In the race to compete in a global economic recovery, the US may have a secret weapon against rivals like China and even economies closer to ours, such as Canada.  China may be graduating more engineers and scientists; Canada may have a better health care system; but the US has an unlikely secret weapon that has put American companies and workers in a position to race ahead of the pack for years to come - - the USEPA.
 

s summer gives grudging way to our back-to-work lives, busy execs will likely compare notes at Chamber of Commerce luncheons about the economy and job creation.

We can all imagine those conversations, given recent market and political news, but here are a few you won't be likely to overhear.
 

Ever see those signs that say, "If you lived here, you'd be home by now"? 

They're usually affixed to urban revitalization projects located near mass transit hubs (of course you're commuting another hour to your sprawl development in the 'burbs when you read it). 

Dickens begins his novel with the famous line “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Were he writing today about the two American cities—Lexington, Mass. and Colorado Springs, Colo.— he might say, “It was the brightest of towns, it was the dimmest of towns.” In this case, bright and dim refer quite literally to light levels, but also to the decision making of two very different sets of civic leaders.

The House of Representatives has proposed legislation to cut USEPA funding by almost 20% and curtail its ability to tackle a wide range of pollution issues. 

The regulated industries and their allies in Congress may be hopeful of reduced cost and a less intrusive government, but they should be very careful of the Law of Unintended Consequences. 

Fingers crossed. BP’s oil leak has apparently stopped shy of 200 million gallons spewed into the Gulf of Mexico and a few million more burned off into plumes of toxic smoke. Many have dubbed it the worst environmental disaster in American history. In my view, it’s not even close, but shares a great deal in common with those that are on the “top ten worst” list - - and offers lessons we can profit from.

Everyone loves a “man bites dog” story. Not everyone likes those tales, however, if they embarrass someone in the process.

Last week, oil company executives testified to Congress about energy policy in the wake of BP’s ongoing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. A casual observer may have thought we were transported to an alternate universe. At one session, Representative Joe Barton of Texas apologized to BP for what he called a White House “shakedown” (because President Obama demanded a $20 billion escrow account from BP to ensure that damage claims will be paid). 

Earlier this year, Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke about discovering that truckloads of single-use plastic shopping bags imported into his war-torn nation were squandering precious resources of fuel while risking the lives of truck drivers as they passed through insurgent held territories.

In 1950s science fiction movies, irradiated monsters would emerge from the sea to level Tokyo as horrified citizens flee. In 2011, as a sign I saw last week in Tokyo airport attests (see photo), Japan faces a real-world nuclear nightmare and the very daunting task of rebuilding cities and an entire nation’s energy grid. An innovative American ad campaign may be at least one way to slay the dragon and build a more sustainable future.

A recent study by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York discovered that America spends a "staggering" $76.6 billion every year to cover the health expenses of our children who get sick because of exposure to toxic chemicals and air pollution. 

On Earth Day last week, I saw a burger wrapper tossed from an old Buick and was stunned that anyone still thought it was OK to use our shared city habitat as a personal dumpster. Later that same day however, I saw a homeless man pick up a Styrofoam cup from the gutter and drop it in a trash can nearby, a tsk-tsk look clearly visible on his face.
 

Wars in the Middle East and oil rig blowouts in the Gulf have given us gasoline in the range of $4 to $5/gallon.  Growing concerns over asthma-inducing pollution from coal fired power plants, not to mention mercury pollution in food supplies and greenhouse gas emissions, have resulted in the termination of numerous coal projects and even the TVA announcing it would soon close eighteen existing coal facilities.
 

America, it could be worse. We could be Europe. I mean, we’re still mostly in the race with China - - in the past five years, they improved energy efficiency by nearly 20% and have a new five-year plan for another 20%. I say big deal - - the Empire State Building recently completed an energy efficiency upgrade and cut its consumption by nearly 40% after only nine months of remodeling. 

The ferocious tsunami that devastated Japan's coast is a tragic reminder that we have an uneasy relationship with our oceans. While we can't prevent earthquakes, we can minimize at least some of the damage from tsunamis on American shores by dealing with climate change and rising ocean levels now.

A few weeks ago in Lamont, California, a fighting rooster killed a man, when the bird slashed him with the blades he had attached to its legs.

White House climate policy czar Carol Browner recently left her post “to spend more time with her family” (political-speak for “thanks for playing, but don’t let the door hit you in the backside on your way out”).  Given his 2008 campaign pledge to get Congress to deal with US carbon pollution and thereby support a global successor to the Kyoto climate change accord, I assume President Obama will now need to appoint a replacement who can push through what Ms. Browner could not. Let me be the first to nominate Hosni Mubarak.

As the results of our “mission accomplished” in Iraq are tallied by people with Nobel Prizes on their resumes, it appears we may have made a few bad bets. But given the alternatives, it’s clear we should now double down on the oil war strategy, but this time go after another big pool of goo that isn’t so expensive - - Canada.
 

Here it comes - - a shameless self-promotion for my new book, Cracking the Carbon Code: The Key to Sustainable Profits in the New Economy (Palgrave Macmillan). I take the liberty to mention the book, because this blog will give you the key for nothing and, once everyone is doing it, can the movie version be far behind?
 

After 9/11, every politician in America quickly donned an American flag lapel pin. Even nine years later, the patriotism of public officials who fail to wear the pin is called into question, while others are called hypocritical if they wear the pin while opposing things like legislation to give health benefits to 9/11 first responders.