On December 28, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico signed an "historic climate change executive order". Here's an excerpt (bolding added for emphasis):
"Climate change is the major environmental issue of our time," Governor Bill Richardson said. "Nothing poses a bigger threat to our water, our livelihood and our quality of life than a warming climate. Today I am taking the first step toward implementing as many of these recommendations as are possible, feasible and effective.G钎The GovernorG侵s executive order creates a state government implementation team tasked with ensuring policies from the order are carried out. Those policies include:
G求 Creating a market-based greenhouse gas emissions registry and reduction program
G求 Advancing carbon capture and sequestration technology
G求 Promoting the use of manure from the dairy industry in power generation
G求 Developing an education and outreach program on green buildings for those private sector builders
G求 Creating new procurement rules that ensure state government offices have energy efficient appliances
G求 Mandating that state vehicles use mainly clean, renewable fuels
G求 Proposes a one-time tax credit of up to 40 percent for the purchase, construction or retrofitting of alternative fuel filling stations.
Is there any reason we can't do this in Virginia? Add switchgrass in here, which could help contribute to a rural renaissance in the Commonwealth, plus a tax credit for energy efficiency measures by homeowners, which would be popular in suburbia, and I think you've got a winner politically (if you're still skeptical, see what action on climate change did for Ah-nuld out in Kah-lee-foh-nya!). :)
And we have minnows in our creek today. I don't understand the life cycle of a minnow, but I wonder if that means we won't have any in the spring.