US environmental legislation changes 'not good enough'

The US government has been criticised after its latest environmental legislation change left many green groups disappointed.

Last week, the US Senate leader Harry Reid confirmed the draft of the Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act.

Although the act was meant to demonstrate president Barack Obama's environmental goals, groups such as F&C have said that it is not good enough.

Associate director in F&C's Governance and Sustainable Investment Team Vicki Bakhshi said: "Obama's pleas to view the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as a wake-up call on the need for a radical shift to cleaner energy clearly fell on deaf ears."

It was noted that the environmental legislation did not express proposals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or plans to make renewable energy goals.

She added that the draft act was "undoubtedly disappointing for the renewable energy industry".

Expectations were likely to be high for bigger climate change goals after the US announced plans last month to introduce bills to dramatically cut the amount of air pollution released from coal-fired power plants across a number of different states.

Posted by Joseph Hutton