USA gets in gear to reduce CO2 emissions

Dutch government programme GAVE supports the implementation of the European Biofuels Guideline, which aims to promote the use of biofuels for transport and mobility. At their website GAVE report on Californian measures to mitigate CO2 emissions from road transport by ten per cent in 2020. The article continues: "[M]easures have been issued by the California Air Resources Board and form part of the comprehensive objective to reduce emissions in California by 25% within the next 10 years. The state hopes that in 2020 around 20% of the fossil-based transport fuels will be replaced by alternative fuels. In America this initative is seen as a breakthrough, and thus also as possible guideline for federal policy."

At the Federal level, the Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) issued a so-called endangerment finding, a formal declaration that CO2 poses a threat to public health and welfare. The New York Times reports that although the E.P.A. "begins the process of regulating the climate-altering substances under the Clean Air Act, Congress is writing wide-ranging energy and climate legislation that would alter, combine with or override the actions taken by the agency. Mr. Obama and Ms. Jackson (E.P.A. administrator, MiM) have said they much prefer that Congress address global warming rather than have the E.P.A. tackle it through administrative action that could be subject to lawsuits."

It is expected that, following the EU example, attempts will be made to get a 'cap-and-trade system' passed in Congress. However, according to TIME
, the problem with this is that "most Republicans are against it on the grounds that it might hurt the economy by raising energy prices in the short term, and many Democrats from states with lots of polluting coal plants feel similarly. So the possibility that in the face of congressional inaction the EPA might take matters into its own hands and directly regulate greenhouse gases (...)."

Furthermore, it is yet to be seen if and how CO2 emissions from the transportation sector can be dealt with through a cap-and-trade system. For now, consumer demand for smaller and more efficient vehicles should do the trick.