air could affect the immune system's ability to do its job. The increasing numbers and severity of asthma are directly related to these genetic changes. These genetic changes are permanent.

    Yet, despite all the evidence implicating air pollution's deleterious impact on public health, some people continue to ignore or attack the evidence. Worse yet, some in Congress are trying to stop the Environmental Protection Agency for taking reasonable steps to clean up our polluted environment. What's so frustrating is we have the technology to clean up the dirtiest sources of air pollution, and still industry and their supporters in Congress refuse to clean up their act. We cannot afford to debate and wait a half century before we clear the air; we must act now. As parents, as citizens, and as a nation, we have a responsibility to provide for the common good and the common health. As long as we have the will to defend our right to clean air, we can ensure that our children's future will be a brighter and healthier one.

    Kari Nadeau, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine and a pediatrician who specializes in asthma and allergy. She is a member of the American Thoracic Society Environmental Health Policy Committee and a volunteer physician with the American Lung Association in California.

    Related Entries:
    Improving the Health of our Children and Communities: the Clean Air Act   
    http://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2011/10/04/improving-health-our-children-and-communities-clean-air-act    

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