Watching Sausage Being Made...

The realities of government policy and law making are never straight forward. Watching the development of regulations and laws for carbon and energy management over the last year has been especially illustrative. Attending meetings of EPA Climate Leaders, The Climate Registry, RGGI and others across the change in power in Congress and Presidential Suite are examples of this process at work.


Voluntary GHG reporting programs at State and Federal level provide a len to this challenging process. Today, voluntary reporting programs by States are way ahead of the Federal government in defining and implementing a program. The state program, The Climate Registry, is now endorsed by most states, yet are not involved at the Federal level at all.

Fireplug Gina McCarthy, Commissioner of Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, was especially blunt at a recent TCR meeting. She said, “States and Federal are not in race for preemption, but are working in partnership. But TCR, which now includes 40 of 50 states, is especially frustrated that it has not been invited to table to help design reporting rules at the Federal level. We look forward to working with the Federal level at some point”

Inside the sausage factory