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Brian Keane
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Twice named “Connecticut’s Environmental Hero,” Brian F. Keane is president of SmartPower, a Washington, DC-based non-profit marketing organization dedicated to promoting clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency. SmartPower’s award-winning marketing campaigns have engaged hundreds of thousands of people across the country, prompting them to buy clean energy and reduce their carbon footprints.

With coast-to-coast operations, SmartPower has become the clean energy industry’s leading marketing organization. For their efforts, Keane and SmartPower have been recognized with numerous awards, including a 2010 Clean Air Excellence Award from the Environmental Protection Agency, recognizing SmartPower’s “America’s Greenest Campus” energy efficiency campaign. Other accolades include the coveted Green Power Pilot Award presented by the EPA and the US Department of Energy; four Gold Awards from the Service Industry Advertising Awards (SIAA); and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection’s Green Circle Award. In 2005 Keane was recognized as one of Connecticut’s “Outstanding Forty Under 40.” In 2009, he was offered a senior-level presidential appointment to the US Department of Energy, an opportunity he turned down in order to stay at SmartPower.

A former advisor to the late Senator Paul Tsongas (D-MA) and congressional aide to Representative Les Aspin (D-WI), Keane has an extensive background in nonprofit management, political organizing and communications. He has used this experience to create organizations that challenge conventional wisdom and help to set the national agenda. Keane was one of the architects of The Concord Coalition, a nationwide non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating the federal budget deficit. He was also the founding executive director of Economic Security 2000 (ES 2000), the nation's first nonpartisan, grass-roots organization dedicated to saving and reforming Social Security. Keane’s testimony before the U.S. Congress helped make ES 2000 a recognized national leader in the debate on Social Security reform. Former presidents Clinton and Bush both recognized ES 2000 as a valuable resource in the discussion on Social Security.

At SmartPower, Keane combines his passion for the environment with a marketer’s commitment to creating compelling messages that resonate with the general public, not just the converted. As such, Keane is a much sought-after interview and presenter on clean energy and energy efficiency. He has spoken extensively across the nation, internationally and with local and national media.

Keane is a 1989 graduate of The American University in Washington, DC, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism and Political Science. The tenth in a family of eleven children, Keane served as the chairman of his eldest brother’s successful campaign for the Boston City Council and his brother’s subsequent race for the U.S. Congress in Massachusetts’ eighth congressional district in 1998. Keane was briefly a candidate for the Massachusetts State Senate in 2002.

Keane serves as the president of the American University Alumni Association and sits on the board of directors of the Vermont-based Clean Energy Group. He is also a member of the Solar Foundation’s board of directors.

Keane and his wife, Kate Sawyer Keane, live in Arlington, VA, with their four children.

Blog Entries by Brian Keane

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs or Really Solar, Solar, Solar

(1) Comments | Posted November 21, 2012 | 1:10 PM

Well, it seems since the release of my book Green Is Good things have really been moving in the clean energy industry! No -- I'm not speaking about the reelection of President Obama. Nor am I even referencing the reemergence of climate change in the wake of Hurricane...

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Republicans At Home In The Sunshine State

(0) Comments | Posted August 29, 2012 | 2:05 PM

As the Republicans gather in Tampa this week for a delayed nominating convention, the conventional wisdom is that a gathering in "the Sunshine State" is a bit ironic for a party that seems to occasionally enjoy bashing solar power. Voters would be forgiven for thinking that the Republicans are unified...

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Green Is Good: It's Not an Illusion

(3) Comments | Posted August 22, 2012 | 8:02 PM

I've read several reviews of Ozzie Zehner's book, Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism, and I must say, they've all been too kind. This is a book that claims to teach undergraduate and graduate students to critique the way we think...

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Earth Day Energy Quiz Yields Alarming Results

(2) Comments | Posted April 25, 2012 | 4:15 PM

Rather than telling people how to be more energy efficient this Earth Day, SmartPower decided to test consumers' knowledge of energy efficiency with a 10-question quiz. Instead of receiving the varied results we expected, we noticed that there were some surprisingly common incorrect answers.

For example, we asked:...

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America's Pastime and Its Clean Energy Future

(3) Comments | Posted April 10, 2012 | 7:28 PM

Baseball is back and the outfield has never looked so green!

And I say this knowing that back in 2004, SmartPower created an award winning series of television ads that featured sports stadiums from across the nation using clean energy. The ad showed that even back then,...

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Green Lethargy Among College Students? Not So Fast!

(3) Comments | Posted April 5, 2012 | 4:43 PM

As we begin Earth Month, it would seem that we're seeing conventional wisdom turned on its head. I'm talking, of course, about the widespread assumption that college students are spearheading the renewed green movement across our nation. Indeed, it's been thought that the so-called Millennials will help us not only...

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Top 10 Green Spring Cleaning Tips

(4) Comments | Posted March 19, 2012 | 8:33 PM

Since we survived winter -- if you can call it that -- and have already begun the transition to spring, I wanted to share some of my favorite green, spring cleaning tips. And of course, with Saint Patrick's Day just behind us... what better time to be green?

1. Give...

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Super Bowl XLVI: A Super Renewable Opportunity

(2) Comments | Posted January 31, 2012 | 10:21 PM

Can a sporting event as massive as the Super Bowl be considered even remotely green?

Yes -- although we'll disregard the fact that Indianapolis's Lucas Oil Stadium is hosting this year's game.

The Super Bowl expends an enormous amount of energy. But that doesn't mean it should go to...

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Obama's Solar Story Shows Success, Not Failure

(13) Comments | Posted January 19, 2012 | 5:05 PM

As the election season shifts into high gear, we're bracing ourselves for more stories about Solyndra and other so-called "scandals" of the Obama administration.

But let's not kid ourselves -- Solyndra is a sideshow to the real, incredibly exciting story of solar power over the course of this administration.

Here's...

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Top 10 Green Energy Tips for the Holidays

(1) Comments | Posted December 16, 2011 | 5:23 PM

Don't tell me the coal industry doesn't have a lock on the holidays! After all, what does Santa leave in the stockings of bad little boys and girls? (Hint: Not solar panels.)

Here are my top 10 tips for a happy and sustainable holiday season, from LED Christmas...

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Energy Department's Top Efficiency Programs Save Money and Create Jobs

(0) Comments | Posted December 6, 2011 | 4:34 PM

If there's one item on the energy agenda that's managed to remain free of controversy, it's energy efficiency. There's no doubt about it -- wasting energy is bad. And indeed, saving energy is not only good for the environment, and our national security. It's also good for our wallets. Remember...

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Poll Finds Large, Bipartisan Majority of Americans Support Solar

(0) Comments | Posted November 22, 2011 | 12:41 PM

The headlines recently on solar power seem to portend the end of the gravy train for the clean energy industry. From Solyndra to EverGreen, the conventional wisdom seems to be saying that the glory days of solar power are dwindling.

But the conventional wisdom couldn't be more wrong.

Americans overwhelmingly...

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For Clean Energy, Politics Is Bad Business

(9) Comments | Posted November 16, 2011 | 10:30 AM

Juliet Eilperin's and Jon Cohen's Nov. 10 Washington Post story about the growing gulf between Democrats' and Republicans' views on renewable energy paints a grim picture of our country's stalled clean energy future. As it says, "support for putting federal funds into alternative energy sources such as wind,...

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The Real Meaning of "Smart Power"

(0) Comments | Posted November 9, 2011 | 11:44 AM

When I picked up my copy of this week's Time magazine, I was momentarily stopped in my tracks by Massimo Calabresi's cover story: "Hillary Clinton and the Rise of Smart Power."

It was a great read -- but I couldn't help but think that, in discussing the...

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Garden State? More Like Sunshine State

(4) Comments | Posted October 13, 2011 | 12:01 PM

Last week I watched New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie turn his 15 minutes of fame into an hour-long press conference. As far as I'm concerned, Christie -- and the national media -- missed the real story coming out of New Jersey.

A new Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) report confirms...

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At Solar Decathlon, College Eco-Stars Reveal True Future of Solar

(3) Comments | Posted September 30, 2011 | 6:24 PM

Our SmartPower staff recently ventured across the National Mall to visit the 2011 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, a sustainable building competition among teams of college students from across the country. We went to the Decathlon expecting to see some pretty cool houses powered by rooftop solar...

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D.C. vs. the Green Apple: In Efficiency, We're Closer Than You Think

(1) Comments | Posted September 29, 2011 | 3:59 PM

Kudos to Scientific American for putting out a special issue on "Better, greener, smarter cities."

The issue is chock-full of interesting data, ranging from the technological to the anthropological. But what I liked most about the edition was its emphasis on green building as the future of urban...

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New Job Growth Numbers Tell the Larger Story of Solar

(21) Comments | Posted September 20, 2011 | 11:40 AM

Let's face it: Solyndra wasn't a winner. But it was the company's inability to keep up with rapidly declining solar panel costs -- not its focus on clean energy technology -- that led to its demise.

Nevertheless, the associated job losses and pique of political scandal have overshadowed the...

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Beyond Solyndra: DOE Invests Big Time in Next Generation of Eco-Stars

(0) Comments | Posted September 15, 2011 | 10:09 AM

We're all reading some uncomfortable reports in the news today about Solyndra, the solar company that declared bankruptcy last month and is now the target of a House investigation. It's tough to see good people and good intentions dragged before a Congressional Committee all to score some political...

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America's Next Eco-Star: The Cross-Campus Search Begins

(0) Comments | Posted September 8, 2011 | 7:58 PM

I recently wrote an op-ed in Politico about the remarkable work college students are doing across the country to drive clean energy and energy efficiency improvements on their campuses. As those students head back to school, it's time to showcase their efforts -- which is why I'm announcing...

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