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Practical Routes to Meeting Climate Change, Energy Goals

Posted on: Monday, 22 December 2008, 08:00 CST

DALLAS, Dec. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With President-elect Obama heavily focused on energy and climate change policy, six articles in the Winter 2009 Issues in Science and Technology offer practical ways to help the United States reach its goals of reduced energy dependence and greenhouse gas emissions.

The Winter Issues also features articles on rebuilding infrastructure and bolstering manufacturing --- two other priorities of the incoming administration.

In Climate Change: Think Globally, Assess Regionally, Act Locally, Charles Kennel of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography argues that scientists must develop regional assessments of climate change that are essential to the local policymakers who will have to make the critical decisions about how to respond.

Richard Munson of Recycled Energy Development writes in Reduce Greenhouse Gases Profitably that a regulatory system that rewards energy companies for innovations that boost efficiency can appeal to environmentalists and industry alike.

In Low Carbon Fuel Standards, Daniel Sperling and Sonia Yeh of the University of California at Davis write that the most direct and effective policy for transitioning to low-carbon alternative fuels is to spur innovation with a comprehensive performance standard for upstream fuel producers.

Christopher Evans and colleagues at MIT say the key to Getting More Miles per Gallon may require looking beyond automobile fuel-efficiency standards and implementing other consumer-oriented policy options to wean drivers away from past habits.

Finally, Lisa Margonelli of the New America Foundation writes in Energy Security for American Families that helping moderate-income households invest in energy-efficient cars, appliances, and home retrofits would benefit financially struggling families as well as the U.S. economy.

As President-elect Obama and the incoming Congress consider major economic stimulus legislation, another article in the Winter 2009 Issues makes the case for funding water resources projects.

In Restoring and Protecting Coastal Louisiana, Gerald Galloway, a former chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and colleagues, writes that the challenges facing the Gulf Coast reflect a national inability to come to grips with the need to deal with neglected infrastructure, both natural and built.

Even before the current economic recession, companies had been hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs. But Susan Helper of Case Western Reserve University argues that the continued loss of these jobs is not inevitable.

In The High Road for U.S. Manufacturing, Helper writes that manufacturing employment could be stabilized with more widespread use of advanced production processes. Government policy can play a key role, she says.

The Winter Issues also includes these articles:

Overcoming Stone Age Logic. Michael Crow, the president of Arizona State University, writes that informed and carefully considered federal efforts will be essential if we are to meet societal needs within the limits of the environment.

Science on the Campaign Trail. Shawn Lawrence Otto and Sheril Kirshenbaum, cofounders of Science Debate 2008, write that although the effort to hold a presidential campaign debate on science and technology did not succeed, the initiative had beneficial effects.

ISSUES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY is the award-winning journal of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and the University of Texas at Dallas.

www.issues.org

Contact: Kevin Finneran 202-965-5648

SOURCE Issues in Science and Technology

Source: PR Newswire

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