January 26, 2009

Getting Serious About Climate Change

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GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE….Barack Obama says he will direct the EPA today to take another look at its refusal to allow California to set stricter tailpipe CO2 standards than the feds:

President Obama will direct federal regulators on Monday to move swiftly on an application by California and 13 other states to set strict automobile emission and fuel efficiency standards, two administration officials said Sunday.

….Beyond acting on the California emissions law, officials said, Mr. Obama will direct the Transportation Department to quickly finalize interim nationwide regulations requiring the automobile industry to increase fuel efficiency standards to comply with a 2007 law, rules that the Bush administration decided at the last minute not to issue.

To avoid losing another year, Mr. Obama will order temporary regulations to be completed by March so automakers have enough time to retool for vehicles sold in 2011.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise: during the campaign Obama said he would change course on California’s application, and now he has.

For my money, though, it’s the second part of this that’s the most impressive. EPA was pretty much bound by court order to reconsider its CO2 position anyway, but ordering a temporary fuel efficiency regulation right away so that changes could take place in 2011 instead of 2012 shows a refreshing sense of urgency about energy and climate change policy. By itself it doesn’t have an enormous impact, but then, almost nothing has an enormous impact by itself. Nonetheless, tighter mileage standards are one of the best tools we have for reducing the growth of greenhouse gases, and the fact that Obama is serious about this suggests that — as promised — he’s serious about the rest of his energy package too. Happy days.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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