PCAP Project Description
The Presidential Climate Action Project was created in January 2007 to develop policy recommendations on climate and energy security, with a focus on what the next President of the United States could accomplish using his or her executive authority - in other words, without action by Congress. Over the next four years, PCAP produced four reports with nearly 200 ideas on policies and programs to deal with energy and climate issues.
The first report was issued on Dec. 15, 2007, just before the presidential primary elections began for the 2008 election cycle. It was provided to all of the presidential candidates.
The second report was released in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 13, 2008, and was presented to the Obama Transition Team.
PCAP issued its third report on presidential action in 2010 after Congress failed to pass a climate bill. The project issued a fourth report in January 2011 at the mid-point of President Obama's first term, including an inventory of the climate and energy actions the Administration had taken to that point.
The fifth volume of PCAP recommendations will be provided to each of the presidential candidates in the 2012 election and to the president-elect's transition team in December 2012.
PCAP's mission throughout has been to draw on the input of America's most innovative experts to produce policy and program recommendations that are sufficiently bold to expedite America's transition to a clean energy economy, while leading the international effort to reach an agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. An important component of these recommendations has been better coordination of the efforts being made by all levels of government in the United States - federal, regional, state and local.