An all-star cast of the leading voices in the new Obama era is convening at the Newseum in Washington DC to discuss the future of U.S. energy policy. The National Clean Energy Project follows a similar meeting convened by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) last summer in Nevada. But much has changed in the past few months. The new administration — including Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and White House energy adviser Carol Browner — have committed to a multibillion investment in a new clean energy grid with the economic recovery act signed into law last week by President Obama.

The live webcast of the event can be seen at NationalCleanEnergyProject.org.

Joe Romm is liveblogging the summit at ClimateProgress. The Wonk Room is liveblogging the summit below.

Former senator Tim Wirth of Colorado introduces the meeting.

10:30 PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON

Every time before in the last thirty years when I started this … every time oil dropped people said give my Hummer back. They’re not saying that any more. I want to thank everybody this economic recovery bill has good things in it and I’m grateful as a citizen. We have to maximize the value of this economic recovery. The big short-term gains in jobs and greenhouse gas reductions are in energy efficiency advances.

10:35 VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE

We really do have a planetary emergency. This sounds shrill to many ears. We’re still not used to thinking in those terms. We’ve seen the oil price roller coaster. This roller coaster’s headed for a crash and we’re in the front car.

10:45 HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI

We have to hold together or we will all regret the missed opportunity.

10:55 T. BOONE PICKENS

Geothermal does not operate an eighteen-wheeler. Get realistic… I’m running out of time. But we are going to have an energy policy in America.

11:00 JOHN PODESTA, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS ACTION FUND

We have to recognize we’re living through a terrible recession, a dependence on fossil fuels, and the almost existential threat of global warming.

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Our guest blogger is Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

In his first days, Interior Secretary Salazar, the self-proclaimed “new sheriff in town” (note the cowboy hat), has made some welcome first steps. But these will be only feckless feints unless followed by meaningful action:

– In his first trip, he went back to Denver to read the riot act to Minerals Management Service staff where last fall’s infamous sex and cocaine partying with oil lobbyists was exposed. Salazar issued a new code of ethics that consisted of the previous rules, based on the curious notion that the revelers did not know what the rules were. Significantly, he was silent on sweetheart royalty deals that are costing taxpayers billions;

– He suspended 77 Bureau of Land Management oil leases near national parks in Utah. The Washington Post called this a “clear signal,” but on examination it is a bit more ambiguous. These leases were already enjoined by a court action brought by conservation groups and the Secretary withdrew them for further review, so they may be re-offered. Moreover, Salazar has not commented on the underlying BLM policies that have turned much of the Rocky Mountain West into a pin cushion; and

– Most recently, he delayed Bush offshore drilling plans for six months so that a “comprehensive” plan could be developed. His action takes none of the Outer Continental Shelf off the table and the final policy may call for just as many oil rigs off America’s coasts but sprouting wind turbines above the derricks.

When directly confronted with the first case of political manipulation of science – involving needed Colorado River flows through the Grand Canyon (charges leveled by the park superintendent no less) – Sheriff Salazar ducked. Meanwhile, the Park Service started a witch hunt for how PEER obtained the documents.

One big cause for unease is that Salazar keeps talking about “energy independence” as his top goal, similar to the Dick Cheney philosophy of maximizing energy production on public lands regardless of the toll. It is still not clear how much Salazar’s actions will ultimately differ from Cheney’s. With the top ranks at Interior remaining unfilled, who those slots go to may tell a lot.

Announcing that “the time for reform has arrived,” Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar set aside the Bush administration’s “midnight timetable” for offshore drilling. “On Friday, January 16, its last business day in office,” Salazar explained in today’s press conference, “the Bush Administration proposed a new five year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing.” The Bush plan called for the completion of meetings and hearings by March 23. Salazar decried this “broken process”:

It was a headlong rush of the worst kind. It was a process rigged to force hurried decisions based on bad information. It was a process tilted toward the usual energy players while renewable energy companies and the interests of American consumers and taxpayers were overlooked.

Salazar announced he “will extend the public comment period by 180 days, get a report on offshore energy resources, hold regional conferences and expedite rulemaking for offshore renewable energy resources.”

Salazar made it clear that his definition of “energy independence” does not mean a “drill only” future. He rebuked the “oil and gas or nothing” approach of the Bush administration, who ignored the Energy Policy Act of 2005′s mandate to develop regulations for offshore renewables:

I intend to do what the Bush Administration refused to do: build a framework for offshore renewable energy development, so that we incorporate the great potential for wind, wave, and ocean current energy into our offshore energy strategy. The Bush Administration was so intent on opening new areas for oil and gas offshore that it torpedoed offshore renewable energy efforts.

Salazar, who comes from a long line of Colorado ranchers, is famed for wearing a cowboy hat as often as possible. Now it’s clear why he always wears a cowboy hat — Salazar’s the new sheriff in town.