Have you heard of COP 17? Did you know it is the 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference? And that it is going on right now (admittedly- ending soon) in Durban, South Africa?

The conference provides the opportunity for countries to come together to discuss and secure a global climate agreement for the future. These discussions are even more important since the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.

To learn more, or if you’ve been following it in the news and want a different perspective – check out this blog. ACS helped sponsor several students – giving them the opportunity to travel to Durban to witness the climate negotiations first hand. The blog shows what they’ve seen and learned along the way. Check it out: ...

In the derailed train wreck that has come to represent our economy of the past couple of years, a logical first step to getting our economical “train” back on track to growth would seem to be that of damage control not innovation and invention. However, this reasoning proves to be a bit off the mark as shown by a study conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland which found that “innovation, measured by patents per capita, was the most important factor in determining which state economies had grown the fastest” in the past 75 years.

On July 13, National Journal held its Innovation Works Conference featuring a discussion titled “Foreshadowing the Future” with special guests ...

On Wednesday, July 13, National Journal hosted the Innovation Works Conference in the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C. The conference consisted of a series of panels of innovators and policy makers who discussed the state of innovation in America today and how to foster its growth.

The second panel, entitled “What Best Drives Innovation?” was moderated by Matthew Cooper, Editor of the National Journal Daily, and consisted of U.S. House Representatives Donna Edwards (D-MD) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Mr. Reed E. Hundt, Principal of REH Advisors, Ms. Susan Lund, Principal and Director of Research of McKinsey Global Institute, and Mr. Gary Shapiro, President and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association.

The House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment held a hearing yesterday, July 7, regarding the science of a gasoline and ethanol blend which contains up to 15% ethanol volume, otherwise knows as E15. E15 use was recently waived by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use in MY2001 and newer light-duty motor vehicles in reaction to a request made by Growth Energy and 54 ethanol manufacturers under the Clean Air Act. This partial waiver was conducted based on results of a Department of Energy (DOE) study which looked into the potential effect of E15.

 

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Yesterday, July 7, Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) hosted a congressional briefing on Capitol Hill entitled “APRA-E and the Energy Technology Revolution” where its director, Dr. Arun Majumdar, spoke on the successes of ARPA-E and its goals for the next decade. ASME and IEEE-USA graciously hosted the event.

ARPA-E is the Advanced Research Projects Agency- Energy and is part of the Department of Energy. It is the nation’s “only agency devoted to transformational energy research and development”. It was launched by President Obama on April 27, 2009 as part of the America COMPETES Act and received official budget funding in FY2011 in the amount of $180 million. Through a competitive bidding and reviewing process, ARPA-E awards grants to researchers of energy technology and tends to invest in high-risk technologies that are not guaranteed success.

On June 28, 2011 the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife held its second hearing regarding the progress of Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Early Restoration efforts after the April 20, 2010 BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster just off the Gulf of Mexico.

 

While this disaster, which tragically took 11 lives and allowed oil to flow out for nearly 3 months, has all but disappeared from the mainstream news much of restoration of the marine ecosystems injured by the oil spill has yet to be initiated. ...

On June 27, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Technology held a hearing entitled “Making It In America: Innovate Locally, Export Globally” at the John C. Byrd U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building in Charleston, West Virginia. Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV held this hearing in his home state to focus on the importance of exports for West Virginia’s future economic growth.

The panel included: The Honorable Suresh Kumar, Assistant Secretary for Trade Promotion and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service from the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC); Judy McCauley, West Virginia District Director of the U.S. Small Business Administration; Mark Julian, Deputy Executive Director and Director of Business and Industrial Development of the West Virginia Department of Commerce; Donald Gallion, Chairman of the West Virginia District Export Council and Senior Vice President for International Sales of FCX Systems, Inc.; and Randy Moore, Vice President, West Virginia AFL-CIO and International Representative of the United Steelworkers.

President Barack Obama gave a speech today, June 24, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Penn., launching the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, a national initiative to boost manufacturing and the U.S. economy.

Obama discussed important breakthroughs in American industry over the past 50 years and described their roots in collaborative research and development efforts by individuals, small companies and universities. He emphasized the role manufacturing has played in American economic dominance over this time period.

In recent years, however, we have lost some of our edge, he said, particularly some of the competitive spirit and ambition that made American manufacturing and the U.S. economy the envy of the modern world. At the recommendation of his Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, Obama announced a new initiative, the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, or AMP. Comprised of some of the country’s most innovative leaders such as Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, and the University of Michigan, the partnership will also include industrial leaders such as Dow Chemical, Johnson & Johnson and Honeywell.