When, America? When?

Hello Readers,

The world (and many Americans) are asking 'When, America? When? When are you going to address your greenhouse gas emissions? When are you going to think about what climate change is going to do to your economy over the next two decades?" This past weekend the New York Times published an interesting article about the lack of climate change legislation and programs in the United States: "Where did Global Warming Go?".

The US Falls Behind

The article points out that the United States has now fallen behind every other major economic power in the world (including the E.U., China, India, Brazil, Australia) when it comes to addressing climate change. A decade ago, the U.S. and Australia were the only two nations notably absent from the Kyoto Protocol. Two years ago, I wrote about how there might be a question of forcing China's hand to level the economic playing field for the US to consider climate change legislation.

Well, instead, China has begun to implement its own programs, and Australia is in the process of passing cap-and-trade legislation. We are losing! The United States is falling behind in the drive to address climate change.

This is problematic in that the US is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. However, it may also start to negatively affect the US economy not only through a lack of 'green jobs' but also in the lack of a coherent clean energy plan. This may become especially evident as people and businesses in other countries increase their demand for products that are not only more energy efficient but also have a lower embedded carbon footprint. Products manufactured in the United States will not be able to compete in this regard if they receive energy from the electricity grid (there is too much electricity generated from fossil fuels).

US Presidential Candidates

The article also highlights the lack of climate-conscious choices in Presidential candidates in the 2012 race.

It touches upon how very little President Obama has done to truly address climate change despite his proactive stances on the issue during his campaign. His administration has had a few 'victories' here and there but has put strikingly little effort into addressing the issue. As a result, few truly notable steps have been taken by his administration.

The article also mentions the fact that every candidate in the Republican party race (with the notable exception of Jon Huntsman) either denies that climate change is occurring (or effectively does so by hiding behind the guise of 'unsettled' science).

Jon Huntsman has made multiple comments (including twitter posts) indicating that he believes what the scientists are saying about climate change. However, his campaign website makes it clear that his stance on climate change is ambiguous at best. The website states that "Governor Huntsman’s regulatory reform consists of three objectives: ... (2) reining in the Environmental Protection Agency’s job-killing regulations..." and the Energy Independence section has eight points only one of which mentions renewable energies and does not mention any policy measures to encourage them (in fact most of the points discuss policies that promote the use of Canadian tar sands and natural gas fracking).

Thus, citizens demanding action on climate change are left with almost no options at the Federal level. However, to help you along, an organization called Live Oaks Media has put together a profile of Republican candidates and their stances on climate change.

Good Luck, America ... it looks like we're going to need it!

Sean Diamond

Pennsylvania HB 1580 - Bill Introduced

Hello Readers,

Pennsylvania House Bill 1580 (to fix the SREC Market) has finally been formally introduced as legislation. It had a majority of the representatives in the General Assembly of the House as co-sponsors (publicly declared they will vote for the bill).

However, the bill needs to get passed from the Consumer Affairs committee before it can be voted upon in the House. Then, it must be passed in the Senate. Unfortunately, the bill is extremely time sensitive, so if it is delayed in committee the negative financial consequences maybe almost as bad as if the bill does not pass.

Here is a set of links to more information about the bill and the issue:

• Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act (to be amended by PA HB 1580)
• Text and voting history of the bill
• Original explanation of the SREC market issue (May 2011)
• Response to inaction on bill (September 2011)
• Updated explanation of the SREC market issue (October 2011)
• PA House Consumer Affairs Committee (in control of sending the bill to the floor of the House of the General Assembly)
• Find your legislator to tell them about your support for the bill!
• Pennsylvania Solar Advocacy Day on Monday, October 24th in Harrisburg

Please make sure to tell you legislators that you support this bill and encourage them to act as quickly as possible.

Cheers,

Sean Diamond