Green IT Archives

The federal government is looking to expand its electric car fleet. Federal Times reports that the General Services Administration has a solicitation out for 100 vehicles and could decide on the purchases before the end of December.

Among the cars GSA is considering are the Chevrolet Volt, Nissan Leaf and the Wheego LiFe.

The agency also is soliciting industry comments on how to provide maintenance for electric vehicles, according to the report.

GSA leases most of its fleet of 200,000 vehicles to other agencies. Currently, in government, electric vehicles are used in small, isolated groups, the newspaper said.

My colleague Bob Brewin notes that President Obama has let up on the government's long held belief that America controls outer space in signing a new national space policy that contemplates relying on non-U.S. satellite navigation for backup and support.

The plan also imagines extraterrestrial observation as a way of advancing the White House's open government initiative, which centers on information disclosure and public-private collaboration throughout all levels of government, including overseas.

Some of the transparency-related items in the policy:

Departments and agencies, in coordination with the Secretary of State, shall "promote the adoption of policies internationally that facilitate full, open and timely access to government environmental data."

Non-security areas for potential collaboration with foreign governments include earth science and observation; environmental monitoring; geospatial information products and services; search and rescue; use of space for maritime domain awareness; and long-term preservation of the space environment for human activity and use.

The Energy and Environment Subcommittee passed a bill on Wednesday to protect the nation's electricity grid from terrorism and cyber threats.

Passed on a unanimous voice vote, the Grid Reliability and Infrastructure Defense Act -- or the GRID Act -- directs the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to protect the electric transmission and distribution grid from vulnerabilities.

The bill, which now moves to the full Energy and Commerce Committee, would give FERC the power to issue orders for emergency measures under the directive of the president.

It also requires the agency to enforce privacy measures and prohibit the disclosure of protected information, but states that "the commission shall protect from disclosure only the minimum amount of information necessary to protect the reliability of the bulk-power system and of defense critical electric infrastructure."

If passed, the legislation will provide a security framework for the Smart Grid -- a Web-enabled power grid which allows users to monitor their energy consumption -- that is in the early stages of planning now.

A week ago, Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., filed the Consumers' Right to Know Act (or e-KNOW), which would give consumers the right to access their energy information. It also would require FERC to consult with appropriate federal agencies in issuing guidelines on how to facilitate this.

Federal grants under the Smart Grid Investment Grant program will not be taxed, the Treasury and Energy Department announced on Wednesday.

This means that the Internal revenue Service will provide a safe harbor for corporations receiving grants under the $3.4 billion federal stimulus program, which funds projects that aid the modernization of the energy grid.

Smart Grid capabilities would update a system that is facing stress with the nation's increasing energy needs and cut down on energy waste through the use of sophisticated meters and sensors that monitor and control electrical consumption.

"By clarifying the tax treatment of Smart Grid Investment Grants, we are ensuring that their full impact is felt in the communities where these investments are being made," Treasury Assistant Secretary for Management Dan Tangherlini said.

The Demand Response and Smart Grid Coalition, a trade group for the smart grid industry whose members include Lockheed Martin Corp. and LG Electronics USA, hailed the news.

But there's no such thing as a free ride. According to the fine print, "Section 362(c)(2) of the Code requires a basis reduction in a corporation's property when the corporation receives money from a nonshareholder as a contribution to its capital."

In other words, corporations have to reduce the tax basis of their property as a condition for receiving these tax breaks.

"The result is a reduction in tax benefits such as depreciation over the life of the property and higher taxable gain (or reduced losses) on its eventual disposition," explained attorney James Atkinson, who was also previously Associate Chief Counsel for income tax and accounting at the IRS.

The intended incentive may be blunted, and the news is not as favorable as perhaps many in the industry had hoped, he said.

Engineers, scientists and at least one lawmaker are pushing like never before to resuscitate a legislative agency that once provided Congress with technological expertise.

In an era of supposed government transparency, with allegations that even scientists are attempting to cover up research on global warming, an objective, authoritative Office of Technology Assessment is of utmost importance, advocates say.

Several lawmakers, particularly House member and physicist Rush Holt, D-N.J., have repeatedly rallied for appropriations to revive the office that Congress dismantled to save money in 1995. The counterargument against funding has always been that other agencies, such as the Government Accountability Office or Congressional Research Services, could provide the same services.

Now that belief may be changing, says Francesca Grifo, scientific integrity program director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, who will testify on Wednesday before the House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee. Holt also will testify in support of restored funding.

"We've decided to make it a priority issue," Grifo said in an interview with Nextgov on Tuesday. Her group is releasing a letter of encouragement signed by 30 organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the United Auto Workers. "It seems a little counterintuitive but, if you look at our current fiscal situation, OTA saves money," she said, explaining that if lawmakers have sound technical advice when they make policy decisions, "you'll waste less money."

Established in the early 1970s, the office was responsible for providing Congress with early evaluations of the potential costs and benefits of new technologies and new applications of existing technologies.

Grifo's organization estimates that the office cost Congress about $20 million annually but, since its extinction, the federal government has squandered billions of dollars on failed systems, including virtual fences to guard the U.S-Mexico border and baggage screening equipment.

A sample of reports produced shortly before its demise shows that the office already was on top of many innovations at the forefront of today's legislative agenda.

One 1995 report referenced the potential for tracking the efficacy of medical treatments with electronic health data - a controversial issue in the ongoing debate over healthcare reform. "Because large amounts of electronic data now can be collected and manipulated, there has been increased emphasis on using existing data, often in the form of insurance claims databases, to evaluate health care technologies," the research stated. "Data gathered from events occurring in a wide range of practice settings have become viewed as a tool for looking at effectiveness-- average outcomes achieved by average doctors and patients."

In a report entitled "Bringing Health Care Online: The Role of Information Technologies," the office found that electronic patient records, portable computers, automated data capture and computer networks "can potentially improve the quality of health care" by "enhancing clinical decision support and by improving data for assessing the effectiveness of health services and the performance of health care providers and insurance plans."

Another 1995 report probed the ramifications of electronic surveillance, concluding, "If major problems arise in meeting the needs of law enforcement, they will likely arise as a result of institutional difficulties in dealing with a diverse, highly entrepreneurial industry made up of a large number of telecommunications companies offering many new innovations and features, with the number of players steadily increasing."

Do you know a federal manager who recently took risks to push through a bold idea, policy or program that uses technology to make government work better or improve public services? If so, we'd like to hear your story by nominating your colleague for a Nextgov Award.

The Nextgov Award program, developed in partnership with O'Reilly Media Inc. and TechWeb, will recognize government executives who stepped outside their comfortable confines to think and manage differently. They acted boldly to push through an innovative program, policy or new management practice that relied on technology to move government in a new direction, to challenge employees to think and work differently, and that ultimately improved the lives of citizens.

We know there are many managers who have done just that, and we want you to tell us about them by nominating them for a Nextgov Award. The deadline is March 12, but we suggest you don't wait. Visit the nomination page and spend just a few minutes filling out the form. We'll tell the stories of the winners later this spring on Nextgov.

A panel of respected judges will make choose the winners, who will be honored at a luncheon on May 27 at the Gov 2.0 Expo at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The expo is co-sponsored by O'Reilly Media Inc. and TechWeb, and Nextgov is the premier media sponsor.

Nextgov has launched the Nextgov Awards, an inaugural program to recognize federal managers who have shepherded a program, policy or management practice that is not only innovative, but bold and brave.

Yes, we know, there are a lot of awards programs in government. But when we asked federal managers and industry executives what is missing, they told us unanimously: No awards recognize federal employees who took on risks -- personal, political and otherwise -- and boldly acted to see their idea to fruition. Or if their idea died, at least they took on entrenched bureaucratic interests in an attempt to make government better through the use of technology.

We invite you to visit our awards page to learn more and to nominate someone who fits the criteria. The technology isn't the reason for the award, but the bold idea must rely on it in some way. And we encourage you to tell us a story about the individuals you nominate. We want you to wow us because we know there are dozens of stories of federal employees trying to improve government and the lives of citizens, but they are up against big odds. Yet, they have acted bravely and with resolve to bring about change. We want to know about them, the drama they faced and the results they achieved. And, of course, the technology they used.

The winners of the Nextgov Awards will be honored at a luncheon at TechWeb's Gov 2.0 Expo in May. (Nextgov is a TechWeb partner for the event.) We'd love to see you there.

More to come.

Intellectual property rights ensure competitiveness, but do they hinder progress? In terms of green IT, it depends on who you ask.

Coinciding with Copenhagen climate talks, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., introduced a bill on Thursday calling for the protection of intellectual property rights for clean energy and environmental technology in any global climate change agreement.

As of this blog post, full text of the bill was not available on the Internet, but apparently it complements similar bipartisan language included in the House Foreign Relations Authorization Act (HR 2410), which passed this summer.

Mark Esper, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber's Global Intellectual Property Center had this to say in a statement released today:

New inventions and processes will not only help address climate change, but will also lead to job growth and economic expansion... The introduction of this resolution is indicative of the growing bipartisan awareness among lawmakers and those within the administration that robust intellectual property rights are fundamental to America's economic success and competitiveness.

So who disagrees? China and India and other developing countries that argue the licensing cost to reproduce a product could cripple global advancements in this area, according to reports from the Copenhagen talks. Nearly 80 countries submitted a proposal to discuss the weakening of global intellectual property rights for new innovations designed to reduce carbon emissions.

Hey, this could be a great idea: Congressional committees could post links on their Web sites to something called live webcasts of Hill hearings, allowing the press and public alike to watch and listen virtually from their homes or offices -- without spending time fighting traffic or contributing to greenhouse emissions.

I say "could be," because while many of the congressional committees in the House and Senate offer (and publicize) such video and/or audio streaming, the technology half the time doesn't work.

Take Wednesday morning, for example. The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection held a hearing on growing trade in (ironically) green technology. The link to the audio webcast posted on the site was broken, then removed, then reappeared after the hearing was all but over. The same happened a few weeks ago for a hearing on the Homland Security Department's Secure Border Initiative before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism. My colleagues have told me they have had similar experiences.

As someone who covers how the federal government uses information technology to improve government, as well as the Obama administration's open government agenda, the irony of the technical difficulties isn't easy to overlook.

President Obama, long referred to as the "Internet president," has had no formal innovation agenda to back up the title - until now.

During a visit to New York's Hudson Valley Community College on Monday, Obama laid out a strategy for creating new jobs, businesses and industries through tapping the nation's innovative potential.

A white paper on the plan states,

"Since taking office, President Obama has taken historic steps to lay the foundation for the innovation economy of the future. The Obama Innovation Strategy builds on well over $100 billion of Recovery Act funds that support innovation, additional support for education, infrastructure and others in the Recovery Act and the President's Budget, and novel regulatory and executive order initiatives."

The strategy has three parts:

1. Invest in the Building Blocks of American Innovation. We must first ensure that our economy is given all the necessary tools for successful innovation, from investments in research and development to the human, physical, and technological capital needed to perform that research and transfer those innovations.
2. Promote Competitive Markets that Spur Productive Entrepreneurship. It is imperative to create a national environment ripe for entrepreneurship and risk taking that allows U.S. companies to be internationally competitive in a global exchange of ideas and innovation. Through competitive markets, innovations diffuse and scale appropriately across industries and globally.
3. Catalyze Breakthroughs for National Priorities. There are certain sectors of exceptional national importance where the market is unlikely to produce the desirable outcomes on its own. These include developing alternative energy sources, reducing costs and improving lives with health IT, and manufacturing advanced vehicles. In these industries where markets may fail on their own, government can be part of the solution.

Federal innovation, listed under part no. 2, expands upon a memo issued Jan. 21 that called for a more open government bound by the tenets of transparency, collaboration and participation. A directive on steps agencies are to take to fulfill those principles is anticipated as early as this week:

Improve Public Sector Innovation and Support Community Innovation

Innovation must occur within all levels of society, including the government and civil society. The Obama Administration is committed to increasing the ability of government to promote and harness innovation. The Administration is encouraging departments and agencies to experiment with new technologies that have the potential to increase efficiency and reduce expenditures, such as cloud computing. The Federal government should take advantage of the expertise and insight of people both inside and outside the Federal government, use high-risk, high-reward policy tools such as prizes and challenges to solve tough problems, support the broad adoption of community solutions that work, and form high-impact collaborations with researchers, the private sector, and civil society.

• Make the government more transparent, participatory, and collaborative. On his first day in office, the President signed the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, thereby placing government accountability and civic engagement at the forefront of the Administration's governing philosophy. The President's Memorandum urged agencies to promote three principles for bringing innovation to government: transparency, participation, and collaboration. Transparency promotes accountability by providing citizens with information about what their Government is doing. Public participation in decision-making strengthens democracy and ensures that Government makes policies with the benefit of information that is widely dispersed in society. Collaboration improves the effectiveness of Government by encouraging cooperation and knowledge-sharing within the Federal Government, across levels of Government and between the Government and private institutions.
• Promote Open Government. The Administration created the White House Open Government Initiative to coordinate Open Government policy, projects, and design technology platforms that foster openness across the Executive branch. The Initiative has achieved many important milestones, including:

• Publishing government data online to make it easy for anyone to remix and reuse, thus involving the American people in the development of public policy, Challenging thousands of Federal employees to propose ideas for slashing the time required to process veterans' disability benefits, Releasing information on Executive branch personnel and salaries, and Launching the IT dashboard, a one-stop clearinghouse of information that allows anyone with a web browser to track government spending on technology and hold the government accountable.
• Use innovation to improve government programs. President Obama is committed to using novel techniques and research support to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government programs. For example, the Recovery Act includes a $7 billion fund to incentivize innovative reforms in states' Unemployment Insurance programs. States that use the most recent wage data and commit to cover more groups of job seekers get rewarded with higher payments. Already 32 states have qualified, and of these 24 of them changed their laws to do so. Another example is support for patient-centered health research in the Recovery Act. This research will lead to higher quality and more effective ways to deliver healthcare. The results will stimulate action across the health system to incorporate these findings into programs.
• Commit White House Resources to scaling and promoting community innovations. The President created the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation to grow the marketplace for community innovations and provide the technology and tools for greater civic participation to help tackle our nation's toughest problems. The office will build upon efforts across the agencies, such as the Department of Education's $650 million Invest in Innovation (i3) Fund, to create new models of Federal grant-making that focus on encouraging, testing and scaling the most promising ideas and programs. The office uses its convening power to coordinate and partner with citizens, philanthropists, and the private sector to create a supportive environment for on­going innovations in communities. Part of the effort will include using innovative tools such as prizes and challenges. The President's Budget includes $50 million in seed capital for the nation's first Social Innovation Fund, which will identify the most promising, results-oriented non-profit programs and provide the capital needed to replicate their success in communities around the country.