Conservative Heart-throb Newt Gingrich and Liberal Lovie, Nancy Pelosi have both served as third in line to the Presidency, and leaders of their respective Republican and Democrat Parties. What could motivate them to appear together, on the same couch talking about global warming except the shared belief that this is an important, non-partisan issue?

At Standard Carbon, we have been signing up members of Congress to be carbon neutral. Our Carbon Neutral Campaign program, and Carbon Footprint Worksheet have been specially designed to help campaigns quickly calculate their CO2 and then purchase the best verified carbon offsets produced from projects in the United States.

Only about 8% of the American public believes global warming should not be address as a political issue, and the vast majority of these folks are members of the Republican Party which Newt Gingrich once led. This makes it all the more impressive that Newt would have such political guts to stand up for what he thinks. Check out the video:

With the absence of Federal rule making, Governors of the United States have led the charge on reducing CO2 and designing new greenhouse gas markets. In many ways, the debate over “should we do about climate change,” is already over. Something is being done and the voters are demanding it.

• In a NYT/CBS poll (2007), 30% of Republicans and 70% of democrats polled believed that global warming is a serious problem. CBS/NYT Environment Poll

• In the same poll, 78% of all respondents said that they “think it is necessary to take steps to counter the effects of global warming right away.” Only 8% said that the government should do nothing (poll attached).

• The leading bill in the US Senate regarding climate change, the Lieberman-Warner Bill, assumes global warming is a threat. This bill has a cap 2.5 times more severe than the current phase of the Kyoto market, and extends past 2050. (Kyoto ends in 2012)

• California has already begun trading in advance of the AB 32 (California Climate Action Registry) cap and trade market. This cap-and-trade market becomes compulsory for California CO2 emitters in 2012.

• In August this year, six western states and two Canadian provinces (AZ, CA, NM, OR, WA, UT, BC & MTB) will announce the details of their plan to create a western regional carbon market requiring a 15% reduction in CO2 by 2020.

• The seven states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (CT, DE, ME, NH, NJ, NY, & VT) will begin to auction carbon emission permits at the end of this year with official auctions starting January 2009. These states have been trading carbon offsets since 2007.

• More than 20 US states have adopted renewable portfolio standards requiring renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuels. Federal renewable standards have been proposed.

• The global market for Carbon dioxide (carbon offsets) was over $62 Billion dollars in 2007. It will far exceed $100 Billion this year.

• In a poll of 3,703 participants in the global carbon market by PointCarbon, 80% believe that there will be a post-2012 international agreement to replace Kyoto, regardless of the United States’ participation.

• In the same poll, 60% believe that the US Federal government will participate in this agreement. Existing carbon markets in the US will almost certainly allow some participation, as the price for carbon credits could be cheaper in a global market.