Cap and Trade is working -- in the U.S.

You may be forgiven for forgetting that all the Northeast states (except Pennsylvania) got together a couple of years ago and set up a cap and trade for carbon emissions. Since then, all the focus has been on Congress, and the momentum lost when the Senate refused to act on the House's early passage of a decent bill. Meanwhile, the Northeast state deal launched, and now has a report card. The report, according to Sightline, is good. Not perfect, but good. Cap and trade works.

Grading RGGI's First Year

Sightline Daily - Northwest News that Matters

California Adopts Bill to Allow Homeowners to Sell Their Solar Energy | Inhabitat

Bill has flaws (why cap the amount of excess energy that can be resold?) but it's...progress. California Adopts Bill to Allow Homeowners to Sell Their Solar Energy | Inhabitat

Bill Gates: the Most Important Climate Speech of the Year

Worldchanging.org's Alex Steffen explains why. Gates now says his top priority is to drive carbon emissions to zero. Why didn't this make front-page news in newspapers? Or on network television? Or anywhere? The summary is great, but you can probably find the original, if you want, on TED.com, the site associated with the famous meetings of the smart and accomplished (as opposed to rich and famous, or wannabes, etc.) The key points are that he thinks it's necessary to get to zero, and perhaps he can convince other people with money and power. Read and pass it on. Steffens points out a few important gaps in Gates' analysis (like the necessity of preserving and restoring ecosystems) but the endorsement of zero (as opposed to the incremental, "politically feasible" goals of even the best politicians) as a goal is a huge step.

Worldchanging: Bright Green: Bill Gates: the Most Important Climate Speech of the Year

Friedman cuts to the chase: Global Weirding Is Here - NYTimes.com

Thomas Friedman is now a certified member of the talking heads (lowercase, fortunately, for lovers of the musical group), but he spent many years as a journalist, and that training stands him in good stead here, in allowing him to cut through the haze and state the facts in simple language. In addition to his points, I would add two more:

1. Climate change deniers should be held to the same standard of accuracy and responsibility for their statements as they say they think climate change scientists are falling short of. (Friedman would never let a sentence that twisted out into public.)

2. Certainty is not the gold standard of science, nor should it be for policy. The evidence is merely overwhelming, and that should be enough!

Op-Ed Columnist - Global Weirding Is Here - NYTimes.com

Search for 'Jetsons family' to test home - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Search for 'Jetsons family' to test home - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

I don't qualify, since we don't have children at home...so you go for it! What bothers me is the low goal: "20-50%" energy savings. If you're running true experiments at the cutting edge, you should aiming far beyond 50% savings, considering the number of homes already at zero net or better.

If the Senate won't act, Obama can still do a lot, by Executive Order 13514

His action takes a little-noticed Executive Order by Bush a couple of years ago, the next logical step. With the Federal government the nation's very largest user of energy (and buyer of telephones and vehicles, and so on), this will create a market that will pull the manufacturers in.

President Obama Sets Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Target for Federal Operations | The White House

Congress, without doing anything on its own, wants to block EPA

Both Sides Gird for Bruising Senate Debate Over EPA Amendment - NYTimes.com

And there's the North Dakota Democrat, Pomeroy, on the House side: http://bit.ly/7OB34j

Click this Moveon.org link to add your name to the petition to your Congressional representatives to stop this:

http://pol.moveon.org/cleanairactvote/o.pl?id=18533-9233186-7PpFVVx&t=3

The petition says: "Congress must not block the Clean Air Act's limits on global warming pollution."