by Erik Stokstad
The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) released its first comprehensive strategy to deal with climate change impacts on the 202 million hectares that the department manages.
Outlined in a secretarial order, the plan includes expanding the purview of eight regional science centers currently being developed by the U.S. Geological Survey to provide guidance on climate change impacts to the Department's Fish and Wildlife Service. The centers will now work with other DOI agencies, such as the Bureau of Land Management.
The 2010 budget includes $10 million for these centers, a figure that will grow in the Administration's next budget proposal. "There will be additional money requested for science and adaptive management," Department Secretary Ken Salazar said at a press conference today.
Also included in the plan is a senior council, chaired by Salazar, that will coordinate activities throughout the department. One key player is missing, however: the U.S. Geological Survey still lacks a permanent director. Marcia McNutt was nominated on 9 July, but a Senate confirmation hearing hasn't been scheduled yet.
The holdup is that the chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Jeff Bingaman (D–NM) is one of the "Gang of Six" senators working on health care reform and is too busy. A committee spokesman says that McNutt's hearing should happen in the next few weeks.
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2. The range of noticeable EVs are sufficient to meet the daily driving needs of more than 95% of drivers ((The vast majority of people (95%) drive less than 100/km a day, 82% of the respondents said they drive 40 miles or less a day, with an average daily driving distance of 27 miles.)).
3. I'm hopeful that the charge network will extend the select districts to nation-wide scale throughout the world, and this environment can usher in active private investings in EVs.
4. I remain confident that it could give rise to multiple times as much investing effect, so to speak, some billions of investing, this simple deployment, could call into the most-sought energy independence and solid recovery around the world.