JAN 29

Many of us were disappointed by the State of the Union address Wednesday night.  Sure the president stressed the importance of a climate bill and clean energy development, but he also committed to pursuing more nuclear energy, new offshore oil drilling and "clean" coal.

That makes today's announcement that the Federal Government will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 28 percent by 2020 very welcome news.  The largest energy consumer in the U.S. will cut its emissions by making gains in efficiency and using more renewable energy.  The government spent $24.5 billion on electricity and fuel in 2008 alone and hopes to save $8 - 11 billion over the next decade through this initiative.

Each agency had to submit a 2020 emission reduction target from their 2008 baseline and the 28 percent reduction goal is an aggregate of those reports.  The Office of Management and Budget will validate and score each agency's plan and annual progress will by reported online to the public.

You can check out some of the emission cutting projects that are underway here.

via White House release

Comments (3)

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written by J. Welch, January 31, 2010

Greenhouse gas, that's a good one. Better output some more, because the Earth's on an extended cooling cycle. Sorry, fraudulent data is not proof, Waldo.

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written by Timetrvlr, January 31, 2010

I watched Obama's address too and I was also distressed by this: "...the president stressed the importance of a climate bill and clean energy development, but he also committed to pursuing more nuclear energy, new offshore oil drilling and "clean" coal."

But, let's be realistic, we have no choice but too continue using coal and oil and nuclear until we can ramp up "smart grids" and build a national grid system that will permit us to access renewables that are being built now. It takes time to do a complete rebuild of our national energy systems because of the massive scale of the task.

The thing is, we have to start sometime and now is the best time to do it.

"... the Federal Government will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 28 percent by 2020" This is good news too, at least the Federal Government will be leading the way and I assume most of the reductions will be the result of energy conservation measures being implemented. Energy conservation is still the most immediate and effective strategy for reducing GHG emissions.

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written by jeremy, February 08, 2010

Why are we cheerleading a reduction from 2008 levels? Most of the world uses the 1990 kyoto baseline as a standard for comparison. To evaluate these commitments we need to work from a standard baseline and start holding the gov to account. So, what is the reduction from 1990 levels? 4%, 5%, 7%?

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