Trump's State of Disunion (2020 Edition)

Trump's 2020 State of the Union address reaffirmed his ongoing penchant for dishonesty, his utter lack of civility and his conspicuous avoidance of climate change. Trump began by refusing to shake the hand of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and he went on to deliver the most divisive State of the Union speech in the modern memory.

Trump bragged about the fact that the US is the world's largest producer of fossil fuels. He did not acknowledge the mounting evidence that suggest fossil fuels are on their way out, and not once did he mention renewable energy. As is often the case with this president, he tried to take credit that is not his to take. "The United States has become the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world, by far. With the tremendous progress we have made over the past three years." The truth is this happened in 2012, four years before he was president. Trump boasted about energy jobs but what he failed to say is that there are now more renewable energy jobs than there are jobs in the fossil fuel industry.

While he ignored climate change, he did say he wants the US to plant more trees. "To protect the environment, days ago, I announced that the United States will join the One Trillion Trees Initiative, an ambitious effort to bring together government and the private sector to plant new trees in America and around the world," Trump said, referencing a commitment he made at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. This is rich considering Trump has engaged in what can only be described as a fossil fuel powered war against nature.

Planting trees will not come close to offsetting the ever increasing greenhouse gas emissions under this administration. The Hill quoted David Archer, a geophysical sciences professor at the University of Chicago as saying: "[F]ossil fuel carbon is so much bigger than all the carbon in the trees," he added. "You can’t do carbon neutral by planting trees...it’s sort of a Band Aid." Greenpeace has described the effort as a "poorly disguised get-out-of-jail-free card for the oil industry."

According to CNN fact checkers Trump also lied about jobs, immigration, the border wall, protecting preexisting conditions, drug overdose deaths, court appointments, prescription drug prices and trade. However, not everything Trump said was a lie. He did tell the truth when he said the reason the US is enjoying economic "progress" is because his administration trashed regulations and gave free reign to the fossil fuel industry.

His oratory may not have been presidential, but it was consistent with his disdain for facts and his opposition to science. Even though global warming was singled out as the leading global risk at WEF, when Trump was in Davos he used his time in the spotlight to mock climate icon Greta Thunberg and call activists "prophets of doom".

After his speech, Trump looked around the room imperiously, while Pelosi tore her copy of the speech in half. When asked about the address by reporters the Speaker of the House referred to it as a "manifesto of mistruths".

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Trump's First 100 Days are a Climate and Environmental Nightmare

Trump's first 100 days have been a dismal failure. Trump failed to deliver on almost every single one of his promises leading many to conclude that the self-proclaimed deal-maker can't seem to close. True to his word he is making progress on one front, depriving Americans of clean air and clean water.

Trumps Muslim ban failed, his attempt to pass health-care legislation also failed. Congress will not finance his wall and nor will Mexico.  Rather than drain the swamp he has made the swamp bigger. The president has rewarded the wealthy on the backs of the poor and the middle class. His one-page reward-the-rich tax plan does not have a snowball's chance in hell of passing and if it were ever enacted by Congress it would trigger economic ruin.

Clearly, Trump does not have a clue about how to get things done in Washington.  Here is a general summary of Trump's first 100 days, by most accounts, the worst 100 days in modern US presidential history.



Trump's inauguration was a gloomy affair heralding the coming darkness. Even before Trump took the oath of office he cast a shadow over the proceedings at COP22.

Early in his term, some had the audacity to suggest that a Trump presidency would not be as bad as it seemed. They did not have the courage to face the truth about what a Trump administration would mean for the planet. However, their naive hopes were quickly dashed. Shortly after the inauguration, his administration purged all mention of climate change from the White House and State Department websites. However, they did leave one reference, a promise to eliminate Obama-era climate change policies.

Trump then picked Scott Pruitt to head the EPA and ex-Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson to be the secretary of state. These two men and other members of the administration oppose science-based climate action plans. Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, like so many others in the administration, opposes government funding for climate research.

This brings us to Trump's budget which was a declaration of war against environmental protections, climate action, and scientific research. Trump made it clear that he wants to decimate environmental protections and climate action in the US.

In their first month, the Trump administration resurrected dead or dying pipelines (the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline). Within the first two months, they began eliminating vehicle fuel efficiency standards and then they went to work gutting the EPA with proposed budget cuts of 31 percent.

Trump has broken almost every promise he made except for one, the promise to eliminate environmental regulations. 

On the one hand, Trump is the most ineffectual US president in history on the other he has wreaked unprecedented environmental damage in his first 100 days.  His Executive Orders have systematically rolled back all vestiges of environmental progress in the US. These are protections that began under Republican presidents. He has ended the era of progressive climate action that we saw under President Obama and he has turned the US into a global climate pariah.

When he was running to be president leading Republican insiders suggested he was not fit to be president. After one hundred days in office, it is safe to say that those who made this statement have been vindicated. Even Trump himself conceded that the job is far harder than he had imagined. One hundred days into his presidency Trump has joined the chorus of those who say he is is not up for the job. The point may become moot if he is impeached for collusion with the Russians.

More than any other president who preceded him, Trump is an unmitigated disaster. However, people are standing up and offering unprecedented opposition.

Even before he was president heads of state, climate scientists and business leaders have all urged him to act on climate change. Early in his term, there was the Women's March. This was followed by the March for Science on Earth Day where scientists and others called Trump out for his war on science. One week later there was the Peoples Climate Movement event that drew attention to his utterly irresponsible climate conduct. Just to make sure we get the point, on April 28th, the eve of the Peoples Climate Movement event, all vestiges of climate science were removed from the EPA website.

Trump's strategy is encountering resistance from some business leaders and the courts are challenging his authority.  People are feeling that it is both necessary and appropriate to protest against Trump and they are seeing that there is power in their resistance.

The situation is grim but we need to try to stay hopeful and keep resisting the incompetence of this administration.

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Republicans Trying to Kill the EPA Quickly

Trump drew first blood with an Executive Order that enfeebled some of the EPA's activities, now Republicans are going in for the kill. They recently proposed a bill that seeks to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Known as H.R.861, the bill has the following self-explanatory title: "To terminate the Environmental Protection Agency."

While this bill is unbelievably destructive for the American people it should come as no surprise when you consider Republican obstructionism for the last eight years and the man who is now President of the United States. Within his first two weeks in office, Trump signed an Executive Order that targeted the EPA.

The nomination of Scott Pruitt to lead the EPA sent a clear message that made his intentions clear. Pruitt has spent a good chunk of his adult life trying to dismantle the EPA from the outside. Now after having been confirmed in committee he gets to destroy the agency from the inside.

The proposed bill that would kill the EPA has moved on to committee. Don't wait to see if it moves forward from there. Call or email your congressman, write letters to your local newspapers, talk to your friends, don't let the EPA go down without a fight. Despite what Trump may say, the EPA is not a partisan body. Both Democrats and Republicans want and need clean air and water. Don't let Republicans deprive you of your basic human rights.

Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 to reach your senators or representative, you can also find the direct number to any member's office by consulting the Senate phone list or House phone list.

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Climate Focus at the April 14th Democratic Debate

Climate related issues were a major part of the Democratic Presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in Brooklyn, New York, on April 14, 2016. While the two candidates agree that climate change is an urgent issue, there are important distinctions between their respective policy positions.  Regardless of who wins the nomination, this debate establishes the Democratic party as the only choice for environmentally conscious voters.

Sanders is clearly the greener of the two, and he deserves credit for forcing Clinton to address these issues. However, intimating that his lofty climate agenda may be stymied by the legislature, Clinton pointed to his inability to actually pass climate focused legislation.

When Sanders was pressed on his intent to phase out nuclear power and the potential to have that energy shortfall replaced by greenhouse gas intensive alternatives, he said that "you certainly don't phase out nuclear tomorrow" and he pointed to his 10 million solar roofs program.

Here are excerpts related to climate, environment, clean energy, fossil fuels and COP21 from the debate.

Climate Change

CLINTON: Well, let me start by saying we need to talk about this issue and we should talk about it in terms of the extraordinary threats that climate change pose to our country and our world. And that's why for the last many years, both in the Senate and as secretary of State, it's been a big part of my commitment to see what could be done. SANDERS: Now, what I think is when we look at climate change now, we have got to realize that this is a global environmental crisis of unprecedented urgency...We have an enemy out there, and that enemy is going to cause drought and floods and extreme weather disturbances. There's going to be international conflict.

SANDERS: I am proud, Wolf, that I have introduced the most comprehensive climate change legislation...

CLINTON: Well, let's talk about the global environmental crisis. Starting in 2009 as your Secretary of State, I worked with President Obama to bring China and India to the table for the very first time, to get a commitment out of them that they would begin to address their own greenhouse gas emissions. I continued to work on that throughout the four years as Secretary of State...

CLINTON: ...because in order to deal with climate change, we have got to move as rapidly as we can.

SANDERS: All right, here is -- here is a real difference. This is a difference between understanding that we have a crisis of historical consequence here, and incrementalism and those little steps are not enough. Not right now. Not on climate change.

SANDERS: What I believe is that this country, if we stand together and not let the Trumps of the world divide us up...can lead the world in transforming our energy system and combating climate change...

Fossil Fuels

SANDERS: Now, the truth is, as secretary of state, Secretary Clinton actively supported fracking technology around the world. Second of all, right now, we have got to tell the fossil fuel industry that their short-term profits are not more important than the future of this planet.

CLINTON: ...well, I don't think I've changed my view on what we need to do to go from where we are, where the world is heavily dependent on coal and oil, but principally coal, to where we need to be, which is clean renewable energy, and one of the bridge fuels is natural gas. And so for both economic and environmental and strategic reasons, it was American policy to try to help countries get out from under the constant use of coal, building coal plants all the time, also to get out from under, especially if they were in Europe, the pressure from Russia, which has been incredibly intense. So we did say natural gas is a bridge. We want to cross that bridge as quickly as possible...

CLINTON: But there has never been any doubt that when I was a senator, I tried -- I joined with others to try to get rid of the subsidies for big oil. And I have proposed that again, because that's what I think needs to be done as we transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.

SANDERS: It is not their fault [fossil fuel industry workers] that fossil fuels are destroying our climate. But we have got to stand up and say right now, as we would if we were attacked by some military force, we have got to move urgency -- urgently and boldly.

SANDERS: We have got to lead the world in transforming our energy system, not tomorrow, but yesterday. And, what that means, Wolf, it means having the guts to take on the fossil fuel industry. Now, I am on board legislation that says, you know what, we ain't going to excavate for fossil fuel on public land. That's not Secretary Clinton's position.

Carbon Tax

SANDERS: Let us support a tax on carbon...:Something I don't believe Secretary Clinton supports.

SANDERS: And that means -- and I would ask you to respond. Are you in favor of a tax on carbon so that we can transit away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy at the level and speed we need to do?

SANDERS: ... When you were Secretary of State, you also worked hard to expand fracking to countries all over the world.

Campaign Funding from the Fossil Fuel Industry

CLINTON: So, we both have relatively small amounts of contributions from people who work for fossil fuel companies. Best we can tell from the reports that are done. But, that is not being supported by big oil, and I think it's important to distinguish that.

SANDERS: But, as I understand it, 43 lobbyists for the fossil fuel industry maxed out, gave the maximum amount of money to Secretary Clinton's campaign.

Clean Energy

CLINTON: we have got to make a very firm but decisive move in the direction of clean energy...That's why I've set big goals. I want to see us deploy a half a billion more solar panels by the end of my first term and enough clean energy to provide electricity to every home in America within 10 years.

CLINTON: President Obama moved forward on gas mileage, he moved forward on the clean power plant. He has moved forward on so many of the fronts that he could given the executive actions that he was able to take.

COP21

CLINTON: And, I was surprised and disappointed when Senator Sanders attacked the agreement [Paris Climate Agreement], said it was not enough, it didn't go far enough. You know, at some point putting together 195 countries, I know a little bit about that, was a major accomplishment...

SANDERS: The issue here -- of course the agreement [Paris Climate Agreement] is a step forward, but you know agreements and I know agreements, there's a lot of paper there. We've got to get beyond paper right now.

CLINTON: Well, I'm a little bewildered about how to respond when you have an agreement [Paris Climate Agreement] which gives you the framework to actually take the action that would have only come about because under the Obama administration in the face of implacable hostility from the Republicans in Congress...

CLINTON: ...I was very proud that President Obama and America led the way to the agreement that was finally reached in Paris with 195 nations committing to take steps to actually make a difference in climate change.

See the climate positions of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.

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Environmental Differences Between Hillary and Bernie in the Flint Presidential Debate

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders faced off in a presidential primary debate at the University of Michigan in Flint, on March 6, 2016. During this substantive debate some salient differences emerged between the two remaining Democratic presidential contenders.

These differences included Sander's relatively stronger emphasis on combating climate change, and opposition to both fracking and campaign finance from the fossil fuel industry.

Both candidates pledged that they would reverse the Citizens United ruling (the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling allows powerful interests like the fossil fuel industry to disproportionately influence government. It also undermines climate legislation andfails to protect the planet from corporate influence).

Fracking

COOPER: The issue of climate change has been a major talking point for both of you. I wanted to bring in Sarah Bellaire, she’s a student at the University of Michigan at Dearborn who says she’s currently undecided.

Ms. Bellaire has a question on fracking, which, for viewers, is a process of oil and gas drilling that’s led to a significant increase in American energy production and jobs, but also raises serious environmental concerns.

Sarah, your question is for Secretary Clinton, but you’ll both be able to weigh in. Sarah?

QUESTION: Fracking can lead to environmental pollution including, but not limited to, the contamination of water supply. Do you support fracking?

COOPER: Secretary Clinton?

CLINTON: You know, I don’t support it when any locality or any state is against it, number one. I don’t support it when the release of methane or contamination of water is present. I don’t support it — number three — unless we can require that anybody who fracks has to tell us exactly what chemicals they are using.

So by the time we get through all of my conditions, I do not think there will be many places in America where fracking will continue to take place. And I think that’s the best approach, because right now, there places where fracking is going on that are not sufficiently regulated. So first, we’ve got to regulate everything that is currently underway, and we have to have a system in place that prevents further fracking unless conditions like the ones that I just mentioned are met.

COOPER: Senator Sanders, you?

SANDERS: My answer — my answer is a lot shorter. No, I do not support fracking.

COOPER: Senator Sanders, though…to Secretary Clinton’s point, there are a number of Democratic governors in many states who say that fracking can be done safely, and that it’s helping their economies. Are they wrong?

SANDERS: Yes.

Climate Change

SANDERS: I’m glad you raised the issue of climate change, because the media doesn’t talk enough about what the scientists are telling us, and that is, if we don’t get our act together… the planet that we’re gonna leave our children may not be healthy and habitable. I have introduced the most comprehensive climate change legislation in the history of the Senate, which, among other things, calls for a tax on carbon, massive investments… in energy efficiency, wind, solar and other sustainable energy. This is a crisis we have got to deal with now.

I happen to be a member of the Environmental Committee. I have talked to scientists all over the world. And what they are telling me — if we don’t get our act together, this planet could be 5 to 10 degrees warmer by the end of this century — cataclysmic problems for this planet. This is a national crisis. And I talk to scientists who tell me that fracking is doing terrible things to water systems all over this country. We have gotta be bold now. We gotta transform our energy system to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. We’ve gotta do it yesterday.

CLINTON: Well, first, let me say I think I have the most comprehensive plan to combat climate change. It sets some very big goals, a half billion more solar panels deployed by the end of my first term, if I’m so fortunate to be president. And enough clean energy to power every home by the end of my second term.

What I am looking at is how we make the transition from where we are today to where are today to where we must be. I worked with President Obama during the four years I was secretary of state to begin to put pressure on China and India and other countries to join with us to have a global agreement which we finally got in Paris.

So I am committed to and focused on how we make that transition. I’ve already said we are taking away the subsidies for oil and gas, but it is important that people understand that a president can’t go ordering folks around. Our system doesn’t permit that. I am going to set the goals. I will push everybody as hard as I can to achieve those goals. We will make progress on clean renewable energy and create millions of jobs through that.

CLINTON: We need to do more to help create clean energy as a source of good jobs

Campaign Finance from the Fossil Fuel Industry

COOPER: Secretary Clinton’s gonna be able to respond. But, Senator Sanders, you’ve been very tough lately. Last week, you said this about Secretary Clinton.

Quote, “just as I believe you can’t take on Wall Street while taking their money, I don’t believe you can take on climate change effectively while taking money from those who would profit off the destruction of the planet.”

COOPER: Are you suggesting that she’s in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry?

SANDERS: No, what I am suggesting is that we have a corrupt campaign finance system. And instead of standing up to that finance system… And instead of standing up to that finance system, Secretary Clinton has super PAC, which is raising huge amounts — well, I hate to say the word “huge,” every time I say huge it…

SANDERS: A lot of money from Wall Street and from the fossil fuel industry. I am doing it a different way. I have 5 million individual contributors who have gone to BernieSanders.com to make a $27 contribution. I don’t take money from the fossil fuel industry.

COOPER: Senator Sanders, on the — on the campaign trail, Senator Sanders often refers to a fundraiser in January that was hosted by executives from a firm that has invested significantly in domestic fracking. Do you have any comment on that?

CLINTON: I don’t have any comment. I don’t know that. I don’t believe that there is any reason to be concerned about it. I admire what Senator Sanders has accomplished in his campaign. I have more than 850,000 donors, most of them give less than $100. I am very proud of that. And I just want to make one point. You know, we have our differences. And we get into vigorous debate about issues, but compare the substance of this debate with what you saw on the Republican stage last week.

SANDERS: But here’s the difference. Here is the difference. It’s not a personal difference. We just do things differently. All right. I honestly — look, we have a corrupt campaign finance system. And what Secretary Clinton is saying and what every candidate who receives from the fossil fuel industry or the drug companies or Wall Street say, not going to impact me. The question the American people have to ask is, why are these people putting millions of dollars into candidates if it’s not going to make a difference? 

Citizens United

SANDERS: And that is why, by the way, that is why one of my top priorities, if elected president will be to overturn this outrageous Citizens United Supreme Court.

CLINTON: And that is one of the many reasons we must all support President Obama’s right to nominate a successor to Justice Scalia and demand that the Senate hold hearings and a vote on that successor because there are so many issues at stake. On the first day of my campaign, I said, we are going to reverse Citizens United. And if we can’t get it done through the court, I will lead a constitutional amendment effort to reverse it that way.

See the climate positions of the remaining Democratic presidential candidates: Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.

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Climate and Clean Energy in the Third Democratic Presidential Debate

Watching the third Democratic debate, the conspicuous absence of any questions on climate change could have led viewers to think they had tuned into a Republican debate. Although not a single question was asked about climate change, which is startling given the fact that the debate comes only a week after the COP21 agreement was announced, Sanders and O'Malley did manage to briefly mention climate change and clean energy. Clinton conspicuously ignored the topic altogether. She may think this is a good way to win over Republicans who are disillusioned with front running GOP candidate Donald Trump. However it is also a great way to alienate her base.
The debate took place on Saturday December 19th. ABC News hosted Democratic presidential candidates Hilary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O'Malley. The 3 Democrats vying for the presidential nomination faced off on foreign policy and domestic issues at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire.

Here are excerpts of Sanders and O'Malley's climate and clean energy remarks made during the debate:

Sanders: I'm running for president because we have a campaign finance system which is corrupt, where billionaires are spending hundreds of millionaires of dollars to buy candidates who will represent their interests rather than the middle class and working families. I'm running because we need to address the planetary crisis of climate change and take on the fossil fuel industry and transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

O'Malley: We were the only state in American that went four years in a row without a penny increase in college tuition. We invested more in our infrastructure and we squared our shoulders to the great business opportunity of this era and that is moving our economy to a 100 percent clean electric energy future. We created 2,000 new jobs in the solar industry and we fought every single day to adopt more inclusive economic practices.

O'Malley: The other big challenge we have is climate change. The greatest business opportunity to come to the United States of America in 100 years. We need to embrace this. I have put forward a plan that does this, that moves us to 100 percent clean electric grid by 2050. Join this campaign for the future. New leadership is what our country needs to move us out of these divided and polarized times. Thank you.

See the climate positions of the original full slate of Democratic presidential candidates: Martin O'Malley, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton,  Lincoln Chaffee, Larry Lessig and Jim Webb

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President Obama's 2013 Inaugural Address: "We Will Respond to the Threat of Climate Change"

President Obama marked the start of his second term with a bold inaugural speech at the Capitol. With renewed determination the President reached beyond the partisan divide and showed true leadership. Speaking directly to the American people the President clearly stated that the United States will engage climate change.

Here are excerpts of the President's remarks:

For more than two hundred years, we have...made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together.

Together, we discovered that a free market only thrives when there are rules to ensure competition and fair play.

Together, we resolved that a great nation must care for the vulnerable, and protect its people from life’s worst hazards and misfortune.

But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges...Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation, and one people.

This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade of war is now ending. An economic recovery has begun. America’s possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it – so long as we seize it together.

We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time...But while the means will change, our purpose endures: a nation that rewards the effort and determination of every single American. That is what this moment requires. That is what will give real meaning to our creed.

But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.

We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries – we must claim its promise. That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure – our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.

Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time – but it does require us to act in our time.

For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate. We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect. We must act, knowing that today’s victories will be only partial, and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years, and forty years, and four hundred years hence to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall.

My fellow Americans, the oath I have sworn before you today, like the one recited by others who serve in this Capitol, was an oath to God and country, not party or faction – and we must faithfully execute that pledge during the duration of our service.

They are the words of citizens, and they represent our greatest hope.

You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s course.

You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time – not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals.

Let each of us now embrace, with solemn duty and awesome joy, what is our lasting birthright. With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom.

Thank you, God Bless you, and may He forever bless these United States of America.

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Green Inauguration of President Obama: "Faith in America's Future"

The public Presidential inauguration ceremony took place on Monday, January 21, and event organizers paid unprecedented attention to environmental sustainability. The official Inauguration Day was January 20th. However, as that date falls on a Sunday in 2013, the public swearing-in ceremony was held on Monday, January 21, 2013, at 11:30 a.m. ET, with the official event taking place at 11:55 a.m.

This year's official theme is "Faith in America's Future." One of the unique touches that define the unique quality of President Obama's inauguration are the efforts to make the event more environmentally sustainable.

The green elements of this year's inauguration include extensive recycling. According to the event's organizers there was no need for trash cans at the event. The festivities include a week of balls and galas honoring President Obama and Vice President Biden.

Inauguration events throughout Washington endeavored to be more green. Pritchard Sports and Entertainment Group, working with the inauguration’s event organizer, C3 Events, managed waste throughout Washington, DC. Waste was sorted, recycled and composted. This included everything from food scraps at cocktail parties to the waste generated by horses who travel along the parade route on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The DC municipal government also built a stand for local leaders and 90 percent of the materials used will be recycled.

2013 Green Inaugural Ball

On January 20th, more than 1,200 guests celebrated the inauguration of Barack Obama and Joseph Biden and America’s green economy at the 2013 Green Inaugural Ball. The National Wildlife Federation hosted the 2013 Green Inaugural Ball at the venue known as the the Newseum.

This event brought together the broad environmental, conservation and clean tech community to celebrate the past four years and look forward to the future. The Green Ball brings together top leaders from the environmental, conservation, clean tech, renewable energy communities and business groups who advocate clean energy, efficiency, green technologies, the protection of America's natural heritage and green jobs.

This event is a celebration of the past four years of accomplishment on the environment, energy, and clean technology and a look forward to another four years of progress.

Green Elements of the Event

• Compostable serving materials or reusable items such as glass and flatware
• Catering recycled frying oil for use as biofuels,
• Expired light bulbs were broken down in a Lampinator to separate mercury from glass and metals
• All food scraps were composted to make soil that will be used by DC residents and urban farms.

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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