Energy, Climate Change,
and Our Environment

The President has taken unprecedented action to build the foundation for a clean energy economy, tackle the issue of climate change, and protect our environment.

Energy and Environment Latest News

  • Saving Homeowners Money and Creating Jobs

    Posted by Nancy Sutley on November 9, 2010 at 6:37 PM EST

    I was thrilled to take part in the Vice President’s Middle Class Task Force event at the White House today announcing home energy efficiency measures that will achieve real cost savings and environmental benefits for American families.  Among the announcements was the creation of a voluntary Home Energy Score program from the Department of Energy that will provide families with clear, reliable and customized information about their home’s energy efficiency.  This means that homeowners who are considering energy retrofits will have an easy way to make cost-effective decisions about energy upgrades.  (See a sample of the Home Energy Score below.)

    The Home Energy Score and the other measures we announced today are designed support the growth of a strong, self sustaining home energy efficiency industry in the United States. They also get to the heart of the Recovery Through Retrofit initiative, which focused on ways to help save Americans money on their electricity bills while growing job opportunities here at home.

    At the White House meeting, I was proud to look around and see how many people have been involved in this initiative and have been working together for 18 months to make these programs a reality for American homeowners.  Today was just the beginning.  We will continue to pursue ideas that make sense for our economy, for our environment, and for America’s middle class.

    Home Energy Score

    November 10, 2010.

    Nancy Sutley is Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality

    Learn more about Energy and Environment

  • Strengthening an Emerging Industry While Helping Families Save Money

    Posted by Brian Levine on November 9, 2010 at 3:17 PM EST

    Download Video: mp4 (404MB) | mp3 (39MB)

    Last fall, the Middle Class Task Force and the Council on Environmental Quality released a report called Recovery Through Retrofit, which identified the key barriers standing in the way of strong and sustainable home energy-efficiency industry.  For the past year, we have been working with our partners across the federal government to address these barriers, and today, the Vice President announced three new initiatives that will grow this industry and help middle-class families save money on their energy bills. 

    First, homeowners don’t have access to clear and reliable information about their home’s energy performance and how to improve it.  So today, the Department of Energy announced a program called Home Energy Score.   Using a new software tool, trained contractors will be able to go through a house in an hour or less and generate a report with two critical components:

    • First, an easy to understand graphic showing where the home’s energy performance rates on a scale of 1 to 10 and how that score compares to other homes in the area.   It’s like a miles-per-gallon label for your house.  
    • Second, a customized list of recommended improvements, with information on how much the homeowner’s energy bill would be reduced by each change.

    read the rest
    Learn more about Economy, Energy and Environment

  • Criticizing the Inspectors

    Posted by Michael R. Bromwich on November 3, 2010 at 3:54 PM EST

    The federal employees responsible for conducting inspections on offshore rigs, platforms and other facilities associated with offshore drilling have been subjected to waves of criticism over the past several months.  Some of that criticism has been fair, as when it focused on the selfish and corrupt acts of a few inspectors; but much of it has been misguided and unfair because it has been based on flawed assumptions and incomplete or inaccurate facts.  

    Regrettably, this second type of criticism has recently found its way to mainstream media outlets whose coverage has previously generally been reasonable and balanced.  In an editorial dated October 28, the New Orleans Time-Picayune made the sweeping assertions that "government inspectors know little or nothing about crucial rig operations," that "inspectors likely were unable to identify problems because they did not understand how some important drilling processes worked," and that this was a farcical case of "the hens not even knowing how to recognize an egg."

    These statements substituted rhetoric for factual accuracy and provided an extremely misleading picture of the roles of offshore drilling inspectors and more generally of the process by which our agency monitors and regulates offshore drilling. The coverage suggested that the inspectors are ignorant about rigs, derelict in their duties, and failed to perform their jobs. That is both wrong and unfair.

    read the rest
    Learn more about Deepwater BP Oil Spill, Energy and Environment

  • U.S. Unveils Initiative to Monitor and Manage Forest Carbon Dynamics

    Posted by Rick Weiss on November 3, 2010 at 8:39 AM EST

    OSTP’s Associate Director for Environment Shere Abbott today announced details of an innovative new U.S.-sponsored program called SilvaCarbon, designed to strengthen global capacity to understand, monitor, and manage forest and terrestrial carbondynamics—an essential element in the effort to combat climate change.

    Abbott made the announcement in Beijing, where she is leading the U.S. delegation and serving as co-chair for the Seventh Plenary meeting of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), a voluntary partnership of governments and international organizations committed to implementing a coordinated response to global environmental stresses.

    SilvaCarbon, named after the Latin word for forest, will bring together a community of U.S. scientists and technical experts from government, academia, non-governmental organizations, and industry into a network that will support efforts to improve access to Earth observation data about forests.  It is a key element in the Administration’s comprehensive strategy for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and enhancing forest carbon stocks in developing countries.

    “The science of how forests store carbon, both above ground and in the soil, is of profound importance and requires further monitoring and investigation,” Abbott said. “We want to cooperate more closely with our partners in GEO in this area, to protect and make most effective use of our forests, to avoid harmful deforestation and land-degradation, and to better understand how forests store and release carbon and other greenhouse gases.”

    For more information about SilvaCarbon, see OSTP’s press release.

    [Ed. Note: The title of this blog has been changed.]

    Learn more about Energy and Environment

  • Celebrating National Weatherization Day

    Posted by Secretary Steven Chu on November 1, 2010 at 3:42 PM EST

    Ed. Note: Cross posted from the Energy Blog.

    This weekend, communities across the country celebrated National Weatherization Day, highlighting the important work happening nationwide to save money for America’s homeowners by investing in energy efficiency.  As a result of the Recovery Act weatherization program, more than 245,000 low-income families have had their homes upgraded, which means these families are paying lower energy bills every month.  The program has also helped to put thousands of workers on the job every day, helping to grow America’s clean energy economy while improving our energy independence and reducing pollution.  To all those involved in the success of this program, congratulations and we look forward to your continued good work in the months and years ahead.

    Watch the video to get a firsthand look at the work happening in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania under the weatherization program.

    Steven Chu is the Secretary of Energy.

    Learn more about Energy and Environment

  • Solar Panels on the White House and in the Desert, 36 Billion Gallons of Biofuels, and Cleaner Trucks

    Posted by Carol Browner on October 29, 2010 at 9:33 AM EST

    Building a clean energy economy in this country is one of President Obama’s top priorities.  As National Energy Awareness Month - a national effort to underscore how central energy policy is to our national prosperity, security, and environment – draws to a close, I wanted to highlight some of the events and announcements from the Administration that are helping us build a clean energy economy.

    We’re installing solar panels on the White House, building the largest solar energy power plant in the world on our public lands, and proposing the first-ever greenhouse gas and fuel efficiency standards for heavy-duty cars and trucks.  All told, the Administration held and made over 140 energy-related events and announcements this month.  Below are just a few of the highlights, but you can see the full calendar of events here.

    Includes Video
    read the rest
    Learn more about Energy and Environment