Climate Change

CO2 Controls for Power Plants Now? A Good Idea?

As you may know, one of the immediate issues being discussed and litigated in the area of climate change is the imposition of CO2 controls on the Desert Rock power plant in New Mexico simply by interpreting the existing Clean Air Act to include CO2 as a PSD “regulated pollutant”.  For those of you who may be dealing with this issue now or in the future, I suggest a few considerations. 

First, while increasing the cost of gasoline may be good for the development of renewable energy sources and alternatives like the electric car to power the transportation system, roughly doubling the cost of new electricity by imposing carbon emission controls or carbon capture and sequestration may not be such a good idea right now.  In my view, there are two important considerations.  The first is how much benefit CO2 controls imposed now will have.  Using IPCC models (from one of the IPCC foremost modelers) and data, even full compliance with the Kyoto protocol and then continuing to maintain those reduced, 1990 levels of CO2 over the next 100 years would only lower the temperature increase by 0.1 degree Fahrenheit ("F") by 2050, and by 0.3 degrees F by 2100, out of a total 4.7 degrees F (the IPCC's "standard" predicted increase in temperature by the year 2100). 

The Colorado Carbon Fund - Project C

By Tasha Newland

Project C, or the Colorado Carbon Fund, is a voluntary carbon offset program developed by the Colorado Governor’s Energy Office (“GEO”). Project C was initiated by the GEO in August 2008 and offers high quality, verified carbon offsets to individuals, businesses and government agencies interested in mitigating their carbon footprint as a way to support new energy efficiency and renewable energy projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Colorado.

Proposed Actions Involving GHGs Not Subject to ESA Consultation

On October 3, 2008, the Department of the Interior (“DOI”) issued a Solicitor’s Opinion concluding that proposed actions involving the emission of greenhouse gases (“GHGs”) do not meet the “may affect” threshold set forth in the regulations implementing the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”), and, therefore, these actions do not trigger the consultation requirements under section 7 of the ESA. In a separate action also on October 3, 2008, in a letter (“EPA’s Letter”) addressed to the Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (“NMFS”), the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) sought concurrence with its conclusion that issuing permits under the Clean Air Act for activities emitting GHGs in amounts equal to or less than a modeled facility does not require section 7 consultation.

Cap-and-Trade Arrives in the West: Western Climate Initiative Releases its Initial Design Recommendations for Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reductions

By Giji John
September 25, 2008

On September 23, 2008, the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) issued its “Design Recommendations for the WCI Regional Cap-and-Trade Program” (available at www.westernclimateinitiative.org). WCI’s Design Recommendations are intended to effect its stated goal of reducing WCI partner states’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions levels to 15% below 2005 levels by the year 2020.

Costa Rica – A Small Country With A Big Vision

I am sitting on a veranda on the slopes of Rincon de La Vieja Volcano in Costa Rica, about 45 miles south of the border with Nicaragua. We are in the midst of a protected conservation area administered by the government of Costa Rica.  One-fourth of the land mass of the country is within protected areas, forest reserves and national parks.  With 0.3 percent of the earth’s landmass but 10 percent of the known species of animals and plants, Costa Rica has made protecting biodiversity a priority.  “Ecotourism” is a major driver of the Costa Rican economy, and the forests provide the principal mechanism for assuring water supplies for a growing population.  The forest cover of Costa Rica decreased from 75 percent in 1940 to 21 percent in 1987.  The government’s decision to enhance forest cover to protect biodiversity, watershed and scenic values has resulted in an increase of forest cover to more than 50 percent today.  This is a remarkable achievement.

EPA Releases Proposed Carbon Sequestration Regulations

On July 15, EPA Administrator Steven Johnson signed a proposed rulemaking package, which would regulate geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide under the Underground Injection Control (“UIC”) Program of the Safe Drinking Water Act. The proposed rules would create a new category of UIC well (Class VI) designed specifically for injection of CO2 into geologic formations.

EPA Climate Change ANPR Released

On Friday, July 11, the Environmental Protection Agency released an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“ANPR”) seeking comment on a large number of issues concerning regulation of greenhouse gas emissions (“GHGs”) under the Clean Air Act (“CAA”). The ANPR was ostensibly issued in response to the mandate of the U.S. Supreme Court in Massachusetts v. EPA, in which the Court held that carbon dioxide (“CO2”) is a regulated pollutant for purposes of the mobile source provisions of the CAA and that EPA is required to make a determination as to whether emissions of CO2 from mobile sources endanger human health or the environment.

The Silent Elephant

In his book The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations, eminent anthropologist  Brian Fagan describes the period from about 800 to 1200 AD, in which a small increase in average global temperatures resulted in a warmer, greener and wetter Europe and generations-long droughts in the Americas and parts of Asia.  The more hospitable growing seasons in Europe helped spark the early Viking settlements in Greenland and Vinland (northeast North America).  Erratic and lengthy droughts were instrumental in the collapse of the Maya civilization, the disappearance of Anasazi communities, and the abandonment of the great Ankgor Wat complex.

Secretary Kempthorne Announces Listing of Polar Bear as Threatened Under the Endangered Species Act, But Attempts to Limit the Listing’s Role in Regulating Climate Change

Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced on May 14, 2008 that he is accepting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (Service) recommendation to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The news release with this announcement is available at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Endangered Species Program Website and the final rule listing the polar bear is available at the U.S. Department of the Interior Website. Secretary Kempthorne noted that the listing is based on the best available science, which shows that the loss of the polar bear’s sea ice habitat is threatening, and will likely continue to threaten, the polar bear’s survival.

Beware of People With Agendas

Last week a major world leader outlined a series of policy steps to stop the increase in the emissions of greenhouse gases in his country and then to reduce those emissions.  He suggested a timetable for doing so, and proposed the adoption of incentives, subsidies and requirements to increase renewable fuels, implement greater energy efficiency, generate more renewable electricity, develop carbon-free energy from coal, and foster nuclear power development.  One would think that his policy proposals would be the subject of serious consideration and substantive discussion, if not outright agreement in some quarters.  But, for the most part, the reaction has consisted of scoffing, derision and dismissal.  The problem, of course, is that the world leader in question was George W. Bush, and the messenger very much got in the way of the message he delivered in his speech in the Rose Garden on Wednesday, April 16, 2008.  The reactions to the President’s remarks say more about the state of climate change policy than does the speech itself and provide an instructive glimpse into the multi-layered agendas of the stakeholders in the climate change policy arena.