President Obama has said he wants to “make government cool again.” So, the federal government’s HR directors are studying a plan to boost the starting pay of college grads by $8,000 a year—to $41,210. The Office of Personnel Management proposal needs approval from the federal agencies. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) proposes to change the grade level for individuals who hold a bachelor’s degree from GS-5 grade (or equivalent) level to GS-7 grade (or equivalent) level.

The Obama administration announced $350 million in stimulus funds to help expand geothermal resources and break down technological barriers. This is a huge jump in funding, dwarfing all previous government commitments and is more than all the funding for geothermal energy put together over the last 20 years. It also represents a dramatic reversal of previous trends of diminishing funding for this often overlooked renewable energy sector.

Dr. Gabriel Alvarez from King Juan Carlos University authored a May 2009 study entitled “Study of the effects on employment of public aid to renewable energy sources” (KJCU Study). Dr. Alvarez has tried repeatedly to correlate the Spanish investment and experience with Renewable Energy technologies (RETs) with that of the U.S. However, even cursory analyses of the Spanish public policies that have been employed over the past decade reveal significant and dramatic differences from the current and proposed domestic (U.S.) approach to RET deployment, and thereby obviate any implied correlation between the negative conclusions of the KJCU Study and the impact of the domestic RET investment. Additionally, included within the KJCU Study are several assumptions with respect to the economics of the U.S. investment inRETs that are fundamentally incorrect.

The White House announced that the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science will invest $777 million in Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) over the next five years. In a national effort to accelerate scientific advances in critical areas of the new energy economy the United States Department of Energy (DOE) will establish 46 new multi-million dollar Energy Frontier Research Centers (or EFRCs) across the nation.

Offshore Wind Gets Major Boost with announcement by President Obama that the Department of the Interior has finalized a long-awaited framework for renewable energy production on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Wind energy continues rapid growth according to new report from the American Wind Energy Association. The US has surpassed 25 gigawatts (GW) of installed wind energy capacity in 2008. Construction of a new wind farm has begun in Texas. Seatle firm proposes floating offshore wind farms.