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John McCain and Barrack Obama’s energy policy advisors squared off today, offering attendees and live Web cast viewers their respective presidential candidates’ views on national renewable energy and climate change policy and how the next president and Congress can best address the current economic and energy crises while also paving a longer term path towards a more sustainable, economically and environmentally viable future.

Climate change is increasingly regarded as an important concern for executives involved in purchasing and supply chain management, but those concerns haven’t as yet been translated into widespread, effective action, according to new research released by McKinsey & Co. They may be missing opportunities to streamline their operations and cut costs, according to the report’s authors.

The legacy of actions taken during the Bush administration’s tenure are biting in, biting hard and taking root before it has come to an end. With gas prices having tripled in seven years, a bi-partisan bill that aims to provide relief and re-orient transportation and energy policy was introduced in Congress last week.

Interested in contributing to climate change mitigation and environmental conservation projects? The Nature Conservancy is offering individuals the chance to help fund its Tensas River Basin reforestation project in Louisiana’s Mississippi Delta region, the first in its Voluntary Carbon Offset program.

Looking to lay out a path to sustainable co-existence for locals and wildlife in the Russian Far East and northeast China, WCS’s ‘Forever Siberian Tiger’ project team members at the Hunchun Tiger-Leopard Reserve are conducting a variety of fieldwork, public outreach and educational efforts, including an English language newsletter.

Dow & the National Renewable Energy Lab aim to develop and test a new process that uses a new catalyst to convert biomass to ethanol and a range of other useful chemical products, one that holds the promise of significantly reducing CO2 emissions and demand for imported oil.

The DoE's National Renewable Energy Lab and Silicon Valley start-up Optony will be working together to wed their thin-film and concentrating solar power technologies in an effort to develop lower cost solar photovoltaic systems.

Black liquor gasification is one of a number of technologies pulp and paper producers can use to cut emissions and produce green fuels and power, as well as revitalize and grow their businesses.

Former Intel CEO Andy Grove calls on government leaders to make development of dual fuel, electric vehicles and used car conversions a national priority.

India released a national climate change action plan in advance of the G8 Summit in Hokkaido, where the leaders of the world’s largest industrialized economies agreed to halve carbon emissions by 2050. While G8 leaders hailed the accord, emerging economic powerhouses India and China, as well as environmentalists, remain critical of their efforts to date.

World leaders need to take a holistic approach to climate change that focuses on sustainable development and protecting biodiversity. There’s a glaring need for consensus and an urgent need for action and strong political support, particularly at the national government level, according to a survey of climate change experts.

While many national governments carry on debating the costs of combating climate change and embracing renewable energy and clean technology, Germany’s government is instituting incentives, regulations, market-based mechanisms and public-private partnerships that have made it a world leader in renewable energy and clean technology, and have contributed to economic growth to boot.

Global renewable energy and clean technology investment set another record in 2007 and is weathering the credit crisis and economic weakening relatively well so far in 2008, according to a study released today by the UN Environment Program.

Organic photovoltaic cells may be the ultimate when it comes to offering off-grid, micro-power generation. Initial small-scale technology and market tests – solar chargers for mobile phones in Africa, for example - are under way as researchers at pioneering players such as Plextronics strive to boost conversion efficiencies, minimize production costs and develop markets.

Some 230 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions can be avoided between now and 2050 - bringing atmospheric CO2 concentrations down 20 parts per million - if carbon capture and storage (CCS) development is pursued aggressively and put into use, according to Shell International’s Unconventional and Enhanced Oil Recovery team.

Rising transportation costs and concerns about social and environmental responsibility are spurring corporate and business-to-business (B2B) demand for videoconferencing services, as well as collaborative software and virtual telepresence technology in general.

The Iowa floods are but the latest indication of a changing climate, and the need for the US government and Army Corps of Engineers, among others, to change flood and river management policy, reconstruction efforts and property development policy.

Production tax credits for wind power projects more than pay for themselves by generating federal and state tax revenues, not to mention the economic stimulus they provide by creating jobs and the tons of greenhouse gas emissions that will be avoided for decades to come.

Global CO2 emissions could be reduced 50% by 2050 without sacrificing economic growth by focusing on development and use of 17 key advanced energy technologies, the IEA asserts in its latest bi-ennial “IEA Energy Technology Perspectives” report.

Looking to speed up commercialization of 2nd-generation biomass-to-ethanol technology, genetics researchers at Harvard Medical School are teaming up with SunEthanol to try to develop genetically modified strains of the ‘Q’ bacterium discovered by company co-founder and microbiologist Susan Leschine.

Creating an international Cap-and-Share emissions trading system would be the best way of addressing the issues of climate change mitigation, Peak Oil and the economic and social dislocations that are likely to result from the massive scarcity rents being captured by oil and fossil fuel exporters, according to Feasta, the Foundation of Sustainability in Economics.

In the latest rebuff to Democrats latest election year energy-related legislation Senate Republicans blocked passage of a national energy bill that would have slapped a windfall profits tax on Big Oil and created incentives to develop alternative energy sources.

Sir Paul McCartney pitches the Lexus LS400H hybrid vehicle as his kind of Green vehicle; in gratitude Lexus ships him one free - by plane. The Sierra Club selects the 3-ton, 20 mpg 2008 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid SUV as its "Green Car of the Year." Who's kidding who? Or are we just kidding ourselves? Prescription: A Daily Dose from Dr. Douglass.

Truckers in Spain have joined the fishing industry and gone on strike to protest rapidly rising fuel prices. As disruption over fuel and food costs and supplies mounts Saudi Arabia is calling for a meeting of oil producers and consumers to figure out a solution to what it says are unjustified price rises.

Aiming to spur progress towards reaching the goal of producing 20% of U.S. electrical power from wind power by 2030, NREL announced three public-private partnerships at the American Wind Energy Association’s Windpower 2008 Conference in Houston.

Production has kicked off at the world's largest polysilicon manufacturing facility in Hemlock, Michigan. Part of an ongoing $1.5 billion investment plan, Hemlock Semiconductor pegs the new plant's annual capacity at 9,000 metric tons, bringing the company's total annual capacity to 36,000 tons per year.

United Solar Ovonic LLC expects to about double employment at its Greenville, MI manufacturing facility by bringing on as many as 400 new employees in order to raise production capacity to some 300 megawatts (MW) by 2010.

Biofuels are under attack as rising food prices spark riots around the world. Three other factors lie at the root of the growing food crisis however, and things aren't likely to change for the better anytime soon.