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January 26, 2009
BY ADAM BROWNING
Greentech Media
What was inauguration weekend like? Kind of like Mardi Gras, but with more clothes.
There were millions of people in town, and every one of them in a great mood. The commonality of purpose brought out the kind of camaraderie usually only seen during national calamities — strangers talked to strangers on the Metro, in restaurants, on the streets.
For the enviro and cleantech community, a celebratory highlight came the night before the inauguration, at the Green Ball. Vote Solar was on the host committee.
To walk the walk, I tried to dress appropriately. My tuxedo, for example, was definitely recycled. It clearly had been to several proms before.
The party was a lot like one of Vote Solar’s parties, except it was held in the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian instead of a nightclub, and there were a lot more famous people. Al Gore, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Van Jones preached to the largely converted. If you are unfamiliar with Van Jones, you should crawl out from under that rock you call home, and read this profile in the recent New Yorker. I was actually at the meeting Elizabeth Kolbert recounts — while I was reduced to squinting stinkeyes at the fatuous few who hijacked the agenda, Van was somehow able to turn the tables and walk out of there with Speaker Pelosi, fist in the air, chanting “Clean Energy Jobs Now” in front of TV cameras. It was really rather amazing.
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> Click here to access the full article on the Greentech Media blog.
For more information on Tides Center project Vote Solar, see www.votesolar.org.
