Urge your Representative to Support Renewable Energy

A new bill has been introduced in the congress calling for 20% of energy from utililities to come from renewable sources. By using Solar, wind, geothermal and energy from crops we could reduce our use of fossil fuels and reduce our carbon emissions that cause global warming.

The Union of Concerned Scientists have a easy to fill out form to ask your congressman or woman to vote for it. So what are you waiting for? Ask them!


Technorati tags: global warming, renewable energy, solar power, alternative energy, green power

Global warming heats up in Washington

Washington state politicians tackled climate change with increased gusto today.
From the state to the local level, calls were made for various solutions including conservation, emission caps and plugin-hybrids.

They have some catch up to do with their sister states, California and Oregon. There is talk of a Carbon trading system that between Oregon and Washington . The governor, Gregoire called for the tripling funding for clean energy jobs. There is a comparison of the efforts of the three states.

For the full story: Plans to combat global warming heat up


Technorati tags: climate change, global warming, politics

Bush finally addresses climate change

Last night in his state of the union address, Bush publicly admitted we need to address climate change. In the past, Bush has said there was debate whether global warming was caused by human activity. The solution he previously proposed was using technology to solve this problem but did not define how or what technology would be used.

In the state of the union, Bush connected it to our dependence on foreign oil. How by improving fuel efficiency standards, the use of plug-in hybrids and increasing ethanol and biodiesel production we can reduce our oil consumption and address climate change. He also mention using nuclear power, "clean coal", solar and wind as other energy solutions.

How much of this rhetoric will impact legislation is debatable since Bush's power has subsided with his lack of public support and the Democratic controlled congress. I believe his change in tune is a reaction to the external pressure of corporations and individuals that believe the time is now for the US to address climate change.

Kicking into full gear - 2007, the year we get serious about global warming

I predict that 2007 will be remembered as the year Global Warming became a central issue in the United States. True, 2006 was a turning point in awareness. Hurricanes in the States reached an all time high. Films like Inconvenient Truthand Too Hot to Handle were released. Religious evangelists called for action. American Companies such as Walmart and Google invested in and promoted "green" practices.

But now with the change in congress we could finally see a carbon tax or other solutions. There are currently a few different bills introduced to solve this problem.

First is the Lieberman, McCain and now Obama solution. It calls for caps on emissions from power plants, industry and oil refineries. Unfortunately President Bush is not in favor of caps for the fear of hurting the economy. At least by having two potential presidential candidates on this bill, we can expect climate change to be an issue in the 2008 election.

Second is the bills sponsored by Senators Dianne Feinstein of California and Thomas R. Carper of Delaware which are sponsored by the utility companies. These bills also include caps.

Third is the bill sponsored by Barbara Boxer which also mentions caps but also includes funding for renewable and new emission standards for cars. Senator Boxer now the the head of the head of the U.S. Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee. She replaced Sen. James Inhofe who was skeptical of global warming. He even once called it a "hoax". Senator Boxer also recognizes that we can go beyond caps by increasing the efficiency of buildings and cars.

Hopefully this will be the year the federal government addresses global warming. We have the technology to stop it now we just need the political will.