Long after the 1989 Exxon-Valdez spilled its oil into a pristine Alaskan inlet, neither the environmental recovery nor the ensuing litigation was yet complete. Indeed, in 2008 -- 19 years after the damage was done -- the Supreme Court overturned the punitive damage award of the courts below. This case of justice delayed is what we do not want to repeat in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.

Instead, Congress now should pass a law directing that the Department of Interior be given discretion to impose a penalty in an amount proportional to the cleanup costs, the amount of natural resources damages, and any compensatory damages awarded in the inevitable Deepwater Horizon litigations. That penalty should be deposited in a wholesale, non-profit Green Bank that will finance clean electricity and electrified transportation.

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Yesterday I testified to the House Ways and Means Committee regarding clean energy finance and tax policy. You can find my testimony here.

Here's the history of how the FCC selected wireless as the common medium of conversation -- instead of fixed line telephony- in 1994, and how that has made a lot of difference.

I've lived in Washington DC for a long time. The Democratic Party has never had such fine leadership in Congress in my lifetime. Nancy Pelosi is the most effective Speaker of the House since Sam Rayburn. She might be the most effective ever. Representatives Hoyer, Clyburn, Waxman, Markey, Van Hollen, and others form a great team -- one for all and all for one. And of course Senator Reid and President Obama have provided vital leadership --but today is a day to celebrate the People's House!

The internet is replacing over the air broadcast as the common medium for America.

As the FCC finishes its first-ever national broadband plan, Congress and commissioners would do the country a service to see it as a jobs bill -- and to support it for that reason, if no other. As reported in the New York Times on March 3, 2010, prominent economist Larry Katz estimates that more than 10 million jobs have to be created to return employment to the levels before the crash of '08. Without everyone working who wants or needs to work, we cannot hope to improve living standards. And without full employment we will lack enough taxable income to hope to balance the federal budget (as was done by 1999).

The broadband plan will respond directly to the need for new work in America. Every time the FCC opens the door to a new network competing against existing networks or to any new business opportunity, it is inevitably endorsing new hiring by the new business. After we at the FCC (with plenty of other help) auctioned spectrum in 1994-6, the dozens of new cellular businesses that bought the spectrum created hundreds of thousands of new jobs. They had to do that in order to compete against the two existing cellular networks. They had to do that in order to introduce digital technologies that had previously languished and which were the precursor of the transmission technologies that made the iPhone possible.

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This speech was delivered at Columbia University, on March 11th, 2010.

The trade press reports that the President is trying again to pass an energy bill with a long term price on carbon emissions. Good! Its critical to realize how easy this transition from carbon to clean can really be. With low cost and long term financing we can provide up to 5 percent replacement of existing carbon-intensive electricity generation every year for 20 years, without raising prices to consumers and with reasonable profits for private investors. As an example of just one dramatic and inexpensive move, if a Green Bank bought the 50 most carbon intensive generation facilities in a Dutch auction (lowest offers win), then for about 40 billion dollars we could remove 5 percent of all carbon emissions in one fell swoop and create about 400,000 jobs building replacement facilities -- without raising prices to consumers. See slides on "Cash for Carbon".

No one is giving up yet on passing energy/environmental legislation this year, but there's little doubt that the international agenda for deploying clean tech and avoiding climate catastrophe needs to be reshaped.

The White House estimates that the jobs bill could cost 100 billion dollars. Roughly that amount will create about a million jobs. That is eight million less than the goal of full employment by end of 2012. The gap is to be closed by private sector investment. The key to catalyzing rapid private sector investment is action, both by way of regulation and modest financing.

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The White House estimates that the jobs bill could cost $100 billion dollars. Roughly that amount will create about a million jobs. That is eight million less than the goal of full employment by end of 2012. The gap is to be closed by private sector investment. The key to catalyzing rapid private sector investment is action, both by way of regulation and modest financing.

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President Clinton has been endorsing a Green Bank. See as follows:

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President Clinton has been endorsing Green Bank. See as follows:

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The president gave a great SOTU speech. To deliver on the jobs promise he needs to:

--go outside the terribly encumbering processes of administrative regulations and create new institutions that can quickly and effectively build clean energy systems (efficiency and generation and transmission),

-- aim to achieve goals high enough to give us a reasonable crack at 9 million new jobs by the end of 2012.

Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabian Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf said the kingdom will continue to pump money to boost growth in 2010, even as the economy rebounds from last year's stagnation.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, is spending $400 billion on infrastructure over a five-year period starting from 2009 to stimulate the economy. Rising oil prices, which have rebounded to around $75 a barrel from less than $35 in February, are also likely to boost growth this year.

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