The Newseum, site of the 2013 Green Inaugural Ball, is centrally located on Pennsylvania Avenue in the heart of D.C. and all of the inaugural action. Choosing the Newseum as our green venue provides attendees with access to multiple green transportation options.

The 2013 Green Inaugural Ball Greening Committee encourages attendees to evaluate their options and choose the greenest mode possible for travel to the event. Transportation pollution is one of the environmental concerns where attendees can make a tangible difference. Small behavioral changes, such as riding public transportation or carpooling, can have a huge impact.

Washinton’s Metro system is one of the best options for getting around during Inaugural festivities. Flickr photo by Paulo Ordoveza.

• METRO: The Newseum is located near three metro stations. The has a Washington Metro Area Transit Authority website can help travelers plan their trip.
  • Archives/Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter Station (Green and Yellow Line)
  • Judiciary Square Station (Red Line)
  • Gallery Place-Chinatown Station (Green Line, Yellow Line and Red Line)
• BUS: There are multiple bus lines that travel within walking distance of the Newseum.  Attendees can view schedules and plan their trip by visiting the WMATA website.
• BIKE RENTAL: New to the D.C. area are bike-share kiosks. You can borrow a bike almost anywhere in the city and return it to an alternate location. To engage this service, a traveler must purchase a membership, which provides access to hundreds of bikes across the city. Find bike and kiosk locations by visiting Capital Bikeshare.
• EFFICIENT WHEELS: Secure facilities will be available for eco-friendly transportation devices, such as bicycles and scooters, to be stored during the event.
• WALK: The venue is conveniently located in downtown D.C. and is walkable from many hotels, restaurants, and metro stations
• DRIVE: If you must drive a car, consider carpooling or driving a hybrid or plug-in vehicle to reduce carbon emissions and traffic congestion.

The 2013 Green Inaugural Ball is also investigating options to offset emissions for attendee transportation to the event. More details about carbon offsets will be detailed in future posts.

If you haven’t bought your tickets yet, we strongly urge you not to wait till the last minute! General admission tickets can be purchased here.

Let us know how you plan to head to the 2013 Green Inaugural Ball. Tweet your answer to #GreenBall2013 or leave a comment below.

Shelley Cohen is Chair of the Greening Committee for the 2013 Green Inaugural Ball. Ms. Cohen is an urban eco-mom with eighteen years of experience in environment and energy-related fields. She currently serves as a Senior Project Developer for Ameresco where she specializes in developing renewable energy and energy conservation projects, and is responsible for developing over 15MWs of renewable energy. Prior employment included jobs with EPA, the White House, and the office of Senator Joseph Lieberman (CT). Ms. Cohen’s green home includes eco-friendly materials, 12kw of solar PV, a cool roof, rain barrel, organic garden, and has been featured in local and national media. Ms. Cohen serves on the board of the National Wildlife Federation, and in 2012 was trained as a Climate Leader through the Climate Reality Project.

Over at The New Republic’s The Vine, Brad Plumer discusses how sea otters make the case for capping carbon pollution & allowing trading of pollution permits:

Let’s say Congress enacted a cap-and-trade system and pollution permits were selling for about $20 a ton. If [scientist Chris] Wilmers is right and a healthy sea otter population could sequester ten million tons of carbon, that’d be worth $200 million. So polluters might decide that it’s cheaper to fund sea otter preservation programs than cut power use (at least in the short term), and new offset projects could get approved. Voila: There’s suddenly money to try this sea otter strategy. (Obviously you’d need to have regulators make sure these offset projects are actually working.)

On the other hand, if your national energy policy just consists of a bunch of flat regulations and subsidies for different energy sources, then this whole sea otter business is going to get ignored. Sure, maybe Congress will decide that sea otter preservation is something worth funding directly, but waiting for the legislature to bankroll worthwhile carbon-reduction projects is an awfully sluggish and inflexible way to do business. (Plus, who knows, maybe the urchin lobby steps into the fray.) Right now, Congress is leaning toward this regulation-and-subsidy approach to energy. But there’s an excellent case for a more flexible market-based system. Just ask the otters.

You really otter act now (sorry, had to say it) & tell your senators we need clean energy legislation with a cap on carbon pollution.

Photo via Flickr’s MikeBaird