Stanford University poll finds that about three-fourths of Americans agree that temperatures have probably been warming over the past 100 years and that human behavior is substantially responsible. In The climate majority, New York Times, June 8, 2010, the Stanford professor who commissioned the poll argues that surveys with more pessimistic results stem from how the questions are asked -- i.e., complicated, multi-faceted questions tend to confuse respondents. A third poll by the Washington Post and ABC News, Most Americans say regulate greenhouse gases, Washington Post, June 10, 2010, shows 71% of Americans back federal regulation of the release of heat-trapping gases from sources like power plants, cars, and factories to reduce climate disruption, quite similar to responses in the Stanford and Yale/George Mason polls.

News About RMCO and Partners  

News About RMCO Partners

The City and County of Denver's new fee-based bike-sharing program, said to the nation's largest, proves to be popular.   Denver Bike Sharing program spinning along after 6 weeks, Denver Post, June 9, 2010. 

The future of Boulder County's pioneering PACE (property assessed clean energy) program, and others like it around the country that finance loans for clean energy improvements through property tax assessments, is seriously jeopardized by the Federal Housing Finance Agency's refusal to reconsider its directives to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to reject mortgages for participating properties. Loan giants opt to block energy programs, New York Times, July 4, 2010.

News About Climate Action

National Policy

More Heat, Less Light, New York Magazine, June 20, 2010. This thoughtful essay reflects on why the Gulf oil spill ought to be one of those times when a shared sense of trauma and tragedy leads to responsive public policy. As polls indicate (see featured stories above), the American public is ready for leadership that makes the pivot from visceral images of oil-drenched pelicans to adoption of limits on heat-trapping pollution that would help wean the nation off over-dependence on dirty fossil fuels. We at RMCO have worked to make climate disruption a less abstract threat by trying to bring it home to people through reports on what could happen and is happening in places that they know and love, such as national parks. For the same reason we have been working with the Natural Resources Defense Council in an effort to profile 15 special places at risk around the Gulf. Other conservation organizations have launched parallel efforts and the Obama administration is devoting renewed vigor to pushing for congressional action - if the devastation caused by BP's disastrous spill is not enough to rouse the Senate into action, what is?

Regional, State, and Local Climate Policies

Press releases from the Western Governors' Association annual meeting reveal substantial attention on strategies to adapt to climate disruption

• Governors adopt report on climate adaptation priorities, news release, June 29, 2010. In a letter introducing the report, accessible on the WGA website, Governors Schwarzenegger (R-CA) and Richardson (D-NM) write, "Across the western United States, we are already experiencing the adverse impacts of climate change on our environment, infrastructure, economies and communities. Clearly, we must implement new management strategies to build a resilient West."
• Governors commit to completing regional, trans-boundary wildlife conservation strategies, news release, June 28, 2010.
• Potential water crisis looms without smarter water planning, management, news release, June 27, 2010.

In California, the envelope gets pushed in opposite directions:

• California renewable portfolio standard legislation gets broad backing, Los Angeles Times, June 24, 2010. The state legislature debates a bill, said to enjoy a strong likelihood of passage, particularly in light of the Gulf oil spill, to require private and public electric utilities to generate 33% of power from renewable sources by 2020. It would be the nation's highest mandatory state standard.
• Bid to suspend California's global warming law qualifies for November ballot, Los Angeles Times, June 23, 2010 and Initiative won't thwart state's emissions fight, San Diego Union-Tribune, June 14, 2010 . Oil companies' high-stakes initiative to suspend California's landmark climate-change law, AB 32, makes the November ballot, but other climate-related laws passed independently of AB 32 (such as clean vehicle and renewable portfolio standards) would likely not be affected.

NM high court: emissions cap proposal may proceed, San Francisco Chronicle, June 7, 2010. The New Mexico Supreme Court overturns a lower court preliminary injunction barring the state's Environmental Improvement Board from holding hearings and gathering public input on a proposal to cap emissions of heat-trapping pollutants from electricity generation and oil and gas operations.

Clean Energy

National energy lab in Golden a model of super efficiency, Denver Post, July 6, 2010. NREL walks its talk in a big way, moving into a new net-zero energy building that it is said to be "the greenest office building in America."

News about solar energy:

• Two Colorado solar companies get nearly $2 billion in federal loan guarantees, Denver Post, July 4, 2010. Denver-based Abengoa Solar, Inc. scores $1.45 million to build a large solar thermal plant in Arizona and Abound Solar, Inc. gets $400 million to boost its production of thin-film PV panels in Colorado and Indiana.
• PG&E Corp. partners with SunRun to finance home solar PV, Los Angeles Times, June 21, 2010. The parent company of the California utility invests $100 million to finance installation of panels on 3500 homes in California, Arizona, and Colorado at low or no cost to homeowners, who can buy the power back at set rates that won't escalate over time.

Colorado harvests a green economy, Denver Post, June 17, 2010. A study finds that between 1998 and 2007, the state attracted $1.1 billion in venture capital and federal funds for clean energy investments, helping to fuel a 30% growth in green jobs.

Biomass energy, which accounts for about 50% of U.S. renewable energy power production, may not be as effective as a carbon reduction strategy as once thought:

• Net benefits of biomass power under scrutiny, New York Times, June 18, 2010.
• EPA rules threaten biomass industry, Biomass Magazine, June 8, 2010. New EPA rules that would reclassify biomass energy boiler units as incinerators subject to new limits on five hazardous chemical compounds would require expensive retrofits.
• Massachusetts releases biomass sustainability study, news release, June 10, 2008. The study, commissioned by the Department of Energy Resources, finds that burning biomass as a replacement for the oil burners that commonly supply heat in New England structures could be an effective carbon-reduction strategy, but when burned for electricity generation, it nets slightly more emissions than coal-fired plants over a period to 2050.  

News about electricity transmission grid development, a critical need for renewable energy development:

• Federal Energy Regulatory Commission proposes, seeks comment on transmission planning, cost allocation principles, news release, June 17, 2010. FERC is reforming its rules in an effort to make transmission planning more responsive to the need to get new lines on the ground. The American Wind Energy Association thinks the proposal is on the mark, according to a news release.
• Going solar is harder than it looks, a valley finds, New York Times, June 4, 2010. Development of large-scale solar generation in Colorado's San Luis Valley is held up by a combination of changes in public policy, utility plans, and a billionaire intent on blocking new transmission lines through his property.

Firm breaks ground on cellulosic ethanol factory in Oregon, news release, June 2, 2010. Using fermentation technology developed and tested in Colorado, ZeaTech will use federal stimulus funds to build a demonstration 250,000 gallon-per-year ethanol plant in Boardman.     

Coal Plants

Ottawa sets timeline to cut coal-fired power, Calgary Herald, June 24, 2010. The Canadian federal government announces that starting in 2015 aging coal plants will need to be replaced with technology that is at least equivalent to that of an advanced natural gas plant.

Xcel may cut contracts with gas plants to build its own, Denver Post, June 11, 2010. Xcel considers investments in new state-of-the-art natural gas generation plants, rather than leasing production from existing, less-efficient gas plants, in response to a legislative mandate to replace at least 900 megawatts of aging coal plants.

Transportation and Land Use

California makes ground-breaking news on several fronts:

• Energy Commission boosts cutting-edge trucks and buses, news release, July 2, 2010. Nearly $70 million of state, federal, and private funds are invested in 11 projects to demonstrate new technologies for natural gas-powered, hybrid, and electric trucks and buses.
• Electric cars, alternative fuels get big push, news release, June 24, 2010. The Energy Commission also announces $114 million in public-private partnerships to pilot residential and commercial electric vehicle charging stations in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, and Los Angeles, and to expand the network of E-85 gasoline fueling stations.
• Bay Area air board approves guidelines to limit greenhouse gases from development, Contra Costa Times, June 2, 2010. California's Bay Area Air Quality Management District adopts what's being called the nation's most far-reaching land-use development review guidelines, which set numerical thresholds regarding emissions of heat-trapping gases and other pollutants to use in deciding whether to require developers to conduct studies on ways to remove pollution.

A boring diagram, High Country News, June 7, 2010. See a fascinating graphic showing what the Southern Nevada Water Authority is doing to deal with projections that its Lake Mead water intakes could be out of the water by 2013. .

News About Climate Disruption

Water

Evidence continues to accumulate on how increasing levels of dust and soot in the air might accelerate mountain snowpack melt and spring runoff peaks:

• Group studies dust effects, Durango Herald, June 24, 2010. Scientists from around the world compare notes in Silverton, Colorado. One observes, "I think there was consensus here that soot and dust are playing a larger role in affecting snowpacks."
• Rapid runoff, High Country News, June 21, 2010. Rio Grande basin water managers in Colorado think dust storms may be at least part of the reason that this year even though snowpack was boosted by late spring storms to 113% of normal, it disappeared rapidly as runoff peaked a month ahead of what used to be normal.

Development in Colorado going with the flow of water deficit , Denver Post, June 20, 2010. Bureau of Reclamation statistics show that on a 10-year running average, basinwide demand (15.4 million acre-feet) for water from the Colorado River now exceeds flows (14.5 million acre-feet). Even though the State of Colorado is not using its full allocation under the Colorado River Compact terms, water agencies and developers are facing additional scrutiny from permitting agencies such as the Corps of Engineers and local governments about water availability. Related to this story is a draft report commissioned by the Colorado Water Conservation Board projecting that the amount of remaining water available from the river for future instate development, taking into account alternative climate change scenarios, could be anywhere from 0 to 800,000 acre-feet.

In Water - the Nation's Fundamental Climate Issue, a new white paper issued by the U.S. Geological Survey, it describes what it intends to do to adhere to a maxim of the Mauna Loa Observatory's Ralph Keeling: "The only way to figure out what is happening to our planet is to measure it, and this means tracking changes decade after decade and poring over the records."

Ecosystems

The 3.6 million acre mountain pine beetle infestation in Colorado and Wyoming is in the news again:

• Forest Service warns of falling trees, Casper Star-Tribune, June 18, 2010. A combination of high winds, a wet spring, and its estimate that on average 100,000 beetle-killed trees per day are falling prompts the USFS to issue warnings that recreationists should exercise plenty of caution. 
• Pine beetle infestation intensifies, Casper Star-Tribune, June 17, 2010. Impressive on even just a small scale at an area near Casper is documentation of the spread, including the statistic that on one mountain the beetle count increased 500% between 2008 and 2009, five times past the level normally regarded as epidemic.