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Friedman: Start Up the Risk-Takers
Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times
... I’ve been traveling all across the country on a book tour, and every evening I return to my hotel with my pockets full of business cards from inventors in clean energy. Our country is still bursting with innovators looking for capital. So, let’s make sure all the losers clamoring for help don’t drown out the potential winners who could lift us out of this. Some of our best companies, such as Intel, were started in recessions, when necessity makes innovators even more inventive and risk-takers even more daring.

Yes, we have to shore up the banking system, which underpins everything; and finding a fair way to prevent hardworking people, who played by the rules, from losing their homes to foreclosure is both right and essential for stability.

But beyond that, let’s think, talk and plan in more aspirational ways. We’re down, but we’re not out. As we invest taxpayer money, let’s do it with an eye to starting a new generation of biotech, info-tech, nanotech and clean-tech companies, with real innovators, real 21st-century jobs and potentially real profits for taxpayers. Our motto should be, “Start-ups, not bailouts: nurture the next Google, don’t nurse the old G.M.’s.”

To be fair, the stimulus package that the Obama team and the Democrats in Congress recently passed — with virtually no Republican help — goes some way toward doing just that. Hat’s off for that. Now let’s do more.
(21 February 2009)

E.P.A. Expected to Regulate Carbon Dioxide
John M. Broder, New York Times
The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to act for the first time to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that scientists blame for the warming of the planet, according to top Obama administration officials.

The decision, which most likely would play out in stages over a period of months, would have a profound impact on transportation, manufacturing costs and how utilities generate power. It could accelerate the progress of energy and climate change legislation in Congress and form a basis for the United States’ negotiating position at United Nations climate talks set for December in Copenhagen.

The environmental agency is under order from the Supreme Court to make a determination whether carbon dioxide is a pollutant that endangers public health and welfare, an order that the Bush administration essentially ignored despite near-unanimous belief among agency experts that research points inexorably to such a finding.
(18 February 2009)
At Gristmill, David Roberts bemoans the fact that his publication had been covering this story long before the NY Times article: Note to world: Check out independent media some time, it's pretty cool! (NYT breaks story on CO2 regulations ... after two years of Grist coverage)

National Guard goes green to conserve energy, cost
Sue Major Holmes, Associated Press
... "Energy's become one of our top priorities here in the National Guard," said Thomas Gurule, a retired Guard lieutenant colonel who is now its energy manager.

Every building under the military construction program must meet the U.S. Green Building Council's silver rating, said Elvin L. Shields, chief of the design-criteria branch for the Army National Guard's installations division in Washington, D.C.

Two percent of a building's cost will be spent to make sure it meets standards, Shields said. That pays for upgrades on a building's systems — more energy-efficient systems, better windows and doors, and more insulation, he said.
(20 February 2009)

White House Dismisses Mileage-Based Tax
Eric M. Weiss, Washington Post
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood suggested yesterday that the Obama administration might embrace a new and controversial way to pay for highway and transit projects: charging motorists a tax for every mile they drive.

But no sooner was the idea being batted around by cable commentators and commuters than spokesmen for the White House and LaHood's own department shot it down -- hard.

"It is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said when asked at his daily briefing about LaHood's remarks, which were made in an interview with the Associated Press.
(21 February 2009)

First Lady at Agriculture Department
Marian Burros, New York Times
The first lady, Michelle Obama, continued her rounds of government agency visits today ... [visiting the Agriculture Department]

Last week, the Agriculture Department started its own garden, one that will include fruits and vegetables to be donated to the city’s soup kitchens. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack jackhammered a spot in the black asphalt outside the Whitten building to prepare the ground. It is part of an effort by the Obama administration to get people to grow some of their own food.

Mrs. Obama said she was particularly pleased that the department’s facilities all over the world would be planting gardens. “I’m a big believer in community gardens,” she said, “both because of their beauty and for providing access to fresh fruits and vegetables to so many communities across the nation and the world.”
(19 February 2009)