Focusing on positives and our possibilities

[Robb Hirsch]

Among the skepticism that has abounded regarding the United States' climate and clean energy leadership, there are some remarkable glimmers of hope of late that are worth not only acknowledging but giving our energizing attention to - as follows:

(1) The Federal Government and US Auto industry have established outstanding fuel efficiency standards over the coming decade(s) that will lead the world and effectively double our fuel economy to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. “This is truly a watershed moment,” Michelle Robinson, director of Union of Concerned Scientists Clean Vehicles program said in a statement. “These standards will protect consumers from high gas prices, curb global warming pollution, cut our oil use, and create new jobs in the American auto industry and around the nation.” Find out more about this extraordinary step in the direction of national clean energy leadership at http://www.freep.com/article/20120828/BUSINESS01/120828029/CAFE-mpg...

(2) There is a growing dynamic underway, with the confluence of EPA clean air rules now being enforced, of phasing out coal plants in favor of natural gas fired combined cycle and potentially new renewables. As a result of this new transformation, electric generation combustion based CO2 emissions are decreasing at an encouraging rate. Never-the-less, the American public must not be complacent as this transition unfolds but rather we need to be actively vigilant to insist on more renewable forms of energy as coal comes off line and ensure that as gas use increases, proper attention is given to cleaning up the extraction side of natural gas, wherein intense amounts of methane which is a more potent greenhouse gas is leaking into the atmosphere. For much more detail on the growing transformation underway from coal to natural gas and renewables refer to http://www.cleanlineenergy.com/sites/cleanline/media/resources/Natu....

(3) Amid all the political divisiveness and destructive partisanship which holds our country back from achieving vast potential, there is a growing consensus across party lines that the United States should act to limit greenhouse gas emissions to address global climate change and embrace cleaner energies. Read more on this encouraging development at Yale’s climate education hub http://environment.yale.edu/climate/news/Political-Benefits-Pro-Cli....

Let's as Americans not only learn about these developments but build on and harness them while forging new frontiers so we can enact on a wide-scale the vital climate leadership and clean energy transformation so very needed in this era. Let’s do so for the sake of our prosperity and competiveness in the world, for our health and national security and let's do so to uphold our generation’s integrity in the spirit of a more hopeful future.