“The midwest is the fulcrum for global warming solutions,” argues the Chicago-based Environmental Law & Policy Center. “The midwest has the largest concentration of old, dirty coal plants that produce large amounts of CO2 which cause global warming, and the Midwest is the center of the United States’ transportation industry. The midwest is the most important region in the most important country in the world when it comes to solving our global warming problems.” Full strategy paper here.
The ELPC is best known for serving as the legal firm for the midwestern environmental movement on public-policy issues like logging of national forests in Wisconsin, high-speed rail, and renewable-energy portfolio standards. Now it’s going beyond policy to the personal, with a list of seven steps anyone can take to retard global warming.
The first step the center recommends is to replace regular light bulbs with compact fluorescents. Like many environmental improvements, this requires you to put up more money up front in order to save $11.38 per bulb per year–plus one slightly less damaged planet.