Believe it or not, other things did happen on the climate front this week other than Al Gore's speech on energy and climate change.

The EPA released yesterday a sobering report on the worsening climate situation:

U.S. government scientists detailed a rising death toll from heat waves, wildfires, disease and smog they said would be caused by global warming in an analysis the White House buried so it could avoid regulating greenhouse gases.

In a 149-page document released Monday, the experts laid out for the first time the scientific case for the grave risks that global warming poses to people, and to the food, energy and water on which society depends.

``Risk (to human health, society and the environment) increases with increases in both the rate and magnitude of climate change,'' scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency said. Global warming, they wrote, is ``unequivocal,'' and humans are to blame.

This is the report that, as you may recall, the White House tried to bury by treating it like email spam.

There was, of course, President Bush's calamitous decision to lift the executive ban on offshore drilling:

President Bush on Monday lifted an executive ban on offshore oil drilling and challenged Congress to follow suit, aiming to turn the enormous public frustration about gasoline prices into political leverage. Democratic lawmakers rejected Bush's plan as a symbolic stunt.

With gas prices topping $4.10 a gallon nationally, Bush made his most assertive move to extend oil exploration, an energy priority of his presidency. By lifting the executive prohibition against coastal drilling, Bush rescinded a White House policy that his own father put in place in 1990.

The move will have no practical effect unless Congress acts, too. Both executive and legislative bans must be lifted before offshore exploration can happen.

Add another item to the long list of health hazards tied to global warming—increased risk of kidney stones:

One more unwanted consequence of global warming may be an increase in cases of kidney stones in areas with rising temperatures, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Kidney stones -- excruciatingly painful hard deposits of minerals and salts that can form in the kidneys -- tend to be more common in hot climates, with dehydration a key risk factor for the condition.

The researchers used two mathematical models linking temperature to kidney-stone risk in the United States, and found that regions where the condition now is most common will expand in coming decades due to predicted rising temperatures.

In more encouraging news, a major utility company unveiled a plan this week to cut greenhouse gas emissions:

Exelon, the electric company based in Chicago, will promise on Tuesday to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 by an amount larger than its total emissions in 2008, in a bid to shape the debate on carbon dioxide rules and to get a jump on compliance.

Many academic researchers and nonprofit groups have made proposals for cutting emissions, but Exelon’s will be an unusual public presentation devised by a company that hopes to make money in the process. The plan relies heavily on conservation and having existing nuclear plants produce more power, but it includes smaller contributions from wind and sun energy.

The reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will come by making Exelon’s operations more efficient, cutting the energy use of its electricity customers and building low-carbon generators that would displace older, less-efficient plants, many operated by rivals, the company said.

There's a downside to the plan, however:

But the plan is remarkable for what it does not emphasize. Despite a national focus on solar and wind power, discussions in Congress about renewed tax credits for investments in windmills and solar systems and debate over a federal requirement for a minimum level of “renewable” energy, Exelon calls for relatively little.

Finally, on a more upbeat note, New York City's cabs are going green:

New York City's yellow taxi fleet now will go green at the rate of 300 new hybrid cars a month, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Wednesday, citing an agreement with car-makers to supply the fuel-light cabs.

There are already more than 1,300 hybrid taxis in the city, and each one saves its drivers about $6,500 a year, Taxi and Limousine Commission Chairman Matthew Daus said in a joint statement with the mayor.

Bloomberg aims to accomplish 127 green initiatives before his second and final four-year term ends in 2010. In December,

the Taxi and Limousine Commission voted to require all vehicles that join the taxi fleet to be hybrids by October 1. The only exception is for cabs specially equipped for the handicapped.

Read any interesting climate news this week? Share them in the comments!