SAN FRANCISCO, California, February 7, 2009 (ENS) – Environmental groups and cities won a settlement Friday in a precedent-setting lawsuit that sought to force two U.S. government agencies to address the global warming effects of their overseas financing activities.

After more than six years of litigation, the first case of its kind established important legal precedents related to global warming.

Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the city of Boulder, Colorado, filed the lawsuit in August 2002 and were later joined by the California cities of Arcata, Santa Monica and Oakland.

The suit alleges that Export-Import Bank of the United States and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation illegally provided over $32 billion in financing and insurance for oil fields, pipelines and coal-fired power plants over 10 years without assessing their contribution to global warming, or their impact on the U.S. environment as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Fossil fuel projects financed by the two agencies from 1990 to 2003 produced cumulative emissions that were equivalent to nearly eight percent of the world’s annual carbon dioxide emissions, or nearly one third of annual U.S. emissions in 2003.

Under the settlement, the Export-Import Bank, the official export-credit agency of the United States, will begin taking carbon dioxide emissions into account in evaluating fossil fuel projects and create an organization-wide carbon policy.

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation will establish a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with projects by 20 percent over the next 10 years. OPIC helps U.S. businesses invest overseas, fosters economic development in new and emerging markets, and complements the private sector in managing risks.

Both agencies will commit to increasing financing for renewable energy.

Refinery owned and operated by Reliance Industries Ltd. in Jamnagar, Gujarat, India will be part of the worlds’ largest refining complex after the $6 billion facility being built next to it is complete. Reliance Petroleum Ltd. is using a $500 million loan guarantee from the Export-Import Bank to buy U.S. equipment, technology and services. (Photo courtesy Reliance Industries Ltd.)

Oakland City Attorney John Russo said, “For far too long, American tax dollars have funded highly irresponsible and damaging fossil fuel projects in countries where environmental laws simply don’t exist. These projects have not only hurt people in those countries, they have also contributed significantly to global climate change, and in doing so, pose a direct threat to the American people, the U.S. economy and the residents of Oakland.”

Boulder City Manager Jane Brautigam said, “The city of Boulder is pleased with the outcome of this lawsuit. As the first city to enact a carbon tax to address climate change, the Boulder community is committed to the principles of environmental sustainability and this result will further that impact.”

“This case was one of the very first climate change lawsuits and established the framework for other climate change cases,” said Ron Shems, lead counsel for the plaintiff groups and cities.

In a landmark August 2005 court decision, the plaintiffs were granted legal standing to proceed with the case. A federal judge found that the U.S. cities suffering economic and other damages from climate change had standing to sue under NEPA, opening the courts for the first time to those injured by climate change.

Testimony from the case, which successfully asserted that climate change is real and caused by human activities, later informed the Mass. v EPA decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are pollutants that can be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

“The claims here are no longer considered novel,” said Shems. “The settlement reached today will help ensure that the federal government takes a close look at its contributions to climate change and that the courts are available if the government fails in this critical obligation.”

“This settlement is a substantial victory for our climate,” said Michelle Chan, senior policy analyst, Friends of the Earth. “As President Obama said in his inaugural address, ‘We can no longer consume the world’s resources without regard to effect.’ The settlement agreed to today is a first step toward making Obama’s vision a reality for these institutions.”

“When we launched this lawsuit in 2002, we were deep in the Bush global warming dark ages,” said Kert Davies, research director, Greenpeace USA. “We were able to prove that climate change harms American cities and citizens and we forced these agencies to change their behavior. Now that we have entered the brighter Obama age, Greenpeace hopes that sweeping reform of global warming policy will reach every corner of the government.”

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WASHINGTON, DC, February 6, 2009 (ENS) – In accordance with President Barack Obama’s order in January, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will reconsider its decision denying California permission to set standards controlling greenhouse gases from motor vehicles.

The waiver request was made by California on December 21, 2005, to allow the state the right to control greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. The request was denied by then-EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on March 6, 2008.

On January 26, less than a week after taking office, President Obama requested that EPA revisit the matter of the denial.

“EPA has now set in motion an impartial review of the California waiver decision,” said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. “It is imperative that we get this decision right, and base it on the best available science and a thorough understanding of the law.”

The Clean Air Act gives EPA the authority to allow California to adopt its own emission standards for motor vehicles due to the seriousness of the state’s air pollution challenges.

Tailpipe emissions contain the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. (Photo by Daniel Olinick)

The EPA must approve a waiver, however, before California’s rules may go into effect. There is a long-standing history of EPA granting waivers to the state of California.

EPA believes that there are significant issues regarding the agency’s denial of the waiver. Jackson said, “The denial was a substantial departure from EPA’s longstanding interpretation of the Clean Air Act’s waiver provisions.”

EPA received on January 21, 2009, a letter from California outlining several issues for Administrator Jackson to review and reconsider about the previous denial of the waiver.

Should the EPA grant the waiver, California, and 13 other states will begin a program to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicles 30 percent by 2016.

EPA will take public comment concerning the reconsideration of the waiver for a period of 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. There will also be a public hearing to be held in March in Washington, DC.

“Today’s decision is a return to sanity by an agency whose fairness and balance had been sabotaged by the partisan extremism of the Bush Administration,” said California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr.

“This is but a first step, but it signals that this EPA has a renewed commitment to sound science and to rule of law,” he said.

The regulations in question were developed under California’s 2002 vehicle greenhouse gas emissions reduction law AB 1493 authored by then-Assemblymember Fran Pavley, the first global warming law in the nation.

The California Air Resources Board adopted the Pavley regulations in 2005.

Pavley, a Democrat, was elected to the California State Senate in November 2008, where she now chairs the Natural Resources and Water Committee.

The reductions achieved by the Pavley regulations constitute an important element of the California’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2020 enacted into law in 2006.

The Air Resources Board approved the Scoping Plan for this effort in December. It is the nation’s first comprehensive approach to address climate change that draws upon every sector of a state’s economy.

“California has led the way on global warming,” said Attorney General Brown, “and the state should be allowed to continue in its leadership role in reducing automobile emissions and addressing global warming.”

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AUSTIN, Texas, February 2, 2009 (ENS) – Less than a week after the biannual Texas state legislature opened, a bipartisan group of lawmakers today showed their support for a slew of bills promoting the development of solar energy in the state.

At least 18 bills have already been filed to support the deployment of solar technologies by legislators in both chambers and across the political spectrum.

“The sun that strikes Texas’ buildings and soil each day has the potential to power the state many times over – and the technologies needed to harvest that energy are already here,” said Senator Troy Fraser, an Abilene Republican who chairs the Senate Business and Commerce committee. Fraser authored SB 545, legislation creating a rebate program to make it easier for Texans to install solar on their homes and businesses.

“The question facing Texas is whether we will lead the solar energy revolution – bringing good jobs and clean power to our state – or whether we will lag behind,” Fraser said.

State senators, representatives, mayors, business leaders and renewable energy advocates today held press conferences in six cities to announce the findings of a new report showing that if legislation requiring the state’s utilitites to offer direct solar incentives to consumers and businesses, thousands of jobs would be created and greenhouse gas emissions would be slashed.

Authored by nonprofit environmental and consumers groups Environment Texas, Public Citizen, and Vote Solar, the report outlines costs, number of systems, job creation and the environmental benefits of a proposed 2,000 megawatt rebate program for distributed generation.

HB 278 introduced by Rafael Anchia, a Dallas Democrat, and SB 427, introduced by Florence Shapiro, a Plano Republican, would require the state’s electric utilities to support the development of 2,000 megawatts of solar and other on-site renewable technologies by offering incentives to consumers and businesses.

The solar photovoltaic system atop the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (Photo courtesy U. Texas Health Science Center)

The nonprofits’ report found that such a standard could lead to installations on as many as 500,000 roofs in Texas by 2020 at a cost of about 98 cents per month per Texan.

This investment would create an estimated 22,000 jobs and reduce emissions of carbon dioxide emissions by 29 million tons, the equivalent of taking 4.3 million cars off the road for a year.

“Texas has the ‘right stuff’ to become a world leader in solar energy development – reaping the benefits of cleaner air, a robust economy and reduce dependence on fossil fuels,” said Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas and one of the report’s authors. “Creating a statewide rebate program for solar will give Texans more power over their electric bills and kick-start an economic boom for the state.”

“Experience in Germany, Japan, California and elsewhere has shown that solar incentives will lead to increased demand and lower prices,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, director of Public Citizen’s Texas office and an author of the report. “These are the first steps on the road to a robust, self-sufficient solar market in which government incentives are no longer necessary.”

Participating in today’s events in Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Waco and Abilene were solar businesses such as Meridian Energy Systems, the Austin Chamber of Commerce, and environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club and Environmental Defense Fund.

Governor Rick Perry said in his State of the State address on January 27 that he supports the “all-of-the-above” approach to energy, “increasing our affordable supplies of traditional energy sources, as well as wind, solar, bio-fuels, and nuclear, as a way to bolster our economy and move us closer to energy independence.”

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TOKYO, Japan, January 23, 2009 (ENS) – The first satellite dedicated to monitoring greenhouse gas emissions as part of global efforts to combat climate change was launched into space today from Japan.

The IBUKI, which means “breath,” will circle the globe every 100 minutes at an altitude of some 670 kilometers (416 miles) and will monitor the levels of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane at 56,000 locations.

The satellite will acquire data covering the entire planet every three days and this data will be shared with other space and scientific organizations.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, launched the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) at 12:54 pm Japan Standard Time from the Tanegashima Space Center.

The launch vehicle flew smoothly, and, at about 16 minutes after liftoff, the separation of the IBUKI was confirmed, JAXA officials said.

Japan’s Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite IBUKI (Photo courtesy JAXA)

“The satellite is expected to play an important role in monitoring global environmental changes and look out for any small warning signs that could affect our future,” said JAXA in a statement.

JAXA said the satellite project will observe the concentration distribution of greenhouse gases thought to be a primary cause of global warming, and help reduce carbon dioxide emissions covered by the Kyoto Protocol.

Signed in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, the international treaty that limits the emission of six greenhouse gases took effect in February 2005. The target for Japan is six percent below 1990 levels.

The protocol’s first commitment period expires at the end of 2012 and it is expected to be replaced by a treaty to be finalized in December.

While the Kyoto Protocol requires that 35 industrialized countries meet precise emissions limits, in reality, says IBUKI project manager Takashi Hamazaki, there are no standardized means to measure greenhouse gas emissions, and the amount of emissions reported is based on self-declaration.

The amount is calculated based on assumptions about the volume of the countries’ oil consumption, car-driving distances and industrial gas emissions, among other factors.

“Therefore if GOSAT observation makes it possible to estimate greenhouse-gas absorption and emission per continent or large country, we’ll be able to use the data as a means of verification,” he said.

GOSAT has three major mission objectives. The first is to monitor the density of greenhouse gases precisely and frequently worldwide.

The second is to study the absorption and emission levels of greenhouse gases per continent or large country over a certain period of time.

And the third objective is to develop and establish advanced technologies that are essential for precise greenhouse gas observations.

Hamazaki said, “Over the last few years, global warming has become a serious concern around the world. Discussions on how to reduce the rate of global warming are taking place both domestically and internationally, and include such strategies as reducing the level of carbon dioxide emissions by half over the next 50 years.”

“To accomplish this goal,” Hamazaki said, “we must improve the accuracy of observations and long-term climate-change predictions. Up to now, global warming predictions have been performed by research organizations around the world through supercomputer simulations based on ground observation data.”

In Japan, the National Institute for Environmental Studies, the Meteorological Research Institute, and the University of Tokyo are participating in global warming modeling.

Hamazaki said there are only about 260 ground observation points at present, and they are not evenly distributed, “so we can by no means say we are observing the entire globe.”

“Thus, under the present circumstances, global warming predictions vary and may not be accurate,” he said.

By comparison, he said, GOSAT will have 56,000 observation points on the Earth, and will be able to acquire data covering the entire globe every three days. “We think this will improve the accuracy of global warming predictions.”

IBUKI will be “watching how the Earth breathes,” he said.

Hamazaki says Japan hopes the data gathered by IBUKI will be useful to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which summarizes research results from all over the world. The IPCC will be publishing a report on climate change predictions for the next 100 years.

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WASHINGTON, DC, January 15, 2009 (ENS) – The heads of some of America’s largest corporations together with the leaders of five of the country’s largest environmental groups today presented a joint plan to Congress for climate protection legislation. Congressional Democrats met their call for immediate action with assurances that they agree – there is no time for delay.

Testifying before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in the first congressional hearing of 2009 on climate change, members of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership called for a reduction in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent of 2005 levels by 2050 through an economy-wide cap-and-trade program.

“In the past, the U.S. has proven that we have the will, the capabilities and the courage to invest in innovation – even in difficult times,” said Jeff Immelt, chairman and chief executive of General Electric, one of the USCAP partners.

“Today, cap-and-trade legislation is a crucial component in fueling the bold clean energy investments necessary to catapult the U.S. again to preeminence in global energy and environmental policy, strengthen the country’s international competitiveness, and create millions of rewarding new American jobs,” Immelt said.

“The health of our economy and the safety of our climate are inextricably linked, except nature doesn’t do bail-outs,” said Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute.

“USCAP has redefined what is possible,” said Lash. “If the diverse membership of USCAP can find common ground, Congress can agree on effective legislation.”

Committee chair Congressman Henry Waxman of California said his goal is to pass comprehensive climate and energy legislation in the committee before the Memorial Day recess.

“That is an ambitious schedule, but it is an achievable one,” said Waxman who is new to the committee chairmanship. “We cannot afford another year of delay. As today’s hearing will show, a consensus is developing that our nation needs climate legislation. Our job is to transform this consensus into effective legislation. The legislation must be based on the science and meet the very serious threats we face.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “Chairman Waxman has set an aggressive timetable for action to reduce global warming and our dependence on foreign oil. I share his sense of urgency and his belief that we cannot afford another year of delay.”

The Houston Ship Channel hosts 25 percent of the United States’ oil refining capacity. Refineries would have to control their greenhouse gas emissions under a national carbon cap-and-trade program. (Photo by Roy Luck)

Developed through two years of intensive analysis and consensus-building among USCAP’s 26 corporations and five environmental groups, the “Blueprint for Legislative Action” aired before the committee today sets forth steps for creating a mandatory, economy-wide cap-and-trade program for the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

Under a cap-and-trade system, a government authority first sets a cap, deciding how much pollution in total will be allowed. Next, companies are issued credits, essentially licenses to pollute. If a company comes in below its cap, it has extra credits which it can trade with other companies.

USCAP’s plan couples the cap-and-trade program with cost containment measures and complementary policies addressing a federal technology research development and deployment program, coal technology, and transportation, as well as building and energy efficiency.

Jim Mulva, chairman and chief executive of the oil company ConocoPhillips, the nation’s second largest refiner, told the committee, “We believe we must act now in a united effort to slow, stop and reverse the growth of greenhouse gas emissions.”

Mulva agreed that quick action is imperative to curb climate change. “Each year the United States delays enacting a federal framework to control its emissions, the greater the future risk.”

“From an oil and gas perspective,” he said, “we understand that this means fundamental changes in the way we operate and in the fuels we produce.”

“ConocoPhilips is ready to meet the challenge,” Mulva said, “but we and others need an effective, efficient and equitable federal program in place to establish the rules and to encourage the technology development and investments necessary for change.”

Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, told the committee, “The time for action on global warming has already been delayed too long. Every day we learn more about the ways in which global warming is already affecting our planet.”

“A growing body of scientific opinion has formed that we face extreme dangers if global average temperatures are allowed to increase by more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit from today’s levels,” Beinecke said.

She said that the NRDC believes we may be able to stay below this temperature increase if atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other global warming gases are kept from exceeding 450 parts per million of CO2-equivalent and then rapidly reduced.

“This will require us to halt U.S. emissions growth within the next few years and then achieve significant cuts in emissions in the next decade,” she said, “progressing to an approximately 80 percent cut by 2050.”

The targets and timetables in the USCAP legislative proposal are consistent with the schedule proposed by President-elect Barack Obama.

In his November 18 address to a bipartisan conference of governors, Obama said, “Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option.”

In December, in a video address to the United Nations climate conference in Poland, Obama said he would open a “new chapter” on climate change, starting with a national cap-and-trade system.

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WASHINGTON, DC, January 14, 2009 (ENS) – Scientific integrity and the rule of law will be the “two core values” guiding decisions by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the incoming Obama administration, the president elect’s nominee to head the agency vowed today at her confirmation hearing.

The promises of nominee Lisa Jackson were met with high praise from Democratic senators, who contend the Bush administration has ignored recommendations of the agency’s scientists and undermined its mission to protect public health and the environment.

“Science must be the backbone of what EPA does,” said Jackson, who appeared before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Nominee for EPA administrator Lisa Jackson (Photo courtesy EPW)

The former head of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection told the committee she would administer EPA with “science as my guide.”

Political appointees “will not compromise the integrity” of agency experts and scientists to advance particular regulatory outcomes, Jackson said, adding that the agency will “operate with unparalleled transparency and openness.”

Jackson would be the first African-American to lead EPA, an agency with some 17,000 employees and a budget of more than $7 billion.

Currently chief of staff to New Jersey Democratic Governor Jon Corzine, Jackson also worked at EPA for 15 years in several jobs related to the Superfund program.

Jackson did not lay out specific priorities during the hearing, but instead outlined five broad objectives – reducing greenhouse gas emissions, curbing other air pollutants, addressing toxic chemicals, cleaning up hazardous waste sites and water protection.

“These five problems are tough, but so is our resolve to conquer them,” Jackson said.

Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and chair of the committee, hailed Jackson as a “breath of fresh air” and welcomed her comments as “music to my ears.”

With little Republican opposition to the nominee, Boxer suggested the full Senate could easily confirm Jackson as EPA chief early next week.

Helen Sutley is nominated to lead the Council on Environmental Quality (Photo courtesy EPW)

Boxer alluded to a similar easy path for Nancy Sutley, Obama’s pick to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality, CEQ.

Sutley, currently deputy mayor for energy and environment in Los Angeles, said her focus as CEQ chief would be “to ensure that there is a strong science and policy basis for our environmental policy.”

The bulk of the nearly four-hour hearing was focused on Jackson. Democratic senators littered the proceedings with criticism of the Bush administration’s environmental record and of current EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson.

Johnson has drawn the ire of Democrats and environmentalists for a slew of decisions, including his failure to act on climate change and for repeatedly ignoring the recommendations of agency scientists.

“The fact is, I believe the EPA has hurt the American people, made them less safe, over the last eight years,” Boxer said, who called the agency “a shadow” of its former self.

“I am looking for a renewed commitment to EPA’s mission – nothing more, nothing less,” Boxer told Jackson.

EPA under the Bush administration has “fallen into significant disrepute,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat. “More than anything else it needs its integrity restored.”

On some key issues – particularly climate change – the Bush administration has refused to act, Democrats noted.

On others, such as reducing harmful emissions from power plants, the Bush EPA finalized controversial rules only to see them rejected by federal courts, added Senator Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat.

“We start this 111th Congress pretty much where we were eight years ago,” Carper said.

Jackson acknowledged that much of her early work would be dealing with controversial Bush rules and some of the court rulings that have ordered EPA to rewrite regulations.

Among these issues, she promised to revisit Johnson’s controversial decision to deny California’s waiver request to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. Nineteen other states have said they will follow the California policy as soon as the EPA grants the waiver of weaker federal rules.

In response to questioning, Jackson also pledged to assess risks from coal ash disposal sites similar to two that have recently spilled in Tennessee and Alabama.

“EPA, first and foremost, needs to discuss the state of what’s out there and where might be a horrible accident waiting to happen,” Jackson said.

Republicans on the panel cautioned the EPA nominee against moving too aggressively on climate change and warned that her job will not be easy given the contentious nature of environmental policy and regulation.

Senator George Voinovich makes a point at the confirmation hearing. (Photo courtesy EPW)

“I think it is the most difficult job that one can have in the federal government,” said Senator George Voinovich, an Ohio Republican.

Voinovich urged Jackson to consider the economic impacts of federal environmental rules on states and local communities, particularly in light of the nation’s economic woes.

“You have to consider the impacts these things are going to have on the people,” Voinovich said.

Senator John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, took direct aim at the issue of global warming, reiterating longstanding concerns by many Republican lawmakers about the costs of limiting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

“Addressing climate change through the Clean Air Act is a disaster waiting to happen,” Barrasso said, alluding to the controversy over the 2007 Supreme Court decision that found EPA had the authority under the statute to regulate greenhouse gases.

Barrasso said he was worried that “federal laws on the books are being used in ways they were never intended to be used.”

Jackson rejected that concern and reiterated that the Obama administration will tackle global warming with the tools available if Congress fails to pass climate legislation.

She told Barrasso, “The beauty of many environmental laws is that they were meant to address not just the issues of the day but the issues of tomorrow.”

By J.R. Pegg

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HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania, January 6, 2009 (ENS) – Pennsylvania has signed a letter of agreement with 10 other eastern states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuels and other sources by developing a regional low carbon fuel standard.

Vehicles using low carbon transport fuels include cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells; electric cars such as plug-in hybrids; cars fueled with ethanol, especially cellulosic ethanol made from non-food plant materials; and cars fueled with biodiesel.

“This partnership will work closely on a standard for the entire region,” said Governor Ed Rendell on Monday, announcing the agreement. “In conjunction with Pennsylvania’s energy policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase clean energy development, this work done by this partnership will ultimately grow our economy and protect our planet by fostering a cleaner environment.”

The other states in on the agreement are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.

The 11 states already are partners in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, RGGI, the first mandatory, market-based effort in the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The push towards a regional low carbon fuel standard started in June 2008 when Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick sent a letter to the governors of all 10 RGGI states inviting them to cooperate on a standard that would apply to the entire region. Massachusetts committed to developing a low carbon fuel standard for the state last April.

“The response to Governor Patrick’s call for a regional low carbon fuel standard by our neighbor states has been tremendous,” said Massachusetts Energy Secretary Ian Bowles.

“Working together, the 11 states from Maine to Delaware will cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, spur the development of clean energy technologies like advanced biofuels and electric cars, and reduce our dependence on petroleum,” said Bowles.

Ron Yerxa, center, and wife Annette Ballester get a lesson from Tim Cunningham, Honda fuel cell vehicle program consultant, on how to refuel
their new hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicle, July 2008 in West Los Angeles. (Photo courtesy Honda)

“After power generation, transportation is the next logical target for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and a low carbon fuel standard gives us a market-based mechanism to get the environmental results we need,” said Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Laurie Burt.

The 11 states will collaborate with the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management, which has been studying a low carbon fuel standard for the region. The eastern states also have agreed to work cooperatively with other states and the federal government, and to influence the design of any federal standard or other proposed fuel policy.

In January 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger established the world’s first low carbon fuel standard by Executive Order.

“I applaud these 11 Eastern states for recognizing the power of California’s groundbreaking low carbon fuel standard to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and oil dependency while rewarding innovation and expanding consumer choice,” Schwarzenegger said Monday.

“Like California, these other states are leading the way in recognizing that we must take action now to fight global warming, and I look forward to working together to find additional solutions like the LCFS that both protect our environment and grow our economy at the same time.”

Once the low carbon fuel standard is developed for the eastern region, governors from participating states will have the opportunity to consider implementation.

Fuels that may reduce greenhouse gas emissions include advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol, which have lower lifecycle carbon emissions and may be less likely to cause indirect effects from crop diversion and land use changes than biofuels on the market today such as ethanol made from corn.

Many of the 11 states in the partnership have set individual policies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Pennsylvania enacted the Climate Change Act last year, establishing an advisory committee to create a report on potential climate change impacts and economic opportunities for the commonwealth.

The committee also will write an action plan for cost-effective strategies to reduce or offset the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and help the Department of Environmental Protection, DEP, compile an annual inventory of the sources and amounts of greenhouse gas emissions generated within the state.

DEP Acting Secretary John Hanger said, “By implementing the Climate Change Act, investing in alternative energy, and generating more of our energy needs from clean energy sources, Pennsylvania can reduce the air pollution emissions that lead to climate change.”

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SACRAMENTO, California, January 2, 2009 (ENS) – As of January 1, every 2009 model year and newer car built for sale in California will be required to carry a label that clearly ranks the vehicle’s environmental impact. A vehicle’s certification level can be found under the hood on the vehicle emissions control information label.

The label will show a simple ranking system that provides consumers with practical information that can help them choose the most environmentally friendly vehicle that still meets their transportation needs.

“This label will arm consumers with the information they need to choose a vehicle that saves gas, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and helps fight smog all at once,” said California Air Resources Board Chairman Mary Nichols. “Consumer choice is an especially powerful tool in our fight against climate change.”

The environmental performance label will have two scores on a scale of 1-10, a global warming score and a smog score.

The higher the score the more environmentally friendly the car is. The average new car will score five on both scales.

Electric cars earn the highest ratings on both scores. One car rating 10 on both scores is the GEM electric car from Global Electric Motors, a Chrysler company. Priced at $12,495, the GEM is 100 percent battery-electric and does not use any gasoline.

A GEM electric car is the highest rated car
for both the smog and the global warming
scores. (Photo courtesy Global Electric Motors)

Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, creating global warming. Scientists are certain that human activities such as burning gasoline for transportation are changing the composition of the atmosphere and warming the planet’s climate.

Greenhouse gases emitted from vehicles include carbon dioxide, CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, and hydroflurocarbons from air conditioner refrigerant. Greenhouse gas emissions are identified as the CO2-equivalent value.

The California global warming score is based on the sum of a vehicle’s greenhouse gas emissions, which are identified as the CO2-equivalent value.

The global warming score ranks each vehicle’s CO2-equivalent value on a scale of one to 10 relative to all other vehicles within the current model year.

A score of 10 is the cleanest a vehicle can rate and indicates that the vehicle emits less than 200 grams of CO2-equivalent per mile driven.

A score of one is the dirtiest a vehicle can rate and indicates that the vehicle emits more than 520 grams of CO2-equivalent per mile driven.

The global warming scores are adjusted to reflect the contribution of greenhouse gas emissions from the production and distribution of the fuel used to power the vehicle.

Smog is hazy air pollution produced by the photochemical reaction of sunlight with volatile organic compounds and oxides of nitrogen released into the atmosphere, especially by automobile operation.

California’s new smog score ranks each vehicle’s pollutant levels of non-methane organic gases and oxides of nitrogen relative to all other vehicles within the current model year.

Smog scores will be on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the cleanest. The average vehicle available in California today will get a smog score of 5. Many pre-2004 vehicles fall below a smog score of one. This is because, over time, there have been significant advances in air pollution control technologies and the Air Resources Board has established more stringent pollution standards for vehicles.

For a list of the top 10 cleanest cars, click [urlhttp://www.driveclean.ca.gov/]here[/url] to go to the California Air Resources Board’s consumer website.

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