Change of Climate in the 112th Congress: House Moves to Limit Regulatory Power of EPA

Urge Your Representative to Publicly Support the EPA and Its Regulations of Greenhouse Gases Under the Clean Air Act

Seemingly no sooner had the Constitution been read at the opening of the new legislative session in the House of Representatives than members of that chamber introduced bills intended to thwart the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

In particular, HR 97, the so called Free Industry Act, aims, "to amend the Clean Air Act to provide that greenhouse gases are not subject to the Act." Oh yeah, "and for other purposes," too. (We cringe at the thought of what those other purposes might be.)

HR 153, the Ensuring Affordable Energy Act, would prohibit EPA funding from being used for implementation or enforcement of a cap and trade program for greenhouse gases.

With Congress having failed to pass a comprehensive climate and energy bill in its last session, the role of the EPA in regulating emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants is more important than ever. Taking its cue from an embattled White House, the EPA has already postponed the implementation of regulations to reduce smog and the pollution generated by industrial boilers. It is now imperative that Representatives make a strong stand in support of the EPA and its lawful regulatory power under the Clean Air Act. There should be no further delay in America's fight against climate change and our transition to a healthier and more vibrant clean energy economy.

We urge our readers to Drive Change by contacting their Representatives and insisting that they support the ability of the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. A sample letter is available here.

Once you've done that, we ask that you also forward this email to a friend.

Are you a businessperson? You can also sign on to this petition to Congress from the American Sustainable Business Council.

And then, you know, forward this email to a friend.

Driving to the Future: Can China -- and the World -- Afford 2 Billion Cars?

China could have one billion cars by mid-century -- but what kind of vehicles will they be?

by David Biello, Scientific American

"China, India, can those countries do it better?" asks transportation expert Daniel Sperling of University of California, Davis. "Do they have to follow the model of the U.S. and Europe?"

In 2010, the world holds some 1.2 billion cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles, including roughly 200 million in China. But with China potentially heading towards a billion vehicles alone in the next few decades the question is: can China build the clean car of the future or will it remain stuck in the muck and mire of the past?

"The industry and the market are going to smaller, cheaper vehicles, not just China and India, but elsewhere as well," Sperling notes, and tax cuts on cars with less than 1.6 liter engines helped push sales of such vehicles to 70 percent of the Chinese market this year. But, even with cars moved by such fuel efficient engines, "if you think we have problems now with oil security and climate change, it's only going to get a lot worse unless we do something about the increasing number of vehicles."

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Additional Ways to Get Where You're Going:

It slices! It dices! ...excess electricity generated by neighborhood solar cells, that is.

A "Friendlier" Prius Might Mean a Cheaper One

"Prius Brand Now More 'Friendly' Than Cutting Edge"'

by Michael Graham Richard, Treehugger.com

What is today "cutting edge" will tomorrow be something else. That's the way technological progress works, and that's what Toyota has found is happening with its Prius brand in Japan (and most likely elsewhere soon). "Because of its high sales volume, car buyers are now more likely to think of the Prius as a 'friendly' brand than a 'leading edge' one, according to a survey conducted by Fumikazu Kitagawa of Nomura's global automotive practice.

The research institute who conducted the survey about the Prius hybrid's brand concludes that the more the prius becomes a mass-market car, the more pressure there will be on Toyota to reduce pricing to keep it competitive with its perceived competitors.

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