On a warm summer night in Chicago, thousands gathered in Millennium Park to watch the new documentary Carbon Nation. Recycled Energy Development’s own Sean Casten is featured in the film discussing energy recycling as a profitable way to mitigate climate change. “I don’t know of any bigger opportunity to make more money reducing more C02 than this one. So, if you don’t give a damn about the environment, do it because you’re a greedy bastard and just want cheap power,” says Casten.

We hope you’ll be hearing a lot more about energy recycling now that several companies in the field have teamed up to launch a new initiative called Heat is Power. The goal is to educate lawmakers and the public about the enormous potential of the type of energy recycling known as waste heat recovery—or as they put it, “WH2E” (waste heat to electricity)—to help solve our energy woes and put America back to work.

The Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA) just released the results of a comprehensive study on how to improve industrial energy efficiency. It makes an important point: it pays to invest in recycled energy.

Conducted by Keybridge Research and the University of Maryland’s Inforum Modeling Project, the study looked at IECA’s Sustainable Manufacturing & Growth Initiative policy recommendations, which include investment tax credits for combined heat and power (CHP) and recycled energy, a Clean Energy Standard Offer Program (CESOP) and other proposals. The researchers found that implementing IECA’s recommendations would dramatically improve American manufacturing competitiveness.

How many times have we heard that “clean coal” is the answer to our energy worries? It’s as if all you have to do is rinse off the coal before you burn it and — presto! — you get clean, cheap energy.

The truth is, coal’s only cheap if it’s dirty. RED’s Sean Casten has a column on this subject in Grist.

It was Sean Casten in 2009. Now it’s Craig Bennett in 2010. 
 
The prestigious Chicago Council on Global Affairs has again recognized the caliber of RED’s management team by naming Craig Bennett to its Emerging Leaders Class of 2010…