Green For All is a national organization dedicated to building a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. With the tremendous opportunities that lie ahead in harnessing the renewable resources in our environment to power the economy of the future, Green For All is working to ensure that the green revolution doesn’t bypass those most in need.

To realize their vision of an inclusive green economy, Green For All is linking activists, advocates, policy makers, organizations, and community leaders together to advance the vision of a green economy that will benefit all Americans. The non-profit is also doing their part to lift public awareness on the economic potential of a green economy and the environmental benefits of fighting Global Warming as well as advocating green policies to Federal, State and local governments and providing technical assistance to implement those policies.

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Hotelier Doug Manchester’s donation of $125,000 to overturn California’s same-sex marriage court ruling has stirred calls for a boycott of his two hotels.  The owner of the Whitetail Club and Resort, in McCall, Idaho and the Manchester Grand Hyatt and Grand del Mar Resort, both in San Diego, California, contributed the money to collect signatures for placing Proposition 8, a referendum on whether to make same-sex marriage unconstitutional in the Golden State, on the November ballot.

Mr. Manchester addressed the controversy yesterday, saying, “This really is a free-speech, First Amendment issue. While I respect everyone’s choice of partner, my Catholic faith and longtime affiliation with the Catholic Church leads me to believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman.”  

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As big as alternative energy is getting in the United States, it is really taking shape in the 50th State, Hawaii.  We all know young’uns are good with technological gizmos, but the Aloha State is putting its mainland big brothers to shame with the speed it’s adapting toward energy self sufficiency.  First there was the new law in Hawaii requiring all newly installed residential water heaters to run off of solar power.  Now the island of Maui has announced plans for plant that creates biodiesel from a crop the Pacific state has a whole lot of access to: algae.

A Hawaiian conglomerate of HR BioPetroleum, Alexander & Baldwin Inc and Hawaiian Electric Industries is developing the Maui plant to harvest large quantities of lipid oil to fuel the state’s combustible needs.  If factors align, the plant could begin production as soon as 2011.  Hawaiian Governor Linda Lingle had this to say on the proposed plant:

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When it comes to global warming, some people just don’t get it. This can be frustrating enough when dealing with a misguided friend or acquaintance. But when the denier happens to be a United States Senator, one of a mere 100 voices charged with protecting the vital interests of the country, frustration can give way to sheer astonishment.

Enter Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), one of the most outspoken and passionate deniers of Global Warming in all of American politics - and given the utter lack of action on the urgent issue by the Federal government until just recently this is no small feat. Things have begun to change for the better though, with or without Senator Inhofe, in the recent passage of legislation upping the required mileage on automobiles sold in the United States and with the 2007 ruling by the Supreme Court that the EPA must do more to enforce the Clean Air Act which has slowly prodded the Bush Administration into talking about doing something (which sadly represents progress since it’s more than they had been doing).

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American brewing icon Anheuser-Busch has agreed to a $50 Billion takeover by Belgian based brewer InBev in a deal set to create the world’s largest beer maker. What sealed the deal in the month long negotiations between the two brewing giants was InBev raising its offer to $70.00 per share, 27% higher than Anheuser-Busch’s all time high stock price from 2002, and $5.00 per share higher than InBev’s initial offer reported on TakePart last month.

Although many American politicians including Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama and Missouri Governor Matt Blunt have come out against the deal, personally I’m all for it. For one, as a matter of personal taste, Anheuser-Busch could use the help in crafting their brews from InBev, the same company that produces one of my favorite beers, Stella Artois. Secondly, the new company will be a truly international conglomerate. InBev itself was formed in a 2004 merger between Brazilian brewer AmBev and Belgian based Interbrew and although the company is based out of Leuven, Belgium, its management is made up of primarily Brazilian executives. So we’ll end up with America’s favorite beer, owned by a company operating out of Belgium and run by Brazilians - a perfect brew for a globalized, interdependent world.

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“Rent” the Broadway musical portraying the bohemian life in NYC’s East Village in the early 1990’s is closing this September. This passing in the cultural life of the city and an article in today’s New York Times examining the changes that have occurred in New York City since the times the show was set in have me reflecting on my own tenure in the Big Apple.

I should start by saying I never saw “Rent“. I’m not much for musicals and in fact have never seen a single one since I moved to New York in 1994 for college. But what I’ve shared with Jonathan Larson’s bohemian epic is a neighborhood: the East Village. A neighborhood that has constantly changed since my arrival in New York City at a speed I never dreamed possible for a piece of land. The East Village intimately introduced me to gentrification, a force that has been a constant throughout my adult life, and a fitting associate, seeing how I fast realized after moving into the area that I was a gentrifier.

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New York City has announced a plan to convert two of Broadway’s four lanes into a public esplanade. The surprise move will turn half of the Great White Way between Herald Square and 42nd Street into public space featuring a dedicated bike lane alongside a pedestrian walkway with room for outdoor cafe seating and plant and flower boxes. The esplanade, which the city is calling Broadway Boulevard, is set to open mid-August of this summer.

This is not the first restructuring of traffic patterns on Broadway this year however. A few weeks ago I noticed for the first time that downtown near City Hall on down to Wall Street, automobile Broadway had been reduced to one lane, with the other lanes dedicated to the city and regional bus lines that bring so many people down to the city’s second largest business district.

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The largest solar rooftop on the planet is being installed by none other than American automotive giant General Motors. The company announced on Tuesday that it plans to install the biggest rooftop solar photovoltaic power installation on Earth on top of its car assembly plant at Figueruelas, Zaragoza, Spain. The installation will cover over 2 million square feet of space with renewable electricity producing photovoltaic cells on 85,000 solar panels.

Partnering with Clairvoyant Energy, Veolia Environmental and the Government of the Spanish state of Aragon, GM will produce over 12 MW at peak output on the Zaragoza rooftop using United Solar Ovonic thin laminate panels - enough to power over 4,500 households per year. GM already operates two of the largest solar power installations in the United States at its plants at Fontana and Rancho Cucamongo, California. The latter facility powers 50% of its electricity by the solar installation.

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New York City will spend $2.3 Billion over the next 30 years to cut greenhouse gas emissions, Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday. The spending will go toward reducing harmful emissions and reducing energy consumption in Municipal buildings and projects throughout the Big Apple. New York plans to cut 1.68 million metric tons per year from 2006 levels by 2017 using a myriad of methods and energy saving strategies. The goal is to cut 30 percent of emissions from the public sector, which uses 6.5 percent of the total energy consumption for the city and 10 percent of its peak electrical demand, within 30 years.

“The city is doing its part, I hope the private sector follows our example and finds conservation savings of their own.” Bloomberg said in a statement. The Mayor said that NYC should break even on its investments as early as the year 2013, with a huge portion of the savings coming on reduced energy bills. “By 2015, we project we will have saved more on our energy bills than we will have spent on all our planned investments to that point.”, Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler said.

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President George W. Bush was heckled yesterday at a Fourth of July naturalization ceremony speech he gave at Monticello. Members of the activist group Code Pink protested the Iraq War and the Bush Administration’s policy towards civil liberties in the middle of an address the President was giving at Thomas Jefferson’s gorgeous estate in the rolling hills of the Virginia countryside.

Code Pink protesters hurled the words “war criminal” and “fascism” at Bush almost as soon as he took the stage to address the assembled crowd. After the activists were quieted, or whisked off, by security the President told the gathering. “To my fellow citizens to be, we believe in free speech in the United States of America.” You can see video of the incident below:

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