Senate to look at global warming

Harry Reid announced last night that the Senate will be looking at energy and climate change this year. He expects that they will begin talks on the energy bill in the next several weeks and hopes that they will take on climate change this summer.

The energy bill is headed by Jeff Bingaman (D. New Mexico), the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. If passed, utilities will be required to source 4% of their energy from renewable sources by 2011. That number will increase to 20% over the next decade.

There are not currently many details about how the Senate plans to take on climate change, but we hope they will take a comprehensive look at the situation and discuss ways to reduce not only carbon emissions, but methane and other chemical emissions as well. Specifically, we would like to see attention paid to user emissions (automobiles, aerosols, etc.), power plant emissions, methane emissions from dairy and meat production, and the energy cost of new building.