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EESI and the National Plug-In Partners Campaign critique the DOE's draft PHEV R&D Plan for being insufficiently aggressive in its deployment timelines and for omitting smart grid capabilities. They argue that existing industry progress from companies like General Motors and Tesla proves that PHEVs can be brought to market faster than the DOE's projections. The authors recommend that the DOE accelerate its battery development phases and require all demonstration vehicles to be "smart grid-capable" to enable future vehicle-to-grid (V2G) functionality.

The document advocates for wind power as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels and nuclear energy, particularly in New England. It details the severe environmental and health costs of conventional energy—including CO2 emissions, air pollution, water consumption, and land degradation—while positioning wind energy as a low-impact solution with minimal land footprints and no operational emissions.

The Clean Air Task Force (CATF) conducted monitoring in Austin, Boston, New York City, and Columbus to assess diesel exhaust exposure during commutes. The study found that commuters in cars, buses, and trains are exposed to diesel particle levels significantly higher than ambient outdoor air, with the highest concentrations occurring in the presence of heavy truck traffic or when trains are pulled by locomotives. The report highlights that while commuting accounts for only about 6% of a person's day, it may contribute over half of their daily exposure to ultrafine particles. To mitigate these risks, the report recommends retrofitting existing diesel engines with diesel particulate filters (DPFs), which can reduce particle emissions by up to 90%.

The document summarizes recent emissions inventories and health studies to demonstrate that shipping emissions are growing rapidly and significantly impacting human health. It highlights a global inventory projecting a 4.1% annual growth in emissions through 2040 and a North American inventory projecting 5.9% annual growth. The text argues that current and proposed IMO regulations are insufficient to offset this growth and calls for steep, fleet-wide reductions. Additionally, it cites California Air Resources Board (CARB) data showing that premature deaths attributed to ocean-going ships in California are predicted to more than double by 2020.

The document outlines a process for attracting media attention to events through the creation and distribution of media advisories. It specifies that an advisory should be a one-page notice containing the event's purpose, logistics, rationale, and speaker details. The guide recommends sending these notices to local radio, newspapers, and television stations one week in advance, with a reminder the morning of the event. Additionally, it advises making follow-up phone calls the day after the initial advisory is sent and provides a sample script for these calls, using an example of a protest against a lawsuit challenging California's vehicle emissions laws.

The document examines the failures of the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and the subsequent emergence of state-level regulations in the U.S. to manage industrial chemicals. It highlights how state actions, such as bans on polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), are influenced by international frameworks like the EU's REACH regulation and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. The author argues that these 'twin levers' of state and international progress are essential for driving the U.S. toward a more sustainable national chemical policy by 2020.

The document examines how trade policies influence climate change through scale, composition, technique, and direct effects, and analyzes the legal interactions between WTO law and the UNFCCC/Kyoto Protocol. It also assesses the physical impacts of climate change on trade infrastructure and the competitiveness implications of implementing climate regulations.

In his 2007 Blue Planet Prize acceptance speech, Amory B. Lovins calls on Japan to leverage its history of efficiency and design to lead a global shift toward benign and affordable energy. He identifies four critical areas for change: reversing the decline in energy efficiency gains, utilizing its vast renewable energy potential, transitioning from centralized power plants to smart distributed generation, and dismantling bureaucratic and monopolistic energy policy habits to allow fair competition among all energy technologies.

The document establishes that limiting global warming to 2°C requires stabilizing atmospheric heat-trapping gases at or below 450 ppm CO2eq, which necessitates a global cumulative emissions budget of 1,700 GtCO2eq for 2000–2050. For the United States, this translates to a cumulative budget of 160 to 265 GtCO2eq, requiring emissions to be reduced by at least 80 percent below 2000 levels by 2050. The analysis finds that most federal legislative proposals fail to meet these targets, with only the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act (S. 309) and the Safe Climate Act (H.R. 1590) remaining within the upper budget limit.

The report finds that achieving a 35 mpg fleetwide average by 2018 would create 241,000 net new jobs in the U.S. by 2020, save consumers $37 billion in net costs, and reduce national oil use by 1.6 million barrels per day. Environmental benefits include a reduction of 260 to 264 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions by 2020. Job growth is projected across most sectors, particularly services and retail, while the oil industry would see a decline. California is projected to experience the highest job growth and consumer savings.

The document outlines Dr. James E. Hansen's testimony on climate change, highlighting that the United States is the largest source of CO2 emissions and that current 'Business-as-Usual' trends could lead to at least 5°C of warming by 2100. It warns of non-linear ice sheet disintegration in Greenland and West Antarctica, potentially causing sea level rises of 25±10 meters if warming reaches 2-3°C. Hansen argues that abrupt climate changes are practically certain under current emission trends, but an 'Alternative Scenario' could keep warming below 1°C if CO2 emissions are moderately reduced by mid-century and peak by 2100.

The report finds that diesel construction equipment in California causes over 1,100 premature deaths and more than $9 billion in annual public health costs. It identifies excavators, tractors/loaders/backhoes, and crawler tractors as the highest polluters and highlights the South Coast air basin as the most affected region. The authors advocate for a regulatory regime to retire old equipment and install retrofit technologies to reduce particulate matter and nitrogen oxides.

The author contends that climate solutions are profitable rather than costly, as saving fuel is cheaper than purchasing it. By increasing global energy productivity to approximately 3% per year and removing market barriers to energy efficiency, carbon emissions can be stabilized. The text highlights 'micropower' and 'negawatts' as economically superior alternatives to nuclear power and traditional centralized electricity, suggesting that a transition away from oil and toward a diverse, renewable system is driven by business logic and market forces.

The document highlights a gap between the scientific consensus on climate change's potential to alter California's hydrologic patterns and the actual integration of such analysis into water management planning. It introduces an integrated hydrology/water management climate change impact assessment framework designed to identify tradeoffs in ecosystem services and evaluate adaptation strategies. Using a '3S' standard (Sensitivity, Significance, and Stakeholder support), the authors rank decision-making processes to identify the three most critical areas where this analytical framework could transition climate research from academia to policy making.

The document advocates for substantial reductions in shipping emissions to protect public health and the environment, arguing that cost-effective technologies already exist. It proposes that NOx and SOx emissions be reduced by 70-90% for new and existing ships by 2015, with interim NOx reductions of 40-50% by 2010. The authors highlight a significant gap between strict land-based emission standards in the US and EU and the much higher limits currently set by the IMO, noting that shipping emissions in European waters are projected to exceed all land-based European emissions within a decade.

The document asserts that new conventional coal plants are imprudent investments due to the certainty of future U.S. federal CO2 regulations, likely in the form of a cap-and-trade system. It argues that such regulations will significantly raise the cost of coal-fired electricity, making energy efficiency and renewables more competitive. The report urges state regulators to protect ratepayers by either denying the construction of new coal plants or requiring that shareholders, rather than customers, bear the financial risk of future carbon compliance costs.

The Smoky Canyon Mine, operated by the J.R. Simplot Company in Southeastern Idaho, is a Superfund site that releases toxic selenium into the environment. Earthjustice and other organizations oppose the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management's plan to expand the mine into two Roadless Areas, arguing that the existing contamination has not been cleaned up and that further discharges would cause irreversible toxic impacts to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, including reproductive failure in fish and aquatic birds.

The Clean Air Task Force argues that the EPA's proposed particulate matter (PM2.5) standards fail to provide an adequate margin of safety, potentially resulting in 10,000 more avoidable deaths per year than a more stringent 12 ug/m3 annual standard. The testimony asserts that protective standards are achievable through affordable technologies, specifically targeting sulfur dioxide (SO2) from power plants and carbon emissions from diesel fleets. It criticizes the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) for providing reductions that are "too little, too late" and for creating regulatory barriers that discourage states from pursuing additional cost-effective power plant reductions. The document advocates for a national SO2 cap of 2 million tons per year and the full funding of the Diesel Emission Reduction Act of 2005 to facilitate the retrofit of existing diesel engines.

The report warns that California faces significant risks from global warming, with projected temperature increases between 3°F and 10.5°F by the end of the century. These changes threaten to severely reduce Sierra Nevada snowpack, increase the frequency of large wildfires, degrade air quality, and disrupt the state's $30 billion agriculture industry. The document emphasizes that while some changes are unavoidable, the most severe consequences can be avoided by reducing heat-trapping emissions to levels that keep warming within the lower range of 3 to 5.5°F.

The report analyzes how varying levels of greenhouse gas emissions will lead to temperature increases in California, ranging from 3 to 10.5 °F by the end of the century. It details severe risks including a 70-90% reduction in Sierra Nevada snowpack, increased frequency of extreme heat and wildfires, and rising sea levels that threaten coastal infrastructure. The document emphasizes that while some changes are inevitable, the most severe outcomes can be avoided through aggressive emission reductions, aligned with California's executive goals to return to 1990 emission levels by 2020.