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, 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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TRENTON, New Jersey, December 18, 2008 (ENS) – New Jersey environmental officials have released a proposal to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. Department of Environmental Protection Acting Commissioner Mark Mauriello has invited the public to comment on the recommendations outlined in a draft report published on the state’s Global Warming website.

“While this plan is still in draft form, it lays out an ambitious vision for New Jersey and what we must do to reduce greenhouse gases for the next 40 years,” said Governor Jon Corzine.

“This draft report outlines a New Jersey where employees commute without the frustration of traffic and the air pollution it causes, where energy is clean, and where waste is a thing of the past,” the governor said. “Such ambitions are the future of our environment and our economy.”

New Jersey’s B.L. England power plant operated
by Rockland Capital Energy Investments burns
coal and oil. (Photo by Curt Bergesen)

The state will host six meetings in January to solicit input on the plan. The draft report is a key requirement of the Global Warming Response Act, signed by Governor Corzine on July 6, 2007, that calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, followed by a further reduction of emissions to 80 percent below 2006 levels by 2050.

The draft report outlines the necessary implementation steps that New Jersey must take over the next 18 months in order to meet the statewide 2020 limit, and put the state on the right path for achieving the statewide 2050 limit.

The plan reinforces three of the state’s core environmental programs that are aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from New Jersey’s largest contributors – the transportation and energy sectors.

The Energy Master Plan establishes the framework for reducing New Jersey’s energy demands through incentives that encourage investment in renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.

The state’s Low Emission Vehicle, which becomes effective on January 1, 2009, will achieve twice the reduction in greenhouse gases as the Federal clean car standards.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a 10-state northeastern and mid-Atlantic initiative, is reducing carbon output from power plants in the region through a cap-and-trade market-based approach. New Jersey is participating in RGGI’s second carbon auction that took place on Wednesday.

The plan also provides supporting recommendations that include legislative and regulatory actions, as well as additional market-based initiatives that encourage investment in innovative environmentally-friendly technologies.

The draft report and a list of dates and times for the public meetings are listed on the state’s global warming website at: www.nj.gov/globalwarming.

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WASHINGTON, DC, November 28, 2008 (ENS) – In a letter to President-elect Barack Obama, the Western governors are urging swift action in adopting and implementing a national energy plan that would transform the country’s energy infrastructure and economy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The group of 19 governors from both political parties are calling for near-zero greenhouse gas emissions from new coal-fired electricity generation in 10 years and from existing generation no later than 2030.

Utah Governor Jon M. Huntsman, Jr., chairman of the Western Governors’ Association, and Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, vice chairman, discussed the association’s recommendations with John Podesta, co-chair of Obama transition team.

“The transformation we are talking about is broad based and will require new policies, incentives, market mechanisms and private-public partnerships to be in place by the end of next year,” said Huntsman, a Republican. “We plan to work with the new administration and Congress in addressing the multitude of energy challenges ahead.”

Turbines at Utah’s Spanish Fork wind farm,
dedicated in October 2008 (Photo courtesy
Office of Governor Huntsman)

The 19 Western governors represent many of the nation’s largest energy-producing states such as Texas, which is first in both oil and wind power production, and Wyoming, which ranks first among the states in coal production. They represent California, which leads the nation in electricity generation from non-hydroelectric renewable energy sources – a combination of geothermal power, wind power, fuel wood, landfill gas, and solar power.

The governors’ letter outlines policies and incentives that would help states and the country move more quickly to develop clean and renewable energy resources that include wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, hydro and fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage.

“Western states are the country’s energy breadbasket, but energy efficiency has also got to play a much bigger role,” said Schweitzer, a Democrat. “That includes everything from manufacturing more fuel-efficient vehicles to changing regulatory structures so they reward utilities for achieving reduced energy usage among their customers.”

In their letter, handed to the transition team late last week, the governors said a national energy policy must promote energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a scale necessary to contribute to climate stabilization.

The Obama administration’s policy must maximize the economic development opportunities offered by clean energy; ensure energy costs are affordable and support a sustainable, growing economy, the governors said.

They urge the incoming administration to increase the proportion of energy supplies that come from domestic resources and friendly trading partners; and minimize adverse environmental impacts.

Within the first 100 days, the governors are calling on the Obama administration to:

* Establish an aggressive and achievable national greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal that will put the United States on a path to contribute to global climate stabilization.

* Propose a mandatory national system for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that makes maximum use of market-based mechanisms. Revenue raised should not be used as a means of sustaining or expanding general governmental operations.

* Pursue a national energy efficiency program to reduce existing and future energy demand and thereby reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

* Establish an oil import reduction goal that strengthens energy security and independence. Since nearly 90 percent of oil is used for transportation, an energy plan must bring more fuel-efficient and near-zero emission vehicles into the market; increase the supply of domestically produced, low-carbon fuels; minimize the economic and technological uncertainties inherent in deploying high efficiency vehicles and developing and using non-petroleum transportation fuels; and reduce vehicle miles traveled and increase mass movement of people and goods.

* Create a substantial, long-term national public investment on the scale of tens of billions of dollars annually, along with a similar investment from the private sector, to support the kind of basic and applied research and deployment of clean energy technology and infrastructure that will result in:
o Near-zero greenhouse gas emissions from new coal-fired electricity generation in 10 years and from existing generation no later than 2030.
o Dramatically increased energy from wind, solar, geothermal, hydro and biomass resources.
o Expansion and upgrade of the electricity transmission grid and storage capabilities
o Advanced vehicle and battery technologies and alternative transportation fuels.
o Next generation energy efficiency technologies and practices.

The governors also urge affordability for lower income energy consumers through energy efficiency and cost assistance programs.

They support workforce development and clean energy jobs, adaptation to climate change impacts, reduced consumer impacts – particularly for low-income consumers – and transition assistance to industries.

“While the first 100 days are critical, these actions only represent the first steps,” the governors say in their letter. “Within the next year, a comprehensive energy plan must be enacted that will set the direction of this nation for the next 50 years. This plan, though adjustable over time, must establish measurable goals, strategies, milestones and funding to ensure that we are moving towards affordable and environmentally responsible energy security and independence.”

“We must not repeat the mistakes of the past,” the governors declared in their letter. “We must have the collective political will and resolve to create and implement a long-term comprehensive energy policy despite short-term political and market fluctuations. The future of our nation depends upon it.”

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SACRAMENTO, California, September 23, 2008 (ENS) – The Western Climate Initiative governments today announced the design of their new regional market-based cap-and-trade program. The emissions trading program is intended to reduce climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

The program recommendations met with support from environmental groups and criticism from the coal industry.

The WCI partners say the program is expected to encourage growth in new green technologies, help build a strong clean energy economy, and reduce dependence on foreign oil.

The cap-and-trade program is one element of a regional effort by the governors and premiers of U.S. states and Canadian provinces to promote environmental sustainability and economic growth by reducing greenhouse gas emissions

The partner governments include seven U.S. states: Arizona, California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Quebec, Utah, and Washington; and four Canadian provinces: British Columbia and Manitoba in the west, and Ontario and Quebec in the east.

Together, the seven states and four provinces represent over 70 percent of the Canadian economy and 20 percent of the U.S. economy.

The carbon reduction strategy will cover nearly 90 percent of the region’s emissions, including those from electricity, industry, transportation, and residential and commercial fuel use.

The coal-fired Hunter power plant in Utah
emits greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere. (Photo by Utah
Geological Survey)

The cap-and-trade program will require emitters to cut their pollution by setting a limit, or cap, on emissions and then allowing the market to identify the least costly ways to achieve the limit.

Through collaboration and consultation with stakeholders, the partner governments decided to recommend reducing air pollutants, diversifying energy sources, and advancing economic, environmental, and public health objectives while avoiding localized or disproportionate environmental or economic impacts.

The Western Climate Initiative partner governments have agreed to begin reporting emissions in 2011 for emissions that occur in 2010.

The first phase of the cap-and-trade program will begin on January 1, 2012, with a three-year compliance period.

The second phase will begin in 2015, when the program is expanded to include transportation fuels and residential, commercial and industrial fuels not already covered in the first phase.

“This landmark action by a diverse coalition of Democratic and Republican governors as well as Canadian premiers is a powerful signal to the world that now is the time for dramatic action to stem global warming,” said Derek Walker, director of the California Climate Initiative at Environmental Defense Fund. “This bold leadership will strengthen California’s economy and make the region a hub of clean technology and green job growth.”

Ontario’s coal-fired Lambton power plant
(Photo courtesy Ontario Power Generation)

Other environmentalists were pleased, but warned that many details have yet to be worked out, including whether emissions allowances are given to polluters for free, or whether they are auctioned off with the revenues spent in the public interest.

The agreement unveiled today requires that, at least, 25 percent of the allowances be auctioned by 2020 and encourages states to go further.

“The smartest, cheapest way to tackle global warming is to make companies pay for every ton of pollution and use the revenue to ease the transition to a clean energy economy,” said Jeremiah Baumann, an advocate for Environment Oregon.

“This will prevent windfall profits, save consumers money and accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy,” he said. “We look forward to working with state officials to pursue that goal.”

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, an industry association, today expressed concern about the regional nature of the Western Climate Initiative cap-and-trade program.

“By focusing on such programs, there is a strong chance the state and/or regional mandates will conflict with future federal mandates, in essence double taxing states where local mandates reside. This would result in increased economic hardship for working families and businesses in WCI states,” said the coalition.

“There are better ways states and regions can continue environmental progress and address climate change concerns without harming the economy,” the coalition stated.

“Such strategies include increasing energy efficiency programs and funding advanced clean coal technology that can achieve real and measurable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions without putting western states’ economies at risk.”

The coalition supports “the timely adoption of a mandatory federal program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

The coal coalition says that investments in technology are “the only way to ensure that mandatory emissions reduction programs do not come at the expense of reducing energy security or making residential and business customers to pay unnecessarily higher costs for energy.”

To read the Western Climate Initiative emissions trading recommendations, click here [www.westernclimateinitiative.org].

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STOCKTON, California, September 17, 2008 (ENS) – The central California city of Stockton has agreed to identify and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging downtown growth instead of allowing development to sprawl. The city will cut down on emissions by constructing thousands of new residential units within its current city limits, putting a rapid transit bus system in place and requiring all new buildings to be energy efficient.

On September 9, California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced the terms of the landmark agreement that will settle a lawsuit brought against the central California city by the Sierra Club.

“We cannot reach our statewide greenhouse gas reduction targets without the cooperation of our largest and fastest growing cities,” said Brown. “Stockton has shown leadership on this issue, enabling us to work together to meet our targets for significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This agreement is a critical part of California’s effort to address climate change.”

This agreement comes after the city issued a Draft Environmental Impact Report for its General Plan that outlined how the city would manage its growth through 2035.

The report, issued in December 2007, estimated that by 2035, Stockton’s population would reach 580,000, an increase of almost 50 percent.

In January 2008, the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit to block Stockton’s General Plan, claiming that it failed to address the amount of greenhouse gases the city would emit into an already heavily polluted San Joaquin Valley.

The Attorney General’s Office entered into negotiations with Stockton earlier this year, citing concerns about the General Plan and the need to evaluate greenhouse gas reduction impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act.

“We are grateful that the attorney general came to Stockton and became involved in the city’s growth plan. The settlement represents a huge step forward for good planning that should slow down sprawl at the fringe of the city and reduce the increase in greenhouse gases due to new growth,” said Dale Stocking, an executive committee member of the Sierra Club’s Mother Lode Chapter.

Freeways criss-cross Stockton, California
(Photo credit unknown)

“The city’s commitment to adopt comprehensive green building standards and provide developer funding for a transit system should reduce vehicle trips and make Stockton a leader in the Central Valley and the state,” he said.

Under a California law passed in 2006, the state is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

In 2005, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an executive order requiring an additional reduction of emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

Currently, California generates approximately 500 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent, a number that is above 1990 levels. To achieve the 2020 target, California must reduce current emissions by at least 10 percent, said Brown.

“We appreciate the collaboration with the Attorney General’s Office; this is a win-win situation in which we can address environmentally sensitive issues,” said Stockton Mayor Edward Chavez.

“Certainly, the attorney general and his staff have been tremendous in getting this agreement put together,” the mayor said. “It will be a model that can be replicated in other communities.”

Located about 90 miles inland of San Francisco in the agricultural Central Valley, Stockton has experienced a population boom over the past decade as thousands of people have settled here to escape the relatively high cost of living in the Bay Area.

The city is an inland seaport surrounded by the thousands of miles of waterways and rivers that make up the California Delta.

To reduce sprawl under the agreement, the city will construct nearly 18,000 new home units within the current city limits, including 4,400 units to be built in downtown Stockton. The city will adopt green building regulations to ensure that new buildings are energy-efficient, conserve water and are built with eco-friendly materials.

Any new development in the city will have to be transit-friendly, and new commercial and residential development will be located near mass-transit stops.

Though new development will continue at city outskirts, the city agreed to phase it in gradually. Before approving new developments, the city will demonstrate that the projects will not undermine downtown Stockton and will complement existing commercial and residential zones.

Stockton is not the first California government to attract the attention of the attorney general over environmental concerns. San Bernardino County, Solano County, Tulare County, the city of San Diego, as well as regional transportation plans, refineries, cement plants, dairy expansions, and other large projects have also been challenged..

On their own, many California communities have begun to initiate measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including Fresno, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sonoma County, Santa Monica, Berkeley, Marin County, Palo Alto, Chula Vista and Modesto.

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HOLLYWOOD, California, August 14, 2008 (ENS) – At the opening of the annual U.S.-Mexico Border Governors Conference Thursday at Universal Studios in Hollywood, host California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he felt right at home.

“I actually started my movie career right here at Universal Studios,” he told his nine fellow governors. “It was Universal Studios that started the Conan the Barbarian movie.” The 1982 movie is recognized as the acting breakthrough of then bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger, an Austrian immigrant.

As host of the Border Governors Conference, Schwarzenegger used his keynote speech to expound on the theme of this year’s conference, Building Green Economies.

To help fight global warming, he pointed out, the Mexican border states have joined the Western Climate Initiative. They hold status as observers and so are not bound by the goal set by the WCI in August 2007 for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in its 11 member states in the west and in Canadian provinces that now extend as far east as Quebec.

In Hollywood today, Mexico’s top environmental official Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada, who heads the Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources, proposed the creation of state climate change plans to deal with the environmental impacts of global warming in a coordinated way.

He said the environmental agreement that Mexico signed recently with the state of California could be applied all along the border strip.

It would include greenhouse gas emissions inventories at the local, state and regional levels, and, said the Mexican secretary, the states south of the border could adopt California’s low-carbon air quality standard.

In addition, he suggested the establishment of 15 crossborder pollution control districts and also proposed building desalination plants in coastal areas to ensure drinking water supplies for the arid region.

Polluted stream rimmed with piles of
discarded tires at a border town
near San Diego. (Photo courtesy
San Diego Indymedia)

The California governor praised his colleagues for their work with the federal governments to tackle the problem of millions of abandoned scrap tires that pose a public health and environmental risk, “and we have begun discussions on managing water resources during drought conditions,” said Schwarzenegger.

“You see, these are important breakthroughs and they build on our history of friendship and accomplishment,” he said.

The 10 border states – Arizona, Baja California, California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, New Mexico, Sonora, Tamaulipas, and Texas – together exercise an economy that ranks third in the world for size.

Schwarzenegger praised his fellow governors for helping to create the Border 2012 program, a collaboration between the United States and Mexico to improve the environment and protect the health of the nearly 12 million people living along the border.

The bi-national program focuses on emergency preparedness, cleaning the air, providing safe drinking water, reducing the risk of exposure to hazardous waste, and addressing environmental health issues such as farm workers’ exposure to pesticides.

The conference ends Friday, but cooperation will continue. The United States and Mexico have been cooperating on a broad range of environmental issues since 1983.

“Now, our work is complicated, it’s never-ending and it requires constant coordination and collaboration,” said Swarzenegger. “But this organization has shown time and time again that it is ready to rise to any challenge.”

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KOBE, Japan, May 27, 2008 (ENS) – Environment ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations concluded a three-day meeting in Kobe Monday with an agreement on the long-term goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050.

But the ministers failed to support specific emissions reduction targets for 2020, as recommended last year by an international body of climate scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC.

Still, the G8 environment ministers said there is “strong political will” to reduce the greenhouse gases responsible for climate change during the G8 leaders annual summit set for July 7 to 9 on the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

“Last year, the G8 leaders agreed to seriously consider reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least half by 2050. Strong political will was expressed to go beyond this agreement and reach agreement on a shared vision of long-term global goals at the G8 Hokkaido summit,” says the chairman’s summary of the meeting.

Developed countries should take the lead in achieving a significant reduction, the summary adds.

On Sunday, Japanese Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita called for the launch of an international network of institutions to facilitate the transition to low-carbon societies, a prerequisite to achieving any greenhouse gas reduction target.

“I hope that this goal will constitute a shared vision among the participating countries to the G-8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit this year,” Kamoshita said in a address to his colleagues. He said the participation of China, India, the United States and other major greenhouse gas emitters is crucial to the success of the initiative.

Japan’s Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita,
center is surrounded by G8 environment
ministers and outreach delegates
wearing traditional Japanese happi
coats. May 24, 2008

But the United States, as the only member of the G8 not to have ratified the Kyoto Protocol on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, resisted setting any medium term target for the year 2020.

Kamoshita and Scott Fulton, deputy assistant administrator with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, maintained that it is too early for the G8 to set midterm targets. They said such commitments should be the result of negotiations between now and 2009 that will lead to a climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Environment ministers from Britain and Canada expressed a sense of urgency in Kobe about moving forward toward a medium-term reduction target agreement by then.

The European Union has pledged a 20 percent emissions reduction by 2020, and has offered to raise it to 30 percent if other nations sign on.

“We need long-term and midterm reduction targets, as well as national action plans to achieve those targets,” said German Environment Minister Matthias Machnig at a news conference Monday morning.

Kamoshita said more study is needed. “For midterm reduction targets, the important issue is how to take the IPCC knowledge into consideration to come up with a viable target. At this point in time, I’m not sure it’s appropriate to cite specific figures at the negotiation table.”

Winding up the meeting Monday, Kamoshita said, “I believe the agreement achieved at the meeting will be a major force behind the upcoming G8 summit in Toyako, Hokkaido. The agreement is also expected to help international efforts in establishing a new framework to fight global warming.”

In addition to climate change, the G8 environment ministers agreed that their governments should come up with national action plans and implementation strategies to protect biodiversity, in line with an international biodiversity conference taking place this week in Bonn. They said biodiversity and climate change are closely related issues.

The Group of Eight, G8, is an international forum for the governments of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States to discuss issues of common concern. Though the group’s origins date back to the early 1970s, it did not become the Group of Eight until 1997 when Russia formally joined.

Along with the G8 environment ministers and the European Commission, nine other countries participated in the Kobe event, including Antigua and Barbuda representing small island states, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Korea, and South Africa.

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WASHINGTON, DC, May 5, 2008 (ENS) – Ocean waves, tides, and currents are a vast, untapped source of energy that the U.S. Department of Energy wants to harness to meet Americans’ growing energy demand while at the same time reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Today, the Energy Department announced up to $7.5 million in federal funding for research and development to help advance the viability and cost-competitiveness of advanced water power systems.

“Water covers more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface. Using environmentally responsible technologies, we have a tremendous opportunity to harness energy produced from ocean waves, tides or ocean currents, free flowing water in rivers, and other water resources,” said Andy Karsner, assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy.

“The U.S. Department of Energy is aggressively pursuing the development of next-generation technologies that are capable of increasing the use of clean, renewable energy to further our energy security and help meet the president’s goal to stop greenhouse gas emissions growth by 2025,” he said.

President George W. Bush announced the 2025 goal on April 16 at the White House.

Now the Energy Department plans to award industry-led partnerships to research, develop and/or field test advanced water power technologies. Successful applicants will be required to develop collaborative project teams involving at least one other industry, university or national laboratory partner and a minimum 50 percent non-federal cost share is required.

Ocean waves have enormous power.
(Photo by Andrew Castellano)

The agency also plans to award grants to university-led groups to conduct advanced research on marine renewable energy. These groups will serve as an information clearinghouse for the marine renewable energy industry, collecting and disseminating information on best practices research.

Research will include technology testing, experimental and numerical modeling, wave forecasting, environmental impacts, and corrosion-resistant materials research.

Completed applications are due June 16, 2008. All grant applications will be merit reviewed and competitively awarded. DOE anticipates selecting up to 17 awards, and projects are expected to begin in Fiscal Year 2008. The continuation of projects beyond FY 2008 is subject to Congressional appropriation.

Wave power devices extract energy directly from surface waves or from pressure fluctuations below the surface. Renewable energy analysts believe there is enough energy in the ocean waves to provide up to two trillion watts of electricity.

Wave power cannot be harnessed everywhere, according to the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, EERE, but the northeastern and northwestern coasts of the United States are rich in potential wave power.

“In the Pacific Northwest alone, it’s feasible that wave energy could produce 40-70 kilowatts per meter (3.3 feet) of western coastline,” says EERE. The west coast of the United States is more than a 1,000 miles long.

On December 18, 2007, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company announced its support for plans to build America’s first commercial wave power plant off the coast of Northern California.

Located off the Northern California coast, the Humboldt County Offshore Wave Energy Power Plant will be developed by Finavera Renewables.

The plant will consist of eight buoys, 2.5 miles offshore, each buoy generating electricity as it rises and falls with the waves.

“Harnessing the ocean’s energy on a utility scale is a critical achievement in renewable energy technology and this project represents our first step in that direction,” said Fong Wan, vice president of Energy Procurement with PG&E.

The plant is scheduled to begin operating in 2012, generating a maximum of two megawatts of electricity. Each megawatt can power about 750 homes.

Potential environmental considerations for the development of wave energy include impacts on marine habitat, depending on the nature of submerged surfaces, above-water platforms, and changes in the seafloor.

There could be toxic releases from leaks or accidental spills of liquids used in systems with working hydraulic fluids.

Visual and noise impacts are possible both above and below the sea surface, and conflicts with other sea space users, such as commercial shipping and recreational boating could develop.

Careful site selection is the key to keeping the environmental impacts of wave power systems to a minimum, says EERE on its website. “Wave energy system planners can choose sites that preserve scenic shorefronts. They also can avoid areas where wave energy systems can significantly alter flow patterns of sediment on the ocean floor.”

Economically, wave power systems have a hard time competing with traditional power sources but the costs to produce wave energy are coming down. Once built, wave power systems have low operation and maintenance costs because the fuel they use – seawater – is free.

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SAN DIEGO, California, March 23, 2008 (ENS) – Black carbon, particulate matter in the air produced by diesel exhaust, biomass burning, and cooking with solid fuels, has a warming effect in the atmosphere three to four times greater than existing estimates, according to scientists in an upcoming review article in the journal “Nature Geoscience.”

Atmospheric scientist V. Ramanathan with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California-San Diego and University of Iowa chemical engineer Greg Carmichael, said that soot and other forms of black carbon could have as much as 60 percent of the current global warming effect of carbon dioxide, more than that of any greenhouse gas besides carbon dioxide, CO2.

The researchers also say that mitigation would have immediate societal benefits in addition to the long-term effect of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The article, “Global and regional climate changes due to black carbon,” is posted in today’s online version of “Nature Geoscience.”

Professor V. Ramanathan explains his new
findings to reporters. (Photo
courtesy UC San Diego)

“Observationally based studies such as ours are converging on the same large magnitude of black carbon heating as modeling studies from Stanford, Caltech and NASA,” said Ramanathan.

“We now have to examine if black carbon is also having a large role in the retreat of arctic sea ice and Himalayan glaciers as suggested by recent studies,” he said.

In the paper, Ramanathan and Carmichael integrated observed data from satellites, aircraft and surface instruments about the warming effect of black carbon and found that its warming effect in the atmosphere, is about 0.9 watts per meter squared.

That compares to estimates of between 0.2 watts per meter squared and 0.4 watts per meter squared that were agreed upon as a consensus estimate in a report released last year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations sponsored agency that periodically synthesizes the body of climate change research.

Ramanathan and Carmichael said the lower, more conservative estimates are based on widely used computer model simulations that do not take into account the amplification of black carbon’s warming effect when mixed with other aerosols such as sulfates.

The models also do not adequately represent the full range of altitudes at which the warming effect occurs, they said.

The most recent observations have found significant black carbon warming effects at altitudes in the range of 6,500 feet, levels at which black carbon particles absorb not only sunlight but also solar energy reflected by clouds at lower altitudes.

Between 25 and 35 percent of black carbon in the global atmosphere comes from China and India, emitted from the burning of wood and cow dung in household cooking and through the use of coal to heat homes.

Countries in Europe and elsewhere that rely heavily on diesel fuel for transportation also contribute large amounts.

“Per capita emissions of black carbon from the United States and some European countries are still comparable to those from south Asia and east Asia,” Ramanathan said.

Black carbon rises from land clearing fires on the island of Borneo. October 2006. (NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team)

In south Asia, air pollution often forms a brownish haze. Ramanathan’s previous research has indicated that the warming effects of this smog appear to be accelerating the melt of Himalayan glaciers that provide billions of people throughout Asia with drinking water.

In addition, the inhalation of smoke during indoor cooking has been linked to the deaths of an estimated 400,000 women and children in south and east Asia.

Ramanathan said that an observation program for which he is currently seeking corporate sponsorship could dramatically illustrate the benefits. Known as Project Surya, the proposed venture would provide some 20,000 rural Indian households with smoke-free cookers and equipped to transmit data. At the same time, a team of researchers led by Ramanathan would observe air pollution levels in the region to measure the effect of the cookers.

Carmichael said he hopes that the paper’s presentation of the immediacy of the benefits will make it easier to generate political and regulatory momentum toward reduction of black carbon emissions.

“It offers a chance to get better traction for implementing strategies for reducing black carbon,” he said.

The National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration funded the review.

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SACRAMENTO, California, February 20, 2008 (ENS) – California’s cities and counties must take action now to combat global warming by limiting emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, says California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr.

In 534 letters mailed statewide Tuesday, Brown invited mayors, local planning directors, and county supervisors to attend workshops this spring where they can learn practical ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Brown said, “These workshops will launch the first statewide movement to reduce the negative impact of local planning decisions on global climate.” The workshops will be held from March to May in Oakland, Sacramento, Visalia, Los Angeles and Monterey.

Brown began the letter by saying, “I write to you today about a myth, a challenge, and an opportunity. The myth is that there is no immediate need to address local contributions to global warming. The challenge is to take action today and at every level to address global warming. And the opportunity, particularly for local government, is to be an active force in the fight against global warming by asking the hard questions, seeking the best information, and making the sound decisions that will move California to a low-carbon future.”

The Global Warming Solutions Act, AB 32, requires California to cut greenhouse gas emission to 1990 levels by 2020, but the rules and market mechanisms will not take effect until 2012. Meanwhile, local governments will make thousands of planning decisions that will affect the emission of greenhouse gases. The workshops are intended to help local officials make climate-friendly decisions.

Brown will co-host the workshops, which will focus on climate change and the California Environmental Quality Act. This law requires local agencies to analyze and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from projects with significant impact, including regional transportation and development plans.

Methods of modeling greenhouse gas emissions will be discussed in detail at the workshops, which will also address how cities and counties can analyze the global warming-related impacts of development efficiently and on limited budgets and find strategies to mitigate them.

Thirty thousand square feet of solar
panels on the roof provide power
to the Moscone Convention Center
in downtown San Francisco. (Photo
courtesy PowerLight Corporation)

“California must adopt the necessary changes that will encourage economic growth while reducing greenhouse gases,” Brown said. “This difficult transition from our current escalating dependence on fossil fuel demands that cities and counties encourage maximum building efficiency and innovative land-use.”

To date, the attorney general has submitted formal comments to 23 local jurisdictions throughout the state under the California Environmental Quality Act, encouraging them to evaluate and avoid or limit the increases in carbon dioxide emissions caused by land use decisions.

Attorney General Brown also has reached agreements with San Bernardino County and ConcoPhillips on specific greenhouse gas reduction strategies.

Local jurisdictions across California including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sonoma, Santa Monica, Berkeley, Marin, Palo Alto, Chula Vista, Modesto and Healdsburg already are initiating measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Many mitigation strategies are becoming realities of life in California.

The City of Berkeley, for example, is developing a program that funds solar power projects with public monies and allows the property owners to repay the city through property tax assessments.

High-density developments are being planned that reduce vehicle trips and utilize public transit. Transportation impact fees are being placed on developments to fund public transit service, and regional transportation centers where various types of public transportation meet are being planned.

Electric vehicle charging facilities and conveniently located alternative fueling stations are springing up across the state.

Methane is being recovered from landfills and wastewater treatment plants to generate electricity.

Developers are including energy efficient designs for buildings, appliances, lighting and office equipment as well as solar panels, water reuse systems and on-site renewable energy production.

Greenhouse gas emissions are being offset by purchases of carbon emissions credits that fund alternative energy projects.

In addition, over 120 California cities have joined the Cool Cities campaign and taking concrete steps to fight global warming, including the development of greenhouse gas emissions inventories and a local Climate Action Plan.

Twelve Cool Counties each are establishing a greenhouse gas emissions inventory and regional plan to cut emissions to 80 percent below current levels by 2050.

The California Department of Justice Website has been expanded to provide information that can help local agencies join the fight against global warming at: url]http://ag.ca.gov/globalwarming/ceqa.php[/url]

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