Jeffrey Woodruff: Climate change bill

Letter to the Editor

The United State Congress must enact a comprehensive climate change bill this year.  A cap on greenhouse emissions, whether this is a 17% or 20% reduction by 2020, is a step that the last administration did not even consider.   The United States is one of the largest polluting nations in the world, we have to change today.

While Congress must act at a national level or lead for the nation, farms and corporations in Colorado are already engaged in a green revolution:

In Colorado, new agricultural companies are already taking steps to produce bio fuels.    Solix in Fort Collins is commercializing the use of microalgae based fuels.  Their solution has a twofold impact, since it does not use food crop feedstock and offers a variety of consumable energy outputs.

In Colorado, through funding from the USDA, farms are turning land previously unfarmed into orchards.    Planting fruit trees locally, ensures our food travels shorter distances to the table; reducing our reliance on the shipping giants US Foodservice and Shamrock Food.  Using organic and biodynamic methods ensures that we are stewards for the soil and preserving the land for generations.   Food should not traverse the United States on trucks; we should assist local farmers in expanding their output.  Imagine a country where green space grows faster, food taste better and farmers expand their organic production.

There are amazing opportunities for universities, companies and our local farms to improve our climate quality today.  Congress must enact a comprehensive climate and clean energy bill in 2010 and help bring these opportunities to fruition.  Making the world green, tackling climate change and improving the air we breathe is our responsibility.  A low carbon economy, creating jobs in clean energy, requires a United States commitment.

Jeffrey Woodruff

Social Entrepreneur and Environmental Steward

Boulder