The Environmental Protection Agency announced last week that it is granting a waiver request that will allow the state of California to enforce emissions standards for new vehicles.

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said the decision is "consistent with the Clean Air Act" and "reinforces the historic agreement on nationwide emissions standards developed by a broad coalition of industry, government and environmental stakeholders earlier this year."

A previous waiver request, made in 2005, had been denied on the grounds that California allegedly didn't need its emissions standards to meet "extraordinary conditions." Under President Obama, the EPA re-assessed the request and determined it would be a step forward.

The new standard continues a trend of vehicle emissions reform in the Obama administration. In May, President Obama announced a national policy for increasing fuel economy and reducing emissions for all new automobiles in the U.S.

The United States is seeing more heavy storms and major floods, and it seems global warming is partly to blame.

The National Wildlife Federation is set to release “Increased Flooding Risk: Global Warming’s Wake-Up Call for Riverfront Communities,” a report detailing how global warming is causing more heavy rainfall events even as America’s over-reliance on levees and other old strategies for taming rivers sidesteps flooding issues. The report offers a new course of action for confronting the realities of global warming and shielding flood-prone communities from the consequences of unnaturally heavy rainfall.

Perspectives will be provided regarding the latest scientific research on global warming and flooding, the national flood insurance program, and recommendations for how to cope with projected changes and how to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.

The United States is seeing more heavy storms and major floods, and it seems global warming is partly to blame.

The National Wildlife Federation is set to release “Increased Flooding Risk: Global Warming’s Wake-Up Call for Riverfront Communities,” a report detailing how global warming is causing more heavy rainfall events even as America’s over-reliance on levees and other old strategies for taming rivers sidesteps flooding issues. The report offers a new course of action for confronting the realities of global warming and shielding flood-prone communities from the consequences of unnaturally heavy rainfall.

Perspectives will be provided regarding the latest scientific research on global warming and flooding, the national flood insurance program, and recommendations for how to cope with projected changes and how to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.

"Most people here in the Senate believe the issue is real. They believe action is appropriate to put a price on carbon."

—Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, forecasting open minds and positive action in the Senate on new energy legislation.

According to a major anti-poverty organization, unchecked global warming will exacerbate a crisis already being called "the defining human tragedy of this century": hunger.

Oxfam International says that global warming will bring crop failure, erratic storms, droughts, and a shift in growing seasons, thus increasing the pressure on millions of already-suffering people worldwide to produce the food they need to survive.

The report, "What Happened to the Seasons?" comes as leaders of the G8 nations prepare to meet in Italy this week to discuss food scarcity, climate change, and other issues.

Oxfam surveyed farmers around the world and found that changing growing seasons are already affecting the planned planting and harvesting of subsistence crops. For example, nations that depend on rice, the world's most common food, are among the hardest hit, as yields of the staple crop are predicted to decline by 10 percent for every 1 degree C rise in temperature in some poor countries.

Just two weeks after the House passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act, the Senate is preparing to build on their victory with a broad base of bipartisan support.

A series of hearings and meetings scheduled for this week is aimed at yielding legislation comparable to the so-called Waxman-Markey bill before the Sept. 18 deadline imposed by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on all committees. So far, progress has been swift.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, expressed confidence that his colleagues will answer the call for a clean energy economy: "we can enact a system which will not unduly burden anyone, but will put us on a track to reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the next seven decades."

Conservation experts echo the belief that the Senate will be able to finish the job the House started.

“The Senate comes back from the 4^th of July recess gearing up to fight for energy independence,” said Joseph Mendelson, director of global warming policy at the National Wildlife Federation. "They're going to take action before the leaves change."

The successful passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act through the House dovetails with public support for cleaner energy practices.

A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that three-quarters of Americans believe the federal government should regulate the release of carbon into the atmosphere from power plants, cars, and factories to lessen global warming. The majority of those surveyed said they would support emissions management even if it required a small increase in utility costs, and most polled supported a cap-and-trade measure similar to that contained in the energy bill recently passed in the House.

Emissions regulation is considered a signature issue for the Obama administration and leaders in congress, as well as the centerpiece of the American Clean Energy and Security Act. Despite claims that energy legislation is a partisan issue, the poll respondents in favor of carbon-limiting measures encompassed Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.

In the weeks leading up to last Friday’s crucial House floor vote, scientists and conservationists were far from alone in pushing for comprehensive new energy legislation.

In an open letter to President Obama and members of congress, business leaders from a variety of sectors urged the passage of new measures to cut carbon emissions and institute an economy-stimulating cap-and-trade program.

The letter, which ran as a print ad in major Washington, DC publications, endorsed the American Clean Energy and Security Act as a way to “drive investment into cost-saving, energy-saving technologies” and “create the next wave of jobs in the new energy economy.”

Companies included in the coalition include Nike, Duke Energy, HP, Austin Energy, and National Grid.

President Obama announced Monday that he has asked Energy Secretary Steven Chu to work toward stricter government efficiency standards for light bulbs.

Coming just days after the House approved the first comprehensive energy legislation ever designed to mitigate the effects of global warming, the new initiative aims to help improve energy efficiency and save consumers money.

The White House says the new standards will save enough electricity between 2012 and 2042 to power every home in the U.S.  for up to 10 months, and will result in annual consumer savings of between $1 billion and $4 billion.

President Obama’s call for comprehensive energy and climate legislation this year was answered by the House of Representatives in passing the American Clean Energy and Security Act by a 219 to 212 bipartisan vote.

The legislation will establish a new U.S. energy policy that reduces dependence on foreign oil and builds a new, domestic clean technology manufacturing base to supply wind, solar, and other renewable energy.  The bill also takes significant steps toward solving the global warming crisis by limiting carbon pollution.

Larry Schweiger, President and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said:

“House passage of a cap on global warming pollution makes this the most important conservation vote in a generation. The House showed great resolve to undo a flawed energy policy and move America toward a fundamentally different energy future.

“The American people prevailed today despite stiff opposition from Big Oil. Now we take this cause to the Senate with the winds of change at our back.”

In fact, the victory of the House vote had hardly sunk in when talk of Senate progress began. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada deemed the bill “a good product for the Senate and (its) committees to start considering.” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry of Massachusetts, who has been meeting regularly with Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer and other senators to sketch out energy legislation, said he is confident about a Senate vote, while David Axelrod, Obama’s top political advisor, told reporters he thinks the Senate “will come to the same conclusion” as the House.

Senate discussion of energy legislation is expected to begin in earnest when lawmakers return from the Fourth of July recess.