President-elect Obama’s first news conference proposed a way forward from today’s millennial mess in economy, energy and environment. That day, the Transition Team’s website shows the following clear and ambitious policy goals:
· Provide short-term relief to American families facing pain at the pump;
· Help create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future;
· Within 10 years save more oil than we currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela combined;
· Put 1 million Plug-In Hybrid cars -- cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon -- on the road by 2015, cars that we will work to make sure are built here in America;
· Ensure 10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025;
· Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.

Seen in the context of Al Gore’s call to get off carbon completely in ten years, Obama’s vision is reasonable, measured and grounded in specific policy proposals. Still, people will ask: can he do it?

It’s exactly the wrong question. For the U.S. has just elected a community organizer as President. The game is not just federal legislation – though that will be welcome – but a fast-moving, collaborative strategy. Those who understand this may be part of the early waves of opportunity.

Fuel-efficiency standards, encouraging hybrids, are the province of Congress. The plug-in infrastructure could come from Department of Energy programs like Clean Cities; from interstate compacts; or from private industry, as they are in Iceland and Israel. Strategic energy investment could come through the Departments of Energy and Commerce, and through carbon cap-and-trade.

State public service commissions and utilities will have a role in responding to the cleaner energy standards. Here in New York, an energy-planning effort is underway including specific goals and strategies for energy-efficiency, put together by NYSERDA in an important partnership with the Department of Labor and including work force development efforts.

But the top-down strategies laid out above are just the beginning. The (sustainably harvested) rubber meets the road for green technology markets in every local building code, every county’s business services system, every transportation plan, and the vision of every elected official in New York as they all figure out how to get a piece of this new New Deal.

Like any industry, green industry needs a place to land and grow, a work force, a welcome wagon. One obvious magnet will be the local governments that are already cutting their carbon emissions, adopting green building guidelines and energy policies, buying renewables, and telling their stories. Not just environmental but economic leadership can be seen in the wind-powered town of Fishkill, Chatham’s serious exploration of solar for Main Street, Bedford’s commitment to cut energy use 20% by 2020, and the sophisticated energy policy work underway in Dutchess and Ulster Counties. Behavior that seemed virtuous but politically risky in October, is suddenly a comparative economic advantage in attracting green enterprises.

The green economy also needs to honor its local suppliers and producers, the manufacturers including Prism Solar and Atlantis, the distributors and installers and architects and the rest. As Brian Wiley, inventor and CEO of Wiley Electronics in Saugerties points out, “It’s not much good to overcome dependence on foreign oil, and end up with dependence on foreign solar.” Local sourcing is a major element of green business practice. This means we need to be coordinated in our efforts to build up companies, markets and supply chains as coherently as possible.

As swift changes at the federal level open up new possibilities, communities that want to keep pace will need more than vision. They will need decisiveness in taking action.

Melissa Everett, Ph.D., is Executive Director of Sustainable Hudson Valley (www.sustainhv.org), which was just chosen as lead agency for implementation of Ulster County’s green technology economic strategy.