Earth Equity News

Hard Task for New Team on Energy and Climate. By John M. Broder and Andrew C. Revkin. NYTimes, December 15, 2008. "The intense ideological and regional rivalries that have stalled climate change legislation in Congress for years have not suddenly melted away... The new team faces political urgency to deliver on promises made by Mr. Obama on the campaign trail. One was his pledge to use a cap-and-trade bill for curbing heat-trapping gases as both the means of shifting investments away from energy sources that cause emissions of such gases and also as the source of the $15 billion a year he promised to invest in advanced energy technology. That figure may be dwarfed by spending on stimulus programs, including so-called green projects like building wind farms and making buildings more energy efficient... Left unclear on Monday was how the new president's advisers intend to use the levers of government to get to the 'new energy economy' Mr. Obama described. Also uncertain was what relationship they would forge with his powerful economic advisers. 'In policy terms, I think there are big questions about what priority will be given to direct public infrastructure spending versus tax-based incentives versus environmental markets versus direct regulation,' said Paul Bledsoe of the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan advisory group. 'There is still a very profound debate on all of that.'"