A new report says Hampton Roads should start planning a system of dikes and levees now to protect the region against rising sea levels over the next century. The 2009 State of the Region report released Tuesday also says the region should get serious about controlling carbon emissions. It recommends a state tax increase on gasoline and diesel to discourage motorists from driving as much.

Virginia’s economy will certainly be affected if Congress passes landmark legislation aimed at reducing greenhouse-gas emissions through major changes in the nation’s energy policy. But whether the changes could be good or bad depends on who is doing the research. Critics yesterday charged that the American Clean Energy and Security Act would lead to higher energy prices and cost Virginia hundreds of thousands of jobs over the next 40 years. An environmental advocate, however, argued the legislation would have the opposite effect.

A demonstration project to remove carbon dioxide from coal-fired smokestack emissions has been proposed for a controversial power plant under construction in far Southwest Virginia.

A few months ago, Al Gore gave a talk to a gathering of scientists during which he presented a slide that showed, he said, how global warming is “creating weather-related disasters that are completely unprecedented.“ On the advice of some other scientists who said he was confused on the issue, he later dropped that slide from his presentation.

After the law of supply and demand, there may be no law more difficult to evade than the law of unintended consequences. And there may be no arena in which that law is more pervasive than environmental regulation. Some years ago, stricter clean-air standards led to the introduction of MTBE, an oxygenation agent that helped engines burn gasoline more completely. Unfortunately, MTBE’s high water solubility led to groundwater contamination in many parts of the country. (“An effort to cut air pollution winds up fouling the water,“ as The New York Times summarized a few years ago.) Federal requirements for reformulated gasoline including MTBE also contributed to regional gasoline price spikes. So eventually Washington decided that ethanol, made from corn, would make a better gasoline blend. Federal ethanol subsidies quickly led to price spikes for food commodities and livestock feed.

President Barack Obama said the global recession makes it harder to strike an international agreement to battle dangerous temperature increases, but he urged the poor emerging economies that rejected specific clean-energy goals to “fight the temptation toward cynicism” and embrace them soon.

A global-warming measure before Congress would drive up energy costs, analysts said at a conference in Henrico County yesterday. The so-called cap-and-trade measure would limit the amounts of heat-trapping gases that power plants, refineries and other industries could release. Those limits would make relatively cheap energy, such as that from coal—a major source of greenhouse gases—more expensive, analysts said.

A large majority of Virginians think global warming is real, but most aren’t doing much about it, a statewide poll shows. In the poll conducted by Christopher Newport University’s Center for Public Policy and the Virginia Environmental Endowment, 76 percent said global warming is happening. Sixty percent said they have made minor changes to their living and shopping habits, while 29.6 percent said they have made major changes.

A large majority of Virginians think global warming is real, but most don’t want to do much about it, a statewide poll shows. In the poll conducted by Christopher Newport University’s Center for Public Policy and the Virginia Environmental Endowment, 76 percent felt global warming is happening. Sixty percent said they have made minor changes to their living and shopping habits, while 29.6 percent said they have made major changes.

Although the snow storm of Sunday and Monday rates as the region’s most ample in recent years, the accumulations will not enter the history books—or even the encyclopedias of hyperbolic folklore. No one will make a fortune flogging t-shirts emblazed with “I Survived the Blizzard of 2009”—unless, of course, some wicked weather this way comes. The frigid temperatures and power outages might make a different story.

Virginia and England’s first partnership was founded on the lucrative cash crop of tobacco. Yesterday, 400 years later, the commonwealth and the United Kingdom came together over a different kind of green. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the British ambassador to the United States, signed an agreement to work together to reduce greenhouse gases; research low-carbon, renewable-energy technologies; and raise public awareness on climate change.

Morano’s career includes a long stint as Rush Limbaugh’s producer, and he was midwife to one of the nastiest and most biased political attacks in our history—the Swift Boat ads of 2004.

President-elect Barack Obama recently unveiled a massive infrastructure spending package that includes new federal investments in energy efficiency.

Quotations on a variety of topics currently in the news . . . Barack Obama, discussing the many Clinton-era alumni he is selecting for his administration of “change”: “Understand where the vision for change comes from first and foremost. It comes from me. That’s my job . . .“

The state Commission on Climate Change unanimously adopted its final report yesterday, and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine indicated he would act on it. “In my administration, we don’t get reports and put them on shelves,“ Kaine told the panel during a meeting in the General Assembly Building. The report makes more than 100 recommendations, including calls to conserve energy better, rely more on nuclear power and increase protections for forests and wetlands.