CHARTER FOR energyNOW!

Introduction

energyNOW! is a new half-hour weekly TV news-magazine and opinion program designed to inform and engage Americans on the most pressing energy issues of the day. It was created in response to two overlapping crises.

First, America’s energy future is at a crossroads. The country faces multiple far reaching challenges that are both urgent and complex.

These include: addressing America’s unsustainable dependence on imported oil; meeting the need for reliable and affordable electricity under tightening environmental constraints (e.g., smog and greenhouse gas emission limits); winning the global race for clean energy jobs and investment -- that is, for leadership of the next “industrial revolution;” and ensuring that our energy resources are used as wisely and efficiently as possible.

How these issues are resolved will have a very large impact on America’s future place in the world -- its national security and the economic well-being of its citizens -- for decades to come.

Second, even as the country begins to confront these challenges, many people find that in-depth, scientifically grounded reporting on the key energy and environmental issues of the day is hard to find, particularly on TV and the Internet.

As President Obama recently put it at the annual dinner for the White House press corps:

Today's technology has made it possible for us to get our news and information from a growing range of sources. We can pick and choose not only our preferred type of media, but also our preferred perspective. And while that exposes us to an unprecedented array of opinions, analysis, and points of view, it also makes it that much more important that we're all operating on a common baseline of facts.

That type of common factual denominator, the President implied, is falling by the wayside.

The Mission of energyNOW!

energyNOW! is an editorially independent news organization created to use the latest television and digital media tools to fill this reporting gap on critical energy issues.  Our newsroom is staffed by a team of veteran accredited journalists who regularly cover news events at federal agencies, the White House, the U.S. Capitol, and around the world.

The program will focus primarily on the key challenges described above – oil dependency, the future course of the electric power sector, leading the clean tech revolution and energy efficiency. The successful resolution of these issues is central to America’s future. energyNOW! will cover them week-in and week-out with the substantive and original journalism that these issues demand. And energyNOW! will put these issues into perspective, making them relatable to its viewers and focusing its reporting on how they impact our lives now and in the future.

From time to time, we will also address other subjects injected into the news cycle that influence the energy debate, such as international developments in Asia or the Middle East that affect U.S. energy options. In so doing, however, we will always keep our principal subject matter focus in mind.

Our reporting adheres to our energyNOW! News Standards and the ethical standards adopted by the Society of Professional Journalists. We disclose our sources wherever possible, per our Disclosure Policy, including the interests that sources represent.

We will pay attention to what happens in Washington, D.C. and foreign capitals -- after all, climate change and clean tech are global challenges. But we will also make sure that our news teams fan out across America, because we know that the solutions to the energy challenges we face are as likely to emerge first in the market place, before state legislatures, public utility commissions and town halls, as on Capitol Hill. That is why we will also stay connected to local businesses, energy consumers, entrepreneurs and research labs, and we will visit America’s drilling sites, wind farms and filling stations.

In addition to reporting, we will also seek out informed opinion and commentary from a wide variety of sources. These opinion pieces will be appropriately distinguished from news stories.

We expect that invited commentary – including studio roundtables, debates, guest editorials and viewer opinions – will become an important part of our program. Together we hope that our news and commentary will fuel a vibrant, engaged community around energyNOW!.

energyNOW! Web Site

We aim to make our web site a central and equal partner of the energyNOW! TV show. Our web site will be used to extend the scope of our original reporting. It will also offer previews of our weekly show and 7x24 Internet access to past programs. We will use our website to build communities and to provide an interactive destination for public discussion and commentary on the energy issues covered by the show.

Consistent with our goal of contributing to the global dialog on energy and the environment, all of the programming created by energyNOW! is provided to you under a Creative Commons copyright license. With this license, we encourage you – and give you the legal right – to post energyNOW! videos to other websites, share them with others, and incorporate our reporting into your discussions and debates on these critical issues. In return, we ask that you attribute our work to us, use it for noncommercial purposes, and share it without altering it.

Disclosure of Outside Interests By Program Guests

The program will provide on-air and/or online disclosures regarding the relevant financial interests and/or affiliations, including lobbying registrations, of major guests and interview subjects.

It is against the journalistic policy of energyNOW! to provide financial or other compensation to any guest who appears in a news segment of the program. Persons who are invited to provide opinion or commentary on a regular basis may be compensated for their services.

Ombudsman

Andrew Heyward, former president of CBS News, serves as our independent ombudsman.  The ombudsman has been established to monitor the program’s editorial charter on an ongoing basis. The ombudsman is authorized to review, investigate, mediate and opine on relevant matters that may be raised by the program’s staff, on-air guests, and TV and online audiences. The ombudsman is also encouraged to disseminate the results of his or her work on the program’s web site in an appropriate way.

Program Funding 

Initial funding for energyNOW!, LLC is provided by the American Clean Skies Foundation (ACSF), a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Washington D.C. Funding for ACSF is provided, in part, by Chesapeake Energy Corporation.