White House counts on GHG revenue by 2012

Perusing Yosi Sergeant's facebook page, I learned that the White House Office of the Public Liaison invited 30 members of the "Summit Series" to visit the White House on March 11. The group is self-described as "a community of the world's top young entrepreneurs, innovators and influencers." Its members are under 40 and include:

• Jake Nickell from Threadless
• Evan Williams with Twitter
• Mark Ecko from Ecko
• Michael Chasen from Blackboard
• Chris Sacca from Lowercase Capital
• Tony Hsieh from Zappos
• Aaron Patzer from Mint.com
• Ben Kauffman from Kluster
• Josh Abramson from College Humor

That's to give you a flavor of the place these people occupy in influencing culture. They were asked to listen to the President's agenda and figure out ways to promote it in in their work. The issues, according to attendee Ryan Allis' facebook page:

• job creation
• the economy
• energy
• health care
• transparency
• new media
• building relationships

Climate change was specifically mentioned in a presentation from Heather Zichal, White House Office of Energy and Climate Change. The following points were made, again according to Allis:

• In response to question on solar power and home owners selling energy back to grid: We will think about homeowners selling electricity back to the grid.
• We are focused on energy and climate change.
• Administration making a commitment to CAFE standards and reducing dependency on foreign oil
• Cap and trade revenues to start in 2012 according to budget

I am very heartened to see that the White House is aware of the need for distributed energy production that pays producers and decentralizes risk. Of course we are already aware of EPA's plans with CAFE standards, so this is nothing new. And yes, you saw the last bullet. The White House is expecting Cap and Trade legislation to pass, and for revenues to begin in 2012. Considering the gap in the public consciousness on this issue, it is no surprise that the White House is enlisting the help of successful young entrepreneurs to spread the message.

The attendees were asked to:

1. Act as a filter/community ambassador for the best ideas/suggestions/thoughts on what we can do on the economy, budget, energy, healthcare, education, and new media. Get feedback from your community and send the best to us from time-to-time in summarized, bulleted form.
2. Send any examples/anecdotes/stories that we hear of due to investments from the Stimulus making a positive impact in your community.
3. Send any ideas/suggestions/thoughts on how to make government more transparent and open.

This is a very smart administration.