Lost amidst a variety of “stories” over the past weeks was news the President Barak Obama met on June 25 with bi-partisan group of leaders including Senators McCain, Schumer and Menendez to develop a plan for reforming our immigration system.

During the meeting, President Obama indicated in the clearest terms that he wanted a workable solution, based on reality, not rhetoric or xenophobia. The plan that emerges will probably disappoint ideologues, and must be based on the perspectives highlighted below.

There are three basic options for dealing with the broken immigration system, but only one will solve the problem: 1) Allow the current immigration mess to deteriorate further, a prospect that frustrates the vast majority the American people. 2) Hold out for the ugly fantasy that we are going to get rid of 12,000,000 undocumented immigrants, a prospect as unrealistic as it is un-American. 3) Move forward with a comprehensive plan that restores the rule of law, gets people in the system, makes employers play by the rules, and creates a stable, sustainable and legal system of immigration.

An American solution to our broken immigration system includes effective, humane border and interior enforcement that respects rights and keeps communities safe. Also there must be a way for those here without proper documentation to get in the system with legal status so they get on a path to citizenship, learn English, and become fully integrated Americans. Family reunification has always been a hallmark of our immigration system. In 2007, part of the reason that the proposal for immigration reform failed was because it ignored family reunification as a historic component of any American immigration system.

Democrats were elected on a platform of tackling and solving big problems like immigration, healthcare, and reforming our economic system. If they don’t pull together, act like a majority, and deliver on the promise of change, independents and swing voters will begin to look elsewhere, imperiling the majority they now enjoy. Republicans, seeking to regain majority status run the risk of further alienating the fastest group of new voters in the nation if they do not take a bipartisan approach to these great issues. There are many Republicans members of the house and senate who have and continue to demonstrate support for comprehensive immigration reform that is fair, humane, and just, based on reality not xenophobia.

In every generation, our great American republic has been preserved and grown by embracing change - from the “Jacksonian Revolution” to the Civil War to the progressive movements’ response to inequality and oppression; from the Great Depression of the 1930s and the “New Deal” that preserved our Democracy by instituting crucial changes in labor relations, economic regulation, the institution of social security and massive public works programs. In our recent history, the civil rights movement of the 1960s addressed our nation’s ugly legacy of slavery and apartheid which grew out of the infamous Plessy vs. Ferguson decision. While civil rights was the focus in the 1960s, the positive parts of the Great Society in that era ALSO included the so-called “socialism” represented by Medicare and Medicaid. In 1965, we also significantly modified our immigration system (sound familiar?). We continue to pay the price for failure to enact comprehensive healthcare reform in the 1990s. Considering all these issues, we are in essence faced with a “perfect storm” that once again tests our commitment to “form a more perfect union.”

We are tested in battle against those who would destroy America from abroad and by xenophobic forces who seek to destroy America from within. Expanding our economic opportunities, democratizing our healthcare system and immigration reform, are all tests of our ability to grow as a democratic republic. Despite the great strides we have made in the area of civil rights, the specter of racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination still threaten our democracy.

Notwithstanding or because of all of these challenges, we have much to celebrate this July 4th because we as a nation of immigrants are always working “to form a more perfect union.”

Charles Goldstein is executive director of the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network.

Download audio file (7-2_PODCAST_deeds.mp3)

Commentary: Shoring up the business flank

My ear has been attuned to the misreading being done by Republicans on the June Democratic primary, which the GOP faithful has been interpreting as a referendum on Terry McAuliffe and the general disapproval of primary voters for the Macker’s D.C.-style politics.

The misread is that McAuliffe didn’t lose the primary; Creigh Deeds won it by beating McAuliffe at his own game. Remember that it was the campaign of McAuliffe’s good friend Bill Clinton that boiled the 1992 presidential election to being about “the economy, stupid.” McAuliffe toured Virginia promising “big ideas” to get Virginia’s economy moving, and had all the traction in the world on that until The Washington Post picked up on something that the voters did a little later on, namely, that Deeds had done T-Mac one better by focusing not on “big ideas” but on the basics.

Education and transportation are the two focal points for Deeds in the economic-development arena - quality education being essential to the development of the workforce of today and tomorrow, and attractive school systems being a linchpin to efforts to attract and retain business and industry; and improvements to our transportation infrastructure being fundamental to getting business and industry moving in all corners of the state, including the economic engines in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.

Deeds has been fighting the good fight with the likes of Mark Warner and Tim Kaine to make investments in education and transportation a top priority in Richmond. Republicans, meanwhile, led by gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell, have led the massive resistance to the efforts to move Virginia forward, even as McDonnell has attempted through money and camera tricks to recast himself in a recent run of TV spots as being a business-focused leader.

McDonnell, unfortunately for him, cannot escape his record, and doesn’t appear to even buy into the mythmaking himself, recently talking up Bush-era tax cuts to delegates at the annual Boys State convention as being the indication to “the kind of governor that I’m going to be.”

I’m guessing McDonnell didn’t realize that in defining “the kind of governor” that he’s going to be by pointing to George W. Bush that he’s also tying himself to a president whose record of fiscal irresponsibility makes Ronald Reagan look like a miser. That, and unlike in Washington, where a Republican Congress and Republican president can cut taxes and spend like drunken sailors with no repercussions other than that they had to cast a few messy votes to raise the debt ceiling to allow the orgy to continue, Virginia’s budget by our State Constitution has to be balanced, meaning we have to make hard choices every budget year.

Education and transportation are foundational elements in our modern economy, and they don’t come cheap. Creigh Deeds gets that. Anybody with a day or two experience managing a business gets that, and gets the idea that being conservative doesn’t mean that you just don’t spend any money on anything, but rather that you make every effort to spend the money that you have to spend as wisely and efficiently as possible.

Business Leaders for Deeds? Yeah, I see it being significant. Not only because I’m confident as a small-business owner myself that Deeds will keep us on the track that Mark Warner put us on and Tim Kaine has kept us moving down, but also because I’m afraid that the “kind of governor” that Bob McDonnell would turn out to be is the one he’s told us he would be, or worse, that he’ll end up being Jim Gilmore and leave our state billions of dollars in debt and with schools and roads that will take us another generation to fix.

- Commentary by Chris Graham

Press Release: Business Leaders for Deeds debuts

Democratic candidate for governor Creigh Deeds today announced the formation and leadership of “Business Leaders for Deeds,” a broad-based group of bipartisan, statewide business leaders who have agreed to advise and promote Deeds’ candidacy. “Business Leaders for Deeds” will be led by Ted Leonsis of McLean, the majority owner of the Washington Capitals and Washington Mystics. Leonsis also is a former AOL vice chairman, a venture capitalist and philanthropist.

U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner joined Deeds and Leonsis at today’s announcement. Warner is a former telecom executive who’s pragmatic approach during his term as Virginia Governor (2002-06) resulted in Virginia’s designation as the nation’s “best managed state” and “best state for business.”

“I appreciate the support and the expertise these business executives will bring to our effort, because these men and women recognize that their businesses are only as strong as the people who power them,” Senator Deeds said. “Our administration will be working hard every day to create opportunity and jobs for Virginians, and these business leaders will be a key part of our bipartisan efforts to better position the Commonwealth to emerge stronger from our economic challenges.”

“I am impressed by Creigh’s focus on quality education, technology and innovation as the cornerstones of Virginia’s economic future,” Mr. Leonsis said. “’Business Leaders for Deeds’ will bring together leading executives from across the state to advise Creigh during the campaign – and, more importantly, after his election this fall.”

“I have known and worked closely with many of these community and business leaders, and I appreciate their willingness to step-up and support Creigh’s bipartisan focus on producing real results that move Virginia forward,” Senator Warner said. “We cannot leave any region of Virginia behind as we work together to strengthen our economy and position the Commonwealth to compete in this global economy.”

Other members of “Business Leaders for Deeds” so far include:

- Douglas M. Adams of Maiden, Retired President of The Country Vintner, Inc.;
- Jane Inskeep Barrell of Culpeper; Co-Owner of Culpeper Management, LLC;
- Robert M. Blue of Richmond, Senior Vice President of Public Policy & Corporate Communications for Dominion Corporation;
- The Honorable Sandra Bowen of Richmond, former Senior Vice President of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, former Virginia Secretary of Administration and Commonwealth;
- William M. Camp, Jr. of Franklin, principal of Holliknoll Farm;
- James K. Candler of Lynchburg, Chairman of Candler Oil Company, Inc.;
- Judith P. Carter of Orange, Principal of Germanna Title Company;
- Laurie C. Crigler of Madison, Vice President of L&D Associates, Inc.;
- Edward C. Dalrymple of Mineral, Vice President of Chemung Contracting;
- Charlotte B. Dammann of McLean, Associate Broker of Faulconer Realtors Inc.;
- Joseph R. Daniel of Culpeper, President of Jefferson Homebuilders;
- Joshua P. Darden, Jr., of Norfolk, President of Darden Properties Inc.;
- Carlos Del Toro of Stafford, President & CEO of SBG Technology Solutions, Inc.;
- Susan Y. “Syd” Dorsey of Mechanicsville, Director of Sales & Marketing at Astyra Corporation;
- G.S. “Sandy” Fitz-Hugh, Jr., former President of the Bank of America – Virginia;
- David Goode of Norfolk, former Chairman, President and CEO of Norfolk Southern Corporation;
- Mark Goodwin of Richmond, former Senior Vice President of UPS Freight;
- William C. Hall, Jr. of Richmond, Vice President of Corporate Communications & Community Affairs for Dominion Corporation;
- Robert D. Hardie of Charlottesville, Managing Director of Level One Partners, LLC;
- Cabell S. Harris of Richmond, President of WORK Labs;
- Jimmy Hazel of Oakton, principal of Angler Environmental;
- John T. “Til” Hazel, Jr. of Broad Run, founder and former chairman of the Virginia Business Higher Education Council;
- William R. Hedrick of Bluefield, President of Fort Chiswell Construction Corporation;
- Ted Hontz of Stafford, Vice President of Basic Commerce and Industries, Inc.;
- Kenneth Jones of Richmond, Owner and President of Prestige Construction Company;
- James L. Keen of Vansant, CEO of Keen H.R. Services, Inc.;
- Austin Ligon of Richmond, co-founder and retired CEO of CarMax Inc.;
- Mark C. Lowham of McLean, Senior Vice President of WEST*GROUP;
- Charles H. Majors of Danville, President & CEO of American National Bank & Trust Company;
- John F. Malbon of Virginia Beach, CEO of Papco, Inc.;
- Mark R. Merhige of Richmond, President of Shockoe Properties;
- Bittle Porterfield, III of Roanoke, President of Rice Management Company;
- Richard S. “Major” Reynolds III of Richmond, Managing Director of Reynolds Trust;
- Gilbert “Gil” Rosenthal of Richmond, retired owner of Standard Drug Company;
- Tom Rosenthal of Richmond, CEO of Med Outcomes, Inc.;
- Walter Rugaber of Meadows of Dan, former President and Publisher of The Roanoke Times;
- The Honorable Elliot Schewel of Lynchburg, Former President of Schewel Furniture Company and former State Senator;
- Ranjit K. Sen of Richmond, President & CEO of CXI;
- R. Chris Walters of Abingdon, financial advisor;
- Naomi Weathers of Chester, Owner and President of Weathers Engineering Inc.;
- Blair K. Williamson of Charlottesville, President of S.L. Williamson Company, Inc.;
- Alan S. Witt of Newport News, CEO of Witt Mares, PLC;
- Linda Zecher of Charlottesville, Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Public Sector of Microsoft Corporation.

“While Mr. Baril is concerned about political debates, Del. McDonnell’s primary concern is debating the important issues facing our Commonwealth in the General Assembly session for the next several weeks.”

This was from a Feb. 11, 2005, article in The Augusta Free Press reporting on the debate challenge issued by Republican attorney-general nomination candidate Steve Baril to Bob McDonnell, whose campaign manager, Janet Polarek, was the one dismissing the challenge as “grandstanding” and “publicity.”

Interesting perspective there considering the salvo from the McDonnell gubernatorial campaign on Wednesday wherein McDonnell challenged Democrat Creigh Deeds to a 10-debate series.

“It would be an honor to travel the state from late July through late October debating Creigh on jobs, transportation, education, economic development, health care, the environment, public safety, taxes and spending in front of audiences in every region,” McDonnell said in a statement sent to the media Wednesday after the debate series was proposed formally to the Deeds campaign in a letter earlier in the morning.

“I anticipate that each debate will be available to voters statewide online and through radio, print and television outlets. These debates would keep the focus of this campaign where it belongs: on the issues. I hope Creigh will agree that Virginians deserve to hear from the two candidates for Virginia’s highest office directly, and together, as often as is possible. I look forward to receiving Creigh’s positive reply to this proposal for a formal series of 10 gubernatorial debates,” McDonnell said.

Deeds campaign spokesman Jared Leopold was more positive in his response later Wednesday than Polarek was a few years back in responding to the Baril challenge. “Creigh Deeds is eager to compare his record of common-sense leadership to Bob McDonnell’s record of opposing bipartisan progress,” Leopold said. “Creigh participated in numerous debates and joint appearances in the primary, and his strong debate performances helped to propel his come-from-behind victory. The Deeds campaign will work with community and news organizations and the McDonnell campaign to schedule a series of debates, so that all Virginians have the opportunity to hear the stark differences between the two candidates. We expect the number of debates to be in line with precedent from the 2005 Kaine-Kilgore and Deeds-McDonnell debate schedules.”

- Story by Chris Graham

Al Gore calls the proposal, “one of the most important pieces of legislation ever introduced in Congress.” Yet, NASA’s top climate scientist, James Hansen, says “I hope cap and trade doesn’t pass, because we need a much more effective approach.”

In an open letter to the president and members of Congress, 20 of the top climate scientists in the country wrote “at its best it will be only a first step” and “call attention to the large difference between what U.S. politics now seems capable of enacting and what scientists understand is necessary to prevent climatic disruption and protect the human future.”

I deeply respect individuals on both sides of the debate and in the end, I believe both sides are right.

The science, at least, is pretty clear. The safe upper limit of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 350 parts per million (ppm). Right now, we’re at 389 ppm and climbing. In its current form, ACES will not take us below 350. Most agree with that. On the other hand, the latest study by the Congressional Budget Office reports that ACES will create 1.7 million new jobs and save consumers over $22 billion in 2020 alone. According to the Center for American Progress, by 2020 it will have the same effect on global warming as removing 500 million cars from the road. That’s nothing to sneeze at.

So I’m looking forward, not back. Ultimately our goals should be to avert a climate crisis and build a vibrant clean energy economy. Does ACES bring us closer to reaching that goal? Yes. Will it bring us there on its own? Most certainly not. So, with those goals in mind, let’s look at three keys to moving forward.

First, we need to strengthen ACES as much as possible before it becomes law. The oil and coal industries have spent big to weaken the proposal. In just the first three months of 2009, these companies spent $79 million lobbying Congress. They’ve bought access and worked against the interests of the American people.

We need to strengthen ACES to ensure that it truly delivers the clean energy job creation promised by strengthening the Renewable Electricity Standard in the proposal. A better bill will also preserve the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate carbon emissions through the Clean Air Act, a critical tool for the president to ensure the necessary emissions reductions.

Second, we need to see ACES as the foundation of good national and international climate policy, not the final product. To truly jumpstart a clean energy economy, we need a range of complementary policies. President Obama has already had some success in this area, most notably with the increase in fuel-economy standards.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we need to create a spirit of national purpose to face this challenge. If anyone in this country has proven able to inspire us to fully engage with our civic and moral responsibilities, it’s President Obama. I hope it’s his leadership - rather than another devastating storm or an oil shock - that helps the nation re-focus on the urgency for action.

Billy Parish is the founder of the Energy Action Coalition, a national youth clean energy coalition.

Barack Obama and George W. Bush differ in many ways, but both have embraced so-called “clean coal” for providing an ongoing supply of cheap and readily available energy for electricity generation. 

The term “clean coal” is loosely defined as coal that is washed or processed to remove pollutants, so as to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the leading greenhouse gas, when the coal is burned. Coal-burning plants emit 40 percent of U.S. CO2 pollution—half of our electricity comes from coal—so reducing the industry’s carbon footprint in any way possible would be a big win for the environment.

Luckily for clean coal advocates, the White House has been and continues to push for its development. George W. Bush’s support for clean coal dates back to his first term in office, when he stated that such technologies should be encouraged as a means of reducing dependence on foreign oil. And since taking office, the Obama administration has committed $3.4 billion in stimulus dollars to clean coal projects.

But green groups continue to question the wisdom of relying on coal at all. Coal wreaks environmental havoc, from the coal mines that pollute rivers and streams, to the premature deaths of coal miners from accidents and lung diseases, to the release of greenhouse gases, mercury and other toxins at power plants.

According to Greenpeace, burning coal emits 29 percent more CO2 than does burning oil or natural gas. And coal-fired power plants are the world’s largest sources of atmospheric mercury, a known neurotoxin that disperses quickly throughout the environment and into the food chain. Greenpeace says that clean coal technologies will not address this problem, and that there are “no commercially available technologies to prevent mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants.” Also, the group says, clean coal will do nothing to mitigate coal mining’s damage to wildlife habitat and drinking water sources.

“There is no such thing as ‘clean coal’ and there never will be,” Dan Becker of the Sierra Club told the Grist.org website. “It’s an oxymoron.” The Reality Coalition, a group of nonprofits that includes the Sierra Club, has been running TV ads seeking to debunk industry claims that coal can be clean. Green groups also worry that pushing clean coal will only delay the transition to a truly cleaner and greener energy infrastructure based on solar, wind and other emissions-free renewable energy sources.

In April of 2009, environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. questioned the motivations of Obama and other politicians who back clean coal. “The coal industry and the carbon industry in general are the largest contributors to the political process,” Kennedy told ABC News. “You don’t have politicians representing the American public, but rather the people who finance their campaigns.”

Of course, Obama’s support for clean coal doesn’t negate the fact that he has proposed spending much more on further development of alternative energy sources. He has called for getting 10 percent of U.S. electricity from renewable sources by 2012 and 25 percent by 2025, and has committed upwards of $32 billion of stimulus dollars to the cause, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Environment America.

CONTACTS: Greenpeace, www.greenpeace.org; Reality Coalition, www.thisisreality.org.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

All the e-mail did for me was set the tone for more of the same coming from other candidates for office.

The one from Creigh Deeds’ campaign manager, Joe Abbey, was a personal favorite for me, in that it didn’t just ask for money. “As we head into these crucial final hours before the June 30 deadline, I wanted to walk you through a point we think will be the key to making the upcoming election vastly different – and better for Creigh Deeds and Democrats – than anything we have seen in Virginia before,” Abbey wrote, then explained how John McCain received the same raw number of votes in Virginia in his run for president in 2008 that George W. Bush had received in 2004, and still lost the state by seven percentage points on Election Night.

“What happened? Nothing short of a historic surge in the Democratic vote. Between 2004 and 2008, the number of Democratic voters increased by 504,000. That’s why the June 30 deadline is so important. We need to have the resources to reach these 504,000 voters. Help us reach our $100,000 end of quarter goal today!” Abbey wrote.

An e-mail from Deeds this morning was, I assume, meant to seal the deal. “Just this week Bob McDonnell said that the ‘kind of governor I’m going to be’ is the one that carries on the economic policies of George W. Bush. That’s not the kind of governor I’m going to be. I want to move Virginia forward in the Warner-Kaine tradition,” wrote Deeds, who nonetheless couldn’t resist playing up how “we must close the quarter strong” because “whether we like it or not, our opponents, the press, and the pundits will judge the strength of our campaign based on our fundraising numbers.”

I get it. Fundraising is a perception thing, though of course the Deeds juggernaut was neither about perception or fundraising when he came from the back of the pack to upset heavily-favored and heavily-financed frontrunner Terry McAuliffe in the Democratic Party primary.

Which isn’t to say that we could expect Deeds to pull another stealthy stunner in November. Democrats need to be able to “level the playing field,” as Sen. Mark Warner noted in an e-mail asking for money for Deeds, lieutenant-governor nominee Jody Wagner and attorney-general nominee Steve Shannon.

“All the progress we’ve made in Virginia could come down to what happens in this election. I’ve seen Bob McDonnell and his running mates stand in the way of bipartisan solution on too many measures critical to turning Virginia around,” Warner wrote.

“What we do today won’t guarantee victory in November, but failure to act in the next 13 hours could set the campaign back . Our ticket needs to push forward every day to win, and your support is vitally important,” Warner wrote.

Seriously, you guys pretty much had me at hello. I mean, I got the e-mail from McDonnell, so I know he’s hard at it, and I got another one from Bill Bolling telling me he’s trying to close out the quarter with a million dollars cash in hand, which to me seems like pulling a big number out of the air, but hey, he’s a politician, too, and politicians are good at pulling numbers out of the air, if not out of their asses.

“At the end of the last filing period, Bob McDonnell reported having roughly $5 million in cash on hand, much of it coming from direct transfers of millions of dollars from national Republicans,” Democratic Party of Virginia chair Dick Cranwell piled on in another e-mail. “Just last week, McDonnell began using that money to run the first TV ads of the general election. McDonnell is hoping that his new TV blitz will let him run from his hyper-partisan past and reinvent himself as a moderate. The next filing deadline is midnight tonight and Creigh needs your support today so that he can go toe-to-toe with Bob McDonnell and win in November.”

Enough, already! Please!

“This Wednesday, June 30 is a critical date for the statewide Democratic ticket of Creigh Deeds, Jody Wagner, and Steve Shannon. The best way for our candidates to reach Virginia families and share their plans to keep Virginia the Best State for Business, the Best Managed State, and the Best Place to Raise a Child is to finish this quarter strong,” Gov. Tim Kaine added to the collection.

“The November elections are fast-approaching. I urge you to help elect these long-time public servants committed to improving the lives of Virginians throughout the Commonwealth. Help continue the progress we’ve made in the past eight years by electing Creigh, Jody and Steve this November. Please make an investment in Virginia’s future by making a contribution to the 2009 statewide Democratic ticket,” Kaine wrote.

I just can’t wait for the next flurry of e-mails asking me to surrender some of my hard-earned. My presumption is that I’ll learn how way even more important the next campaign-finance report will be to setting the tone and the rest.

- Column by Chris Graham

“This is a moment where we’ve been called upon to cast off the old ways of doing business, and act boldly to reclaim America’s future. Nowhere is this more important than in building a new, clean energy economy, ending our dependence on foreign oil, and limiting the dangerous pollutants that threaten our health and the health of our planet,” President Barack Obama said yesterday.

The focus on clean-energy legislation now moves to the Senate, where we can expect more in the way of deliberation and hand-wringing and the like. I expect Virginia’s two moderate Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Jim Webb, to play key roles in the Senate discussions on cap-and-trade. The House version of the legislation that passed on Friday requires energy producers to generate 20 percent of their electricity from renewable resources by 2020, and puts caps on greenhouse-gas emissions that are intended to incentivize business and industry to look for cleaner energy alternatives.

I haven’t seen anything definitive on the particulars of the House bill from the usually close-to-the-vest duo. The only even-vague sense of direction that I can glean from either is something from Warner from a town-hall meeting in Staunton in April in which he expressed support for a new coal plant being built in Southwest Virginia and drilling off the coast of Virginia as parts of a long-term energy solution. “I think our approach ought to be, We’ve got to put all the options on the table,” Warner said at the town hall.

My sense is that we’ll see centrists in the Senate tamp down the fires here, so to speak, much in the same way that we saw Southwest Virginia Democratic Congressman Rick Boucher do so in pushing for protections for industry in the final markup of the House bill.

But that said, I don’t foresee anything that will render cap-and-trade in one form or another DOA in the manner that the 1993 health-care reform that it has been compared to was driven to an unfortunate death.

This is clearly where we’re going as a country. It’s just a matter of how we’re going to get there.

- Column by Chris Graham

More on energy …

Obama administration launches new energy-efficiency efforts

Building on the action by the U.S. House of Representatives in passing historic legislation that will pave the way for the transition to a clean energy economy, President Barack Obama and U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Monday announced aggressive actions to promote energy efficiency and save American consumers billions of dollars per year. Today’s announcement underscores how the clean energy revolution not only makes environmental sense, but it also makes economic sense – creating jobs and saving money.

“One of the fastest, easiest, and cheapest ways to make our economy stronger and cleaner is to make our economy more energy efficient,” said President Obama. “That’s why we made energy efficiency investments a focal point of the Recovery Act. And that’s why today’s announcements are so important. By bringing more energy efficient technologies to American homes and businesses, we won’t just significantly reduce our energy demand; we’ll put more money back in the pockets of hardworking Americans.”

“When it comes to saving money and growing our economy, energy efficiency isn’t just low hanging fruit; it’s fruit laying on the ground,” said Secretary Chu. “The most prosperous, competitive economies of the 21st century will be those that use energy efficiently. It’s time for America to lead the way.”

More energy-efficient lighting

Monday’s announcement includes major changes to energy conservation standards for numerous household and commercial lamps and lighting equipment. Seven percent of all energy consumed in the U.S. is for lighting.

The final rule has numerous benefits, including:

- Avoiding the emission of up to 594 million tons of CO2 from 2012 through 2042 – roughly equivalent to removing 166 million cars from the road for a year;

- Saving consumers $1 to $4 billion annually from 2012 through 2042;

- Saving enough electricity from 2012 through 2042 to power every home in the U.S. for up to 10 months;

- Eliminating the need for up to 7.3 gigawatts of new generating capacity by 2042 – equivalent to as many as 14 500MW coal-fired power plants;

- Decreasing the electricity used in GSFLs by 15 percent, saving consumers up to $8.66 per lamp over its lifetime; decreasing electricity used by IRLs by 25 percent, saving consumers $7.95 per lamp over its lifetime.

In February 2009, President Obama tasked the Department of Energy with quickening the pace of energy conservation standards for appliances, while continuing to meet legal and statutory deadlines. Today’s announcement – which takes effect in 2012 – focuses on General Service Fluorescent Lamps (GSFL), which are commonly found in residential and commercial buildings, and Incandescent Reflector Lamps (IRL), which are commonly used in recessed and track lighting. These fluorescent and incandescent lamps represent approximately 38 and 7 percent of total lighting energy use respectively.

The final rule, as issued by the Secretary of Energy on June 26, 2009, can be viewed and downloaded from the Office Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s website at: www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/appliance_standards/residential/incandescent_lamps.html.

Building Efficiency Initiative

President Obama and Secretary Chu announced a $346 million investment from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to expand and accelerate the development, deployment, and use of energy efficient technologies in all major types of commercial buildings as well as new and existing homes.

Residential and commercial buildings consume 40 percent of the energy and represent 40 percent of the carbon emissions in the United States. Building efficiency represents one of the easiest, most immediate and most cost effective ways to reduce carbon emissions while creating new jobs. With the application of new and existing technologies, buildings can be made up to 80 percent more efficient or even become “net zero” energy buildings with the incorporation of on-site renewable generation.

Today’s buildings consume more energy than any other sector of the U.S. economy, including transportation and industry. In addition, almost three-quarters of our nation’s 81 million buildings were built before 1979. Some were designed and constructed for limited service, and many will eventually require either significant retrofits or replacement.

Innovations in energy-efficient building envelopes, equipment, lighting, daylighting, and windows, in conjunction with advances in passive solar, photovoltaic, fuel cells, advanced sensors and controls and combined heating, cooling, and power, have the potential to dramatically transform today’s buildings. These technologies—coupled with a whole building design approach that optimizes the interactions among building systems and components—will enable tomorrow’s buildings to use considerably less energy, while also helping to reduce emissions and increase energy security.

This funding includes:

- Advanced Building Systems Research ($100 million). These projects will address research focused on the systems design, integration, and control of both new and existing buildings. Buildings need to be designed, built, operated, and maintained as an integrated system in order to achieve the potential of energy efficient and eventually net zero-energy buildings. These projects will move beyond component-only driven research and address the interactions in buildings as a whole, in order to progress development of integrated, high performance buildings and achieve net zero- energy buildings.

- Residential Buildings Development and Deployment ($70 million). Expanded work in Residential Buildings will increase homeowner energy savings by supporting energy efficient retrofits and new homes while raising consumer awareness of the benefits of increased health, safety, and durability of energy efficiency. The projects will provide technical support to train workers and create jobs, developing a new workforce equipped to improve the Nation’s homes and will permit a major initiative to provide builders with technical assistance and training through states, utilities, and existing programs to increase the market share of new homes achieving substantial whole house energy savings. To address existing homes, DOE will work with municipalities with a variety of housing types and vintages as well as subdivisions with similar housing stock to encourage a large number of energy efficiency retrofits.

- Commercial Buildings Initiative ($53.5 million). These Recovery Act funds will be used to accelerate and expand partnerships with major companies that design, build, own, manage, or operate large fleets of buildings and that commit to achieving exemplary energy performance. This funding will be used to expand the number of these partnerships from 23 to about 75 through a competitive process beginning in September, 2009.

- Buildings and Appliance Market Transformation ($72.5 million). In order to achieve energy savings, and ultimately lead to zero energy buildings, the marketplace must be conditioned to accept the necessary advanced technologies and activities and ensure that the current technologies are performing as intended via current energy efficiency standards. Key activities include expanding ENERGY STAR to accelerate development of energy efficient products and expand the ENERGY STAR brand into new areas; preparing the design, construction, and enforcement community to implement commercial building energy codes that require a 30 percent improvement in energy efficiency over the 2004 code in 2010; and accelerating and expanding DOE’s Appliance Standards program to evaluate innovative technologies and develop new test procedures that are more representative of today’s energy use and equipment.

- Solid State Lighting Research and Development ($50 million). The objective of the solid state lighting activities is to advance state-of-the-art of solid-state lighting (SSL) technology and to move those advancements more rapidly to market through a coordinated development of advanced manufacturing techniques. This project will both aid in the development and reduce the first cost of high performance lighting products. Continuing advances can accelerate progress towards creating a U.S.-led market for high efficiency light sources that save more energy, reduce costs, and have less environmental impact than other conventional light sources.

For information on these and other Funding Opportunities under the Recovery Act, visit: www.energy.gov/recovery/funding.htm.

Remarks by the president on energy, Monday, June 29, 2009

Good afternoon, everybody. Since taking — excuse me — since taking office, my administration has mounted a sustained response to a historic economic crisis. But even as we take decisive action to repair the damage to our economy, we’re also working to build a new foundation for sustained and lasting economic growth.

And we know this won’t be easy, but this is a moment where we’ve been called upon to cast off the old ways of doing business, and act boldly to reclaim America’s future. Nowhere is this more important than in building a new, clean energy economy, ending our dependence on foreign oil, and limiting the dangerous pollutants that threaten our health and the health of our planet.

And that’s precisely what we’ve begun to do. Thanks to broad coalitions ranging from business to labor; investors to entrepreneurs; Democrats and Republicans from coal states and coastal states; and all who are willing to take on this challenge — we’ve come together to achieve more in the past few months to create a new, clean energy economy than we have in decades.

We began with historic investments in the Recovery Act and the federal budget that will help create hundreds of thousands of jobs doing the work of doubling our country’s supply of renewable energy. We’re talking about jobs building wind turbines and solar panels; jobs developing next-generation solutions for next-generation cars; jobs upgrading our outdated power grid so it can carry clean, renewable energy from the far-flung areas that harness it to the big cities that use it.

And thanks to a remarkable partnership between automakers, autoworkers, environmental advocates, and states, we created incentives for companies to develop cleaner, more efficient vehicles — and for Americans to drive them. We set in motion a new national policy aimed at both increasing gas mileage and decreasing greenhouse gas pollution for all new cars and trucks sold in the United States. And as a result, we’ll save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of the vehicles sold in the next five years — the projected equivalent of taking 58 million cars off the road for an entire year.

And we know that even as we seek solutions to our energy problems at home, the solution to global climate change requires American leadership abroad. That’s why I’ve appointed a global climate envoy to help lead our reengagement with the international community as we find sustainable ways to transition to a global low-carbon economy.

And, now, just last Friday, the House of Representatives came together to pass an extraordinary piece of legislation that will finally open the door to decreasing our dependence on foreign oil, preventing the worst consequences of climate change, and making clean energy the profitable kind of energy. Thanks to members of Congress who were willing to place America’s progress before the usual Washington politics, this bill will create new businesses, new industries, and millions of new jobs, all without imposing untenable new burdens on the American people or America’s businesses. In the months to come, the Senate will take up its version of the energy bill, and I am confident that they too will choose to move this country forward.

So we’ve gotten a lot done on the energy front over the last six months. But even as we’re changing the ways we’re producing energy, we’re also changing the ways we use energy. In fact, one of the fastest, easiest, and cheapest ways to make our economy stronger and cleaner is to make our economy more energy efficient. And that’s something that Secretary Chu is working every single day to work through.

We know the benefits. In the late 1970s, the state of California enacted tougher energy-efficiency policies. Over the next three decades, those policies helped create almost 1.5 million jobs. And today, Californians consume 40 percent less energy per person than the national average — which, over time, has prevented the need to build at least 24 new power plants. Think about that. California — producing jobs, their economy keeping pace with the rest of the country, and yet they have been able to maintain their energy usage at a much lower level than the rest of the country.

So that’s why we took significant steps in the Recovery Act to invest in energy efficiency measures — from modernizing federal buildings to helping American families make upgrades to their homes — steps that will create jobs and save taxpayers and consumers money. And that’s why I’ve asked Secretary Chu to lead a new effort at the Department of Energy focusing on implementing more aggressive efficiency standards for common household appliances — like refrigerators and ovens — which will spark innovation, save consumers money, and reduce energy demand.

So today, we’re announcing additional actions to promote energy efficiency across America; actions that will create jobs in the short run and save money and reduce dangerous emissions in the long run.

The first step we’re taking sets new efficiency standards on fluorescent and incandescent lighting. Now I know light bulbs may not seem sexy, but this simple action holds enormous promise because 7 percent of all the energy consumed in America is used to light our homes and our businesses. Between 2012 and 2042, these new standards will save consumers up to $4 billion a year, conserve enough electricity to power every home in America for 10 months, reduce emissions equal to the amount produced by 166 million cars each year, and eliminate the need for as many as 14 coal-fired power plants.

And by the way, we’re going to start here at the White House. Secretary Chu has already started to take a look at our light bulbs, and we’re going to see what we need to replace them with energy-efficient light bulbs.

And if we want to make our economy run more efficiently, we’ve also got to make our homes and businesses run more efficiently. And that’s why we’re also speeding up a $346 million investment under the Recovery Act to expand and accelerate the development, deployment, and use of energy-efficient technologies in residential and commercial buildings, which consume almost 40 percent of the energy we use and contribute to almost 40 percent of the carbon pollution we produce.

We’re talking about technologies that are available right now or will soon be available — from lighting to windows, heating to cooling, smart sensors and controls. By adopting these technologies in our homes and businesses, we can make our buildings up to 80 percent more energy efficient — or with additions like solar panels on the roof or geothermal power from underground, even transform them into zero-energy buildings that actually produce as much energy as they consume.

Now, progress like this might seem far-fetched. But the fact is we’re not lacking for ideas and innovation. All we lack are the smart policies and the political will to help us put our ingenuity to work. And when we put aside the posturing and the politics; when we put aside attacks that are based less on evidence than on ideology; then a simple choice emerges.

We can remain the world’s leading importer of oil, or we can become the world’s leading exporter of clean energy. We can allow climate change to wreak unnatural havoc, or we can create jobs utilizing low-carbon technologies to prevent its worst effects. We can cede the race for the 21st century, or we can embrace the reality that our competitors already have: The nation that leads the world in creating a new clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy.

That’s our choice: between a slow decline and renewed prosperity; between the past and the future.

The American people have made their choice. They expect us to move forward right now at this moment of great challenge, and stake our claim on the future — a stronger, cleaner, and more prosperous future where we meet our obligations to our citizens, our children, and to God’s creation — and where the United States of America leads once again.

That’s the future we’re aiming for. I’ve got a great Secretary of Energy who’s helping us achieve it. I want to thank again the House of Representatives for doing the right thing on Friday, and we are absolutely confident that we’re going to be able to make more progress in the weeks and months to come.

Thanks, guys.

It sounded to me that he’s had some people putting a bug in his ear about running for State Senate, which would definitely be one way he could tap into the energy that he had behind his effort in what became a two-way race with eventual nominee Jody Wagner, who ended up winning the nomination pretty easily, picking up more than 70 percent of the vote on her way to the general election.

But Signer’s 20 percent-plus showing shouldn’t be easily dismissed, considering the 37-year-old was making his first run at public office against a candidate that had been the odds-on favorite even before she formally entered the race for the nomination last year.

I look at what Signer was able to accomplish this spring on a shoestring budget and think that he could be the early favorite for the LG nomination heading into 2013 were he interested in building toward another run at the #2 job in state government. I say that assuming that Wagner either wins the general election and thus enters ‘13 as the presumptive frontrunner for the Democratic nomination to run for governor or she loses and then Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling makes his run for governor and leaves the open seat behind for the taking.

I can see Staunton Republican Del. Chris Saxman in the mix for the GOP nomination in ‘13, of course assuming he’s able to fend off the challenge of Democrat Erik Curren in the 20th House District this fall. Mount Solon Republican Sen. Emmett Hanger would have to be a player in the LG sweepstakes as well.

On the Democratic side, maybe we see Chap Petersen rising to the fore, assuming that he’s not making a run for the gubernatorial nomination. I’m not sure who else would be on the bench looking for some PT at this far-out stage.

I shared this insight, such as it is, with Signer, and told him that I hoped he’d keep the door open to making another run even with the sting of the defeat in the primary still resonating. And from what I heard back from him, his head is definitely there, with ideas toward leading efforts in the areas of party-building on the one hand and policy discussions on issues that he advocated for during his campaign in the realms of voting rights and nonpartisan redistricting on the others coming up in our conversation.

The very fact that we were talking was another indication as to where his head is.

It’s little things like talking up the people who stuck their neck out on your behalf and thanking them for their time and trouble and inviting their advice for the future that builds the political coalitions of tomorrow.

It also happens that these same skills are those that make for the most effective leaders.

We’re going to see more out of this Mike Signer guy, no doubt about it.

- Column by Chris Graham

Let’s rewind back a few years to 2004, when Mark Warner, in his first budget, was trying to get state legislators to agree to a half-cent increase in the state sales tax and a sharp increase in the tax on cigarette sales to account for the $6 billion-plus budget shortfall that he had inherited from Jim Gilmore two years earlier.

Bolling was among the Republican critics of the Warner plan, which not only preserved the AAA bond rating but also set Virginia on course to becoming universally hailed as the best state for business in the country.

Now Bolling is saying that “overly optimistic administrations” may lead to $5 billion shortfalls in the next two to three years. “I think we’re on a course to fiscal disaster—if we don’t restore it, we’re going to regret it for a long time to come,” Bolling told the Exchange. “We’ve got to get spending under control. We’ve got to eliminate the budget gimmicks that this administration has used over the last four years.”

The “budget gimmicks” line is one we’re sure to hear repeated in one form or another given Democratic Party nominee Jody Wagner’s background as state treasurer under Warner and Secretary of Finance under Gov. Tim Kaine. Republicans have been setting Wagner up to take the fall for the budget mess that Richmond has been in since it became clear a couple of years ago that she was thinking about running for lieutenant governor.

And so the attack from Bolling isn’t of itself newsworthy because the attack didn’t reveal anything substantive from the Bolling camp on where within the budget issue it thinks Wagner might be particularly vulnerable. What is news here is the hint at what we might get as the pat response from the Wagner side.

“Bill Bolling’s attacks on Tim Kaine and Jody Wagner’s fiscal stewardship would be laughable, if they weren’t so horribly misguided,” read a statement from Wagner campaign manager Elisabeth Pearson. “If there’s anyone in this race who knows what it takes to retain a triple-A bond rating, it’s Jody Wagner, who worked for years to restore the Commonwealth’s fiscal health after Jim Gilmore’s disastrous management, which Bill Bolling advocated every step of the way. With the bipartisan, commonsense fiscal policies of Mark Warner, Tim Kaine and Jody Wagner, Virginia has been named the ‘Best Managed State’ in the nation twice, and the ‘Best State for Business’ four times … .

“Unfortunately for Bill Bolling, he is apparently the only person in the Commonwealth who believes we’d be better off reverting to the fiscal policies of Jim Gilmore and George Bush, instead of moving Virginia forward with four more years of the Warner-Kaine legacy. We’re very much looking forward to a healthy debate over the next four months as to which direction is best for Virginia’s future,” Pearson said.

This comes across to me at first glance as being an effective counter - basically rendering what could be Bolling’s best argument to voters to vote against Wagner, that she missed calling the fiscal downturn and in the process threw the state into a budgeting tizzy, into its weakest, reminding voters that not only was Bolling not helpful during the downturn but that he also has done his best to be a roadblock to economic progress the past several years.

Interesting turn here. And it will be more interesting to see where this debate goes over the course of the next four months.

- Story by Chris Graham