The Energize America panel at Netroots Nation included Adam Siegel, Jerome Guillet, and Mark Sumner, all of whom have been instrumental in moving the discussion forward on peak oil, global warning and now Al Gore’s challenge to the American people. They discussed the goals of Energize America and how they are planning on reaching citizens and enlisting their help in both formulating a plan and lobbying Congress and state legislators to implement that plan.

To talk about how citizens are being involved, they brought in Debbie Cook, mayor of Huntington Beach, California; Mark Begich, mayor of Anchorage, Alaska; and Jeff Merkley, Speaker of the House in Oregon, all of whom have experience developing and implementing green policies.

Adam Siegel, who writes about energy for a number of blogs and organizations as A. Siegel, discussed their current Agenda for Progress, derived from a 20-point plan that Energize America proposed two years ago at YearlyKos. The primary focus is on:

• Energy Smart Communities Act
• Energy Smart Rail
• Energy Smart Mail
• Energy Smart Schools

He said that this is a community effort and invited people to join in with ideas, comments, suggestions, and resources.

Jerome Guillet, who blogs on peak oil and global warming as Jerome a Paris at DailyKos, talked about how a group of concerned citizens found each other and came to develop the Energize America plan.

Mark Sumner, who blogs as devilstower at DailyKos, talked about how this program can be funded – with a national bond and with local bonds. He used the example of plug-in hybrid electric school buses. These vehicles save huge amounts of gas and eliminate diesel fumes that cause health problems for some children. The stations that buses would plug into could provide electricity for entire communities during emergencies.

Currently these buses cost about $180,000 each rather than the $80,000 that standard diesel buses cost. School districts are rarely going to be able to buy these outright. However, a community could use bonds to buy a fleet of hybrid electric buses and use the savings on gas to pay for the bonds over time.

Debbie Cook, the mayor of Huntington Beach in California, has been talking about the need to address the implications of the decline of the availability of gas and oil for several years. She says that the most critical need is to change the way that municipalities address transportation needs. We need to electrify rail more than anything.

However, she emphasized that we need a process for changing the policy. Stakeholders need to come together and agree on a process before we establish the policy. She also said the process needs to involve the citizens. They need to be a part of solving the problems.

Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage, talked about the need to address the direct concerns of his constituents, primarily about price. So he focuses on results.

He said that Alaska is ground zero for the energy policy. You see and live the results of climate change. He has seen glaciers disappear in his lifetime. He’s seen the spruce bark beetle attack entire forests. In NW Alaska, people can see that 75 feet of the depth of a village’s beach disappear in one storm because there is no longer any ice to prevent the loss of the sand.

The city of Anchorage hired a renewable coordinator. One of the things this person did was change a holiday tree-lighting ceremony two years ago so that all the lights were LED lights. At a latitude where darkness lasts 18 hours a day during the winter, lights are important. They saved 80% on costs during the season. People heard about it and went to stores, only to find almost no LED lights on the shelves. However the next winter, because of the demand, This year, there were racks of LED lights.

Begich also talked about the need for energy smart green buildings and for the need for the public sector to lead. Most contractors don’t know how to work with the new materials. Working on public buildings first helps them learn and they are then able to work on private buildings.

Jeff Merkley, the Speaker of the House in Oregon, reiterated the need to act now. He said that the temperature of the planet is expected to increase by 5-9 degrees by the time a small child is 51, the age that he currently is.

He talked about the progress that Portland has made, particularly in developing a network of streetcars. The city is now starting to build streetcars and sell them to other entities.

He said he was pleased that Energize America is taking three things that citizens can get their minds around - smart rail, smart mail, and smart schools and developing policies that cities and states can make use of. He talked about how the U.S. needs to be a leader in this critical area, adopt new ideas and invest in alternative energies. He particularly thinks that every house needs to be its own small energy grid so that houses can use windmills and solar panels and interact with the larger public grid, both giving and taking electricity.