Clean Energy & Global Warming In the News

While Congress dithers on climate change legislation, a new report says we’re actually in pretty good shape for the upcoming global warming talks in Copenhagen. The reason, according to the report, is that several states are showing strong leadership on global warming and that’s giving the U.S. a head start on reducing carbon emissions.

Although the report is national in scope, it was released locally by Environment Oregon.

Here are some of the major findings:

Capping Carbon: Six states, including California, have set caps on carbon pollution. There’s also a regional cap-and-trade program system for power plant emissions in the Northeast. These efforts will cut carbon emissions by 270 million metric tons annually by 2020. Oregon tried to create a cap-and-trade system during the last legislative session, but business groups and utilities were able to kill it.

Clean Energy: 29 states, including Oregon, now require that a certain percentage of power in the state come from renewable sources. In Oregon, we’re aiming for a 25% renewable energy standard by 2025. Meanwhile, 22 states are taking concrete steps to improve energy efficiency. Others, including Oregon, are looking at new rules on low-carbon fuel for cars and trucks.

States Are Leading By Example: California’s clean cars program has been adopted by 14 states, including Oregon and Washington. There’s an effort underway to make it a national program. That would mean 31 million fewer tons of carbon emissions every year, by 2020. States have also led the way on efficiency standards for appliances and lighting. The federal government is considering national standards.

More on this after the video…