The U.S. isn’t taking aggressive enough action — or much action at all — on climate change, according to a report released today by the World Wildlife Fund and German insurer Allianz. In fact the “G8 Climate Scorecards” place the U.S. at the bottom of the Group of Eight on climate action.

Sadly, the U.S. isn’t alone with its poor performance. Even the leaders — Britain, France and Germany — were called out for their slow progress on emissions reductions, despite Kyoto commitments. Regine Guenther, director of the WWF Climate Change Program in Germany, told reporters that the three nations are making about half the cuts to carbon emissions needed to stop global warming.

The rankings, compiled by Dutch consultant Ecofys, are largely unchanged from those released in 2005. Looking more closely, however, the report suggests that the U.S. is poised to move up the list, thanks to state-led initiatives and the upcoming presidential election. “The next administration will likely show much stronger leadership on climate change,” the report authors note optimistically. (Follow our Green Campaign Watch coverage to see if the candidates are up to the challenge.)

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Is McCain the John Kerry of energy? News reports this week are essentially calling him a flip-flopper when it comes to his energy record and policy. The Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg say the presidential candidate has had varying stances on offshore oil drilling, clean energy tax incentives, nuclear power and playing favorites with specific clean power technologies.

“The Arizona senator has swerved from one position to another over the years, taking often contradictory stances on the federal government’s role in energy policy.” - Los Angeles Times.

The LA Times article picks through the presidential candidate’s record and points out that McCain has called for both reducing and expanding offshore oil drilling, and has declared there should be no tax breaks for clean energy but backs billions of subsidies for the nuclear biz. McCain has called for 100 new nuclear power plants, 45 of which he wants built by 2030, but the LA Times says McCain voted 5 times in the 90’s against taxpayer aid for research on nuclear reactors, and in 2003 opposed federal loan guarantees for nuclear power.

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Today’s the first day that San Francisco residents can start applying for those thousands of dollars in rebates for their rooftop solar systems through one of the country’s most aggressive municipal solar programs. Residents can apply for the incentives of between $3,000 and $6,000 and businesses can apply to get up to $10,000.

We checked in with Wade Crowfoot, director of climate protection initiatives with the mayor’s office, this morning, and he said the city’s program is on track and ready. We’ll add in more links and directions of how to apply throughout the day. (Update: Application for download here, photo is of Akeena’s new solar panel).

Several weeks ago, the San Francisco board of supervisors finally approved the Solar Energy Incentive Program after more than five months of politicking. Soon after, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom signed the program into law. The program has been greenlighted for 10 years and has an annual budget of $3 million dollars.

Of course, solar installers see the city’s program as a boon to their business. Akeena Solar is celebrating today’s launch with a new solar panel designed for flat rooftops. We’ll check out the installation event later this afternoon.

Back when gas was $2 a gallon, we didn’t sweat it. Our biggest concern at the pump was whether we remembered to check the oil. At $3 a gallon, we started to grouse. At $4, we can all agree, it hurts.

So imagine what it would be like at $7 a gallon, or three and a half times the price at the beginning of last year. If you can’t bear to, somebody else has. His name is Jeff Rubin and he’s spelled it out in a report he wrote at CIBC World Markets.

Here’s the grim scenario Rubin lays out. The Saudis are boosting production by 200,000 barrels a day, but most of that will be sucked up by its own booming economy. China’s cut its fuel subsidies, but gas still costs a mere $3.25 a gallon there. In fact,such subsidies around the world are giving short-term relief at the cost of longer-term pain: Demand stays high, so oil rockets ever higher, closing at $140.15 Monday.

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North America’s first carbon tax is set to roll out this coming Tuesday in the Canadian province British Columbia. This means British Columbians can start expecting to pay even more at the pump and to their utility as the tax will apply to transportation fuels and home heating oil starting July 1.

With oil prices setting record highs the past few weeks, the timing for this tax couldn’t be worse. The tax isn’t designed to raise revenue for the government and will be accompanied by a one-time C$100 rebate as well as tax cuts elsewhere. Still, critics are not thrilled that a new gasoline tax will send prices at the pump even higher. Opposition have already organized “axe the tax” initiatives and have proposed to modify the tax to apply only to business and industrial emitters, sparing the individual consumer.

Originally announced in February, the tax will start by tacking on a C$10 per ton of CO2 charge to fossil fuels, increasing by C$5 per ton per year for four years. Although it comes at a painful time, a carbon tax is thought by many to be a more effective measure to reduce carbon emissions, compared to the more politically palatable cap-and-trade approach. Similar proposals have been made in the U.S., but so far with little traction.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown did not shy away from transformative language when he said yesterday that “business as usual” would not achieve the “green revolution” the UK must undertake. The EU has set a target for 15 percent of the country’s energy to be generated from renewable sources by 2020. Brown said the endeavor will require £100 billion ($199 billion) in private investment, which would be facilitated by new government incentives.

“This is a green revolution in the making,” Brown said, as the Guardian reports. “It will be a tenfold increase on our current deployment of renewables, and a 300 percent increase on our existing plans: the most dramatic change in our energy policy since the advent of nuclear power.”

The plan would include thousands of wind turbines, a sweeping set of efficiency standards and lifestyle changes for the average British citizen. Brown estimates the revolution would create some 160,000 green jobs and much of the cost would be put right back into the domestic economy, spurring cleantech growth all over the British Isles.

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The campaign trail got heated over energy this week with Obama calling McCain’s plans for offshore drilling and a $300 million battery prize “gimmicks” while the McCain campaign tried to label Obama’s opposition to many energy proposals as a move by “Dr. No.” Since then, Obama has met with Detroit automakers and new critics have come out against McCain’s offshore oil proposal:

GM to Obama: ‘We Need Money’: In a panel discussion on the economy in Pittsburgh, Obama asked GM Chairman Rick Wagoner what he could do as president to best help Detroit “pivot” as quickly as possible and start making greener cars. Wagoner listed three things: research assistance for new technologies, incentives and rebates for consumers, and help converting manufacturing plants. So, really, he said Detroit needs one thing: money, money and money.

Schwarzenegger Criticizes McCain on Offshore Drilling: Speaking yesterday in Miami, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger attacked McCain’s claim that offshore drilling would lower gas prices. “Anyone who tells you this would bring down gas prices any time soon is blowing smoke,” the governor said. Schwarzenegger’s host, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, had modified his stance on the issue earlier in the week, saying he’d support offshore drilling if it was environmentally safe.

Obama Launches Energy Policy Website: To highlight the differences between Obama’s and McCain’s energy policies, the Obama campaign has launched a new web site with a side-by-side comparison of the two candidates’ energy plans. In case you were getting tired of clicking back and forth between our takes on Obama’s and McCain’s energy plans, this could be useful.

While we just spoke to Shai Agassi inside the beltway, the Project Better Place founder and CEO was back on Capitol Hill yesterday to testify before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence & Global Warming. The hearing’s topic was “$4 Gasoline and Fuel Economy: Auto Industry at a Crossroads” and Agassi explained to the committee of representatives that “the electrification of the automobile is inevitable.”

At first Agassi raised some Congressional eyebrows when he explained he wanted to offer electric cars for free. But by the end Chairman Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) concluded by saying “I couldn’t agree with you more.”

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California introduced an ambitious energy road map today to achieve the state’s goal of cutting emissions by 28 percent. The policy mandates that a third of the state’s energy should come from renewable sources, and also boosts the efficiency of appliances, buildings and automobiles. Facilitating this entire process, the California Air Resource Board has proposed a cap-and-trade system on carbon emissions from utilities, the power industry and businesses. The plan represents one of the most aggressive economy-wide cap-and-trade systems in the U.S.

This plan provides the details for the state’s 2006 decision to cut emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, which Schwarzenegger signed into law but left to regulators to figure out. The plan does not estimate the burden of the cost on the effected industries, though Mary D. Nichols, head of the California Air Resources Board, tells the New York Times their “macroeconomic analysis” shows the plan will actually boost California’s gross domestic product by one percent.

While the plan might hit traditional fossil fuel industries hard, it will be a boon for cleantech companies across the board. An aggressive renewable portfolio standard in California has already driven a lot of clean power innovation in the state. And companies selling energy efficient products and services could potentially generate revenue for businesses through carbon credits salable on the newly minted carbon market.

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Science fiction writers speculate that robots will eventually take over our networks, but conspiracy theorists say our current grid is under attack from foreign hackers—conspiracy theorists and high-level intelligence officials that is, according to the cover of the National Journal. The article alleges that Chinese paramilitary hackers were responsible for two massive U.S. blackouts. The theory had enough credibility for former CIA Director-turned-venture-capitalist James Woolsey to ask a panel of energy experts what is being done to secure the grid at the Google/Brookings plug-in electric vehicle conference in Washington this month. Video of Woolsey’s question and the panel’s response below.

So just how secure is our grid? Does making our grid smarter and more interoperable increase our risk? The panel’s moderator, Thomas Friedman, pointed out that our current grid’s inefficiencies are theoretically preventing mass disruption. But the shift to IP-based, smart-grid services leverages all of the security technologies that have been developed in the IP space. Still, industry sources echo the panel’s response and say Woolsey’s is an “extremely legitimate question.”

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