A roundup of green headlines that caught our eye this week:

• Think it doesn't really matter if you pass on using [insert eco-friendly item here]? Think again. As reported this week in the Wall Street Journal, new statistics tallied by consultant McKinsey & Co indicate that U.S. consumers have direct or indirect control over 65% of the country's greenhouse-gas emissions. Green power to the people!
• Véhicules plus vert à Paris. The Paris Auto Show kicked off this week displaying a variety of alternative fuel vehicles, many of which are scheduled to be sold across the pond very  soon. Check out the New York Times' slideshow here.
• Following on the heels of Al Gore and T. Boone Pickens, Google launched a $4 trillion clean-energy plan this week to wean the U.S. off coal and oil for electricity production by 2030. The Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital blog examines the feasibility of their green vision.
• A new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder uncovers a large source of fine, organic particle pollutants that contribute to hazy skies and poor air quality. Get the scoop from Science Daily here.

Everyone these days is talking about the potential for new jobs in sectors that promise to help the environment.

The latest example is a new study commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which projects that investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency will create 4.2 million new "green" jobs over the next three decades, making it perhaps "the fastest growing segment of the economy."

But those jobs won't all just happen automatically. The city of Oakland is jump-starting the process by contracting with three organizations to inaugurate the Oakland Green Job Corps, described by the Oakland Tribune as "an ambitious plan to lift at-risk youths out of lives of poverty and violence and place them into jobs helping the environment."

The training will start with general job readiness skills and basic construction practices, followed by modules on topics like solar installation, hazardous waste recycling and energy efficiency practices. The program will train about 40 students the first year and then seek to place them as apprentices with various Bay Area employers.

The city plans to tap three non-profit institutions--Laney College and Cypress Mandela, Inc. of Oakland, and Growth Sector Inc. of San Francisco to design and operate the program for its first eight months.

Funding comes from a national green-job training program authorized by Congress after the idea was championed by Van Jones, founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland and chief executive of Green for All.

A colleague was complaining in the lunch room today that weather forecasts call for possible rain this weekend. All I could think of were these ominous facts issued today in the California Department of Water Resources' Weather and Climate Newsletter. (Caution: Do not read the following information if you are prone to depression.)

• This water year, Oct. 1, 2007 - Sept. 30, 2008 has seen a deficit of as much as 10-20 inches of precipitation in the Sierra, source of much of our State's water supply.
• The seven-month period March-Sept, 2008 was the driest on record in the Northern Sierra. Only 3.5" of rainfall was received; merely 23% of average.
• For the Northern Sierra, the last 2 water years are the 9th driest 2-year period on record (88 years of record).
• Statewide precipitation for the six-month period, March - August, 2008 was only 31% of average; the driest March - August in 114 years of record for the State.
• State's major reservoirs are storing about 1/3rd of their capacity at a time they would typically be at about 2/3rds.
• Lake Oroville is at its lowest carryover storage since the drought of 1977. By the end of the calendar year, it may fall to a new record low.

Continued drought conditions will mean less inexpensive hydropower, degraded plant and wildlife habitats, and more devastating fire seasons. They may ultimately result even in browner golf courses. So pray for rain!

California's Gov. Schwarzenegger yesterday signed a pioneering bill to reduce California's greenhouse gas emissions--not by controlling energy use directly, but instead by curbing sprawl development that makes long car trips all but inevitable.

SB375, authored by State Sen. Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), aims to reduce the number of miles people drive by promoting housing and land-use plans that foster sustainable communities, alternative transportation options (including walking), and healthier lifestyles.

The new law is the first of its kind in the country. "This landmark bill takes California's fight against global warming to a whole new level, and it creates a model that the rest of the country and world will use," Governor Schwarzenegger said.

To learn more about some of the planning options Steinberg has in mind, check out the new report Smart Infill, published by the Bay Area conservation organization Greenbelt Alliance. Steinberg says it gives "local leaders practical tools to encourage climate-friendly development in their communities."

Investments in clean technology startups hit a record $2.6 billion in the third quarter, a 37 percent jump from the third quarter last year and a 17 percent hike over the second quarter this year, according to a report out this morning from the Cleantech Group. Total investments so far this year -- $6.6 billion -- are running ahead of $6 billion for all of 2007. California-based companies hauled in 42 percent of the investments.

Venture capital firms invested in 158 companies globally with a focus on three principal sectors -- smart power grids, algae companies, and solar power developers. Electric grid companies raised a record $202 million in the period, reflecting the growing move into plug-in electric vehicles by major automakers. Algae biofuel producers took in $95 million and solar power startups raised a record $620 million.

"Cleantech venture investing has continued to show strong growth despite the unprecedented turmoil in the credit markets during the quarter," said Michael Goguen, managing partner of Sequoia Capital and co-chair of Cleantech's advisory board. Cleantech is an investor group and market researcher.

Brian Fan, senior director of research for the Cleantech Group, said the third quarter "will probably be the high point for investment for at least several quarters," citing the current financial and economic troubles.

The five most active investors in the third quarter in the number of deals all have connections to Silicon Valley. RockPort Capital Partners topped the list with six deals, followed by Google Inc. with five, Advanced Technology Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers with four each, and Khosla Ventures with three.

Both Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures have invested in Ausra Inc., a solar-thermal energy systems company which is developing a solar plant for PG&E in central California. Ausra announced today that it has secured $60.6 million in its latest preferred equity financing from a group led by KERN Partners of Calgary, Alberta.

There's no such thing as perfectly clean energy: even a person riding a bicycle generator exhales carbon dioxide. And once you factor in the energy and materials used to produce and transport wind turbines or solar panels, those renewable sources have their modest downsides, too.

So if our goal is to do the least damage to the environment, and in particular to climate stability, it's important to analyze all the lifecycle implications of our energy choices.

Benjamin K. Sovacool, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore, did just that in a recent issue of Energy Policy magazine. His ranking probably comes as no surprise, but his numbers highlight the enormous difference between alternative technologies.

In terms of grams of total lifecycle carbon dioxide emissions per kilowatt hour of electricity, here's how several major sources of energy stack up:

• Coal - 960
• Natural Gas - 443
• Nuclear - 66
• Solar photovoltaic - 32
• Wind (onshore)  - 10

In the old days, kitchen grease was a messy waste product that unscrupulous restaurant owners dumped illegally to avoid disposal fees. In today's greener age, this leftover sludge has instead become a valuable target of thieves who reportedly convert it into clean biodiesel at a cost of less than $1 per gallon. That's progress for you.

On Friday, Governor Schwarzenegger of California addressed that problem by signing into law a bill that will slash fees imposed on individuals who collect and recycle fryer grease for their personal use as a substitute for diesel fuel.

The law, sponsored by Good Earth Grease Haulers in Monrovia, aims to support biodiesel production by cutting vehicle transport fees from $400 to $75. In theory it will also discourage the stealing of oil by getting more haulers to register with the authorities.

Now if we could only lick the problem of thieves who rip off solar panels from rooftops and then resell them on eBay. Is nothing sacred?

Most new technology companies all but hit reporters over the head to get noted in news columns and blog items. A few extra inches of coverage can potentially translate into thousands of new orders and millions of dollars in new funding.

But Berkeley-based PVT Solar is trying a different tack: as soon as it reached the pinnacle of PR success--an item in the New York Times Green Inc. blog--the company promptly took down its web site, www.pvtsolar.com, citing concerns over intellectual property.

Was this a rare case of entrepreneurial modesty, or a genius marketing ploy to get people to troll the Web all the more diligently in search of the scoop on this company, which already enjoys the cachet of funding from Vinod Khosla, venture capitalist extraordinaire?

Despite his apparent shyness, company President Gordon Handelsman didn't mind telling the Times that his approach, although still a work in progress, harvests "around 100 percent more energy than a regular PV system."

The "secret" lies in making use of the waste heat from traditional solar panels. They typically convert only a quarter of the sun's energy into electricity. The rest becomes heat (or is reflected). By reusing that "waste" heat to warm water or rooms, PVT Solar's system can potentially increase overall efficiency.

Last February, Venture Beat listed PVT Solar as one of "Ten great cleantech startups on the prowl for funding." It cited company estimates that it could double efficiency at an additional system installation cost of only about 20 percent, "helping to reduce the time to break-even on the investment by 25 to 50 percent."

Another apparent convert was Joel Kauffman of Independent Energy Systems, who compared a PVT system against a standard solar hot water system of similar cost. The calculations he presented favored the PVT system with overall annual savings of almost $800, versus $400 with traditional models.

Of course, given the base cost of $22,000, the total payback time would still be considerable for either investment. So investors and buyers may want to wait until the PVT Solar web site is back up before betting the bank.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is making another energy play, announcing on the weekend that his MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. will purchase about 10 percent of China's BYD Company Ltd., a maker of rechargeable batteries and automobiles, for $230 million. The move -- Buffett's first strategic investment in China -- follows MidAmerican's announcement earlier this month that it would acquire East Coast utility Constellation Energy Group Inc. for $4.7 billion. 

MidAmerican and BYD will work on new rechargeable battery technologies for vehicles and to store electricity from wind and solar power generation. "The rationale behind this investment is BYD's unique exposure to both lithium-ion batteries as well as its related hybrid electric vehicle business," Merrill Lynch analyst Daniel Kim told Bloomberg News. The "HEV market growth is exploding."

BYD aims to sell gasoline-electric hybrid cars in China later this year and to introduce hybrid vehicles in the U.S. and Europe in 2010. The Big Three U.S. automakers are scrambling to develop hybrids, and they got a boost on the weekend when the Senate approved a spending bill that included $7.5 billion to start a $25 billion low-interest loan program to retool old plants and help the industry develop new fuel-efficient vehicles. The House has already approved the bill.

This week brought significant news about climate change, both in terms of the accelerating problem and tentative steps to address it in the United States:

• The Global Carbon Project, based in Australia, reported this week that global carbon dioxide emissions last year soared nearly 3 percent, a bigger jump than expected by all but the most pessimistic researchers. Although the United States is the second largest source of carbon dioxide, researchers said China, India and other developing countries are the fastest growing emitters of greenhouse gases.
• 10 Northeastern states, members of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Inititiative, this Thursday held the nation's first auction of pollution credits aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. The goal is to cap carbon emissions in the region and create price incentives that will motivate polluters to curb them. The bigger goal is to pave the way for a national cap-and-trade market. "It is the shape of things to come," said Dale Bryk, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
• Following suit, seven Western states and four Canadian provinces this week unveiled a draft plan to institute their own cap-and-trade market for greenhouse gas emissions. While many details remain to be hammered out, the Western Climate Inititiative was greeted enthusiastically by at least one governor: "This is an important road map for what will be the most comprehensive climate program in North America," said California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• Finally, after months of wrangling, the U.S. Senate passed a major tax bill Thursday evening that would extend federal tax credits to the renewable power industry, among other measures. The wind and solar industries pressed hard for the measures, as did many utilities that seek to offer their customers more renewable energy, including Pacific Gas and Electric. The House passed similar legislation Friday, but it remains unclear whether the two houses can reconcile their legislation before Congress adjourns.