Climate bill could build on reported emissions decreases

Carbon dioxide emissions in the United States will drop 3.1 percent by 2020 even without the passage of climate legislation to reduce greenhouse gases, concluded a report by New Energy Finance, a London-based carbon markets research group.

The report credits the decrease to the recession and technological advancements.

And although the reduction in emissions would not be enough to mitigate global warming, the report said it “would represent a historic shift from continual increases.”

But the question now, said Milo Sjardin, head of U.S. carbon markets at the research group, “is whether policymakers can accelerate that trend … to address the threat of a warming planet.”

We want to build on those results. That’s why we need a climate bill that spurs innovation to build on existing clean coal technologies and further reduce carbon emissions. The right approach would allow us to continue to harness coal, our most abundant domestic energy resource, for the power we rely upon all the while improving the environment.

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