An estimated 2.4 million pounds of CO2 are spewed into our
planet's atmosphere every second, a billion tons more than last
year. Worldwide emission levels are over 50 percent higher than
in 1990, per the report from the Global Carbon Project. If we
don't do something radical very soon, we could be faced with
runaway global warming, as methane, also a potent greenhouse gas
(GHG) escapes from melting arctic permafrost. Even without that,
global warming above tolerable levels and frequent extreme
weather events could make the Dust Bowl of the '30s and
Hurricane Sandy into regularly occurring disasters. We need to
commit to addressing this issue, which is far more important in
the long run than the U.S. budget-and-debt crisis. Colorado's
current rules are far too weak. The "30 percent by 2020"
renewable energy requirement is actually closer to 26 percent,
because in-state renewables get a 1.25 multiplier. And the
target for rural electric co-ops and municipal utilities is only
10 percent. Worse, the reduction in