Some big news to kick off the day as we continue to see climate legislation progress through the Senate, thanks to serious work from the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman trio. Also a pretty cool link from the Organize to be Heard Challenge. Those Michiganders were all over the place in the media.

It is really an exciting time to be working on clean energy and climate legislation. Now, let’s get it passed.

• In that effort, the president will meet with the Senate trio today, to talk about the legislation. Also present will be several committee chairs that could affect a bill.
• Sen. Kristen Gillibrand called for the president to make a “shoot-for-the-moon” type speech about green jobs, saying they are the “greatest market opportunity for the next generation.”
• The EPA defends capping greenhouse gases. Said Administrator Lisa Jackson: “At no point in our history has any problem been solved by waiting another year to act.”
• The Washington Post dishes another attack on youth engagement in climate change issues, using the same poll we took a look at last week.
• A clean tech conference in Boston will look at ways to make clean energy cheaper.

In a book that, for sports fans anyway, represents a true telling of the golden age of high school football in Texas, perhaps the most telling part is the description of the town Permian High School was located in, Odessa, Texas.

Odessa, the very definition of an oil boom town, experienced years of lavish living during boom times and a depression like economy during busts. The views of present-day, post-auto boom Detroit are eerily familiar to those knowing a century of bust in Odessa.

Crime is rampant. Poverty and illness define the population. One failed civic project after another holds the city in its place near the bottom of desired places to live in the country.

Now, as many other towns in the state realize the viability and consistency of wind power, Odessa is poised to follow suit. And reports that the state of Texas is setting records in wind power use are as encouraging as any we’ve seen.

Texas, the nation’s wind-power leader, set a new record for wind generation this morning, when — at 6:37 a.m. — about 19 percent of the electricity on the state’s main grid was supplied by turbines.

That was actually on March 5, when nearly one-fifth of the state main grid was powered by wind.

The state at times receives so much power from heavy winds that turbines have to be shut down because the grid is not yet able to handle it all. Texas is spending nearly $5 billion to help solve that problem.

At the same time, wind farms are popping up all over the place. Nearly 40 projects provide almost 10,000 MW of power, a number rapidly increasing as more are built.

This has been a state more reliant on oil production than nearly any other, but with so much capacity for wind, it could have the ability to drastically expand its energy porfolio using a renewable and constant source. There is no boom or bust with wind power, meaning decades-long busts can be avoided.

Cities like Odessa, which is bidding for a project of its own while still relying heavily on oil and gas production, will have a constant source of jobs and income, giving the city a chance to build itself.

Paired with some of that big Texas sunshine, renewable energy sources are the clear future of energy production in the state. The only thing really slowing the process is an insufficient grid, which the state is working on, but which can be heavily aided by the federal government.

One day there could and should be enough wind energy in Texas to export it to other states through a revamped, updated smart grid. Right now, Texas is showing just how soon that day could be.

Good Monday morning, as calls continue to flood Senate offices in support of clean energy and climate legislation, we continue to fight on in many other ways.

What are you doing? Let us know. To the links:

• Great op-ed from Thomas Friedman on Saturday tells the story of two entrepreneurs working diligently to advance clean tech. His conclusion: we need a carbon cap.
• Senator John Kerry has begun his lobbying efforts around the new bill, which has yet to be released, but should be in the near future.
• More on Senator Kerry’s push for legislation.
• The International Monetary Fund is proposing that rich countries pool money to help the world adapt to climate change.
• An interesting look at climate legislation from the point of view of Royal Dutch Shell.

It’s Friday, which means very little, except that the official end of the 72 Hours for Clean American Power is over. That said, the fight does not stop, nor do the calls. We’ll have a wrap up later today of this highly successful three day event.

Some rather interesting news today, some of which comes to you straight from the climate politics section, by way of the Senator rapidly taking over the status of Queen Climate Denier, from James Inhofe.

• Senator Lisa Murkowski called Alaska, “ground zero for climate change,” in lauding the opening of a climate science center in her home state. Yes, this is the same Lisa Murkowski who’s denied climate change in her Dirty Air Act.
• Murkowski had earlier said that her vote hinges on allowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refugre. According to Sen. Joe Lieberman, that isn’t going to happen.
• The tri-partisan group of Senators working on climate legislation are talking to another pro-drilling member, Mary Landrieu, about a gas “fee” to help garner more votes.
• Is the timetable shrinking? Scientists in Alaska may have found that methane is rising from the earth, an activity that would increase the rate of climate change.
• As I writer this, President Obama is speaking about clean energy job in Virginia. More on that later.

Sen. Murkowski is trying to prevent the EPA from regulating pollutants.

Senator Lisa Murkowski’s office sent out a press release yesterday, lauding the opening of a Climate Science Center at the University of Alaska-Anchorage.

Murkowski called Alaska, “ground zero for climate change and natural choice,” for the center. She continued by saying she hopes it will, “add some much needed rigor to the field of climate science while expanding upon the already substantial advances in climate science made by the University system.”

With regards to her first statement, the Alaskan senator is right on the money. Few places in the United States have seen the effects of climate change like Alaska has, with melting coastlines and rising sea levels. The effects certainly have made it much more difficult for Sarah Palin to see Russia from her back porch.

A climate science center at the Anchorage university makes perfect sense for the reasons Murkowski mentioned, mostly that so much data exists within the state.

However, if Murkowski has her way with her Dirty Air Act, that center might have to be moved inland as the university sits near the water on an inlet of the Gulf of Alaska. Instead of allowing the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases causing climate change, Murkowski wants to prevent that action. She wants to make this move without first passing any sort of comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation that would cap carbon.

In addition, as far as the legislation goes, Murkowski has said her vote would only come with drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, something that was rejected even by a pro-drilling Congress.

So, while we’re hoping this statement is more than political and that Murkowski actually believes climate change exists, we’re skeptical. With one side of her mouth she praises scientists, while with the other side she denies scientific findings.

Feels like we just don’t know who you are anymore, Lisa, except that you’re well-funded by Big Oil and utilities.