According to an analysis by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the American Clean Energy and Security Act would cost the farming sector little in the short-term and yield great long-term benefits.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, discussing the analysis and the role of rural America in fighting global warming in testimony before the Senate Agriculture Committee, said economic opportunities for farmers and ranchers resulting from the bill may "significantly" outpace costs:

"In the short term, the economic benefits to agriculture from cap and trade legislation will likely outweigh the costs. In the long term, the economic benefits from offsets markets easily trump increased input costs from cap and trade legislation."

Secretary Vilsack also noted that the USDA analysis is "conservative," not taking into account technological advances that would help farmers or the higher service costs farmers would command "as a result of enhanced renewable energy markets and retirement of environmentally sensitive lands domestically and abroad."

Provisions in the bill would reduce impacts on the cost of fertilizer, part of the reason it would only lightly impact agriculture in the near future. The analysis also found that income from biofuels would be worth a net return of at least $600 million a year.

Following the USDA analysis, agricultural groups reiterated their support for clean energy legislation. National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson testified before the Senate Agriculture Committee, saying farmers "do not agree with those who claim climate change legislation will be void of economic opportunities and incentives."

“Since passage of ACES, regional and national press has focused its efforts on negative scenarios for agriculture under a cap and trade system,” Johnson said. “I believe as the leader of a national organization, it is my responsibility to help change the conversation about this legislation.”

Three Democratic governors told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that curbing emissions and developing a national clean energy economy could mean more jobs and economic prosperity.

Citing the successes of their own states in greenhouse gas reduction and job creation, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, Jr., Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, and New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine touted the benefits of adopting renewable electricity standards and other energy measures.

Gregoire said the state of Washington has created nearly 50,000 new green jobs in the last two years, twice the target number set for the year 2020. Corzine, who emphasized the need for national leadership in the clean energy revolution, said New Jersey is committed to reducing emissions by 80 percent and building wind farms offshore.

Overall, Ritter, Jr., said, the "lesson...for other states and the nation as a whole, it is that good energy policy and climate policy can energize the economy and help create good-paying private sector jobs."

As part of the Alliance for Climate Protection's Repower America National Mobilization Weekend, members and volunteers went door to door to educate Americans about the transition to a clean energy economy.

The campaign, which featured more than 12,000 stops, focused on the new jobs that stand to be created in a clean energy economy, as well as the environmental benefits.

Repower America Campaign Manager Steve Bouchard emphasized that Americans from many communities will need to answer the call to arms:

 "We will need Americans from all parts of the country and all walks of life to help make the transition to a clean energy economy that will help create millions of jobs, save our families money on their utility bills and end our harmful dependence on foreign oil."

According to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report, coral reefs in the Caribbean face a considerable risk of bleaching and die-offs partly due to rising water temperatures.

The report says bleaching, a trauma-induced ejection of symbiotic algae often resulting in paler coloring, may exceed the record levels recorded in 2005, when, in the eastern Caribbean, "as much as 90 percent of corals bleached and over half of those died."

The NOAA reported in June that National Climatic Data Center found global ocean temperatures were the highest on record, creating a habitat conducive to bleaching. That study also found that arctic sea ice had receded drastically from the 1979-2000 period.

It is thought that similar conditions may develop in the Gulf of Mexico and Central Pacific.

In regional newspapers around the country, members of President Obama's cabinet have published op-ed columns on the heels of their testimony before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack each wrote in favor of plans for a clean energy economy that they say will create millions of jobs, reduce carbon emissions, and make America energy independent.

 Secretary Chu, writing in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, said the time for action has come: "We have talked for decades about the energy problem; it is time to solve it. By passing a comprehensive energy bill that spurs a revolution in clean technologies, the United States can position itself to lead this new industrial revolution." Secretary Salazar struck a similar cord, imploring lawmakers to "step up to the plate" in the Denver Post. In the Philadelphia Inquirer, Administrator Jackson discussed the groundswell of public support for legislation and the need for bipartisan cooperation, and Secretary Vilsack, in the Des Moines Register, addressed the great economic opportunities provided for farmers and others by a carbon-capping system.

The earth's leading greenhouse gas emitters are taking substantive steps toward clean energy innovation.

The United States and China announced plans on a joint clean energy research center, a compromise project aimed at developing clean building and vehicle technology and fostering a more convivial air between the two countries.

The project, which will be driven by headquarter facilities in both countries, is a significant part of the effort to lobby China to promote development of solar, wind, biofuels and other clean energy in the private sector, already a burgeoning movement.

One of the initiative's main proponents is U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. Secretary Chu, who urged China to set carbon emission targets for the year 2050, also warned that the rising sea levels that will result from global warming would displace more people in China than in any other country. 

In addition to spurring clean energy development within China, U.S. officials pushed for a more open network for international communication: Commerce Secretary Gary Locke appealed to leaders of the new partner nation to avoid forcing trade barriers on clean energy technology: "We need to empower U.S. and Chinese entrepreneurs and innovators to create and collaborate free from artificial trade barriers."

Former Senator John Warner (R-VA) teamed up with the Pew Environment Group last week to announce a new project highlighting the links between national security threats and global warming.

"Leading military and security experts agree that if left unchecked, global warming could increase instability and lead to conflict in already fragile regions of the world," said Warner. "We ignore these facts at the peril of our national security and at great risk to those in uniform who serve this nation."

The project will bring together experts on science and military policy to evaluate joint strategies for preventing global warming and protecting national security interests.

This won't be the first venture to investigate the connection between climate change and national security: The National Intelligence Council, a projection arm of the Central Intelligence Agency, recently reported that global warming could threaten energy resources, damage military facilities, increase food shortages, and strain the economy, all of which would greatly burden national defense. Director Dennis Blair told Congress this year that "global climate change will have important and extensive implications for U.S. national security interests over the next 20 years."

It appears that some of the 'tea party' protests springing up across the US are less a product of raw populist indignation than a coordinated smokescreen operation.

An organization calling itself the “Tea Party Patriots” recently launched a campaign urging its members to misrepresent themselves in calls to U.S. Senate offices. “When you write or call, please make sure you are armed with a city name and zip code in the home state of the Senator you are calling,” a recent action alert urged members. The email then admitted, “They may not want to hear from you without this information.”

Adam Kolton, the National Wildlife Federation’s director of Congressional and federal affairs, said of the effort:

“This email just confirms what we’ve suspected for some time about the opposition to the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act– it’s Astroturfing in the phoniest possible sense, not a real grassroots movement. Now we know they’re are going so far as to urge people to lie to Congressional staffers, hoping to create an illusion and look like more than what they really are – a small group of hardcore obstructionists."

"I know that in the past the has sometimes fallen short of meeting our responsibilities. Let me be clear: those days are over."

It's still early in session for the U.S. Senate, but you wouldn't know it by the progress being made on clean energy leMomentum has picked up quickly on a Senate bill similar to the American Clean Energy and Security Act, recently passed in the House. If adopted, the proposed legislation would set renewable energy standards for power producers, create clean energy jobs, and institute a carbon cap system to curb industrial emissions.