Submitted by Verdexchange on
April 11, 2013 - 11:34am
As Executive Officer of the California Air Resource Board since 2007, James Goldstene oversees the development and implementation of the Board’s clean air policies and represents the ARB before the legislature and other state, regional, national, and international forums. 2012 was a landmark year for the ARB, with the successful launching of the first of 32 cap-and-trade auctions planned four times annually through the year 2020. In the following interview with VerdeXchange News, James Goldstene elaborates on the plans and partnerships CARB aims to realize in 2013 and beyond.
Submitted by Verdexchange on
April 11, 2013 - 11:21am
Newly relected President Barack Obama and California Governor Jerry Brown both began 2013 - the former in his Inaugural Address and the latter in his State of the State speech - by emphasizing the need for lawmakers to address the issue of climate change. And both also cite the need for critical infrastructure investment and mitigation efforts to act as part of a solution to control the symptoms of climate change. Project funding, ranging from high-speed rail to flood control, they assert, are key to reducing the amount of energy consumed from non-renewable sources of energy, limiting carbon footprints, and protecting posterity from future disasters; thereby creating newer, innovative green jobs and protecting jobs that already exist from being threatened by climate change.
Submitted by Verdexchange on
April 11, 2013 - 11:13am
Last Fall, the Los Angeles City Council approved the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s request for a $267-million budget for the next two fiscal years. Supported by an 11 percent rate increase, the expanded budget will go towards LADWP’s goal of 10-15 percent energy efficiency by 2020. Long-time energy executive David Jacot, formerly of Southern California Edison, joined the LADWP as Director of Energy Efficiency last summer, tasked with the development and management of the utility’s new, energy-saving programs. VerdeXchange News was pleased to discuss the specifics of these programs in a December 2012 interview with Mr. Jacot.
Submitted by Verdexchange on
April 11, 2013 - 11:00am
Today’s Highway Trust Fund faces a steady decline in revenue as inflation and fuel-efficient vehicles render the Federal Gas Tax increasingly ineffectual. Congressman Earl Blumenauer, Oregon’s 3rd, is a career-long spokesperson for livable communities and multi-modal transit. Last session of Congress, he introduced a bill (HR6662) to direct the Department of the Treasury to study alternatives to the existing gas tax for raising federal highway funds. He advocates retiring the gas tax in favor of a new, cents-per-mile initiative. In the below interview with VerdeXchagne News, Congressman Blumenauer addresses the problems facing the gas tax, the politics surrounding it, and the advantages discovered by a distance-based pilot program in his home state. 
