Chris Abraham emailed me overnight asking me to

blog about the Energy Bill issue as discussed in http://www.energybill2007.org

The Energy Bill is a US environmental focussed bill and the energybill2007.org site Chris links to, urges US politicians to:

protect America’s energy, environmental, and economic security by ensuring that the final Energy Bill that goes to the president includes the Senate-passed 35 mile per gallon fuel economy standard AND the House-passed 15 percent renewable electricity standard.

The 35 mile per gallon fuel economy standard referred to is an aspiration to have a 35 mile-per-gallon fuel economy target by 2020!

Good God, my current car, which is a standard ’02 Renault Megane Scenic typically gets 35mpg today. By 2020 I want cars to be achieving at least 100mpg!

As for 15% renewables, the Irish government, which has an appalling environmental record, has committed to 33% renewables by 2025!

Yesterday, the United Nations Environment Programme released its fourth Global Environment Outlook report. The report says

climate change is a “global priority”, demanding political will and leadership. Yet it finds “a remarkable lack of urgency”, and a “woefully inadequate” global response.

Several highly-polluting countries have refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. GEO-4 says: “… some industrial sectors that were unfavourable to the… Protocol managed successfully to undermine the political will to ratify it.” It says: “Fundamental changes in social and economic structures, including lifestyle changes, are crucial if rapid progress is to be achieved.

No prizes for guessing what it is referring to there.

If you are US-based, by all means head over to http://www.energybill2007.org. Agitate to get those first steps in place but believe me when I say you will be re-visiting those targets sooner than you think to get them revised upwards.