The 100 Day Action Plan to Save the Planet

by Janet Ritz

On January 1st, 2007, the Presidential Climate Action Plan (PCAP), a project of the University of Colorado, Wirth Chair in Environmental and Community Development Policy, was launched to produce a 100 day action plan on climate change for the next President of the United States.

PCAP's final report, due out after the 2008 Presidential election, has been condensed into a new book: THE 100 DAY ACTION PLAN TO SAVE THE PLANET by PCAP Executive Director, William Becker.

From the forward:

The 44th President of the United States will take the oath of office on January 20, 2009. From that moment forward, he will have a relatively short honeymoon period during which he has the best chance of advancing his agenda. This book is an action plan for the new President to attack the problem of global climate change during his first 100 days in office.

Becker's book, written in engaging style, reworks the complex and scientifically detailed report into a readable format that helps to clarify the following priorities for the next administration:

1) Launching a "clean energy surge" and creating millions of high-quality jobs in green manufacturing, supply, technology, management, and support.

2) Providing incentives for green industries to create jobs in communities now dependent on coal and other fossil energy production.

2) Ending tens of billions of dollars in annual subsidies for fossil fuels and redirecting the money to develop and commercialize renewable energy technologies.

3) Requiring all federal facilities and fleets to reduce their carbon emissions.

4) Rewarding innovation and early adoption of renewable energy in the private sector.

5) Working constructively with other nations for global solutions to the climate crisis.

Becker emphasizes the need for the next president to seize bipartisan momentum and act to mitigate climate change within the first 100 days in office and is designed to provide a road map for ongoing changes needed in the months and years to come.

"When it comes to climate change and building a new economy," Becker relayed to me in a phone conversation last week, "there's no right, there's no left, there's only backward and forward and we need to go forward." Continued...

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