Trading Greenhouse Gases

The Obama White House says…. Hold up a minute… let’s take a look at that.

This is The Environment Report… I’m Lester Graham.

President Obama’s chief of staff issued a memo shortly after the inauguration… basically saying… do what you can to stop those last minute regulations the Bush administration passed. Many of them were considered to be not very environmentally friendly Bruce Meyers is with the Environmental Law Institute… Bruce… the Bush White House went to work on these regulations back in May so they’d be in place before the Obama folks took over… what can the new administration really do?



LG: If you’ve ever noticed swarms of insects hovering over your car, there’s a good chance they’re mistaking it for water. Rebecca Williams is here and you’ve been talking with an ecologist to find out why.

RW: Yeah – Bruce Robertson is with Michigan State University. He says smooth, dark surfaces like your car and asphalt in roads reflect polarized light. That’s what insects see – and it tricks things like dragonflies.

“Asphalt actually reflects polarized light more strongly than water and so it looks more like water than water! And so these organisms are thinking they’re finding a place to breed and hunt and lay eggs and mate when in fact they’re finding a place that’s very dangerous.”

He says these bugs get hypnotized. They swarm over buildings and roads in huge numbers, and can actually die of exhaustion.

LG: Well that doesn’t sound good.

RW: Yeah it’s not clear yet if it’s hurting species on a larger scale... but Robertson says they’ve found that adding a little gravel to asphalt or adding white curtains to dark windows can stop the confusion.


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This is The Environment Report.

We can expect Congress will take up a carbon cap-and-trade bill soon. That would make greenhouse gases a commodity. The United States Climate Action Partnership wants to know the rules of the carbon trading game sooner rather than later. U.S. CAP is made up of businesses such as GE, automakers, some power companies and environmental groups. Dan Lashoff is with the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the U.S. CAP members.

Some business leaders say all a carbon cap-and-trade program will do is increase the cost of EVERYTHING. Why would these companies want Congress to come up with a cap-and-trade program now?

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Dan Lashoff is with the environmental group the Natural Resources Defense Council, which… along with several major corporations and other environmental groups make up the United States Climate Action Partnership.

By the way… the New York Times reports… as a commodity, carbon prices in the European Union are at an all time low. The slow economy has reduced greenhouse gas emissions… for now.

That’s The Environment Report. I’m Lester Graham.
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