Next Green Thing: Clean Air Jump-Start

We'll be hearing a lot about challenges facing Barack Obama when he assumes office in January. President-elect Obama rates energy policy among his top priorities. He supports a national carbon cap-and-trade system, similar to policies in place in Europe, and he’s pledged to invest $150 billion in clean technology over the next decade. Obama also said he would send a representative to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland next month.

Energy adviser for his campaign Jason Grumet said that if Congress doesn’t pass a cap-and-trade bill within 18 months, Obama might regulate carbon dioxide directly through the Environmental Protection Agency.

As part of our "next green thing" series, we’re calling on David Sassoon. He runs the website SolveClimate.com, and recently co-wrote an article on how the Clean Air Act passed in 1970 could be used to immediately jump-start federal action on climate change. Click here to read Sassoon's article, written with Michael Northrop, which appeared in the journal Environmental Finance.