The White House Blog

Weekly Wrap Up: Energy, Education, and America's Fiscal Future

Your quick look at the week that was on WhiteHouse.gov.

President Barack Obama holds a town hall meeting at ElectraTherm, Inc. in Reno, Nev., April 21, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

Town Hall x Three: This week, President Obama traveled the country to hold a series of town hall meetings. In Virginia, he stopped by Northern Virginia Community College to talk about the importance of education in a 21st century economy. Then it was on to California, and Facebook headquarters, where he answered questions about fiscal responsibility. On the way back to Washington, the President stopped in Reno, Nevada, to meet with workers who are manufacturing tomorrow's clean energy technologies today.

Celebrating Earth Day: To celebrate Earth Day, Nancy Sutley and Heather Zichal, two of the President's top energy and environment advisers, hosted a live chat on the South Lawn of the White House. Energy.gov launched a special Earth Day page, and the EPA shared stories and video of activities around the country.

Your West Wing Week: "My Old Number, Twenty Three"

Earth Day: The Progress We've Made

Each year when Earth Day rolls around, we’re given an opportunity to reflect on how far we’ve come in protecting the health and the environment of our communities. This Earth Day, EPA under President Obama's leadership is proud of all the progress we’ve made in just two years to protect the air we breathe, the water we drink and swim in, and the communities where we build our homes, schools and businesses.

In protecting our air, we’ve marked some historic “firsts”: setting the first joint fuel efficiency and emissions standards  with the Department of Transportation that will make American cars and trucks more fuel efficient than ever before, as well as establishing the first new standards for sulfur dioxide in forty years.     

And just last month, we set another first: the first national standards for mercury, arsenic and other air pollution from our nation’s power plants. These standards require power plants to use proven pollution control technology at their facilities, a change that will help prevent as many as 17,000 premature deaths and 11,000 heart attacks a year. For our young people, the new standards will help prevent 120,000 incidents of asthma symptoms and about 11,000 fewer cases of acute bronchitis among children.

We’ve also taken major steps to revitalize America’s waters. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is setting a new standard of care for the source of 95 percent of America’s surface freshwater. On the Chesapeake Bay, historic efforts are underway to protect waters that touch the lives and livelihoods of 17 million people. And one year after the Deepwater Horizon BP spill that hit the Gulf Coast and my home state of Louisiana so hard, the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, which the president asked me to chair, is developing a plan – not just to continue the important recovery from the largest oil spill in U.S. history, but to take on issues that have plagued the region for years. All that is happening at the same time we are collaborating with local communities to revitalize urban waterways, working with schools and small businesses to lead the world in the next generation of clean water technology, and helping communities put in place green infrastructure and other cost-effective tools that work with mother nature to filter and reduce pollution.

As we protect the water that flows through our communities, we’re also protecting the ground these communities are built on. We’ve been cleaning up communities through swift implementation of the president’s Recovery Act, which funded Brownfields and Superfund cleanups across the nation. To make certain every community – including low-income and minority communities that often face disproportionate environmental challenges – have a seat at the table, we’ve stepped up to expand the conversation on environmentalism.  We've revitalized our Environmental Justice office at EPA, issued agency-wide guidance on incorporating environmental justice into our decision making and, with my good friend Nancy Sutley, Chair of the president’s Council for Environmental Quality, reconvened the leadership of the Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice for the first time in over a decade.

Our outreach has not stopped there. We've spoken to farmers, clean energy innovators, clergy, teachers, students and environmental entrepreneurs. I've also been able to keep in touch with the next generation of leaders by achieving yet another "first": the first EPA Administrator with a Facebook page and a Twitter feed. Today there are voices calling for protecting our health and our environment that were not part of this discussion two years ago. They know that this EPA serves them. They know that their concerns are our concerns. And they know that we’re going to make sure all Americans get the protections and opportunities they need and deserve.
 
These are just a few examples of our efforts over the last two years. We’ve come a long way, but still have a long way to go to strengthen protections for American families, foster more innovation and safeguard the environment we will leave to our children and grandchildren.

Lisa P. Jackson is the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency

What I Heard About Energy Policy through Advise the Advisor

A word cloud of feedback from the Advise the Advisor program gives greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in your feedback (by Wordle.net)

Earlier this month, I asked the public for feedback on energy policy as part of the White House’s “Advise the Advisor” program.  Specifically, we asked for your comments and ideas about President Obama’s goal of reducing the amount of oil we import by a third in a little over a decade, along with the need to both increase our domestic energy production and reduce energy waste.

Thousands of you offered suggestions on how we can be more efficient and rely more on America’s clean energy resources.  Here is a summary what we heard from you:

West Wing Week: "My Old Number, Twenty Three"

Welcome to the West Wing Week, your guide to everything that's happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This week, President Obama held townhalls in Northern Virginia, California, and Nevada, to speak directly to the American people about his vision for reducing our debt and bringing down our deficit based on the values of shared responsibility and shared prosperity.

Champions of Change: Winning the Race to Educate Our Kids

Last week, as part of the Champions of Change series, highlighting people making a difference, parents who are impacting their communities through their involvement in education came to a roundtable at the White House. During the roundtable they shared their experiences and ideas on strengthening our schools.

Some of the participants were also delegates to Parenting Magazine’s Mom Congress's Education and Learning conference earlier that week. Catherine McManus from Parenting Magazine shares her experience:

After spending four days with some of the most passionate voices for improving our nation’s schools at Parenting Magazine’s Mom Congress on Education and Learning conference, it seemed a fitting conclusion to our time together in Washington, D.C. to culminate the experience with a roundtable discussion at The White House among the true “Champions of Change” fighting for better educational opportunities for our nation’s children: their parents.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in his confirmation hearings that education is the “civil rights issue of our generation.”  Parenting has had the honor of gathering outstanding mom education advocates from all over the country to exchange ideas with Secretary Duncan on how to most effectively work towards his goals for improving our country’s school system at the Mom Congress conference, and this year’s event left attendees inspired by his words: “Children don’t vote. They don’t have lobbyists. They don’t have unions. You’ve got to be that voice.”

Each of those all-important voices at the White House roundtable – whether from one of our amazing Mom Congress delegates or a local PTA leader working towards improving DC-area schools – proved that the most powerful movement in education reform can start with one mom raising her hand and speaking up about what’s best for her child. 

Learn more about the parents that lent their expertise to the Champions of Change roundtable on education and listen to their tips on how you can get involved in winning the race to educate our kids. If you know someone who is doing extraordinary things to make a difference in your community, nominate them to be a Champion of Change.

Flex Fuel Pumps and a Green Energy Economy

As gasoline prices continue to rise across the country, USDA is working with farmers and entrepreneurs to secure our nation’s long-term energy future and give Americans more choices about where to spend their gas dollars: at home or abroad.

For the past two years, USDA has worked to support the research, investment, and infrastructure necessary to build a nationwide biofuels industry that creates jobs in every corner of the country. 

USDA has a long history of helping Americans with their energy choices. Our Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) has helped thousands of rural businesses and farmers improve the efficiency of their equipment or produce their own renewable energy by installing solar panels or wind turbines. 

Now we are helping people understand that this popular program can also help gas stations install special pumps to provide biofuels to motorists across the county. 

The Department of Education: Our Commitment to Supporting Military Families



Our country’s safety and prosperity relies on the everyday commitment and sacrifice of our nation’s military members and their families. That’s why the U.S. Department of Education is proud to join agencies across the government in participating in First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden’s Joining Forces initiative, which seeks to mobilize all sectors of society to better support service members and their families.
 


Military families face unique challenges. They and their children often deal with high rates of student mobility, as well as emotional and personal stress caused by deployments and other military assignments. Our Department has taken steps to better meet these needs by providing important guidance to states and districts and by working to better direct the flow of federal resources.
 


Department of Education Arne Duncan visits with military families at a Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, August 31, 2010. Secretary Duncan talked with military families about the difficulties they face in providing their children with a consistently top-notch education as they move around our country and the world in our nation’s service. (Ed.gov)

To provide military members ample time with their families before, during and after deployment, some school districts have developed policies and practices for excused absences while maintaining high educational standards. We want to encourage schools to be flexible in balancing educational needs with family responsibilities, which is why we’ve provided guidance to all school district superintendents and chief state school officers on effective practices related to military-connected children and public school attendance policies. 



Your Turn to Weigh In on the 2011 Commencement Challenge

Do you remember your high school commencement speaker?  Neither do I.

This year, one lucky high school will have an unforgettable commencement speaker – President Obama – and we need your help to determine which school it will be.

As part of the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge, public high schools around the country submitted an application earlier this year that describe how their school is preparing students for college and a career. We’ve narrowed down the schools to six finalists and now it’s your turn to weigh in.  Each school produced a short video with help from the Get Schooled Foundation and essay. You can review and rate each school on a scale of 1-5 (5 being the highest) between today and Friday April 29 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. Your ratings will help us narrow down the pool to three finalists and President Obama will select the winning school from one of these three. 

Check out this video of President Obama asking for your feedback on the Commencement Challenge finalists, and then head over to WhiteHouse.gov/Commencement to rate each finalist. 

The Commencement Challenge gives public high schools a chance to demonstrate how their school best prepares students for college and a career, helping America win the future by out-educating our competitors and achieving President Obama’s goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.

Each of the six finalists schools are an excellent example of the best America’s public schools have to offer.  Take a moment to watch their videos, read their essays and rate each school.

Will.i.am is Joining Forces, Will.u?

Will.i.am is Joining Forces to support America's military families. Joining Forces is a national initiative to mobilize all sectors of society to give our service members and their families the opportunities and support they have earned. First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden are asking all Americans to get involved in any way they can.

"No act is too small" Will.i.am said in a video message. Watch the video and join Mrs. Obama, Dr. Biden and Will.i.am to recognize, honor, and support our military families. Visit JoiningForces.gov and learn how you can involved.

Stay connected with Joining Forces on facebook and Twitter, or sign up for email updates.