The seven U.S. states and three Canadian provinces that make up the Western Climate Initiative hope their cap-and-trade system (which, if approved, would take effect in January 2012) will serve as a carbon pricing model for the rest of America. The program would be the first economy-wide cap-and-trade system in the U.S.

The future of clean energy and climate legislation may be uncertain due to political inertia, but an optimistic group of recently elected Senators wants to inject enough energy and passion into the issue to get it moving forward again.

Despite the drastically scaled-back form of the Senate’s new oil spill bill, some Republican Senators are complaining that its provisions are unacceptable.  Broader clean energy and climate legislation was removed from the Congressional docket largely because it lacked substantive Republican support.

The Department of Defense and the Department of Energy signed an official agreement to share information about clean energy in order to bolster national security and build the economy.

A piece in the New York Times explores why the electric vehicles industry has focused on direct industry incentives rather than collectively pushing for clean energy and climate legislation.

Local Green: A cracked pipeline dumped over 800,000 gallons of oil into a Michigan creek. The spill contaminated 20 miles of the Kalamazoo River.

A new report named Utah and six other western states as particularly well-positioned states to transition to clean energy over the coming decades.

Delaware Governor Jack Markell signed a package of bills into law that, among other things, boosts the state’s renewable energy portfolio and updates the Green Energy Fund.

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., emphasized the importance of strengthening the energy efficiency of New York City’s large commercial buildings in a Huffington Post op-ed.

–Christopher Greenspan

Photo courtesy of brewbooks