For the past two weeks, Democrats have been losing the energy debate -- badly.  Poll after poll showed Democrats losing major ground in the fight over new oil drilling, and some declared that energy could be a turning point in the run-up to November.  But a "New Energy Reform Act" proposal from the "Gang of 10" -- a group of five Democrats and five Republicans in the Senate -- is starting to gain serious traction and could upset the debate.

A detailed cost comparison of nuclear versus wind energy shows that nuclear energy will soon no longer be cost competitive with wind energy if present trends continue.

While nuclear energy is regarded as one of the cheapest sources of power available -- given the enormous amount of energy released from the splitting of atoms -- and wind is considered relatively expensive, analysis of a number of current projects using publicly available data indicates that wind energy has closed the gap in price per kilowatt.  

I published two-opeds this week, one in the San Francisco Chronicle and one in the Baltimore Sun, outlining a proposal for a National Energy Education Act.  I co-authored them with my colleague, Jesse Jenkins.

From Mike Brune, Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network, it is cross posted from our blog, the Understory.

What a difference a weekend makes.

Late last week, John McCain supported Al Gore’s call for a nationwide commitment to a ten-year clean energy revolution by declaring, "If the vice president says it’s doable, I believe it’s doable." In the hopes for a grand, bipartisan climate and energy deal in Congress, one might thought this was a breakthrough.

Don’t be fooled. By Monday, McCain launched a new attack ad that makes it perfectly clear the presumptive Republican nominee has something entirely different in mind.

The new 30-second spot, airing on national cable and in 11 battleground states, argues that the real reason gas prices are rising is because, "some in Washington are still saying no to drilling in America, no to independence from foreign oil."

With out of control gas prices and the mercury here hovering in the 90s maxing out the grid, I think it's a good time to reflect on a huge, thriving race event that's being staged in Chicago for the 100th time. It employs clean, renewable energy to thrill and entertain tens of thousands. I think that this event also indirectly celebrates the Great Lakes Water Compact, signed by the eight Great Lakes states, which is headed to Washington this year to try to win Congressional consent.  
http://www.marketwatch.com/...

Clean fun follows below the fold...

"Use It or Lose It" legislation fails to reach two-thirds majority.

On June 26th in response to ongoing calls to allow oil drilling off the coast of the United States and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Democratic members of Congress offered "Use It or Lose It" legislation to mandate that oil companies either drill on federal land they have leased or relinquish the right to do so.  Currently, oil companies have dormant leases to over 68 million acres in the western United States and Alaska that are available for immediate drilling and exploration that, according to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md) "contains over 100 billion barrels of oil".

While the vote was 223 for and 195 against, it failed to reach the two-thirds majority needed for passage under shortcut parliamentary rules.  For the record, all Democratic members of the Pennsylvania delegation voted for "Use It or Lose It" while all Pennsylvania Republicans voted against with the exception of Rep. John Peterson who did not vote.

Yet another reason why leasing more territory for offshore drilling is a ridiculous idea: 30 million acres of land already leased for oil and gas drilling has gone unused.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

As We Celebrate Our Independence, It Is Time for Energy Independence.

On Friday July 4th we will celebrate Independence Day marking 232 years since our founding fathers declared that the United States of America would be an independent nation.  Back in 1776, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and others showed courage, leadership and vision by drafting the Declaration of Independence creating a democratic government based on freedom and rights for the common people.  

Now, 232 years later, we need to see the same courage, leadership and vision from our elected leaders to declare independence again.  In 2008, the independence we need to declare is not from tyrannical leaders and an oppressive government but energy independence from foreign sources that have too much control over a product that is so vital to our nation.

This November, California residents will go to the ballot box to vote on a requirement for its electric utilities to procure 50% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025.  

Although it is supported by people like James Hansen of NASA, it is a bad policy and won't work.  I am not a right-wing anti-renewable energy guy either...I work in the renewable energy industry!

Our nation, and our world is quickly moving toward crisis.  Oil prices continue to grow, mountaintops in Appalachia are being bulldozed, and the environment is reeling.  To combat this coming crisis, many are exploring the alternatives to the fossil fuels that currently power the planet.

In my short time as a member of DailyKos I’ve (happily) seen many stories and comments discussing the new and exciting technology emerging in the field of alternative energy.  As an engineer by trade, and as someone who has been following these topics for years, it elates me to see others interested and working to advance an alternative energy agenda.  In keeping with my belief that discussion and debate are always good things, I wanted to contribute.

It is in this vein that I set out to write this "State of Alternative Energy" series.

I intend to cover several alternative energy technologies, where they stand in development, where they are going, and how they may impact our world.  In this second article, I’d like to talk about the quiet energy monster that's been building steam for literally hundreds of years.

Enhanced Geothermal Systems.

Who killed cap and trade? Dogmatists on left and right.

On the right, Senate Republican leadership insisted that the problem of climate change isn't serious and nothing should be done. On the left, environmentalist Democratic Senators insist that the only way to achieve emissions reductions is to price our way to a clean energy economy. In this way Democrats actually helped Republicans, who didn't need to do much more than repeat "higher gasoline prices" to defeat the bill.

The price-centric approach is a political, technological, economic, and ecological loser. Voters, and thus politicians, will never accept raising energy prices high enough to make clean energy cost competitive.

(The Diary title above is the one we'd prefer instead of the one the Times used.)

A step in the right direction on national climate policy
By K.C. Golden
Special to The Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/...
crossposted at http://www.climatesolutions.org

Sen. Maria Cantwell will hold constituent meetings this week to talk about federal climate policy in advance of a Senate vote on the Climate Security Act in June.

The U.S. stands alone among the world's advanced economies with no national climate policy. But with congressional debate under way and all three major presidential candidates committed to climate action, our shameful abdication of responsibility for solutions appears to be coming to an end. Cantwell deserves thanks for her strong leadership on energy and climate, and for inviting this dialogue.

Our nation, and our world is quickly moving toward crisis.  Oil prices continue to grow, mountaintops in Appalachia are being bulldozed, and the environment is reeling.  To combat this coming crisis, many are exploring the alternatives to the fossil fuels that currently power the planet.

In my short time as a member of DailyKos I’ve (happily) seen many stories and comments discussing the new and exciting technology emerging in the field of alternative energy.  As an engineer by trade, and as someone who has been following these topics for years, it elates me to see others interested and working to advance an alternative energy agenda.  In keeping with my belief that discussion and debate are always good things, I wanted to contribute.

It is in this vein that I set out to write this "State of Alternative Energy" series.

I intend to cover several alternative energy technologies, where they stand in development, where they are going, and how they may impact our world.  In this second article, I’d like to talk about the quiet energy monster that's been building steam for literally hundreds of years.

Wind Power.

Our nation, and our world is quickly moving toward crisis.  Oil prices continue to grow, mountaintops in Appalachia are being bulldozed, and the environment is reeling.  To combat this coming crisis, many are exploring the alternatives to the fossil fuels that currently power the planet.

In my short time as a member of DailyKos I’ve (happily) seen many stories and comments discussing the new and exciting technology emerging in the field of alternative energy.  As an engineer by trade, and as someone who has been following these topics for years, it elates me to see others interested and working to advance an alternative energy agenda.  In keeping with my belief that discussion and debate are always good things, I wanted to contribute.

It is in this vein that I set out to write this "State of Alternative Energy" series.

I intend to cover several alternative energy technologies, where they stand in development, where they are going, and how they may impact our world.  In this first article, I’d like to talk about a new form of power that battles both energy freedom and waste reduction.

The Plasma Arc Power Plant.

In today's column, "Dumb as we wanna be" Thomas Friedman has discussed the McCain-Clinton gas holiday idiocy, along with the larger issue of failure to provide stable and significant incentives for clean energy and the attendant loss of American leadership in clean energy technology.

This is, of course, but one symptom of the still larger malaise of government run by and for the benefit of the biggist corporate vested interests.  We can hardly expect more from such a government.

What has boggled me is trying to understand what we can do to check and reverse this disastrous situation.  Certainly putting a Democrat like Obama in the White House and increasing Democratic majorities in Congress is a step in the right direction.  But I can't forget how ineffective the Democratic loyal opposition has been in moderating the course of this administration, even since 2006.

On Earth Day, we celebrate our unique blue planet and look for ways to advance a sustainable future.  So this Earth Day, let's Act Blue and do something that can have a lasting and significant impact: support Energy Smart and Earth Friendly candidates for Congress!

One of the highlights of the 2006 elections was the defeat of former Congressman Richard Pombo (CA-11), a man who seemed to make it his singular mission in Congress to rape and pillage the environment, including leading the charge on repeated attempts to gut the Endangered Species Act and open up ANWR for oil drilling.

Cross posted from WattHead - Energy News and Commentary

After we published Break Through last fall we constantly heard from old-school environmentalists like the Center for American Progress blogger Joe Romm that we don't need technological breakthroughs. (Romm was careful to narrowly define "breakthrough" as the invention of a brand new technology, even though we had explicitly defined it as "breakthroughs in performance and price.")

One of the chief barriers to dealing with global warming is that clean energy remains much more expensive  than fossil fuels. As long as that remains the case, neither rich countries like the U.S. nor poor countries like China are going to move to clean energy sources any time soon. What to do? We argue that major federal investments in clean energy are required to scale up the technologies and bring down their price.

Last week it was widely reported that John McCain's decision to skip a crucial Senate vote doomed a much-needed clean energy measure to failure by a single vote - his.

His Senate office was besieged with calls, thanks to a Sierra Club campaign. McCain's staffers responded to callers by lying about McCain's vote, saying he had voted "yes."

The vote took place the day after Super Tuesday. Senators Clinton and Obama were there, and voted "yes". McCain -- the supposedly Green Republican -- was in Washington, but decided to skip the vote. It was the second time in two months that his missing vote has doomed support for clean energy in Congress.