White House still listening to Van Jones ‘green’ advice
Communist-group founder on team influencing environmental policies
By Aaron Klein
November 30, 2009
Van Jones, President Obama’s controversial former “green jobs” czar, serves on the advisory board of an independent environmental organization actively working with the White House, WND has learned.
Jones resigned in September after it was exposed he founded a communist revolutionary organization and signed a statement that accused the Bush administration of possible involvement in the 9/11 attacks.
Jones is one of 20 advisers to the University of Colorado–based Presidential Climate Action Project, or PCAP, which draws up climate-policy recommendations for the White House and has been working with members of the Obama administration.
The PCAP last September released a lengthy proposal to guide the environmental policies during the first 100 days of the 44th U.S. president regardless of whether Obama or Sen. John McCain won the election.
William S. Becker, the PCAP’s executive director, confirmed to WND his group is “about to propose a new and more assertive strategy for President Obama to raise the bar on the U.S. climate goal, with or without Congress.”
Becker told WND his group’s initial proposals have received a “very positive reception from the moment we delivered (the 100-day proposal) last November to John Podesta, co-chair of Obama’s transition team.”
“We continue to work with some colleagues inside the (Obama) administration, as well as continuing to push for bold action from the outside,” he said.
Becker said the White House “adopted quite a few of our recommendations or variations of them.”
He cited a few examples of the influence of the PCAP and other environmental groups on Obama’s policies:
- The PCAP recommended that the U.S. reach a bilateral climate deal with China prior to the upcoming U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The U.S. has since signed several agreements with China to share technology that reduces greenhouse-gas emissions.
- The PCAP recommended an executive order that removed the gags from federal climate scientists. This became one of Obama’s first actions on environmental policy.
- The PCAP recommended an overhaul of federal energy management to beef up efficiency requirements for federal agencies and to restore absolute carbon reduction targets that had been rescinded by the Bush administration. The Obama administration issued a new federal energy management order in October, including a requirement that agencies develop absolute targets for greenhouse-gas reductions.
- The PCAP recommended (as did many others) that the Environmental Protection Agency embrace California’s vehicle emission standards and begin the process of regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The EPA is doing both.
- The PCAP recommended major budget increases for states and communities to engage in energy and climate actions and to weatherize the homes of low-income families. This was part of Obama’s stimulus package.
The PCAP describes itself as seeking to engage the “best thinking of America’s leaders in government, science and civil society to identify actions that will empower all elements of society to meet the challenges of energy security and climate change.” The group actively promotes the theory of global warming . Read the rest HERE.
According to the Presidential Climate Action Project:
US Climate Experts:
Daniel R. Abbasi
Director
MissionPoint Capital Partners
Sharon Alpert
Program Director for Environment — Surdna Foundation
Ray Anderson
Founder and Chair; Interface Inc.
Susan Anderson
Director – Office of Sustainable Development, City of Portland
The Honorable Rocky Anderson
Former Mayor ~ Salt Lake City, Utah
High Road for Human Rights
Dr. D. James Baker
Director, Global Carbon Measurement Program
William J. Clinton Foundation
Former Administrator
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
James P. Barrett, Ph.D.
Executive Director — Redefining Progress
Panama Bartholomy
California Energy Commission
Kit Batten Ph.D.
Managing Director for Energy and Environmental Policy ~ Center for American Progress
S.William Becker
Executive Director
National Association of Clean Air Agencies
William Becker
Executive Director; Presidential Climate Action Project – University of Colorado Denver
Robert J. Berkebile
Principal — BNIM Architects
Scott Bernstein
President, Center for Neighborhood Technology
Chairman, Surface Transportation Policy Partnership
Partner, Center for Transit Oriented Development
William Bertera
Executive Director; Water Environment Federation
David E. Blockstein
Director of Education & Senior Scientist — National Council for Science and the Environment
Tom Boucher
Founder, President & CEO
NativeEnergy
Gary Braasch
Photojournalist
Author of Earth Under Fire: How Global Warming is Changing the World (University of California Press)
Creator of www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org
Lester Brown
Founder & President – Earth Policy Institute
Paul Brown
President, Public Services Group
Camp Dresser & McKee Inc. (CDM)
April Bucksbaum
Executive Director — The Baum Foundation
John Bullard
President – Sea Education Association
Former Director, NOAA’s Office of Sustainable Development
Former Mayor, New Bedford, MA
Current Chair of Mayor’s Sustainability Task Force
Current Gore messenger – The Climate Project
George Burmeister
President; Colorado Energy Group, Inc.
Kateri Callahan
President — Alliance to Save Energy [SURPRISE: Sen. Susan Collins belongs to this Alliance....]
Brian Castelli
Executive Vice President & C.O.O — Alliance to Save Energy
Don Chen
Executive Director; Smart Growth America
Marian Chertow
Director and Associate Professor
Industrial Environmental Management
Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Eric Chivian
Director; Center for Health and the Global Environment – Harvard Medical School
Shared in 1985 Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to:
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
Aimee Christensen
Christensen Global Strategies, LLC
Reverend Richard Cizik
VP for Governmental Affairs — National Association of Evangelicals
Office of Governmental Affairs
Jenny Clad
Director — The Climate Project [Al and Tipper Gore donors]
Eileen Claussen
President; Pew Center on Global Climate Change
Billy Connelly
Marketing Director – NativeEnergy
Beth Conover
Former Director, Greenprint Denver
Principal, Headwaters Consulting LLC
David Cooperrider, Ph.D.
Director of University Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit
Fairmount Minerals Professor
Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University
Judy Corbett
Executive Director;Local Government Commission
Robert Costanza, Ph.D.
Gund Professor of Ecological Economics
Director, Gund Institute for Ecological Economics
Kevin Coyle
Vice President of Education — National Wildlife Federation
Tabitha Crawford
Principal
Rayan Solutions
David Crockett
CitiStates Group
Founder, Chattanooga Institute for Sustainability
Judith Curry
Chair, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences – Georgia Institute of Technology
Melissa Dann
Executive Director — Wallace Global Fund
Scott Denman
Senior Program Officer ~ Reconnecting People and Places Program
Wallace Global Fund
Reid Detchon
Executive Director, Energy Future Coalition Executive Director, Energy & Climate, United Nations Foundation
Larisa Dobriansky
Baker & Hostetler
Strachan Donnelley
President — Center for Humans and Nature
Dr. Sylvia Earle
Former Chief Scientist/NOAA
Explorer in Residence — National Geographic Society
Kristie L. Ebi
ESS, LLC
Dr. Jae Edmonds
Laboratory Fellow and Chief Scientist;Pacific Northwest National LaboratoryJoint Global Change Research Institute at the University of Maryland College Park
James L. Elder
Director – The Campaign for Environmental Literacy
Jane Elder
Environmental Communications Specialist — Jane Elder Strategies
Paul Epstein M.D., M.P.H.
Associate Director; Center for Health and the Global Environment – Harvard Medical School, Landmark Center
Christine Ervin
Former President U.S. Green Building Council
Former U.S. Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Daniel Esty
Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy – Yale Law School
Richard Fedrizzi
President, CEO & Founding Chairman — U.S. Green Building Council
Ira Feldman
President and Senior Counsel — Greentrack Strategies
Emily Figdor
Federal Global Warming Program Director
Environment America
Garrett Fitzgerald
Director of Programs
ICLEI — Local Governments for Sustainability
Rebecca Flora
Executive Director — Green Building Alliance
John Fogarty, MD, MPH
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Peter Fox-Penner
The Brattle Group
Dr. William R. Fraser
President and Lead Investigator – Polar Oceans Research Group
Bryan Garcia
Program Director — Center for Business and the Environment, Yale University
Michel Gelobter
President; Redefining Progress
Dr. Barry D. Gold
Marine Conservation Initiative Lead — Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
K.C. Golden
Policy Director – Climate Solutions
K.C. Golden
Policy Director – Climate Solutions
Peter Goldmark
Director;Climate & Air Program – Environmental Defense
Dr. Eban Goodstein
Director — Focus the Nation
Lewis & Clark College — Department of Economics
Elisabeth Graffy
Coordinator; Natural Resource and Environmental Indicators – Office of Policy Analysis, U.S. Department of the Interior
Charles G. Groat
Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, and Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy
Jackson School of Geosciences — The University of Texas at Austin
Arnulf Grubler
Professor in the Field of Energy and Technology — Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) — Laxenburg, Austria
Hank Habicht
Vice Chair; National Commission on Energy Policy
Also a Managing Partner at SAIL Venture Partners, LLC
600 Anton Boulevard, Suite 1750
Costa Mesa, California 92626
Ph: (714) 241-7500
Em: hhabicht@sailvc.com
Kathleen Hadley
Executive Director — National Center for Appropriate Technology
Dave Hamilton
Director; Global Warming and Energy Programs – Sierra Club
J. Drake Hamilton
Science Policy Director – Fresh Energy
James Hanken
Alexander Agassiz Professor of ZoologyCurator in Herpetology & Director/Museum;Harvard UniversityMuseum of Comparative Zoology
Maureen Hart
Executive Director; Sustainable Measures
Gary W. Hart, U.S. Senator (Ret.)
The Wirth Chair in Environmental and Community Development Policy
School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver
Hal Harvey
Program Director, Environment; The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Susan Joy Hassol
Director – Climate Communication
Karl Hausker Ph.D.
Vice President, ICF International
Denis Hayes
President & CEO; Bullitt Foundation
Marshall Herskovitz
Producer/Director
J. Andrew Hoerner
Director — Sustainable Economics Program
Redefining Progress
John P. Holdren, Ph.D.
Director – The Woods Hole Research Center
Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy, Harvard University
Stewart J. Hudson
President – Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation
Jonathan Isham
Luce Professor of International Environmental Economics
Middlebury College
Nancy Jackson
Executive Director – Climate & Energy Project (CEP) – The Land Institute
Dr. Anthony Janetos
Director — Joint Global Change Research Institute; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory/University of Maryland
Rhea Jezer, Ph.D
Senior Lecturer
Environmental Policy
Dept. of Environmental Studies
Cazenovia College
Sadhu Johnston
Commissioner;Department of the Environment,City of Chicago
Van Jones
President – Green For All
Daniel M. Kammen
Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy
Energy and Resources Group
Goldman School of Public Policy
Department of Nuclear Engineering
Co-Director, Berkeley Institute of the Environment
Founding Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory
Elizabeth Kolbert
Staff Writer — The New Yorker
Doug Koplow
Earth Track, Inc.
Kalee D. Kreider
Communications Director — Office of the Hon. Al Gore and Mrs. Tipper Gore
Fred Krupp
President — Environmental Defense
Charles Kutscher, Ph.D.
Center for Buildings and Thermal Systems – National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Jonathan Lash
President; World Resources Institute
The PCAP Advisory Committee is chaired by Ray Anderson, Founder and Chairman of the Board – Interface Inc.
Members include:
D. James Baker – Former Administrator – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Scott Bernstein – President – Center for Neighborhood Technology
April Bucksbaum – Vice President – The Baum Foundation
Brian Castelli – Executive Vice President – Alliance to Save Energy
Dianne Dillon-Ridgley – Chair – Plains Justice
Boyd Gibbons – Immediate Past President – Johnson Foundation
Gary Hart – U.S. Senator (Ret.) – Wirth Chair, University of Colorado Denver
Sheila Slocum Hollis – Partner – Duane Morris LLP
Van Jones – Board President & Co-Founder – Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
William C. Kunkler III – Executive Vice President – CC Industries, Inc.
Hunter Lovins – President – Natural Capitalism Solutions, Inc.
Michael Northrop – Program Director, Sustainable Development – Rockefeller Brothers Fund
David Orr – Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics Oberlin College
John L. Petersen – President – The Arlington Institute
Theodore Roosevelt IV – Chair – Pew Center on Global Climate Change
Larry Schweiger – President and CEO – National Wildlife Federation
James Gustave “Gus” Speth – Dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University
Jeremy Symons – Director, Global Warming Campaign – National Wildlife Federation
Terry Tamminen – Cullman Senior Fellow and Climate Policy Director – New America Foundation
Admiral Richard H. Truly (U.S. Navy Ret.) – Former Administrator, NASA – Former Director, NREL
Heidi VanGenderen – Senior Policy Advisor – Colorado Governor’s Office
A number of additional national experts have contributed ideas for the PCAP as participants in the National Leadership Summits for a Sustainable America.
