This is becoming a hot topic in the new Obama administration, so I assume that it will be followed up upon.

 

'Green-collar economy' takes root

Charleston Gazette-Mail, January 23, 2009

 

CHICAGO - The lot where Isaac Wright Jr., ex-con, tends vegetables next to abandoned railroad tracks and across the street from a boarded-up house is the intersection of social justice, environmental righteousness and economic prosperity.

 

He is part foot soldier, part guinea pig in a movement that starts in the Englewood, Ill., garden and might reach all the way to the Oval Office, although he might not fully appreciate it.

 

"I'm not going to lie to you,'' Wright said one crisp morning while working a row of radishes in a greenhouse. "I needed a job. Long as I was plugged in somewhere, that was OK.''

 

.......

 

Regal-Beloit acquired General Electric's Motor Business, headquartered in Fort Wayne, a few years ago. No manufacturing operations remain in Fort Wayne; I think the 180 employees remaining here are R&D and maybe some management. The plants referred to in the article probably are the former GE plants in Springfield, MO and Juarez, Mexico.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Green motor unveiled

Regal Beloit creates efficient device for home air systems

 

Sherry Slater - The Journal Gazette.

 

Regal Beloit Corp. on Friday unveiled an energy-efficient motor that can be used in existing home heating, ventilation and air-conditioning units.

 

Evergreen IM was developed at the Beloit, Wis.-based company’s Fort Wayne operation, based on 20 years of making similar products, said Paul Selking, who leads the company’s residential HVAC efforts.

 

The motors, which are made in Missouri and Mexico, use less energy, create less noise and improve indoor air quality, Selking said.

 

[ ... ]

 

Link to full article: http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090124/BIZ/301249933

A little over a month old.

 

A mighty wind: U.S. becomes top wind power producer

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/environment/2009-02-03-wind-energy_N.htm

 

BRUSSELS (AP) The United States now leads the world in wind power after boosting wind energy capacity by half last year, the Global Wind Energy Council says.

 

The U.S. overtook Germany by building windmills that can generate 25 gigawatts of energy, about a fifth of all global wind power, it said Monday.

 

Surging interest in renewable energy and worries about climate change propelled a 29% increase in wind power generation capacity across the world last year and fueled a wind turbine industry that was worth $47.5 billion in 2008, the council said.

 

......

Tom Eblen: As Kentucky's first Transition Town, Berea looks ahead

By Tom Eblen, Herald-Leader Columnist, March 10, 2009

 

BEREA What if the energy supplies, food systems and other foundations of our modern economy and lifestyle suddenly changed? How would your community cope?

 

It's a notion more of us have been thinking about during the past year. We saw gasoline spike to $4 a gallon last summer, then watched our consumption-driven economy slide into a deep recession.

 

Berea is one of nearly 150 communities around the world participating in a project called Transition Town. It is a citizen-driven effort to develop local strategies for coping with inevitable change in energy supplies and economic conditions that are no longer sustainable or good for the planet.

 

 

......

New location for recycling center sought

By Michelle Ku, Herald-Leader, March 9, 2009

 

Lexington's landlocked 7.5-acre recycling facility on Thompson Road is bursting at the seams.

 

The glass is stored and processed outside, where bales of recyclable material also are sometimes stored before being shipped to recycling mills.

 

During peak seasons, the facility operates 10 to 12 hours a day, sometimes six days a week, to keep up with the amount of material flowing in.

 

The city is searching for a new recycling home to keep up with demand and provide space for expansion, which will be needed to meet the city's goal of becoming trash-free by 2020.

 

........

Op-Ed Columnist

The Copenhagen That Matters

 

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Published: December 22, 2009

Copenhagen

 

As I listened to Denmark’s minister of economic and business affairs describe how her country used higher energy taxes to stimulate innovation in green power and then recycled the tax revenues back to Danish industry and consumers to make it easier for them to make and buy the new clean technologies, it all sounded so, well, intelligent. It sounded as if the Danes looked at themselves after the 1973 Arab oil embargo, found that they were totally dependent on Middle East oil and put in place a long-term strategy to make Denmark energy-secure and start a new industry at the same time.

 

The more I listened to the Danish minister, Lene Espersen, the more I thought of my own country, where I’ve been told time and again by U.S. politicians that proposing even a 10-cent-a-gallon increase in gasoline taxes to make America more energy independent and to stimulate fuel efficiency is “off the table,” an act of sure political suicide.

 

Not in Denmark. So I asked the Danish minister: “Tell me, what planet are you people from?”

 

READ MORE AT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/opinion/23friedman.html?_r=1