This chart is based on WRI’s recent analysis of potential greenhouse gas emissions reductions under existing federal authorities and state actions through 2030.

The 2010 hurricane season began on June 1, amid widespread concern over the potential for a large storm to exacerbate the damage from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. As the map above shows, catastrophic hurricanes (Category 3 or higher) regularly hit the southern coast of the United States. NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) predicts an 85 percent chance of an “above normal” hurricane season this year, due to conditions including exceptionally warm sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean tropical zone.

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The activities of our everyday lives are critical to determining the magnitude of GHG emissions and, hence, global warming. How much electricity we use, what type of car or how often we drive, and our consumption of goods are some of the most tangible drivers of GHG emissions. As consumers of natural resources, our habits and actions directly and indirectly produce GHG emissions and will become more acute as populations continue to grow.

This analysis provides an assessment of net reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to total U.S. emissions that could be achieved by pollution reduction proposals currently under consideration in the 111th Congress. This assessment is an update to a previous analysis WRI released on December 17, 2009, and includes an analysis of the American Power Act (APA), introduced as a discussion draft on May 12, 2010 by Senators Kerry and Lieberman. The APA draft is compared against S.