This is a new beginning

Yes.. as promised, I will try to resume blogging here starting today.

And lets start out with news of a welcome change in the US administration's outlook about climate change and energy policy after 8 years of ostritch-with-head-in-the-sand behavior regarding climate change and "Drill, baby, Drill" as the unofficial energy policy.

This news in the NYT yesterday:

Two senior House Democrats unveiled a far-reaching bill to cap heat-trapping gases and quicken the country’s move away from dependence on coal and oil.

But the bill leaves critical questions unanswered and has no Republican support. It is thus the beginning, not the end, of the debate in Congress on how to deal with two of President Obama’s priorities, climate change and energy.

The draft measure, written by Representatives Henry A. Waxman of California and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, sets a slightly more ambitious goal for capping heat-trapping gases than Mr. Obama’s proposal. The bill requires that emissions be reduced 20 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, while Mr. Obama’s plancalls for a 14 percent reduction by 2020. Both would reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases by roughly 80 percent by 2050.

The Waxman-Markey bill, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, emerges at a time when many Americans, and their representatives in Congress, are wary of wide-ranging environmental legislation that could raise energy costs and potentially cripple industry. The bill, a version of a so-called cap-and-trade plan, also comes as the Environmental Protection Agency is about to exert regulatory authority over heat-trapping gases under the Clean Air Act.

The bill would require every region of the country to produce a quarter of its electricity from renewable sources like wind, solar and geothermal by 2025. A number of lawmakers around the country, particularly in the Southeast, call that goal unrealistic because the natural resources and technology to meet it do not yet exist.

The bill also calls for modernization of the electrical grid, production of more electric vehicles and significant increases in efficiency in buildings, appliances and the generation of electricity.

Of course, the proposals of the bill are far reaching and some are likely to be unachievable in the chosen time...but an aggressive target has been set and it is now left to see if we have the will to execute and deliver on these plans. After all, success comes not from planning alone but on how we deliver/execute on these noble intentions.

Note: I do appreciate that this is only a proposal and that it has no Republican proposals -- so, it may all come to naught. So, my comment about execution is more about the broader Obama energy policy than the specific Waxman-Markey proposal. Also, the devil, as they say, is in the details.. and I should say here that I have read only this one article and am not familiar with all the details of the Markey-Waxman proposal or even Obama's energy policy. I have read the gists/summary in various online news reports but have not made a broader study of the policies.

Update: Just saw this - a nice summary of the Markey-Waxman proposal as posted by David Doniger     Policy Director, NRDC Climate Center, Washington, D.C.