Nicole Lederer, Bill Boyk, Brenden Millstein, and Bill Lemon.

Every year, it seems that Washington DC sets a new bar for financial and political discord.  At the beginning of 2013, a spending sequester - intended only as an ultimatum to force the two parties in Congress to work together - was allowed to take effect on March 1st.  As sequestration kicked in, budget negotiations for the next year began – so far delivering more drama than action to solve the nation's financial challenges.

Against this backdrop on Capitol Hill, our E2 DC delegation arrived on April 15 to demonstrate strong business support for energy and environmental policies that create sustainable prosperity.  We advanced an agenda that will improve the nation's economic standing, create jobs, increase exports, improve national security and create new opportunities for rural communities across the country – all while reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and...read more >

E2 Co-Founder Nicole Lederer

(This OpEd was orginally published in the Huffington Post.)

I've been helping business leaders voice their support for clean energy policies in Washington, D.C, for more than a decade. Leading advocacy trips to the nation's capital allows me to work closely with some of the brightest, most successful clean energy entrepreneurs in the United States, and to hear what's happening in the clean energy economy in their home districts.

One thing I've noticed over the years: The changing face of the clean energy industry. Increasingly, clean energy business leaders come from rural areas. They are farmers. They are community wind developers. They are retired military leaders. And last week in Washington, all of these constituencies and more were represented when the nonprofit, nonpartisan business group I founded, Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), fanned out on Capitol Hill.

In addition to advocating for clean energy...read more >

E2 Member Liz Muller

Liz Muller advises organizations on development and execution of sustainability strategies, programs, and systems. Liz excels at creating scalable systems that build off existing processes and systems, linking market demand with responsible producers through complex commodity supply chains in an effective and credible manner. She specializes in the development of corporate programs, global agriculture initiatives, and supply chains systems that empower various stakeholders—from producers and processors to retailers and consumers—to make lasting change. She has experience with food, fuel, and fiber crops as well as conflict minerals. Conflict minerals are minerals (namely gold, tantalum, tin and tungsten) that directly or indirectly finance or benefit armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) or an adjoining country

As Gap Inc.'s senior manager for nine years, Liz developed and directed Gap Inc.'s environmental strategy and program. Just a few of her accomplishments during...read more >

Clean Energy in North Carolina

For the past five years, renewable energy standards in North Carolina have been creating jobs and helping grow the state's economy. As E2's quarterly jobs reports have shown, more than 10,800 clean energy and clean transportation jobs were announced in North Carolina in 2012, making the state No. 2 in the country for such job announcements.

But earlier this spring, a bill designed to kill these job-creating standards was introduced into the N.C. General Assembly. The bill mirrored legislation that groups such as Americans for Prosperity; the John Locke Foundation; and the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, are pushing in states all across the country. Since North Carolina is the only state in the Southeast with a renewable portfolio standard – utilities there must get 12.5 percent of their power from renewables by 2021 – what happens in North Carolina...read more >

2013 Good Jobs Green Jobs Conference

Many people like to talk about the "green jobs" stemming from renewable energy, but what exactly are these? On April 17 E2 hosted a workshop at the Good Jobs Green Jobs conference in Washington DC in conjunction with our federal advocacy trip. The conference is a national gathering of the labor community and environmental advocates exploring opportunities for partnership. E2's workshop focused on the labor opportunities provided by advanced biofuels.

Our panelists covered the value chain for biofuels and key support from government agencies. Sarah Bittleman of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (recently from USDA) explained that biofuels are an administrative priority for their potential to provide rural economic opportunities by doing more with less, and can be produced concurrent with increased food crop yields.

Farmer David Kolsrud uses the corn stover from his farm for ethanol production in Minnesota. He brought...read more >

To read the latest press releases from NRDC, click here.

Please note: We are adjusting our editorial calendar. The E2 newsletter will now be published at the beginning, rather than at the end, of every month.