Yesterday, following requests from a group of investors, Nike resigned its position on the board of directors of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

This announcement comes just one week after Pacific Gas & Electric and Exelon announced they were leaving the Chamber in protest over the organization's "extreme" climate position.

Here's what a Nike representative had to say about the decision. . .

"We believe that on the issue of climate change the chamber has not represented the diversity of perspective held by the board of directors. Therefore, we have decided to resign our board of directors position. We will continue our membership to advocate for climate change legislation inside the committee structure and believe that we can better influence policy by being part of the conversation. Moving forward we will continue to evaluate our membership."

And today, FPL Group announced it will buy three wind power projects from Babcock & Brown Power for just over $350 million.

The three projects have a combined capacity of 184.5 megawatts.

Located in Texas, Wisconsin, and South Dakota, more than 80 percent of the output from these facilities has already been sold under long-term power purchase agreements.

Yesterday, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered that one third of the state's electricity come from renewable resources by 2020.

You may recall yesterday, when the governor threatened to veto a bill that would accomplish the same goal, but would have required solar thermal plants to jump through more regulatory hurdles before construction could begin. The governor's plan also allows power companies to get more of their renewables from outside the state.

The new plan puts California's Air Resources Board in charge of implementing the new renewables standard. Guidelines for the plan are expected next summer.

And here on the east coast, the state of Maryland now seems to be actively pursuing offshore wind with the launch of a new impact study.

According to state energy administrator Malcolm Woolf, an offshore wind farm could help the state fulfill its goal of 20 percent renewables by 2022.

Nearby in Delaware, a 230-megawatt offshore wind farm off Rehoboth Beach is expected to go online in 2012.

Mitsubishi announced last week that it has signed a contract with Peugeot-Citroen to jointly develop and market electric cars.

Under the terms of the deal, Mitsubishi will supply the vehicles, and Peugeot-Citroen will sell the vehicles in 2010. A memorandum of understanding for this deal was actually signed in March. Peugeot-Citroen plans to sell 25,000 electric vehicles a year.

As we've written in the past, Mitsubishi has been very aggressive with its electric vehicle agenda – beginning fleet sales of its i-MiEV this year. The i-MiEV has an all-electric range of 80 miles, with a top speed of 80 mph.

Also in electric car news, China auto manufacturer, Chery announced that it will start selling its first plug-in electric car (the S18) next year.

Boasting 93 miles on a single charge, the company's looking to sell 30,000 of these vehicles within three to four years. The vehicle is expected to come in at $19,000.

Duke Energy, the third largest electric power company in the United States, announced yesterday that it will be building a 200 megawatt wind farm near Casper, Wyoming.

Generating enough power for between 50,000 and 60,000 homes, the wind farm will be equipped with GE 1.5 megawatt turbines.

Also adding to its wind portfolio, Xcel Energy has just received approval from the North Dakota Public Service Commission for a 150 megawatt wind project. The company also received approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities for a 201 megawatt wind project.

According to reports, both projects are on schedule to begin operations in 2010 and 2011. Combined, they will generate enough power for 110,000 homes.

Southern California Edison has announced that it is trying to land a $65 million grant from the DOE for a pilot storage project and a project that would integrate home energy management systems into the grid.

The storage project would be used to store wind power, and when completed would be the largest ever used for utility scale applications.

Battery manufacturer, A123 Systems has been tapped for the project, which will use a series of batteries in an 8,000-square-foot building at an existing substation in Tehachapi, CA. This is where Southern California Edison is expected to have about 4,500 megawatts of wind power by 2015.

For the smart grid project, Southern California Edison will work with SunPower Corporation, GE and Boeing.

Between smart grid integration and new storage capabilities, it is becoming increasingly clear that the utilities are no longer playing the waiting game on renewable energy integration. It's happening. . .and it's happening now.

Just a few weeks after Nissan unveiled its latest electric offering – the LEAF, Honda has announced plans to develop an electric car that will debut in 2015. Not much was released about the vehicle, except for the fact that it's expected to be about the size of a minicar.

Certainly we're happy to see Honda joining the race to electrify our vehicles – but could they be showing up to this party a little late? After all, we'll see the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf next year. And if price isn't an issue, you can purchase a Tesla Roadster today.

Ford will also have its first electric vehicle ready for the roads in 2010, and the Mitsubishi i-MiEV will likely be here by 2012. There are a number of other electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles expected to hit the market between now and 2012 too. Some from small start-ups and others rumored to be coming from other major automakers. Either way, it is clear that most automakers know the future of personal transportation will include electric vehicles. The only question now is who will take the early lead?

While we hear quite a bit about solar, wind and geothermal these days, we don't hear too much about the potential of marine energy. But yesterday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced it had signed an agreement with the state of Maine to coordinate schedules and procedures for the review of new tidal energy projects off the coast.

Here's what FERC Commissioner Philip Moeller had to say...

"It's my hope that with the leadership of states like Maine, we can get some of these tidal energy projects into the water so their effects can be measured and their benefits demonstrated."

Next to solar, the largest source of energy on the planet is ocean energy via the motion of waves and tides. And according to Roger Bedard, the ocean leader for the Electric Power Research Institute – because water is 850 times denser than air, tidal turbines can produce 40 times more power than wind turbines with similar gear.

As discussed in my book, Investing in Renewable Energy, ocean energy offers clean, green, and consistent power, all at a relatively low cost, with negligible environmental impact. And since the fuel of ocean generators – the movement of waves and tides – costs nothing, marine energy holds the promise of being able to generate electricity at highly competitive rates.

While some in Washington continue to rally the sheep into believing renewable energy will never be more than a minuscule fraction of our overall power generation mix, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently reported that renewable sources generated 40.39 million megawatt-hours in May, 2009. That's 7.7 percent higher than in May of 2008.

Overall, 13 percent of U.S. net electrical generation in May, 2009 came from renewables. And compared to May, 2008, wind-powered generation increased by 12.5 percent (mostly due to the 11 new wind farms in Iowa that began generating electricity at the end of 2008) solar increased by 3.5 percent and conventional hydro increased by 10.2 percent. (Keep an eye on new run-of-river hydro projects, as these will become much more common in the very near future)

Now as renewable energy generation was increasing, coal-fired power fell by 14.8 percent and petroleum liquids fell by 8.3 percent. Total electrical generation fell 4.1 percent from May, 2008 to May, 2009 fell by 4.1 percent.

As an interesting side note, this was the tenth consecutive month that total generation in the U.S. declined in comparison to the same calendar month in the prior year. So as total power generation has decreased, renewable power generation has increased. Can't wait to see where we are next year!

Relying on coal for roughly 80% of its power generation (using more than the U.S., the European Union and Japan, combined), China is scrambling to integrate more clean energy into its overall energy mix. After all, China's carbon emissions from coal surpassed U.S. emissions back in 2007, and the country has also become the world's largest emitter of mercury (primarily due to its burning of coal).

And don't think for a second that this is only a China problem either. Back in 2006, a U.S. satellite tracked a cloud of carbon, sulfur compounds and other byproducts of coal combustion from Northern China to the West Coast of the United States. It has been estimated that it takes anywhere between five to 10 days for China's coal-fired power plant pollution to travel to the U.S.

So it wasn't surprising when we heard yesterday that Sun Qin, the deputy head of the National Energy Administration(NEA), announced that China will issue a new plan by the end of the year to bolster clean energy development.

There wasn't much beyond that announcement. But according to Shi Lishan, deputy director of renewable energy at the National Development and Reform Commission, the Chinese government will invest more than $14.6 billion to double its wind-power capacity by 2010. China's wind power capacity is actually expected to triple from 2008 levels, reaching 30,000 megawatts by the end of 2010.

Incidentally, on Saturday, construction began on China's first 10 gigawatt wind power base. The NEA has a total of seven planned in Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Xinjiang, Hebei and Jiangsu.

China has also upped the ante on solar integration. Last month, the Chinese government announced that it plans to subsidize 50 percent of the costs of building solar power projects and transmission to facilitate these projects. And for projects in remote areas that are not grid-connected, that incentive increases to 70 percent.

Back in March, I wrote a piece about how Nissan was focusing on the future of electric vehicles, announcing that it had formed a partnership with San Diego Gas & Electric to develop an infrastructure to provide charging stations for electric car owners.

Then, just two months ago, we reported on Nissan's plans to invest more than a half billion dollars to begin the production of electric vehicles at a manufacturing plant in Smyrna, Tennessee. The company had also announced that it was planning to construct a production facility (with NEC Corporation), which will pump out high-performance lithium-ion batteries.

Now I'm happy to report even more positive news about Nissan's electric vehicle agenda. . .

On Sunday, Nissan revealed its latest electric offering – the LEAF.

This electric hatchback has a 100-mile, all-electric range, delivering a top speed of about 76 mph.

Pricing has not been released yet, although the company claims the vehicle will be within the range of a comparable gasoline-engine car.

Nissan is expected to get these cars on the European, Japanese, and U.S. market by the end of next year.