Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The federal government will require each agency to measure its greenhouse-gas emissions for the first time and set targets to reduce them by 2020, under an executive order signed by President Obama Monday. The measure affects such things as the electricity federal buildings consume and the carbon output of federal workers' commutes. "As the largest consumer of energy in the U.S. economy, the federal government can and should lead by example when it comes to creating innovative ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase energy...

Global emissions of carbon dioxide from energy use rose 1.4 percent to 31.6 gigatons in 2012, setting a record and putting the planet on course for temperature increases well above international climate goals, the International Energy Agency said in a report scheduled to be issued Monday. The agency said continuing that pace could mean a temperature increase over pre-industrial times of as much as 5.3 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit), which IEA chief economist Fatih Birol warned "would be a disaster for...

A central premise of Bjorn Lomborg's Jan. 15 op-ed [" Copenhagen's useful failure "] -- that mandatory, specific reductions in greenhouse gas emissions would be "more expensive than the climate damage [they seek to] prevent" -- is wrong. Failure to solve the climate crisis would result in economic disaster. A business-as-usual policy on emissions risks producing, by the end of the century, a climate with temperatures not been seen since dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Drought and storms would yield food and water shortages...

IT'S NO SURPRISE that Senate Republicans grouse about Obama administration policies on enforcing civil rights laws or limiting greenhouse-gas emissions. They are entitled to their policy views. It's a different matter for Republican leaders to manifest their views by blocking confirmation to Cabinet positions of the officials in charge of those policies. By doing so, on absurdly flimsy pretexts, Republicans not only impede the president's nominations for labor secretary and chief of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson laid out the timetable for regulating greenhouse gas emissions Monday, writing in a letter to lawmakers that she plans to start targeting large facilities such as power plants next year but won't target small emitters before 2016. The letter makes it clear the Obama administration will move ahead with curbing global warming pollution under the Clean Air Act unless Congress moves to stop it. Jackson emphasized that the administration was...

The trio of senators who are trying to write a bill to cap greenhouse gas emissions released a "framework" Thursday that they had agreed to. It showed they had not agreed to very much. Sens. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said the framework was intended to send a message to delegates in Copenhagen for international climate talks. "The movement for climate change legislation in the United States Senate is alive and well,"...

Wal-Mart vowed on Thursday to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 million metric tons across its vast network of suppliers and stores by 2015, part of the retailer's ongoing efforts to become more environmentally friendly. Wal-Mart said the reductions would more than offset the anticipated growth in its carbon footprint over the same period and was equivalent to taking 3.8 million cars off the road for a year. The cuts would be made throughout its supply chain, from...

President Bush yesterday called for a national goal of halting the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, mostly by curbing power plant pollution. But his voluntary target fell well short of what most leading scientists say is needed to avoid dangerous climate change and was widely criticized by Democratic lawmakers and environmentalists. Bush's proposal -- which would rely on technological innovation for success -- was the administration's most definite public statement yet on global warming.

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to establish a nationwide system for reporting greenhouse gas emissions, a program that could serve as the basis for a federal cap on the buildup of carbon dioxide and other gases linked to global warming. The registry plan, which was announced yesterday, would cover about 13,000 facilities that account for 85 to 90 percent of the nation's greenhouse gas output. It was drafted under the Bush administration but stalled after the Office of Management and Budget...

A bill to create the first national limit on greenhouse-gas emissions was approved by a House committee yesterday after a week of late-night debates that cemented the shift of climate change from rhetorical jousting to a subject of serious, if messy, Washington policymaking. The legislation would create a cap-and-trade system: Over the next decades, power plants, oil refineries and manufacturers would be required to obtain allowances for the pollution they emit. Those who need more or less could turn to a...

EVERY TIME you start up your car, it begins to spew a smelly mixture of gases that wafts into the atmosphere, reacts in the sunlight and forms the brownish haze called smog. Along with those gases come soot and other substances that condense into fine particles. All of this you and your neighbors breathe in. The result, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reckons, is more than 158 million Americans inhaling unhealthy air. That's why the EPA announced Friday that it will require big cuts in a range of tailpipe...

Now that President Obama has selected his top climate and energy policymakers, having nominated Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist Ernest Moniz as energy secretary and Environmental Protection Agency air and radiation administrator Gina McCarthy to head EPA, the question still looms: how much can they get done using executive authority alone? The answer: quite a lot, but it will involve taking some political risks. So here's a list of some of the options McCarthy and Moniz...

In his Feb. 24 op-ed column, " Apocalypse fatigue ," George F. Will argued that the sequester will not significantly affect the economy, noting that the federal government cut spending 40 percent in one year following World War II and the economy boomed. Surely, Mr. Will understands that there is no way to reasonably compare the U.S. economy in relation to the rest of the world in 1945 to its state in 2013. At the end of World War II, Britain and France were bankrupt, Germany and Japan were in...

D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray is vowing to make the District the nation's "healthiest, greenest and most livable" city within 20 years and is launching dozens of initiatives to curb energy use, reduce traffic and boost access to fresh fruits and vegetables. As part of the newly detailed Sustainable D.C. plan , a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, Gray (D) has identified policies that he hopes will vastly change how residents and visitors experience and travel across the...

Reading Charles Lane's Feb. 12 op-ed column, " The electric car mistake ," I was reminded of the saying that "the past has too great a constituency, the future never enough. "  The problem with driving the Tesla Model S from Newark, Del., to Milford, Conn., as the New York Times' John M. Broder did, is that you are testing the car for something it does not need to do. An electric vehicle is not a substitute for a conventional vehicle, nor does it need to be. Mr. Broder's ill-advised intercity test drive of the...

Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Friday that he would stick to a "very open and transparent" permitting process for the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, adding, "I hope we will be able to make an announcement in the near term. " Emerging from a meeting with Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, Kerry said, "We have a legitimate process that is underway, and I'm going to honor that. " He said it was "fair and accountable. " It was Kerry's first meeting as secretary with a foreign diplomat, a nod to neighborliness...

The Environmental Protection Agency should have conducted a more detailed scientific review before determining two years ago that greenhouse-gas emissions pose a threat to public health and welfare, according to a report issued Wednesday by the agency's Office of Inspector General. "This review did not meet all [Office of Management and Budget] requirements for peer review of a highly influential scientific assessment primarily because the review results and EPA's response were not publicly...

The United States is not on track to meet its international commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the World Resources Institute. The new findings examine the impact of the U.S. energy and transportation sectors as well as sources such as methane releases from landfills. The study gives a pessimistic view of the future even though carbon emissions have fallen in recent years because of the economic downturn and increased...

Lobbyists for coal-burning utilities such as Southern Co. and Duke Energy are consulting environmental advocates and holding strategy sessions as they seek a role in shaping President Obama's plan to combat climate change. Obama's emphasis on global warming in his inaugural address last month has led power and coal producers, which have fought regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, to begin crafting their own proposed rules. "It was the hope of a lot of...