Event: The Hunt for Blackgold

• The Hunt for Black Gold

  "The Hunt for Black Gold" hosted by Maria Bartiromo follows the flow of oil from the moment it comes on line, to the supertankers, refineries and finally the consumer's gas tank. This CNBC special profiles Alaska's North Slope to the Gulf of Mexico - critical areas in the national oil debate. PREMIERES Wednesday, September 24th 9p | 1a ET

Google’s Eric Schmidt Details Energy Plan, Chides Lack of Leadership

Written by Katie Fehrenbacher

16 Comments

Posted September 9th, 2008 at 9:05 am in Energy,Hitlines,Policy,Yahoo! Buzz

Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, along with Google’s energy gurus Dan Reicher and Bill Weihl, have so far served as the search giant’s most outspoken representatives of its plans to create new energy solutions. But at a dinner for the Corporate EcoForum on Monday night, Google CEO Eric Schmidt outlined a plan to wean the U.S. off of foreign oil, fight climate change and create green jobs. And Schmidt took direct aim at world leaders, contending: “We have a total failure of political leadership, at least in the U.S., and perhaps the world.”

In his speech, Schmidt called for 100 percent of U.S. power generation to come from green power in about 20 years, as well as the replacement of half of the nation’s traditional cars with plug-in hybrids. Cleaning up the power grid would lead to the creation of 500,000 jobs in wind alone, Schmidt claimed; his plan would also allegedly reduce emissions by half.

Schmidt also spoke at length about the antiquated power grid: “We’ve got to solve the grid problem,” he said, noting that 9 percent of efficiency is lost in the current architecture. And like most infotech titans, he called for integrating technologies borne out of the Internet revolution to the grid; sophisticated routing, switching and networking technologies didn’t yet exist when the grid was built. The opportunity to remake the grid is not unlike the opportunities of the Internet and the PC, he said...

Earth Day co-founder Pete McCloskey

Earth Day co-founder Pete McCloskey

A veritable national treasure, Pete McCloskey really has seen and done it all: the last in a long line of McCloskey Republicans dating back to 1859, a Korean War Vet, a Republican Congressman from 1967 to 1983, a candidate against Richard Nixon in the '72 primary on an anti-Vietnam War platform, a co-founder of Earth Day, and co-author of the 1973 Endangered Species Act.
PART ONE (11 min)  PART TWO (7 min)

Long alienated by his own party's abandonment of its principles of conservation, McCloskey switched to the Democratic party this month, at the ripe age of 80. Listen here for a good half-century of amazing stories and political perspective, including his participation in the first Earth Day celebration in 1970...

Robert Kennedy Jr. at Hawaii's Blue Planet Summit

KHON NEWS

By Tannya Joaquin

The same elements that make Hawaii a tourist hotspot could make our Island home the perfect place to harness alternative energy.

"Hawaii is an Island economy" says Kennedy. "It's a global epicenter for solar power, for geothermal power for wind and for tidal. It doesn't make any sense that Hawaii is 93 percent dependent on oil that's created in the Middle East."

The mission of Hawaii's first Blue Planet Summit is to initiate change in world energy culture, inspired by Native Hawaiian concepts of sustainability.

"Some people consider it might cause an affront to Pele" says Kennedy. "But we have to also think broader, does Pele want us to be serving the God of Exxon?"

Hawaii's Clean Energy initiative sets an ambitious goal-- to have 70 percent of the state's energy needs come from renewable sources by 2030.

According to Kennedy, "What we need to do is rejigger the rules of the free market so the free market does what it's supposed to do which is to reward good behavior which is efficiency and to punish bad behavior which is inefficiency and waste."

Kennedy cites California and Iceland as examples.

Both have made major strides toward clean energy.

"It's not a pipe dream. It's not a fantasy" explains Kennedy. "This is happening and people are making a lot of money doing this. Hawaii needs to jump on the gravy train."

For more information about the 3-day meeting at Ko Olina Resort, go to blueplanetsummit.org

Blue Planet Summit taps array of experts

Star-Bulletin staff

The Blue Planet Foundation is convening an ambitious conference this week in Ko Olina, bringing together dozens of experts in the field to develop tangible ways to advance the goal of clean energy for Hawaii.

The first Blue Planet Summit, which is closed to the public, runs Thursday through Saturday at the Ihilani Resort. The list of speakers and panelists scheduled includes:

» Gov. Linda Lingle

» Robert F. Kennedy Jr., environmentalist

» David McClain, president, University of Hawaii

» Henk Rogers, entrepreneur, founder of Blue Planet Foundation

» Mark Brownstein, managing director, Environmental Defense Fund

» Puanani Burgess, community building facilitator and trainer

» Dr. Heidi Cullen, the Weather Channel

» Neal DeSnoo, energy officer, City of Berkeley, Calif.

» Christine Ervin, former president and chief executive officer of U.S. Green Building Council

» David Garman, former undersecretary, U.S. Department of Energy

» Denis Hayes, chief executive officer, Bullitt Foundation; national coordinator of first Earth Day; chairman, Earthday Network

» Jeffrey R. Izzo, energy officer, Bureau of Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs, U.S. State Department

» Elizabeth Kapuuwailani Lindsey, Ph.D., explorer, National Geographic Society

» Theodore E. Liu, director, Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism

» Former U.S. Rep. Pete McCloskey (R, Calif.)

» Jeff Mikulina, director, Sierra Club-Hawaii Chapter

» Hawaii Rep. Hermina Morita (D, Hanalei-Kapaa), chairwoman, Hawaii House Energy and Environmental Protection Committee

» William P. Parks Jr., deputy assistant secretary, Research and Development, U.S. Department of Energy

» Kenneth E. Pringle, mayor of Belmar, N.J.; board of directors, New Jersey Transit

» Stephen Reed, executive director, Blue Planet Foundation

» Richard E. Rocheleau, Ph.D., director, Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, University of Hawaii

» Tony Rogers, Rosebud Sioux Tribe Utility Commission

» Clyde Sakamoto, chancellor, Maui Community College

» Frank Sesno, CNN journalist

» Ramsay Taum, Native Hawaiian Culture and Sustainability, University of Hawaii at Manoa

» Charmaine Tavares, mayor, Maui County

» Hawaii Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R, Kaneohe-Kailua)

» R. James Woolsey, Vantage Point Venture Partners; former director, Central Intelligence Agency; senior executive adviser, Booz Allen Hamilton

Oahu to host Blue Planet Summit

HONOLULU
Oahu to host Blue Planet Summit

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

Dozens of local and national energy experts, environmentalists, business leaders and others are scheduled to gather on O'ahu in April to discuss ways to increase renewable energy programs.

The three-day Blue Planet Summit, planned by Honolulu-based nonprofit Blue Planet Foundation, aims to foster and bring attention to clean energy initiatives in Hawai'i and around the world.

"We want to see what we can do to help Hawai'i become that model for clean energy elsewhere," said Stephen Reed, executive director of the Blue Planet Foundation.

"If Hawai'i can help show how these things can be done in a way that's economical, that's environmentally friendly, then you can export that concept, that technology, that business model to other places."

Reed said the summit will be an annual event here. The summit — to be held at the JW Marriott Ihilani Resort & Spa — is expected to include about 60 participants, including environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., National Geographic Society explorer Elizabeth Kapu'uwailani Lindsey, former U.S. Congressman Pete McCloskey, Stanford University environmental studies professor Stephen H. Schneider, and Bullitt Foundation CEO and coordinator of the first Earth Day Denis Hayes.

U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye and University of Hawai'i President David McClain are also scheduled to participate.

The summit will be closed to the public, but part of the event will be taped to air nationally on public television, and other segments will be recorded to be made available on either DVD or the foundation's Web site, or both, Reed said.

"We want to raise the level of the dialogue, to help the public be that much better informed about what the issues are," Reed said.

Inouye said in a statement that the summit "will provide a unique window on the world with Hawai'i in the spotlight for its diverse test beds in renewable energy efficiency, generation and distribution.

"In the end, we must each take a measure of personal responsibility to help ensure that what we leave succeeding generations is better than how we found it."

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.