Don Blankenship, who was quoted in the story,  is very much a minority voice in the coal industry. His company, Massey Energy,  is in fact not even among the top four coal producers nationally, much less internationally. His views on climate change are considered to be extreme even among the coal industry.

Better for Marketplace to highlight the work of Mike Morris of American Electric Power, among the nation's largest electric utilities and the largest consumer of coal in the Western Hemisphere. Today, AEP is cutting the ribbon on a large demonstration of carbon capture and storage technology in West Virginia, a technology Blankenship dismisses out of hand. AEP is also investing in wind generation even as it works to keep coal relevant in a low-carbon economy.

Those of us who know Morris know he is no bleeding heart — he is as flinty as they come. Yet, in supporting national clean energy cap and trade carbon legislation, and in matching his advocacy with investments in low-carbon technology, he is demonstrating the kind of leadership that West Virginia and the nation need.

Marketplace should do a better job appreciating just how increasingly irrelevant folks like Blankenship are to the national conversation about our clean energy future.

Updated 11/2: Corrected to remove references to NPR. Marketplace is produced by American Public Media.

• We just posted a quick summary of how the climate bill will reduce oil imports. Short version: No matter how much we drill, the U.S. burns more oil than we have in our borders, so we import it. The climate bill will cut use of ALL oil, so we can get away with importing less.
• The Center for American Progress just released a report on reducing oil dependence [PDF]. It has nice graphs outlining recent trends, discusses specific measures to reduce oil use, and notes how the climate bill encourages those measures.

It's no surprise that Big Oil has put its resources to work against this bill. Climate Progress takes a look at the history and recent political activity of the oil industry.

The Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital notes that other buyers can keep the oil-producing states in business without us. But in any case, we can be more secure if we reduce our own dependence on imported oil. The climate bill gives us a strong start.

David emphasized that even with progress like this, we still need Congress to act:

We need a national cap on carbon to limit emissions, and a way to reward companies and states that develop and utilize clean energy solutions such as solar. The commitment to Wal-Mart [that] BP is making today is a step in the right direction.

Marc,

Glad to see more attention to this issue as Congress gears up for its historic effort to pass a cap on carbon emissions. Opponents are hard at work to limit public debate to one side of the ledger; we’re shining the light on the other.

What we’re not doing is predicting the number of jobs a cap will create. Better yet, we’re showing the jobs that are here right now. We’re showing the people that want them, and businesses that are ready to create more of them when Congress caps carbon. You can see them for yourself at www.lesscarbonmorejobs.com

One of the thousands of companies you will find there is Dowding Machining, which is putting hundreds of laid-off autoworkers back to work building wind turbines in Michigan — the state with the highest unemployment rate in the nation. Mayor John Fetterman, featured in our ads, wants to do the same thing for steelworkers in Braddock, Pa.

How many jobs will we create? It's up to us as a nation. Will we take the lead, revitalizing existing manufacturing industries and creating new ones? Or will we settle for the status quo, see our factories shuttered, and end up importing the low-carbon technologies of the future from China and Europe?

For years, the U.S. was the worlds leading producer of solar cells, but now we rank fifth in production behind Japan, China, Germany and Taiwan. They’re not the sunniest of places; they’ve just made renewable energy a priority.

What will the costs be? The transition to clean energy will not be free – but every credible economic analysis shows that our economy will enjoy robust growth under a carbon cap. And contrary to opponents who spent a decade trying to muddy the science on climate change (and having failed that are now trying to muddy the economics), household costs will be small – about a dime a day for household utility bills, based on Department of Energy estimates. That dime buys a lot: cleaner air, good jobs, less foreign oil, and a safe climate.

Bernie Karl spent $20,000 building an ice hotel in the Alaskan interior, and another $700 a day on diesel refrigeration, and then the whole thing melted in the midnight sun. Forbes called it "the dumbest business idea of the year." Well, that was pure catnip to Bernie.

So he built the whole thing again, only this time he hired a dog-mushing engineer named Gwen to figure out how to use the energy in his hot springs to keep it cold. All the experts said it would fail because his water wasn't warm enough, but Bernie made it work (and suggested that Forbes can "kiss my a-"). He went on to collaborate with United Technologies on a geothermal power plant capable of using the lowest temperature heat resource ever used anywhere in the world. That opens up more possibilities than you can imagine: to turn low-temperature industrial waste heat, or the waste hot water that comes up with oil from Texas wells, into electricity.

Jack Newman is one of three young founders of a remarkable biofuels company called Amyris , which genetically engineers yeast to ferment sugar — not into ethanol, but directly into diesel, jet fuel and gasoline chemically identical to fuels made from petroleum. They've assembled an incredibly multi-disciplinary team to achieve their mission, Jack says. "They just sort of ride that wave of energy of people wanting to do something interesting that's going to make a difference, and then it just becomes a great day at work."

For some, the fun is in realizing an opportunity to grow and make money even in these difficult times. Conrad Burke, CEO of a cutting edge solar thin-film company called Innovalight , says "I'm not an environmentalist; I'm a capitalist." In January, Innovalight installed the world's first solar production line using silicon ink, which is printed onto the substrate, making for high-throughput, low-cost manufacture. Amryis is also charging ahead: last year it opened its first pilot diesel plant in California, and formed a joint venture with one of Brazil's largest ethanol distributors to quickly scale-up production. SantelisaVale, the second-largest ethanol and sugar producer in Brazil, committed two million tons of sugar cane crushing capacity for the initial production of their "no-compromise" diesel. And this month, Raser Technologies began delivering geothermal power made in Utah using the technology Bernie helped develop to Anaheim California.

You can meet all these innovators and many more on the Discovery TV special, tonight at 10 p.m. ET, or in the book, which just came out in paperback with a new afterword and illustrations.

Photo courtesy of Sarah Shatz.

And right on the heels of that study is this story from CBS News: Former Maytag employees in Iowa are finding new manufacturing jobs making parts for windmills. It's a great example of the connection between climate solutions and U.S. jobs.

Jackie Roberts is our director for sustainable technologies.

To start with, explained partner Randy Komisar, the current energy market is so large and outdated that "green-tech" is a huge and relatively low-risk opportunity. And we're not, as many think, waiting for the new inventions to come. We're waiting for federal policy to give private investment incentive. That is, we're waiting for a mandatory carbon cap.

Many great technologies have already been developed. But, says partner Bill Joy, they're "not yet commercialized because they had been frozen by the low price of oil. The innovation had occurred, but they hadn't been deployed." Using the example of green-tech firm Ausra:

A price on carbon could, in one stroke, make Ausra's carbon-free solar electricity even cheaper than coal- or gas-powered electricity, which would both rise in cost because they produce CO₂; as a result, there would be virtually no limit to the demand for Ausra's power. That's how you get a green-tech Google.

Or as economist Jeffrey Sachs puts it, "The policy elicits the technology."

The most effective action the government can take is to set policy that gives incentive for private innovation. This is because (quoting Al Gore – also a partner) "more money is allocated in the private markets in one hour than in all of the budgets of all of the governments of the world in a year's time."

Why don't we hear more about these new inventions? Some are described in the article and many more in Fred Krupp's book, Earth: The Sequel. But most are kept under tight wraps because of their profit potential:

Last summer, the growing number of stealth companies involved with clean energy formed a kind of dark matter in the Silicon Valley universe, businesses that could not be seen yet nevertheless exerted a discernible gravitational pull. Executives would suddenly leave jobs at established companies to join ventures with no official name.

When brought to scale, these enterprises will have a wonderfully energizing effect on our economy:

Amid economic hardship and turmoil within the financial-services industry, such efforts could also contribute to a profusion of green jobs in technology as well as in manufacturing.

So what are we waiting for?

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

Environmental Defense Fund can't comment on the candidates in this year's historic election because of our tax status as a 501c3 charitable organization. But it's okay for us to provide interesting sources of information, and here's one: a site that tracks which lawmakers receive money from the coal industry.

It's very detailed and very interesting, with multiple ways to browse or search. Take a look!

When I went out to get lunch yesterday, I passed a sporting goods store with an interestingly labeled sneaker display. I'd never thought of my feet as an "alternative fuel" before, but I guess that's right!

Human movement isn't just for transportation. Take a look at last Thursday's post for examples from around the world of how human movement can be used to generate electricity. Investment spurred by cap-and-trade legislation will make clean energy technologies like these the norm rather than the exception.

Yesterday's New York Times reported that a number of chain stores, including Wal-Mart, Macy's, Safeway, and Whole Foods, are putting solar panels on their roofs to generate electricity. There's a big opportunity here. Stores are the largest energy users in many communities, and solar panels could generate 10 to 40 percent of the store's electric needs.

Solar power still costs more than electricity from coal, but:

[R]etailers believe that they can achieve economies of scale. With coal and electricity prices rising, they are also betting that solar power will become more competitive, especially if new policies addressing global warming limit the emissions from coal plants.

The current rush to add solar panels is sparked by a tax advantage that ends on December 31. The tax credit may be renewed – or may not. The more reliable way to provide incentive for investment in new energy technologies is through the marketplace – by putting a price on carbon.

A carbon market – implemented through a cap-and-trade system – will lower the price of clean energy by opening the flood gates on research and development. Plus it will level the playing field, making clean technologies more competitive. Congress is on vacation now, but look for action on cap-and-trade in the coming months.