Climate 411

Joe Romm’s ‘Straight Up’ is a great resource for fact seekers on climate

Joseph Romm is the author of ClimateProgess.org and was voted the “Web’s most influential climate-change blogger” in 2009. His new work is titled Straight Up-America’s fiercest climate blogger takes on the status-quo media, politicians, and clean energy solutions.

Straight Up is well-researched, provides insightful political analysis, and showcases compelling data on the economic benefits of climate change solutions. As Joe notes:

“So the bottom line is that the economic cost of action is low, whereas the cost of inaction is incalculably greater-what exactly is the ‘price’ of 5 feet of sea level rise in 2100…and losing all of the inland glaciers that provide a significant fraction of water to a billion people? Or the price of losing half the world’s species?”

“China has a excellent track record of achieving gains in energy efficiency and has begun to ramp up its efficiency efforts and aggressively expand its carbon-free electricity targets(recently committing, for instance, to triple its wind goal to 100,000 MW by 2020).”

“…will the United States be a global leader in creating jobs and exports in clean energy technologies or will we be importing them from Europe, Japan, and the likely clean energy leader in our absence, China.”

“A 20 percent reduction in global emissions might be possible in a quarter century with net economic benefits!”

Purchase Straight Up by Joseph J. Romm

Posted in Climate Change Legislation / Comments are closed

Find your way with our new Roadmap to Corporate Green House Gas Programs

Want to start cutting your company’s greenhouse gas emissions but feeling overwhelmed by your options?  Here at EDF we know how you feel.  That’s why we put together a new Roadmap to Corporate GHG Programs [PDF], a step-by-step guide to help companies develop a strategy for GHG emissions that can lead to credible and lasting reductions.  The Caution! sidebars highlight some of the trickier parts – such as how to avoid green-washing scams.

Read more on EDF’s Innovation Exchange blog, and let us know if we’ve missed any.  You’ll be glad you did!

Posted in Greenhouse Gas Emissions / Comments are closed

EPA Proposes New Rules for Reporting Methane Emissions

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed new rules for reporting greenhouse gas emission, including some that would require the oil and gas industry to collect data on its emissions by this coming January.

One of the public benefits of the new rules would be more disclosure about methane emissions.  Methane has a warming potential 24 times that of carbon dioxide.

EDF attorney Pamela Campos says:

Rigorous emissions data is the foundation of well-designed public policy … The public has been left in the dark about methane emissions from the oil and gas industry. EPA’s leadership in requiring disclosure of this potent greenhouse gas will mean more rigorous information and smarter policies to address pollution.

Read more from EPA here, and EDF’s reaction here.

Posted in News / Read 1 Response

Weyerhaeuser Joins USCAP

The USCAP family has grown again.

Weyerhaeuser, one of the world’s biggest timber and paper products companies, announced today that it has joined the United States Climate Action Partnership.

That brings USCAP’s membership to 29 companies and NGO’s. The widely diverse members have all banded together to support passage of strong climate and clean energy legislation in Congress.

Weyerhaeuser joins such “strange bedfellows” as Shell Oil, Duke Energy, PepsiCo, General Electric, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy– and, of course, EDF.

In a statement, Weyerhaeuser CEO Dan Fulton said:

The role of forest fiber in a low carbon economy will depend on the public policy concepts under debate in Washington, D.C. … we believe our membership [in USCAP] will help positively position sustainable forestry, biomass and forest products in these important policy discussions.

EDF is always happy to welcome another ally in the fight for a strong climate policy. We don’t always agree with Weyerhaeuser — or the other USCAP companies — on every issue. But the fact that such divergent voices all agree on this issue underscores how vital a climate bill is to our entire economy.

More details are in the New York Times and The Hill.

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72-Hour Campaign Generates 300,000 Calls

Our regular readers will remember this recent post about the launch of our 72 Hours for Clean American Power calling campaign. EDF joined forces with 10 fellow environmental organizations to flood the Senate with calls demanding action on climate change legislation.

We’re happy to say the campaign was a big success.  An amazing 300,000 of you called our Senate hotline during those 72-hours.

We can’t thank you enough for your efforts. You made sure that the Senate got your message: America needs a comprehensive climate and clean energy bill, and we need it now.

Lots of you have told us that you’d like to do even more.  Keep in mind that our 100,000 letter campaign is still going on. You can make sure your Senators get the same message in writing — that a climate and clean energy bill should be a national priority.

Posted in News / Read 1 Response

Can the U.S. Compete with China? Fred Krupp Says “Yes”

China’s growing economic power is a growing concern for many Americans. Can the U.S. continue to compete with China in the global marketplace?

In a new piece for Reuters, EDF President Fred Krupp says “yes” — through the power of comprehensive climate and energy legislation.

Fred talks about the new “tripartisan” effort to pass a climate and clean energy bill in the U.S. Senate.

He also talks about how that effort is our best hope to beat China in the world’s clean energy markets — and win the jobs those markets create:

Along with Sens. Graham, Kerry, and Lieberman, I believe we can match the scale of China’s centralized industrial policy by fully deploying the engine of American prosperity: our marketplace. It is the only tool we have with the scale and capital to compete with China. If the U.S. puts a limit on carbon pollution, we will send a clear signal to the marketplace that will unleash a massive wave of private investment in low-carbon energy sources and technologies like carbon capture and storage that would allow us to compete with the Chinese. Only when American policy creates a profit motive for investors, inventors and entrepreneurs, will we have a chance to win the race.

You can read the full piece here.

Posted in Climate Change Legislation, News, Policy / Read 5 Responses