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COPENHAGEN, Denmark (CNN) – The United States announced a new initiative Monday to support clean energy technologies in developing nations, funded by $350 million from industrialized countries.

In the announcement at the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu committed $85 million of the total funding over five years, and also announced an international meeting next year in Washington billed as the "first-ever Clean Energy Ministerial."

According to a news release from the Energy Department, the new Renewables and Efficiency Deployment Initiative, referred to as Climate REDI, "will accelerate deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies in developing countries - reducing greenhouse gas emissions, fighting energy poverty and improving public health for the most vulnerable, particularly women and children."

Palin is calling on President Obama to boycott the Copenhagen climate change conference next week.

(CNN) –Sarah Palin has taken to the Washington Post op-ed page to urge President Barack Obama to cancel his scheduled appearance at the Copenhagen climate change conference next week.

Referencing private e-mails from climate change scientists at a research facility in Britain that were hacked and published on the Internet late last month, Palin said now is not the time for the President to show his support for the "radical environmental movement."

"Instead of staying home from Copenhagen and sending a message that the United States will not be a party to fraudulent scientific practices, the president has upped the ante, Palin writes. "He plans to fly in at the climax of the conference in hopes of sealing a 'deal.' Whatever deal he gets, it will be no deal for the American people."

Palin added Obama's underlying political objective is to increase pressure on Congress to pass the Democrats "cap and trade" energy proposal that is expected to be debated early next year.

"This is a political move. The last thing America needs is misguided legislation that will raise taxes and cost jobs - particularly when the push for such legislation rests on agenda-driven science," writes Palin. "Without trustworthy science and with so much at stake, Americans should be wary about what comes out of this politicized conference. The president should boycott Copenhagen."

At the vice presidential debate last year, Palin said she was for capping carbon emissions but did not elaborate on how she would do that.

Related: Copenhagen gears up for historic deal

A White House spokesman said Monday that the president hopes to secure a deal at the Copenhagen climate talks.

Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama rescheduled his trip to climate-change talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, so that he can help push for a possible deal closer to the end of the meeting, his spokesman said Monday.

White House Secretary Robert Gibbs told journalists that recent signals of new commitments by China and India created possible momentum toward an agreement at the U.N.-led climate change talks that started Monday and are scheduled to conclude on December 18.

Obama initially planned to visit the Copenhagen talks on Wednesday, the day before he receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. Instead, the president will go to Copenhagen on December 18, at the end of the talks.

"I think everybody agrees that we are in a better position - I mean, we, globally - to get some sort of agreement out of Copenhagen," Gibbs said. "And the president believed, having helped to work both in enunciating our commitments as well as ensuring that the Indians and the Chinese talked about their commitments, that we could move that (Obama's trip) to the end of the conference, when some agreement is likely to need some help from world leaders."
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Before heading overseas for the Copenhagen climate talks, EPA chief Lisa Jackson will make an announcement about greenhouse gases.

Washington (CNN) - The Environmental Protection Agency will announce Monday that greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and welfare, two senior administration officials told CNN.

The anticipated announcement by EPA administrator Lisa Jackson stems from a Supreme Court ruling which ordered the agency to determine the impact of carbon emissions not only on the environment, but on public health.

Immediately after the announcement, Jackson will head to Copenhagen, Denmark, to participate in the Copenhagen Climate Conference ahead of President Barack Obama's appearance on Friday.

Her statement could provide proof to the conference that the agency and the Obama administration are taking global warming seriously. However, White House aides caution the finding does not mean the EPA will immediately begin regulating industries that pollute the air.
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Related: Why the Copenhagen climate talks matter

TOPICS: Most important problem

Full results (pdf)

A climate change billl co-authored by Sens. Boxer and Kerry was approved by a Senate committee Thursday despite a Republican boycott of the committee's hearings.

Washington (CNN) - A Senate committee Thursday approved a major climate change bill despite a boycott by all of the panel's seven Republican members.

Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted 11-1 to send the measure to the full chamber. Because of the Republican boycott of the committee hearing that began Tuesday, the panel was unable to amend the bill.

Committee rules require at least two minority party members to be present to conduct regular business, including amending bills before it. However, an exception allowed the committee to vote on the overall bill as long as a majority of its members were present.

The committee's Republicans were demanding a full Environmental Protection Agency analysis of the bill's economic impact before committee debate. Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the panel's ranking Republican and an outspoken opponent of the climate change legislation, warned that Democrats would imperil future work by the committee if they passed the bill on their
own.
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Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, chaired by Sen. Boxer, are boycotting hearings on a climate change bill.

Washington (CNN) - A Republican boycott of Senate committee debate on a major climate change bill continued for a second day Wednesday, frustrating majority Democrats who have threatened to move ahead despite the lack of a GOP presence.

Only one of the seven Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee showed up Wednesday when the panel started its meeting on the bill authored by Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and John Kerry of Massachusetts.

Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the panel's ranking Republican and an outspoken opponent of climate change legislation, left the meeting after delivering a brief statement. Republicans also stayed away from Tuesday's opening session after one GOP senator - George Voinovich of Ohio - made an opening statement.

Committee rules require at least two minority party members to be present to reach a working quorum. However, an exception could allow the committee to proceed on the bill without any Republicans, according to committee staff members.

Boxer, who chairs the committee, said Tuesday she hoped the Republicans would join the debate, but that the panel eventually would act on the bill without them as permitted under Senate rules.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) - Democratic Rep. Edward Markey, chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, grilled witnesses Thursday on what he called "fraudulent letters" sent to Congress on energy and climate legislation before a crucial House vote on the issue.

The select committee said on it's Web site that its members and staff discovered more than a dozen fraudulent letters sent to members of Congress by the consulting company Bonner & Associates, on behalf of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), that claimed electricity rates would rise under a House bill. On its Web site, ACCCE describes itself as a partnership of industries involved in producing electricity from coal.

According to the select committee's Web site, the legislation would have "minimal costs" to consumers. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "found the overall impact on the average household would be 22 to 30 cents per day ($80 to $111 per year) - or less than the cost of a postage stamp a day," the committee Web site says.

The legislation in question, co-sponsored by Markey, ultimately passed the House on June 26 - but in a close vote of 219 to 212. The legislation, which says it aims to "create clean energy jobs, achieve energy independence, reduce global warming pollution and transition to a clean energy economy," is now before the U.S. Senate.

At the hearing, Markey and Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Washington, focused their criticism on Steve Miller, president and CEO of ACCCE, and Bonner & Associates.
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CNN=Politics Daily is The Best Political Podcast from The Best Political Team.

WASHINGTON(CNN)– In the latest installment of CNN=Politics Daily: President Obama is returning to the trail for a late-campaign appearance in a state he won last fall to support a fellow Democrat, Creigh Deeds - but is it too late to change the shape of the race? And what will it mean if the president's party loses the governor's mansion? CNN National Political Correspondent Jessica Yellin has the story from Norfolk, Virginia.

Plus: In Florida today, President Obama is leading a new political push for cleaner energy. CNN White House Correspondent Dan Lothian has the facts on a $3.4 billion effort to modernize the nation's power grid.

Finally: A former Marine frustrated with recent Afghanistan strategy quits his State Department post. CNN's Brian Todd talks with Matthew Hoh about the deadliest month in eight years of fighting.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) - Top Democrats put the issue of climate change back in the spotlight Tuesday, debating legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions while announcing $3.4 billion in new clean energy funds.

A key congressional committee began hearings on a "cap-and-trade" bill requiring emissions to be cut by more than 80 percent over the next four decades.

Questions relating to global warming have been among the most politically contentious in recent years. Democrats are generally more receptive to proposals designed to curb energy consumption in order to slow climate change; leading Republicans continue to express concern about the necessity and economic impact of such measures.

President Barack Obama has made the push for greater investment in a clean energy agenda one of his top domestic priorities.

Attempting to move that agenda forward, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee kicked off hearings on the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. Supporters say the bill would reduce nationwide greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 through a cap-and-trade program under which companies would buy and sell emissions credits.

Full story

Obama unveils $3.4 billion in 'smart grid' energy awards.

ARCADIA, Florida (CNN) - President Barack Obama announced $3.4 billion in Smart Grid Investment Grant awards Tuesday, part of the administration's ongoing push for clean energy reform.

"We are building a smarter, stronger and more secure electric grid," Obama said at a Florida solar energy center. "Together, we can begin to see what a clean energy future will look like."

The awards, which are being funded through the $787 billion stimulus act, will fund "a broad range of technologies that will spur the nation's transition to a smarter, stronger, more efficient and reliable electric system," according to a White House statement.

Among other things, the awards will help support the installation of "smart meters" designed to help consumers monitor and control their energy consumption.

The awards, which will go to 100 private companies, utilities and cities, will be divided into grants ranging from $400,000 to $200 million.

The awards will be matched by another $4.7 billion in private sector funds.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Six in 10 Americans support a "cap and trade" proposal to cut pollution, according to a new national poll.

Sixty percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey say they favor "cap and trade," a Democratic sponsored plan in which the federal government would limit the amount of greenhouse gases that companies could produce in their factories or power plants. Thirty-seven percent oppose the proposal, which would penalize companies that exceed greenhouse gas limits with fines or by making those businesses pay money to other companies that producer smaller amounts of pollution.

Full results (pdf)

The poll's release Tuesday morning comes as the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works holds a hearing on new "cap and trade" legislation. The bill, sponsored by committee chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-California and Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts), includes provisions to hold down costs to consumers and certain industries. Republicans say the bill would destroy jobs and increase taxes and energy costs for average Americans. The House of Representatives passed a "cap and trade" bill this summer along a party-line vote.
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Sen. Lindsey Graham is being attacked by a $250,000 ad campaign.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – An interest group supported by energy companies is attacking Sen. Lindsey Graham in his own backyard over his willingness to support cap-and-trade legislation.

The Republican has been collaborating with moderate senators to put together bipartisan energy legislation that would link a cap-and-trade program to expanded nuclear energy production and offshore oil and gas drilling. But many in Graham's party view a cap-and-trade program as a tax on energy companies that would be passed along to consumers.

Now the American Energy Alliance, a group funded in part by oil and gas companies that back offshore drilling, is launching a week of radio ads in South Carolina accusing Graham of supporting policies that will weaken the state's already suffering economy.

"So why would Senator Lindsey Graham support new energy taxes called cap-and-trade that will further harm our economy and kill millions of American jobs?" a narrator asks in the radio spot, which went up Thursday. "If that wasn't bad enough, Senator Graham's new energy taxes will have all of us paying more at the pump for a gallon of gas while seeing a 53 percent jump in electricity bills. Who can afford that in this economy?"

The quarter million dollar campaign against Graham will also include television and online ads in the coming weeks.

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Sen. Kerry is defending the president's cap-and-trade energy plan against criticism by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Call it Kerry vs. Palin, Round 2.

Massachusetts Democrat Sen. John Kerry, a longtime Obama ally, and Alaska's Republican Gov. Sarah Palin are sparring again, this time over climate change and energy policy.

Kerry has taken to liberal Web site The Huffington Post to respond to an op-ed by Palin published Tuesday in the Washington Post.

In her op-ed, Palin slams President Obama's cap-and-trade energy plan, saying she believes the plan is "an enormous threat to our economy."

In his response, Kerry takes a dig at Palin in an apparent reference to Tina Fey's "I can see Russia from my house" take-off on Palin.

"The global climate change crisis threatens our economy and our national security in profound ways," writes Kerry.

"Governor Palin need no look further than the view from her front porch in Alaska to see how destructive this crisis can be," says Kerry, pointing to a two-year-old New York Times report about a small Alaskan village facing destruction because of melting permafrost.
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Sen. Kerry is defending the president's cap-and-trade energy plan against criticism by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Call it Kerry vs. Palin, Round 2.

Massachusetts Democrat Sen. John Kerry, a longtime Obama ally, and Alaska's Republican Gov. Sarah Palin are sparring again, this time over climate change and energy policy.

Kerry has taken to liberal Web site The Huffington Post to respond to an op-ed by Palin published Tuesday in the Washington Post.

In her op-ed, Palin slams President Obama's cap-and-trade energy plan, saying she believes the plan is "an enormous threat to our economy."

In his response, Kerry takes a dig at Palin in an apparent reference to Tina Fey's "I can see Russia from my house" take-off on Palin.

"The global climate change crisis threatens our economy and our national security in profound ways," writes Kerry.

"Governor Palin need no look further than the view from her front porch in Alaska to see how destructive this crisis can be," says Kerry, pointing to a two-year-old New York Times report about a small Alaskan village facing destruction because of melting permafrost.
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"We can remain the world's leading importer of oil, or we can become the world's leading exporter of clean energy," Obama said at a brief White House appearance with Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

His announcement came after Friday's approval by the House of a sweeping climate change bill that Obama hailed as landmark legislation to strengthen the economy and battle global warming.