Yesterday, President Obama released his new climate plan — one that the New York Times describes as “tough, [but] achievable”. The President, who turns 54 today (HAPPY BIRTHDAY BARRY O!), outlined his plan to crack down on carbon dioxide pollution from power plants. This plan puts an emphasis on the use of carbon-free energy sources like solar power and wind and is already drawing backlash from certain members of Congress. While the plan isn’t directly related to reducing harmful emissions produced by vehicles, it provides an opportunity for me to reflect on why the mission of Clean Fuels Ohio is important.

It’s 2015 and we are still *sort-of* having a debate about whether or not the climate is changing at a faster pace due to pollution caused by humans. Depending on who you ask, anywhere from 97 to 99 percent of credible scientists back the statement that humans are directly responsible for causing rapid climate change. Some people have a problem calling it “global warming” citing colder temperatures but semantics aside, it’s a virtually undeniable fact that power plants built by humans and vehicles driven by humans have been having a negative impact on our environment. How men and women running our government can continue to deny these facts is beyond me, but that’s a different story…

President Obama obviously faces more criticism on climate change than we do here at Clean Fuels Ohio, but the skeptics are out there. How long until people accept that protecting our planet IS a valid reason to change our behavior? It’s all well-and-good to change based on political pressures, or economic reasons, or business competition, but why is the environment seemingly an afterthought? NEWS FLASH: we have one planet — and we are destroying it. Whether or not you change your behavior because on politics, or business, or economics is fine by me, but I encourage everybody to start taking the environment a little more seriously.

Protecting our planet IS a valid reason to change our behavior.