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Connecticut governor John Rowland has used his executive powers to set a goal for state government facilities to buy 20% of their electricity from green resources by 2010, 50% by 2020 and 100% by 2050. Like several other eastern governors, Rowland is calling on his state government to tackle climate change problems in the absence of federal climate change law. He says the 2020 goal will remove at least 210,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere as well as encourage the growth of new renewable industries and create jobs. Rowland says the quickest path to clean air and a reduction in America's dependency on foreign oil is to increase demand for renewable power. The executive order on renewable energy use was one of more than 36 recommendations made by the Governor's Steering Committee on Climate Change, which ended a year-long process in March with its report. A second East Coast governor, Mitt Romney in Massachusetts, also announced his climate change program last month, which includes cutting the state's contribution to greenhouse gases 25% by 2012 through energy efficiency and by removing barriers to renewable energy development.