Click on the headline (link) for the full text.
Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletinhomepage
Obama team plans biggest boost in history to save American economy
Andrew Clark, The Guardian
Barack Obama’s administration in waiting signalled yesterday that it was preparing the biggest economic stimulus in US history to avert mass unemployment in a stuttering economy that could face the toughest recession in half a century.
In a programme tinged with environmentally friendly initiatives, the US president-elect has set a new target of creating or safeguarding 3m jobs, up from a previous aim of 2.5m, by unleashing an avalanche of government spending and offering widespread tax rebates.
(22 December 2008)
America’s stop-and-go energy plan
Jim Tankersley, Los Angeles Times
Today’s cheaper gas is no reason to lose focus on reducing oil imports, activists and executives say.
—
Breaking America’s foreign-oil addiction was all the rage on Capitol Hill when gas cost $4 a gallon. Now that it’s under $2 and falling, history suggests that the enthusiasm for alternative fuels and more efficient cars will subside. It did that in the mid-1970s and again in the 1980s and 1990s.
But this time could be different.
A sense of urgency may still remain, according to congressional leaders and environmental groups, because of a confluence of factors including broad anxiety over global warming, enthusiasm for green elements in economic stimulus packages and President-elect Barack Obama’s repeated vows to act.
And in any case, few consumers are convinced that low gas prices will last.
(23 December 2008)
Energy’s take on Team Obama
Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney
Despite praising it publicly, the energy industry is wary of President-elect Barack Obama’s incoming energy team which will likely call for major changes in the country’s energy plan.
When Barack Obama announced his energy and environmental staff last week, the industry nearly tripped over itself lauding the new picks.
… Even Big Oil was cordial. The American Petroleum Institute issued a statement saying it “looks forward to working with President-elect Barack Obama’s appointees to develop a comprehensive, fact-based and realistic energy policy.”
But unlike President Bush, Obama hasn’t put a single person from the fossil fuel industry on his energy team.
Energy Secretary nominee Chu is a physicist and former Berkeley professor. Lisa Jackson, Obama’s pick for the Environmental Protection Agency, and Nancy Sutley, his choice to head Council on Environmental Quality, have long resumes as regulators. And Carol Browner, tapped for the newly created office overseeing energy and climate issues, is a longtime Washington operator who Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., called “a proud liberal who has long-advocated an environmentalist agenda.”
Everyone on the team wants to cap greenhouse gases – a costly proposition for a country that uses fossil fuel for 85% of its energy – and move to more renewable sources of fuel.
So what does the industry really think of Obama’s new team, and who stands to lose the most?
(23 December 2008)
Related from the Houston Chronicle: Energy nominee is no fan of fossil fuel-based energy.
