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  • Oil and Gasoline Prices Begin to Creep Up
    Mar 8, 2010 — New York Times
    HOUSTON — Crude oil and gasoline prices are inching up again. Gasoline supplies also remain ample, but prices at the pump have been rising along with oil prices. Gasoline prices typically go up in the spring as refiners retool and switch to more expensive blends of gasoline.
  • Democrats Need a Rally Monkey
    Mar 6, 2010 — New York Times
    “When a party’s snakebit, it’s really snakebit,” said Charlie Cook, the independent political handicapper, who is predicting a thumpin’ for Democrats in November. Pushing the Employee Free Choice Act could rally labor. In the scenario best for the Democrats, the Tea Party peaked with Mr.
  • California's first couple were paid for tourism promotions
    Mar 5, 2010 — Los Angeles Times
    Arnold Schwarzenegger, who often speaks of his love for California, has promoted the state with his wife Maria Shriver in television commercials over the last five years.
  • Chicago News Cooperative: Environmentalist Prods Fellow Blacks to Join in Her Crusade
    Mar 5, 2010 — New York Times
    Davis also preaches do-for-self to go along with her gospel of green. “The vision of Blacks In Green is self-sustaining black communities everywhere,” Ms. Davis staff the table, which was covered with the swirly light bulbs and eco-literature.
  • Europe Offers $273 Million in Aid for a Gas Pipeline From Turkey to Austria
    Mar 5, 2010 — New York Times
    Oettinger said in a news conference in Brussels. Oettinger also offered encouragement to a rival, Russian-backed project called South Stream, which would take Russian natural gas under the Black Sea to Europe. Oettinger said the money still represented a “trump card on the table” for Nabucco.
  • First couple were paid for tourism promotions
    Mar 5, 2010 — Los Angeles Times
    By Michael Rothfeld SACRAMENTO, Calif., Mar. 5, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune News Service delivered by Newstex) -- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who often speaks of his love for California, has promoted the state with his wife Maria Shriver in television commercials over the last five years.
  • $100 Million in Stimulus Funds for Green Tech
    Mar 4, 2010 — New York Times
    Sindya N. BhanooThe Department of Energy announced this week that $100 million in stimulus funds would be distributed to help accelerate innovation in green technology.“The idea is to get a whole ecosystem of innovative technologies,” said Arun Majumdar, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, which is managing the program.The department has designated three areas of focus for the projects: energy storage, electrical power technology...
  • E.U. Tries to Head Off Future Natural-Gas Shortages
    Mar 4, 2010 — New York Times
    Oettinger said during a news conference in Brussels. Oettinger also offered encouragement to a rival, Russian-backed project called South Stream, which would take Russian natural gas under the Black Sea to Europe. Oettinger said the money still represented a “trump card on the table” for Nabucco.
  • Entry fee slapped on tourists to U.S.
    Mar 4, 2010 — CNN
    A $10 fee charged to visitors from countries included in the Visa Waiver Program will partially fund the public-private organization. Lott said improving entry and exit procedures would help U.S. tourism more than a promotional organization. Travel promotion is not a panacea for our international travel issues.
  • Obama signs new law to help promote U.S. tourism
    Mar 4, 2010 — USA Today
    Before any money can be spent on marketing, the company must find a dollar-for-dollar match from the private sector, up to $100 million.
  • Obama signs Travel Promotion Act
    Mar 4, 2010 — Washington Post
    EditorBy Michael A. FletcherPresident Obama Thursday enacted legislation to promote international travel to the United States by establishing a national tourism board that would coordinate advertising and other efforts to encourage foreigners to visit the United States.As a bipartisan group of lawmakers looked on as Obama signed the bill in the Oval Office. The measure is aimed at reversing a decline in foreign visitors to the United States of nearly 10 percent over the...
  • U.S. travel promotion bill signed into law
    Mar 4, 2010 — CNN
    The act will create a nonprofit Corporation for Travel Promotion that will promote the United States as a travel destination and explain travel and security policies to international visitors. A $10 fee charged to visitors from countries included in the Visa Waiver Program will partially fund the public-private organization. Travel promotion is not a panacea for our international travel issues.
  • Still With Obama, but Worried
    Mar 3, 2010 — New York Times
    Obama has not pressed for immigration reform this year. Trumka said that unions would not campaign for Democrats who had done little for labor, especially on issues like the card-check bill. Obama got a health care overhaul enacted and advanced a bill making it easier to unionize, that would go far to re-energize the labor base.
  • In speech to AFL-CIO, Biden defends bailouts, jobs-creation agenda
    Mar 2, 2010 — The Hill
    That’s where labor is going to lead.
  • Itineraries: Taxes and Fees Grow for Air Travelers
    Mar 2, 2010 — New York Times
    By Susan StellinA recent search for a flight from New York to London turned up an eye-catching fare: $229 each way on several airlines. Congress just passed legislation that will charge foreigners, from about three dozen countries, who do not need visas $10 to enter the United States.
  • The Obama administration's poor relationship with Labor
    Mar 2, 2010 — Washington Post
    They don't have the votes, and they'll be even further from having the votes come January. Not only is that not enough, but it's not smart in the long run: Democrats need a strong labor movement, yes, but so too do American workers. Without Labor, workers have no organized lobby advocating (however imperfectly) for their political interests and no countervailing force against the corporate sector.
  • Big Green figure jumps ship to Big Oil
    Mar 1, 2010 — USA Today
    Deryck Spooner is leaving the Nature Conservancy for the American Petroleum Institute, which has mounted a campaign against cap-and-trade legislation, The Hill reports. Spooner headed the Conservancy's climate-change advocacy and outreach. Here's more on the Conservancy's climate-change positions.
  • The Washington Times Nicholas Kralev column
    Mar 1, 2010 — The Washington Times
    Since Jan. 20, controls have been put in place to make sure that no boarding passes are issued to passengers without an ESTA. Margadant, who found another agent willing to give him a boarding pass without a problem. Ms. Ferreira confirmed that printouts are not required and was puzzled by the first agent's reported behavior.
  • Bill for U.S. travel promotion organization headed to president's desk
    Feb 26, 2010 — CNN
    President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law soon, according to the travel association. A $10 fee charged to visitors from countries included in the Visa Waiver Program who don't have to apply and pay for visas will partially fund the public-private organization. These visitors will pay the fee every two years when they register online using the Department of Homeland Security's Electronic System for Travel Authorization.
  • U.S. to slap admission fee on tourists
    Feb 26, 2010 — CNN
    These visitors will pay the fee every two years when they register online using the Department of Homeland Security's Electronic System for Travel Authorization. The rest of the funding will come through a matching program of up to $100 million dollars in private sector contributions. National tourism organizations in countries including Greece, Australia and Mexico each spent more than $100 million on tourism marketing in 2005, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
  • Projects across USA turn landfill gas into energy
    Feb 25, 2010 — USA Today
    Instead of letting the gas escape into the air, these projects collect the gas and treat it so it can be used for electricity or upgraded to pipeline-grade gas.
  • Eastern Europe Looks to Neighbors to Break Russia's Energy Grip
    Feb 23, 2010 — New York Times
    Bajnai said.Land-locked Hungary is also looking to Croatia, its southern neighbor, as a viable alternative for natural gas supplies. Bajnai conceded that by supporting the South Stream project, Hungary’s dependence on Russian gas would increase, not decrease. E.ON, a major German energy group, recently invested in additional storage of 1 billion cubic meters, or 35 billion cubic feet, in Hungary.
  • Clean energy is mired in politics
    Feb 22, 2010 — Los Angeles Times
    Last year, for the first time, China surpassed the United States in private clean-energy investment. Partly because of the bad economy, U.S. venture capitalists cut total clean-energy spending by half last year from a 2008 peak. The Obama administration earmarked more than $80 billion in its economic stimulus package for clean energy, including a variety of research ventures, home weatherization programs and manufacturing tax credits.
  • Issues Tabled, Left Still Professes Hope
    Feb 21, 2010 — Politico
    Ben SmithThe news releases remain hopeful: Comprehensive immigration reform this spring! Labor leaders and immigration reform groups alike warn that their constituents will stay home in droves this fall. The Employee Free Choice Act didn't even get a mention in the State of the Union, though Obama technically supports it.
  • Steelworkers Say Reactors Will Create Overseas Jobs
    Feb 20, 2010 — New York Times
    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission oversees the safety of nuclear reactors.The reactor project will create thousands of construction jobs at the site, near Augusta, Ga. The Energy Department now has $18.5 billion to offer in guarantees for the construction of new nuclear plants. Conway said.Because the construction of nuclear power plants involves heavily unionized workers, labor unions have been mostly supportive.
  • Environmental Advocates Are Cooling on Obama
    Feb 18, 2010 — New York Times
    Obama has embraced nuclear power, offshore oil drilling and “clean coal” as keystones of his energy policy. Obama’s candidacy for president, said that Mr. The same has been true in other areas of our energy debate, from offshore drilling to putting a price on carbon pollution.
  • Focus shifts from first stimulus to second
    Feb 18, 2010 — Washington Post
    David Von Drehle traces the roots of the tea party movement. The tea partiers have made an important splash because they are not yet another auxiliary to the Democratic or Republican parties. Like the pro-life and Second Amendment movements before it, the tea party movement will have a bigger impact if it holds the feet of politicians in both parties to its fire.
  • Obama offers loan to help fund two nuclear reactors
    Feb 17, 2010 — Washington Post
    The loan guarantees would cover part of the $14 billion in financing needs; Japanese export loan guarantees would cover another portion. The nuclear units would require 3,500 construction positions and later 800 jobs for operating the plant. But in the latest budget proposal, Obama has proposed tripling that to $54.5 billion, an amount that Chu said could help jump-start seven to 10 new nuclear power reactors.
  • In Bid to Revive Nuclear Power, U.S. Is Backing New Reactors
    Feb 16, 2010 — New York Times
    The company hopes to win a license late next year.The loan guarantees were authorized by the 2005 Energy Policy Act. The guarantees can cover up to 80 percent of the estimated project cost, although some builders may ask for less. The Scana Corporation and Santee Cooper want to build a nuclear plant in Jenkinsville, S.C., and UniStar is planning a reactor in southern Maryland, adjacent to the Calvert Cliffs reactors.
  • Obama Stays Course, but the Winds Change
    Feb 15, 2010 — New York Times
    By John HarwoodIn an interview, Barack Obama declared: “I am a pro-growth, free market guy. Obama repeated in another interview his commitment to that agenda. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, embraced that concept in his 2008 presidential campaign.Neel T. Kashkari, a top official in President George W. Bush’s Treasury Department, said Mr.
  • AFL-CIO urges supporters to challenge White House about NLRB
    Feb 12, 2010 — Washington Post
    But guess who was left out of the deal? Meanwhile, the NLRB, tasked with protecting American workers' rights, has been handicapped with vacancies for the past two years.Enough is enough. America's working people are getting short shrift and it's past time to do something about it.
  • Favorite Ceos? Not On Wall St.
    Feb 12, 2010 — Politico
    Smith was a co-chairman of the campaign finance committee for Obama’s Republican presidential rival, Arizona Sen. John McCain.“Very thoughtful” was Obama’s verdict on Smith. “He’s an example of somebody who is thinking long term.
  • With Masdar Institute, Abu Dhabi Seeks Reputation as Clean-Tech Research Hub
    Feb 12, 2010 — New York Times
    ...the Masdar Institute campus, a renewable-energy research hub under construction (though classes are already in session).As the United Arab Emirates looks to diversify its oil- and gas-dominated economy, the royal family is hoping that its Masdar Institute of Science and Technology will lead the way — and it is aggressively recruiting students and researchers toward that end.The Masdar Institute, which is financed by Masdar, the state-operated Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company,...
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