Speaking in Denver, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter said preliminary figures from a new report show that renewable energy has generated about 90,000 jobs directly and indirectly in Colorado.

Addressing attendees of the second annual Colorado New Energy Economy Conference, Ritter said that Jefferson County alone has about 500 renewable energy companies. The Governor cited the wind turbine maker Vestas‘ new turbine tower manufacturing plant, which, along with the company’s blade manufacturing plants in Windsor and Brighton, will provide about 2,500 good paying green collar jobs to the people of Colorado.

So how is Colorado doing it? Well, it’s not just because of the excellent solar and wind resource; and it certainly isn’t because we let the market sort it all out. The renewable energy industry has taken root here because the state has made it a priority and the people have embraced it. [Read more]

One of my almae matres, Colorado State University has finally launched the business-end of its long-awaited renewable energy “supercluster.” The supercluster will serve as a clean tech incubator, moving research and development of clean energy and energy efficiency from the lab to the marketplace. CSU President Larry Penley joined Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter and Colorado Senators Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar to make the announcement Thursday at the state Capitol.

“CSU is home to the world’s finest faculty and student brain trust in the environmental sciences, in the development of alternative energy technology and biofuels and in the management of state forest lands,” said CSU President Penley. “In the long run, all these achievements are insufficient if we can’t get our research to market rapidly and in ways that are sustainable from a business perspective,” Penley said.

The university’s new business arm of the Clean Energy Supercluster took the painfully ironic name, Cenergy. Not to be confused with the large corporation of the same name, that provides logistical support for onshore and offshore oilfields worldwide. You’d think that someone at the university would have done a Google search on the name ‘Cenergy’ before getting the new stationery printed!

These are supposed to be researchers we’re talking about, right?

Photo: Tim Hurst
Press Release
Colorado State University Clean Energy Supercluster

Dr. Liam Leonard, a faculty member in the Dep’t of Political Science and Sociology at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and editor at Ecopolitics Online has announced a call for papers for the inaugural edition of the new online peer-reviewed journal. The theme of the first edition is, “Utopias, ecotopias and green communities: Exploring the patterns of resettlement and living of green idealists.”

According to the announcement on their website: Twice yearly, Ecopolitics Online will publish a collection of peer-reviewed papers from an international pool of environmental academics and researchers. The intent of the journal is to address environmental issues with a multidisciplinary approach, “which incorporates politics, sociology, geography, globalisation, development, economics, philosophy, ecology, law and science.” The call for papers suggests that:

So even though this is an Irish publication, international scholarship is not only welcome but it seems as though it is encouraged. For more information about submissions, follow this link.

New and Improved! Now with Even More Empirics!

The political back-and-forth in the Cape Wind debate rolls on. Renewable Energy Access has just shed some light on a new iteration of a Massachusetts energy survey.The Opinion Research Corporation poll for the Civil Society Institute has found that Massachusetts citizens are, perhaps, not as divided over wind energy development as they have been portrayed by the media and opposition groups.

From ecopolitology

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