America’s energy security gets a boost from the White House. President Obama proposed the creation of Energy Security Trust during his visit to the Argonne National Research Lab to talk about American energy security. The Energy Security Trust, a$2 Billion investment over 10 years, uses revenue generated by oil and gas development on federal lands to support new research and technology that will shift our cars and trucks off of oil for good.  Below is an infographic that outlines how this works:

Energy Security Trust Infographic via Whitehouse.gov

Here is an excerpt from the White House Blog:

So how does it work? The Energy Security Trust will invest in research that will make future technologies cheaper and better – it will fund the advances that will allow us to run cars and trucks on electricity or homegrown fuels, and on the technology that will enable us to drive from coast-to-coast without a drop of oil.

Over 10 years, the Energy Security Trust will provide $2 billion for critical, cutting-edge research focused on developing cost-effective transportation alternatives.The funding will be provided by revenues from federal oil and gas development, and will not add any additional costs to the federal budget. The investments will support research into a range of technologies – things like advanced vehicles that run on electricity, homegrown biofuels, and domestically produced natural gas. It will also help fund a small number of real-world experiments that try different transportation techniques in cities and towns around the country using advanced vehicles at scale.

If it is worth something, President Obama has indicated his desire to use the executive powers to curb climate change impacts should Congress fail to act.  According to Bloomberg, the president is also thinking of using a Nixon-era law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1970, to instruct all federal agencies to consider the impact of climate change when approving “major projects, from pipelines to highways.”  Of course, this can have some serious implications for large scale projects and some constituencies in the business sector are already freaking out over this mandate.

While we are busy discussing this issue, I’d like to share with you an address by President Obama from March 2011 in which he outlined his goals for reducing American energy dependence, heavily emphasizing new technology and alternative sources in addition to “safe and responsible” offshore drilling. A lot of what he outline in his blue print for change is already starting to take effect and I can only say that we are poised for a big change in the way we power our vehicles and industries.  Fossil fuels are definitely beginning to see a slow demise (but it will be decades before they are completely phased out in the transportation sector).

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• Obama to unveil alternative energy proposal – CBS News
• The White House On Energy Security Trust And POTUS Obama’s Israel Trip Preview
• What You Need to Know About the Energy Security Trust
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• Obama to Announce $2 Billion Plan to Get U.S. Cars Off Gasoline

(Source: AFP via Yahoo)

The Portuguese hosts of Friday’s NATO summit hoped to use the event to promote clean-energy and electric cars, but all eyes were on US President Barack Obama’s diesel-guzzling “Beast” instead.

As is usual when he travels, Obama’s eight-tonne armoured behemoth of a limousine was flown out to Lisbon before the US leader’s arrival, and it ferried him from the airport tarmac to his first meetings of the weekend.

Doubtless he didn’t intend the Beast’s roar to drown out his hosts’ green message, but a US presidential motorcade and its attendant escort of Secret Service SUVs do attract attention, even at the most elite gatherings.

Click here to read the entire article

Related articles

• Obama’s gas-guzzling ride anything but green (capitolhillblue.com)
• Obama’s ‘Beast’ of a limo stands out at green NATO summit (alternet.org)
• At NATO summit, Obama’s ride is talk of the town – Christian Science Monitor (news.google.com)
• Obama is right (blogs.dailymail.com)
• Obama promises renewed NATO at summit (alternet.org)
• NATO summit of the decade opens in Lisbon (topinews.com)
• Obama In Lisbon: U.S. Looking Forward To NATO Alliance ‘For The 21st Century’ (huffingtonpost.com)
• WHITE HOUSE NOTEBOOK: Bo and ‘the Beast’ (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• WHITE HOUSE NOTEBOOK: Bo and ‘the Beast’ (foxnews.com)
• Obama arrives in Portugal for NATO summit (foxnews.com)

(Sources:  White House.gov & Freep.com)

Watching GM turn the corner from a disastrous dud and morph into a Detroit’s Stud and a Wall Street darling, no could’ve been happier than President Obama and his team of economic advisors at the White House, who advised him on the bailout that rescued thousands of jobs and the iconic brand from a collapse.  The stunning turnaround culminated with a successful IPO debuting in the marketplace today. General Motors stock closed at $34.19 today, just above the $33 price of the initial public offering.

An elated President Obama convened a press conference this afternoon and shared his sentiment and belief in GM’s recovery strategy.

Today, one of the toughest tales of the recession took another big step towards becoming a success story.

General Motors relaunched itself as a public company, cutting the government’s stake in the company by nearly half.  What’s more, American taxpayers are now positioned to recover more than my administration invested in GM.

And that’s a very good thing.  Last year, we told GM’s management and workers that if they made the tough decisions necessary to make themselves more competitive in the 21st century — decisions requiring real leadership, fresh thinking and also some shared sacrifice –- then we would stand by them.  And because they did, the American auto industry -– an industry that’s been the proud symbol of America’s manufacturing might for a century; an industry that helped to build our middle class -– is once again on the rise.

Our automakers are in the midst of their strongest period of job growth in more than a decade.  Since GM and Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy, the industry has created more than 75,000 new jobs.  For the first time in six years, Ford, GM and Chrysler are all operating at a profit.  In fact, last week, GM announced its best quarter in over 11 years.  And most importantly, American workers are back at the assembly line manufacturing the high-quality, fuel-efficient, American-made cars of tomorrow, capable of going toe to toe with any other manufacturer in the world. Click here to read the president’s entire speech.

Freep’s awesome cartoonist Mike Thompson charts this wonderful recovery from a dud to a darling with a series of cartoons on his blog.  He also adds the following to go with his nice drawings:

As if this weren’t bad enough for auto bailout critics, the Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research has released a report that validates the logic behind the bailout. As Free Press business writer Greg Gardner reported, “The CAR study says the federal government would have spent $28.6 billion more than it did on unemployment benefits, Medicare, Social Security and other programs had the automakers liquidated. So the entire rescue will pay for itself if the government can generate $38 billion from selling its shares.” But perhaps the most chilling details in the story were the report’s conclusions that liquidation of the two auto companies would have meant the loss of 1.4 million jobs and $121 billion in personal income.

Whew!  This above facts-full paragraph must be making many of the naysayers, like the conservative columnist Mr. George Will feel like throwing up.  A couple of days ago, he wrote an op-ed titled , Toxic Volt, on Washington Post saying a whole lot of negative things about the President’s Bailout for GM.  The President and Steven Rattner, the brains behind the execution of the bailout plan, should be chuckling over the phone talking about how bad they feel for George Will.  Sadly enough, the doubters still continue to find a way to question the legitimacy of success. Fox Business  News in an article on its website says massive dilution from existing shares, warrants and grants, as well as unfunded pension costs. And GM’s cash flow is still heavily reliant on tens of billions of dollars in tax breaks and taxpayer-backed loans from the Dept. of Energy.

Image Courtesy: Freep.com

If this is not victory enough for the President, today GM notched another impressive feat, which is more like a beautiful foil to the wonderful present inside – the IPO. The Detroit Free Press reports that the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle has won Green Car of the Year, beating out the pure-electric Nissan Leaf, hours after General Motors returned to the stock market. The award, decided by judges that include environmental enthusiasts and Green Car Journal editors, comes the same week as the Volt won MotorTrend Car of the Year and Automobile Magazine’s Automobile of the Year.  How awesome could that for a man who was chided constantly by his opponents for the decisions he made to save the brand and the thousands of jobs associated with the existence of the brand.

I bet tonight the President of the United States will have a drink to celebrate one of his biggest victories since assuming office.  He will probably sleep a little better tonight with one less thing to worry about.

Related articles

• Obama Praises GM Bailout as Shares Gain 4% in IPO (dailyfinance.com)
• GM’s Chevy Volt wins Green Car of the Year (reuters.com)
• General Motors shares jump on Wall Street return (chron.com)
• GM’s Chevrolet Volt Named 2011 Green Car of the Year (dailyfinance.com)
• GM shares rise on return to Wall Street trading (washingtontimes.com)
• GM shares jump in post-IPO return to market (reuters.com)
• Chevrolet Volt wins Green Car of the Year award (theglobeandmail.com)
• General Motors Opens Up 6% Post-IPO >GM – Wall Street Journal (news.google.com)
• How General motors came back from the brink (independent.co.uk)
• Watch: Obama On GM: ‘The American Auto Industry … Is Once Again On The Rise’ (mediaite.com)
• Obama Hails GM Stock Sale as Policy Success- YOU DECIDE: Would You Buy GM Stock? (foxnews.com)
• President Obama on GM: “One of the Toughest Tales” Becoming a “Success Story” (whitehouse.gov)
• General Motors shares jump on Wall Street return (thenewstribune.com)
• Obama: GM Stock Sale a Success for His Policy (abcnews.go.com)
• GM IPO The Biggest In U.S. History (huffingtonpost.com)
• Obama: GM’s stock sale shows ‘tough decisions’ paid off (cnn.com)
• Obama to hail GM IPO (forexlive.com)
• CORRECTED – WRAPUP 4-GM shares jump in post-IPO return to market (reuters.com)
• RPT-(Nov 17)-UPDATE 12-GM IPO raises $20.1 bln biggest US IPO (reuters.com)
• You: How GM IPO Proves the Tea Party Wrong (newsweek.com)
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• Obama: GM Stock Sale a Success for His Policy (politics.usnews.com)

(Source: Washington Post & AASHTO)

Maryland Secretary of Transportation John D. Porcari has been tapped to join the Obama administration. (Photo by Post)

John Porcari, Secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation, is President Barack Obama’s choice to become the next Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Maryland’s secretary of transportation John D. Porcari will serve as Ray LaHood‘s deputy if confirmed by the Senate. He first served as Maryland’s transportation chief from 1999 to 2002, leading the development and construction of two high-profile transportation projects in the greater Washington region. He led the planning and start of the Intercounty Connectorbetween Montgomery and Prince Georges County, Md., and the development and funding to reconstruct the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, a critical piece of Washington’s infamous Beltway that connects Maryland with Virginia. In between two tours of duty at Maryland DOT, he served as the chief administrative and financial officer at the University of Maryland.

In his current position, Mr. Porcari is responsible for motor vehicle registration and the highway, transit, aviation, and maritime modes of the state’s transportation system. Mr. Porcari also serves as chairman of the entity responsible for operating the state’s bridge and tunnel facilities. He’s in his second tour as Secretary, having previously served in this capacity from 1999 to 2002.

 (Source:  CNNMoney.com Video: MSNBC via YouTube)

GM chief out in bailout shakeout

Rick Wagoner forced out of top spot as Obama administration moves to overhaul automaker.

(Source: AASHTO)

(Source: Wall Street Journal)

President Barack Obama’s auto team will spend Monday at the Detroit home of the Big Three as the administration begins to narrow its options for helping the reeling auto sector.

The field trip wraps up nearly three weeks of fact gathering by the team since General MotorsCorp. and Chrysler LLC submitted their rescue plans to the Treasury Department in the hopes of winning billions more in government loans. Ford Motor Co. is not seeking government aid.

Top Treasury Department advisers Steven Rattner and Ron Bloom, who are leading the auto task force, plan to use the day in Detroit to hone an array of lingering questions surrounding the companies’ rescue plans, which many analysts have criticized as overly optimistic. The team will also meet with the United Auto Workers union to discuss its willingness for deep compromises over wages, staff cutbacks and funding for its retiree health plan.

The weeks ahead are filled with peril for both the White House and the auto makers as administration officials face a March 31 deadline for deciding whether to give the companies nearly $22 billion more in federal assistance.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source:  Whitehouse.gov via Planetizen)

Just two weeks after signing that legislation, we’re about to start the biggest investment on our nation’s road, bridges, highways and tunnels since we built the Interstate Highway System over 50 years ago.  It’s a big deal.  The work is beginning now, with hundreds more projects getting underway in the next few months.  Some project will start this month, some won’t get going until the summer.  We’re going to do everything we can to get them moving as quickly as possible.  But Americans didn’t get in this mess overnight.  And unfortunately, unfortunately, it’s going to take some time for us to get out of this.

     Mr. President, you also made it clear that we have an obligation to the taxpayers of this nation to make sure their money is being used wisely, to make it accountable and transparent.  Folks, we’re going to ask of you a sense of diligence and transparency and responsibility as has not been asked before, because we’ve never made this kind of investment before.  This is a big deal.  Never before in the history of this country have the people been more able to see with such complete transparency how we’re going to put their money to work, not just in this agency but particularly here. 

Excerpts from President Obama’s address:

     Of the 3.5 million jobs that will be created and saved over the next two years as a result of this recovery plan, 400,000 will be jobs rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, and schools, repairing our faulty levees and dams, connecting nearly every American to broadband, and upgrading the buses and trains that commuters take every day.  Many of these projects will be coordinated by Secretary LaHood and all of you at the Department of Transportation.  And I want you to know that the American public is grateful to public servants like you — men and women whose work isn’t always recognized, but whose jobs are critical to our nation’s safety, security, and prosperity.  You have never been more important than you are right now, and for that we are all grateful.  (Applause.) 

     Now, in the coming days and weeks, my administration will be announcing more details about the kinds of transportation projects that will be launched as part of the recovery plan.  But today, I want to speak about an investment we are making in one part of our infrastructure.  Through the Recovery Act, we will be investing $28 billion in our highways, money that every one of our 50 states can start using immediately to put people back to work.  It’s an investment being made at an unprecedented pace, thanks in large part to Joe Biden, who’s leading the effort to get the money out the door quickly.  Because of Joe, and because of all the governors and mayors, county and city officials who are helping implement this plan, I can say that 14 days after I signed our Recovery Act into law, we are seeing shovels hit the ground.

 

(Source: Washington Post)

Increased Subsidy Might Mean a Boost in Ridership on Longest Rail Commutes, Officials Say

Good news for transit riders: Starting on Sunday, the monthly transit benefit allowance increases to $230 from the current $120, thanks to the recently enacted economic stimulus package.

Click here to read the entire article

(Source: BusinessWeek)

Economic difficulty can inspire extraordinary innovation. We asked futurists what they’d like to see arise from these difficult times

“History reminds us that at every moment of economic upheaval and transformation, this nation has responded with bold action and big ideas.” As President Barack Obama addressed a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, Feb. 24, he took a moment to look back, pointing to the innovations that have arisen from times of difficulty: the railroad tracks, laid across the country in the midst of the civil war; the public high school system that emerged from the Industrial Revolution; the GI Bill that sent a generation to college. Obama’s theme was clear: Times ofeconomic difficulty can inspire extraordinary innovation. And now, even as the markets continue their roller-coaster ride, he described a time “to put in place tough, new common-sense rules of the road so that our financial market rewards drive and innovation and punishes shortcuts and abuse.”

Of course, longed-for innovations don’t always make it to the market. Radically new ideas fortransportation were on most of the futurists’ wish lists, but the chances of a high-speed cross-country train within the U.S. still seem slim (we’re also still waiting on that flying car). But, as vehicle sharing and trackable, more reliable, and eco-powered buses gain popularity, chances are that better urban transit will become a reality.