Climate change almost reached par with health care reform on news feeds this past week. Articles under the Sunroom Desk Paperweight for the past few days cover government and industry actions to address carbon emissions.
The Glendale News Press featured the award of $26.5 million in Environmental Protection Agency grants to “retrofit and replace diesel engines in construction vehicles, cargo-handling equipment, school buses, heavy-duty trucks and locomotives in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.”
The LA Times reported that 1,000 mayors across the U.S. agreed to meet Kyoto protocol targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, signing an agreement which was announced at the conclusion of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. (Glendale does not appear on the list of 133 California cities.)
The Wall Street Journal wrote about carbon emission regulatory schemes and their implications for energy companies last week: Articles Monday and Tuesday focused on utilities quitting membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of its stance on climate change legislation. By the end of the week Nike had quit as well. The journal article commented:
In a way, Nike’s protest was easier to see coming than the departure of PG&E, PNM, and Exelon. Nike is one of the members of the BICEP coalition, or Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy.
That group—which includes other big-name companies such as Levi Strauss, Starbucks, and Sun Microsystems—has been urging tough climate legislation since it was created; none of its members are power companies or other firms that would be in the cross-hairs of climate legislation.
And yesterday, CSpan discussed with Senator Barbara Boxer the Senate climate change bill she introduced last week.