Things are happening fast in the world of coal. Gristmill’s Dave Roberts caught this story in the Toronto Star about the recent push by investment firms like Merrill Lynch and Europe’s largest insurance firm Allianz, pressuring the U.S. Congress to pass a climate change policy that would put investors and investments on the global warming map. Basically, they are asking the U.S. gov’t to help start a market for cap-and-trade regulations that will depend on goals set by the gov’t.

Its a good first step. One small downer in the article was the fact that “they won’t call for any specific climate-change policy…”

All of this and more is encouraging in the longer term battle to change how this country gets and burns its energy.