The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s top administrator, Lisa Jackson, has made her pitch to Congress for its 2011 budget.  Cleaning up brownfields – sites so contaminated they require millions of dollars of work to restore, investing in water quality, and helping states meet recently update air quality standards are the big ticket items in the request.  It seems as though responding to climate change, although mentioned very near the start of her testimony, is one of the smaller line items.

While the EPA continues to work on its greenhouse gas rule, and as some states (including Kentucky and Utah) are passing resolutions to basically defy any greenhouse gas rule, one has to wonder whether the agency is really giving teeth to its climate change program.  And on the subject of climate change, some seem to be losing hope that any international progress can be made, given the recent departure of the UN’s  top climate negotiator, Yvo de Boer, the lack of a U.S. climate bill, and the recent bad publicity for climate researchers whose emails were leaked.  What do you think?  Is there hope for coordinated climate change efforts – nationally or internationally?

(Quick update:  see this great blog post from Andrew Revkin, formerly a New York Times environment reporter but now only continuing his Dot Earth blog with the company.  He’s addressing recent assaults on climate change science.)