By Tennille Tracy
WASHINGTON--The month of June was the fourth-hottest June on
record, a federal agency reported Monday, lending ammunition to
environmental groups that are stepping up pressure on lawmakers to
address climate change and adopt stricter controls on
greenhouse-gas emissions.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday
that the average global temperature on land and water reached 61
degrees Fahrenheit in June--about one degree warmer than the
20th-century average and the fourth-hottest June since records
began in 1880.
Monday's disclosure followed the release of data in June, also
from the NOAA, that showed the U.S. in particular was experiencing
record warm weather, with the stretch from June 2011 to June 2012
being the warmest 12 months on record.
Pointing to these high global temperatures and a recent string
of extreme-weather events, environmental groups are seizing the
opportunity to call on lawmakers to aggressively limit greenhouse
gases.
"Congress may be loath to tackle an issue that has become a
lightning rod for America's red-blue divide, but this is a threat
that should transcend politics and receive bipartisan action,"
World Resources Institute director Jennifer Morgan said in a blog
post recently.
Climate change recently took a more central role in the debate
between President Barack Obama and likely GOP candidate Mitt
Romney.
In a debate between representatives of the two campaigns last
week, an Obama surrogate said the U.S. should press for an
international treaty on global warming and move forward with
domestic limits on carbon dioxide.
A Romney representative said U.S. companies shouldn't be forced
to comply with stringent carbon standards when their foreign
competitors operate without them.
The Environmental Protection Agency is in the process of
finalizing rules that will cap carbon-dioxide emissions at newly
built power plants. Experts said the rules, along with cheap
natural-gas prices, will make it hard for power-plant operators to
justify the construction of new coal-fired plants.
On Monday, Dominion Resources Inc. (D) Chief Executive Tom
Farrell urged the EPA to loosen the standards because, he said, a
power system that relies heavily on natural gas alone to generate
electricity will expose ratepayers to swings in natural-gas
prices.
Write to Tennille Tracy at tennille.tracy@dowjones.com.