In the continued absence of comprehensive national climate change policy, we need to evaluate the potential of existing regulatory authority to get reductions in global warming pollution. A recent analysis called Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the United States Using Existing Authorities and State Action completed by the World Resources Institute (WRI) reports on three scenarios for federal agency and state government action to reduce emissions. WRI labeled these scenarios "Lackluster" "Middle of the Road" and "Go-Getter" scenarios, respectively. For each scenario, WRI evaluated the opportunities to reduce emissions and the real-world limits on those prospective actions.

WRI calculated the potential for greenhouse gas emissions reductions with aggressive action at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and at the federal departments of Energy and Transportation using existing authorities. The study found that these actions could put the U.S. on a trajectory to meet the Obama Administration's 2020 target of achieving U.S. emissions reduction of 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with a mission to understand and predict changes in the earth's environment, has released its comprehensive appraisal of Earth's climate, 2009 State of the Climate. The report examines comprehensive data from multiple sources, based on observations spanning the globe from the poles to the equator, and confirms that the past decade was the warmest on record.

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It’s hot outside my window in Saint Paul, Minnesota—that’s no surprise, as it’s the heart of summer and we expect hot weather here at 45 degrees north latitude. But what’s happening with the Earth’s climate? A new report from our National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provides the pertinent data that help us understand the global climate and look beyond the weather outside our windows.

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 The American Power Act now under discussion in the U.S. Senate would establish--for the very first time--effective U.S. national limits on global warming pollution. While the reductions are not deep enough to protect our climate future, they would put our country on the right path to driving investments in clean energy jobs and ending our dependence on oil.

The emissions limits would start in 2013, with targets of 17 percent reductions below 2005 levels by 2020, and get tighter every year, reaching 83 percent reductions by 2050. Fresh Energy will be blogging regularly to comment on the provisions needed to ensure that we meet these limits.

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National discount retailer Target Corporation, headquartered in Minneapolis, and Richfield, MN-based Best Buy Corporation recently joined Business for Innovative Energy and Climate Policy (BICEP), a coalition of major American businesses pushing hard for the U.S. to enact comprehensive energy independence and climate legislation.

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Wondering how decision makers are doing on creating rules for a low carbon economy? In 2007, the Minnesota legislature passed the Next Generation Energy Act, including setting science-based goals for global warming pollution reductions in Minnesota. We need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the economy by at least 30 percent by 2025, and 80 percent by 2050. The state's Climate Change Advisory Group recommended actions needed to meet those reduction targets; in November, citizens will elect a new legislature and governor that will be responsible for enacting - or not enacting - the policy actions needed to unleash Minnesota's clean energy jobs potential. At the federal level, in 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an economy-wide limit on carbon pollution. Now in spring 2010, the U.S. Senate may be ready to act on a comprehensive energy and climate bill to address this urgent economic and environmental issue.

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The Geological Society of America this week updated the organization's position statement on climate change. The GSA is a scientific society, founded in 1888 and with over 22,000 members. It was founded to promote the geosciences in the service of humankind.

From the April 2010 Geological Society of America climate change position statement:

"Recent scientific investigations have strengthened the case for policy action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to unavoidable climate change. To strengthen the consensus for action, this statement from the Geological Society of America is intended to inform policymakers about improved knowledge of Earth's climate system based on advanced in climate science..."

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Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finalized new fuel economy standards for motor vehicles, in combination with the first-ever federal greenhouse gas emissions reductions requirements in the United States. The new standards apply to passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks in model years 2012 through 2016, and are designed to cause the average fuel economy of new vehicles to increase to 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. They require that automakers reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the new vehicle fleet by about 5 percent each year from 2012 through 2016. The new standards are projected to save 1.8 BILLION barrels of oil and about 960 million metric tons of global warming pollution over the lifetime of the vehicles. This is the equivalent of the pollution reduction benefits of taking 32 million cars off the road.

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Stanford University communications researcher Dr. Jon Krosnick has released an analysis of his latest public opinion survey on American's perceptions of global warming. Dr. Krosnick, a Senior Fellow at Stanford's Woods Institute, presented his research findings on March 12 at a climate briefing hosted by the American Meteorological Society. The survey was funded by Stanford and the Associated Press (AP). Visit http://woods.stanford.edu/research/majority-believe-global-warming.html for more information and a YouTube video with Dr. Krosnick.

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I recommend that you take 10 minutes to watch this powerful new video, in which Peter Sinclair lays out the basic evidence - from many fields of research - that global warming is occurring and is primarily caused by human choices to burn coal, oil, and natural gas.

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