ecopolitology

State of the Union Green Twitter Chat Reaches 1 Million+

Timothy Hurst — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:45:02 +0000

#EcoSOTU included in 4.6 million Twitter impressions

Best line of #SOTU so far: "We've subsidized oil companies for 100 years. That's long enough!" Straight outta @350 #EcoSOTU

— bcmerchant (@bcmerchant) January 25, 2012

As was expected by many and predicted by some, President Obama's State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress last night contained a considerable amount of references to energy and the environment. But even though we predicted clean energy would play a role in the speech and that juggling support for clean energy and fossil fuels would prove difficult to pull off for President Obama—and difficult to swallow for environmentalists—no one predicted energy would play as big a role as it ultimately did in the speech. And because the energy themes were front and center, the #EcoSOTU Twitter chat (which we first organized in 2010) was buzzing all night.

After running the numbers and cross-checking on several statistics platforms, the results are in, and they are pretty spectacular.

Well, by any metric, that was the most successful #ecoSOTU chat yet. You all totally rocked it! Chat recap coming tomorrow.

— ecopolitology (@ecopolitology) January 25, 2012

According to a report generated by HashTracking.com late Tuesday night, the #ecoSOTU hashtag was used in 1,083 tweets, consisting of 428 original tweets, 625 retweets and 30 @mentions. All this tweeting and retweeting reached an impressive total audience of 1,071,937 followers and generated an astounding 4,693,637 impressions.

Granted, these numbers are inexact and tabulating reach on Twitter is always a bit nebulous because it is doubtful that every twitter user counted was presented for every tweet published. Nonetheless, the aggregate results are striking. A few of the highlights are below.

Stay tuned for another recap of the #EcoSOTU chat later today when we'll link the various energy and environment components of President Obama's State of the Union to popular, insightful and/or pithy corresponding tweets.

Obama Invites 5 Clean Energy Guests to State of the Union

Timothy Hurst — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:09:13 +0000

Two years ago, I tweeted that I was waiting for the day that our environmental heroes are honored during the little shout-out portion of the State of the Union. Well, if the list of Mrs. Obama's guests released by the White House before Tuesday's State of the Union are any indicator, that day may be today. Of the 21 named guests, 5 are directly involved in the clean energy industry. And while the guests may not consider themselves heroes — more than anything they will help President Obama tell a story and highlight some of the major themes of the speech — they are the closest we've come to having environmental heroes recognized in a State of the Union in a long time. Those 5 named guests are:

Alicia Boler-Davis, plant manager, General Motors Orion Assembly Detroit. Responsible for overseeing the production of the first new small car program from General Motors to be manufactured in the United States.

Jackie Bray, process operator at the Siemens Charlotte Energy Hub King's Mountain, N.C. A single mother who got laid off and then attended community college to qualify for her present job.

Mayor Julian Castro, San Antonio, Texas. Mayor Castro (has) announced that CPS Energy, a municipally owned utility, has entered negotiations to bring at least 800 jobs and $100 million in capital investment to San Antonio. This is expected to be one of the nation's largest solar projects resulting in 400 megawatts of zero-emissions solar energy.

Dr. Hiroyuki Fujita, founder, president and CEO of Quality Electrodynamics Cleveland, Ohio. Fujita is creating high tech, advanced manufacturing jobs in the healthcare and energy sectors in the United States.

Bryan Ritterby, lab technician, Holland, Mich. A lab technician for Energetx Composites conducting material tests in the company's laboratory verifying materials to be used in wind turbine blades, as well as working on blade validation tests for all of the community scale wind blades Energetx is manufacturing.

On twitter? Use the #ecoSOTU hashtag to follow and participate in the energy and environment discussion about the State of the Union.

You Lie? Obama’s Unfulfilled State of the Union Goals

ProPublica — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:59:03 +0000

by Cora Currier, ProPublica

President Barack Obama's previous State of the Union speeches have pushed passage of such hallmark initiatives as the stimulus bill, health-care reform, the drawdown of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays. But some big ideas from previous SOTU addresses have been abandoned.

The Washington Post's Glenn Kessler has done a line-by-line analysis of some of the specific promises made in the 2010 and 2011 addresses, and how they've held up. Here we track the evolution of a few of Obama's promises in the SOTU addresses — and why he's struggled to keep them.

Energy and Infrastructure

Obama's speeches have pushed investment in alternative energy technology and major green infrastructure projects as a linchpin of his overall economic recovery plan, but Republicans in Congress have stymied these ambitions. Obama's 2009 speech claimed the stimulus bill would double the U.S. supply of renewable energy in three years and vowed to invest $15 billion in research and development for alternative energy and fuel-efficient cars. In 2010, U.S. energy from renewables averaged around 8 percent, unchanged from 2009; an updated figure is not yet available.

In his 2010 speech, Obama appeared to acknowledge Republican interests, mentioning “tough choices” on new nuclear power plants and offshore oil and gas exploration. But that year's climate-change bill languished in the Senate over disagreements on carbon caps and new efficiency standards.

Obama's 2011 speech kept to the theme of technological advance under the rubric “Winning the Future.” He vowed that by 2035, 80 percent of the country's electricity would be from clean energy and again called for increased funding for research and development. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce bluntly called the 2035 goal “impossible.” Obama's plan to give 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail within 25 years has made essentially no progress. The one project that did begin — in California — since has stalled.

Obama's energy goals have run up against a Congress hostile to costly projects in general and particularly suspicious of environmental regulation. The bankruptcy of solar-panel maker Solyndra Inc., which had received a $535 million federal loan guarantee, furthered the case of critics who argued that spending on clean energy was wasteful.

Taxes

In every SOTU to date, Obama has called for a tax on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans — in other words, an end to the George W. Bush tax cuts for those making more than $250,000 a year. Obama agreed to temporarily extend the Bush tax cuts in 2010 as part of a deal with Republicans that also extended jobless benefits. Last year, Obama and congressional Democrats abandoned plans for a millionaire's surtax in return for Republican backing to extend a payroll tax cut.

Then there is tax reform. Each year, Obama has called for a simplifying the individual tax code and for a lower corporate tax rate. Cutting the 35 percent corporate tax rate has support from some Democrats and Republicans as well as many corporations and business groups. But as Marian Wang explained last year, any effort to overhaul the tax code inevitably means opposition — from groups that benefit from loopholes and tax breaks that reformers hope to repeal.

Guantanamo

In his 2009 SOTU, Obama pronounced the closing of Guantanamo Bay a centerpiece of his foreign policy. “In words and deeds, we are showing the world that a new era of engagement has begun,” he said. As ProPublica's coverage has shown, the administration continued to make periodic calls for Guantanamo's closure but could not overcome opposition to it. In March 2011, the administration revised its stance on Guantanamo, allowing for military trials of prisoners there to resume instead of moving them to federal criminal courts.

The DREAM Act

In last year's SOTU, Obama spoke at length about the need for comprehensive immigration reform, and he expressed support for legislation to grant legal residency to some undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children. The DREAM Act failed to pass Congress in 2010 or 2011. Without a new immigration policy, the administration changed enforcement strategy, and exercises “particular care” in deciding on deportations, especially in the cases of students and young people. According to The New York Times, this approach has been applied unevenly and has caused confusion among enforcers and immigrant families alike.

Photo: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

Obama to Focus on Energy in State of the Union – Not Just the Clean Kind

Timothy Hurst — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:32:43 +0000

In the week or so leading up to Tuesday night's annual State of the Union address, all indications were that President Obama would return to the clean energy themes helped him get elected to office in 2008. First it was denying the Keystone XL pipeline, then it was a new campaign ad—the Obama campaign's first—that made clean energy and jobs its central theme. And just days before the address, President Obama said the resurgence of the American economy will be made possible by "American energy -- fueled by homegrown and alternative energy sources."

But in advance of tonight's big speech, White House insiders and official spokespersons are hinting that the president will emphasize jobs, manufacturing, economic fairness and energy — and not just the clean kind. Citing sources familiar with the contents of Tuesday night's speech, The Wall St. Journal is reporting that the president will use the speech to encourage expansion of domestic oil and gas development.

"Mr. Obama is expected to tout the economic and energy security benefits of increased U.S. oil and gas production," write The Journal's Deborah Solomon and Laura Meckler, noting that it is "a message unlikely to sit well with some of the President's environmental supporters but which could blunt industry and Republican criticism of his energy policies."

Whether calling to end tax subsidies to oil companies while simultaneously calling for an expansion of domestic oil and gas production is political suicide or political brilliance remains to be seen. But if Mr. Obama can succeed in pulling it off without substantially angering environmental interests or the oil industry, he would show once again that he would prefer to be a president that governs from the "radical center."

On Twitter? Chat about and follow the State of the Union's energy and environment themes on Twitter with the #ecoSOTU hashtag.

Photo: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

State of the Union Energy and Environment Twitter Chat at #ecoSOTU

Timothy Hurst — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:35:27 +0000

It's that time of year again. Tuesday night at 9pm ET, President Obama will speak to a joint session of Congress and viewers across the US and around the globe in the annual State of the Union address. And since 2010, Ecopolitology has urged Twitter users to follow and use the #ecoSOTU hashtag for conversation regarding energy, environment and sustainability topics during the State of the Union* (See screengrab above or this facebook photo gallery from 2010 for examples). #ecoSOTU follows from the widely used #SOTU hashtag but promises to be more focused and far less noisy.

Technology willing, we'll embed a real-time stream of the chat and also the White House interactive video in this post so people can watch and follow in one place (see below). Speed and timing are usually important in these types of events so you may find that following along by searching and saving the #ecoSOTU hashtag on twitter.com or your favorite desktop client (e.g. Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, etc.) is a better solution. You probably know the drill.

It is unclear how big of a role issues like energy, environment and climate change will play in the 2012 State of the Union, but given recent events like the decision to deny the Keystone XL oil pipeline as well as the clean energy focus of Obama's first TV ad of 2012 last week, the chances are good.

We are also excited to share the news that Ecopolitology contributor Silvio Marcacci (@Silvio_Marcacci) has been invited to the White House State of the Union Tweetup on Tuesday night so be sure to also follow #WHTweetup for that conversation.

*Note: we also encourage you to use the #ecoSOTU hashtag for conversation on Facebok and Google+, but we imagine the majority of discussion will be taking place on Twitter

A Good Year for Moving Beyond Oil

Michael Brune — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:01:13 +0000

We haven't even made it out of January, but 2012 is already shaping up as a watershed year in the fight to end our addiction to oil.

The big news, of course, was President Obama's decision not to approve the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. It was politically brave on the president's part, but it's also a huge symbol of the growing recognition that what's good for Big Oil has nothing to do with what's good for America and that the sooner we can separate oil and state, the better.

It's not just environmentalists who understand this -- it's everyone from labor (the United Steelworkers, United Auto Workers, and Transport Workers unions were just some of those that opposed the pipeline) to Nebraska ranchers to young people concerned about reckless climate-disrupting carbon pollution.

So kudos again to the Obama administration for standing up to intense pressure from what is still the wealthiest industry on the planet.

It's fantastic that we've stopped what once looked like an unstoppable pipeline, but let's not forget that if we really want to move our country beyond oil, we need to do more than just stop bad things -- we have to move forward on good things, too. Fortunately, this year the Obama administration also plans to make one particularly good thing happen: setting a new average fuel-economy standard of 54.5 mpg for cars and trucks by 2030.

That translates to using 1.5 million fewer barrels of oil per day by 2030 -- as much oil as we imported from Saudi Arabia and Iraq combined last year. The amount of carbon pollution eliminated would be a staggering 600 billion metric tons -- the equivalent to one year of current U.S. CO2 emissions. It will be the single biggest thing any nation has done to address climate pollution -- and the biggest step yet toward moving America beyond oil.

Next Tuesday, January 24, I'll be among those speaking here in San Francisco at the third and last of three public hearings on the new fuel standards (the others were in Detroit and Philadelphia). The public's invited, so come if you can. If you can't be there, you can comment online, instead.

Detroit was a fitting venue for a hearing because these new standards are enthusiastically supported by not just consumers and environmental groups but also by autoworkers and automobile manufacturers (thirteen of them, including the Big Three). In fact, the Sierra Club will be holding a press event and rally across the street from the San Francisco hearings at the Longshoreman's Hall (400 North Point St.). If you're in the Bay Area, join us at noon. Lots of our partners in labor, public health, and consumer protection will be there, and we'll have a few electric vehicles and super high-efficiency vehicles, as well as some special guests from city government.

Of course, many battles lie ahead -- Big Oil won't give up easily and still has plenty of political clout. But it's hard not to feel optimistic on the heels of a huge victory and the verge of a historic breakthrough.

Photo: Tim Hurst

Obama Campaign Picks Up Where It Left Off: Clean Energy Jobs

Timothy Hurst — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:00:14 +0000

President Barack Obama's reelection campaign kicked off with its first television commercial of the 2012 campaign yesterday [see video below] and the President picked up where he left off in 2008 by focusing on jobs — more specifically, on green jobs.

Fresh off rejecting the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would have carried oil from Canada's tar sands through the US to the Gulf of Mexico, and spurred by a falling national unemployment rate — a rate that was still at a relatively high 8.5% for December 2011 — Obama is putting his chips on one of the principal policy themes of his last candidacy: growing a clean energy economy. Considering the economic downturn that somewhat stifled green job growth over the last three years, the move is a bold one for the Obama campaign. But it was a global economic downturn that kept green job growth from reaching its potential, not some kind of fatal flaw in the policies or vision. And as the new ad points out, America's clean energy industry has 2.7 million jobs and is expanding rapidly. So while the US economy may still be slowly regaining its footing, the clean energy economy is not only one of the few bright spots, the Obama campaign still thinks it is the keystone to getting this country's overall economy back on track.