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(ACC Mentioned) Vancouver Pilot Program Moves 'Beyond Bags'
Aug 26, 2015 | Waste360
Don't throw away that plastic wrapper that encases your rolls of toilet paper — it has a future as Trex composite lumber. -
Whistleblower Alleges Safety Cover-Up in DuPont Lawsuit
Aug 26, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
A former DuPont Co. employee who worked at a Houston-area chemical plant where four workers were killed last year has sued the company, alleging she was terminated after reporting safety violations. -
Calif. May Already Have a Cleanup Bill from Limited Fracking
Aug 26, 2015 | E&E - Energywire
By Mike Lee
California will likely have to clean up years' worth of residual contamination from hydraulic fracturing and other unconventional oil production that occurred before the state imposed tighter regulations this year, scientists and agency heads told the state Legislature yesterday. -
Ozone Rule to Unleash ‘EPA Police,’ Group Says
Aug 26, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
A new video advertisement is warning that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new ozone rule could trigger ridiculous laws limiting everyday activity. -
Future Administration Could Face 'Heavy Lift' In Rescinding Climate ESPS
Aug 26, 2015 | InsideEPA
By Lee Logan
A future administration opposed to EPA's climate rules for power plants would face a “heavy lift” to completely rescind the regulations, sources say, though it might have other tools to undermine the policy and the effort may not be as difficult as EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy has suggested it would be. -
Strong EPA Methane Rule Required to Fully Realize Clean Power Plan Benefits
Aug 26, 2015 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Elena M. Krieger, Ph.D. and Seth B.C. Shonkoff, Ph.D., MPH
Within the past month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unveiled two major initiatives intended to meaningfully cut our nation’s contributions to climate change. -
Calif. Senate Leader Says He'll Amend Clean Energy Bill to Increase Oversight
Aug 26, 2015 | E&E - Climatewire
By Debra Kahn
California lawmakers are adjusting their landmark climate bills to appease opponents. -
19 Areas Miss Compliance Deadline for 2008 Ozone Standard
Aug 26, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
Nineteen areas failed to meet a Clean Air Act deadline to comply with the 2008 national standard for ground-level ozone, according to U.S. EPA. -
A Carbon Tax Could Help Prevent Dangerous Levels of Deforestation -- Report
Aug 26, 2015 | E&E - Climatewire
By Brittany Patterson
The world is on track to lose 7.14 million acres of tropical forest -- a landmass equivalent to the size of India -- by 2050, amounting to a rate of deforestation much faster than previous estimates. -
Obama Must Advance Green Energy's 'Quiet Revolution' -- Report
Aug 26, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
By Scott Streater
The Obama administration must take steps in the coming months to ensure that the unprecedented growth of renewable energy development on public lands continues, according to a report released today by the Center for American Progress. -
Climate Rally to Coincide with Pope's Visit
Aug 26, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
Environmental groups are planning a huge climate rally timed with Pope Francis' address to Congress.
Industry and Association News
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(ACC Mentioned) Vancouver Pilot Program Moves 'Beyond Bags'
Aug 26, 2015 | Waste360
Don't throw away that plastic wrapper that encases your rolls of toilet paper — it has a future as Trex composite lumber.
It doesn't go in your blue recycling cart, though, because plastic wrappers clog up the machines at the regional recycling plant.
Now, there's another option.
Starting Saturday, all 12 Safeway stores in Clark County will begin accepting clean, dry plastic polyethylene wrappers (also called "film") and bags as part of a pilot program called "Beyond Bags — Recycling Plastic Wrap and Film." In addition to packaging film, polyethylene plastic is used to make disposable grocery bags, bread bags, dry cleaning bags, plastic envelopes and newspaper bags.
The "Beyond Bags" program is a partnership between the city of Vancouver, Waste Connections, Clark County and its cities, Safeway, Trex and the Wrap Recycling Action Program, which is headed by the American Chemistry Council's Flexible Film Recycling Group.
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Whistleblower Alleges Safety Cover-Up in DuPont Lawsuit
Aug 26, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
A former DuPont Co. employee who worked at a Houston-area chemical plant where four workers were killed last year has sued the company, alleging she was terminated after reporting safety violations.
Barbara Acker worked as a lab technician at the La Porte, Texas, plant from 2007 to 2014, when she was fired less than one month before a deadly chemical leak that was largely blamed on poor safety practices.
Acker alleges in the lawsuit filed at Harris County District Court that she was "forced to quit" as "a pretext to cover up for matters protected by the Texas Whistleblower Act."
Acker said earlier this year she made written and verbal complaints to DuPont for five years over what she called violations in how the company stored and handled chemicals, including a lab filled with acid flasks that were decaying or unlabeled.
The company told her lab cleanup wasn't as important as other safety issues, Acker said.
After the 2014 chemical leak that killed four workers, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited DuPont for 11 safety violations, required plant upgrades and issued a $99,000 fine. The company was also added to OSHA's "severe violator" list (Dylan Baddour, Houston Chronicle, Aug. 25). -- SP
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Calif. May Already Have a Cleanup Bill from Limited Fracking
Aug 26, 2015 | E&E - Energywire
By Mike Lee
California will likely have to clean up years' worth of residual contamination from hydraulic fracturing and other unconventional oil production that occurred before the state imposed tighter regulations this year, scientists and agency heads told the state Legislature yesterday.
The state Legislature last year passed S.B. 4 in 2013, which required tighter regulation of hydraulic fracturing that took effect this year and a scientific report on its environmental impacts. The report, by the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, found that the state needed to gather more information on crucial aspects of fracking (EnergyWire, July 10).
For instance, California allows disposal of hydraulic fracturing fluids, along with other oil and gas waste, in open pits. Underground disposal wells, which are another common disposal method, may also be causing problems because the wells are poorly sited, William Stringfellow, a researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which was also involved in the study, testified during a joint hearing of the California Senate and Assembly committees that oversee energy.
"Even if we stop these practices, we need to start looking at the legacy effects," Stringfellow said.
Most of the "percolation pits" are located above freshwater aquifers in the San Joaquin Valley, Stringfellow said, although the California Independent Petroleum Association denied that the pits are affecting drinking supplies.
The State Water Resources Control Board has ordered 324 of the pits to either close or stop operating, said Jonathan Bishop, the board's chief deputy director.
"We're totally in support of the idea that waste from hydraulic fracturing shouldn't be disposed of in unlined pits," Bishop said.
Fracking uses a tiny fraction of California's water -- the equivalent of 3,400 households in a state with 13 million households -- but the process has been controversial. The Center for Biological Diversity sued Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown's administration in July for finalizing its unconventional drilling regulations before the CCST report was finished (EnergyWire, July 31).
Fracking has been around for decades, but it came into widespread use about 15 years ago to tap into shale formations. Companies typically drill horizontally through a layer of shale, and then pulverize -- or fracture -- the rock with a pressurized mix of water, sand and chemicals.
California, the third-biggest oil-producing state, has had relatively little hydraulic fracturing because of its unique geology. Most of the production has been limited to existing oil fields in Kern County in the San Joaquin Valley, although some wells have been fractured in Los Angeles.
Fracking typically happens at shallower depths in California than in Texas or North Dakota, the researchers said, which could make it easier for chemicals or other contaminants to migrate into water supplies.
In other cases, the process only extends and amplifies problems that already existed with California's century-old oil industry.
"The biggest impact of hydraulic fracturing is arguably that it enables new production," said Laura Feinstein, a researcher at CCST.
State Sen. Fran Pavley (D), who chairs the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee and authored S.B. 4, said she wants to amend a pending bill to include the CCST's findings on percolation ponds and the need for more data.
"At the end of the day, it's all about protecting the groundwater," she said.
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Ozone Rule to Unleash ‘EPA Police,’ Group Says
Aug 26, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
A new video advertisement is warning that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new ozone rule could trigger ridiculous laws limiting everyday activity.
The humorous ad from the energy-industry-backed Environmental Policy Alliance features an officer of the “EPA Police” dramatically enforcing the laws that it says could result.
“President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency is considering new regulations on ozone that could trigger some new, crazy laws, such as bans on lawn-mowing during certain times of the day, new parking space taxes and new fees based on how many miles you drive your car,” the voiceover says as the officer enforces the laws.
The ad is referring to the EPA’s proposal last year to further restrict ground-level ozone pollution, which is linked to respiratory illnesses.
The EPA wants to lower the current 75 parts per billion limit to between 65 and 70 parts per billion, which would spur state and local governments to take action to reduce the fossil fuel pollutants that cause ozone — including, the Environmental Policy Alliance says, limits on lawn-mowing and taxes on parking and driving.
The new ad encourages viewers to contact lawmakers to oppose the ozone rule.
“The EPA's ozone regulation isn't about controlling harmful emissions; it's about controlling Americans' daily lives,” Anastasia Swearingen, senior research analyst for the conservative group, said in a statement.
“These new ozone limits are so restrictive that a majority of U.S. localities won’t be able to meet the EPA’s unrealistic standards,” she said. “That means local governments are going to have to come up with plans for the EPA to dramatically cut their ozone levels.”
The EPA estimates that the health benefits from reduced concentrations of ozone and related pollutants would total up to $38 billion, with costs of up to $16.6 billion.
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Future Administration Could Face 'Heavy Lift' In Rescinding Climate ESPS
Aug 26, 2015 | InsideEPA
By Lee Logan
A future administration opposed to EPA's climate rules for power plants would face a “heavy lift” to completely rescind the regulations, sources say, though it might have other tools to undermine the policy and the effort may not be as difficult as EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy has suggested it would be.
McCarthy, during an event held shortly after the greenhouse gas (GHG) rule for existing plants was finalized Aug. 3, said the rule is “a pretty solid obligation,” and that “it's quite a significant hurdle for [a future administration] to reverse this.”
And during a July event, McCarthy noted a new administration “will have to take regulatory action in order for this to be any different than how we have designed it. You cannot just simply decide, 'I'm not implementing.' You're going to have to make the case that we were wrong. And EPA will make sure that this rule is legally solid, technically accurate, and relies on science as we've always done.”
But one industry consultant charges that McCarthy's remarks are “geared toward scaring the states into going ahead and submitting their” compliance plans for the GHG rule.
The source says a new administration would have significant flexibility to either rescind the final existing source performance standards (ESPS) -- especially if there is a Republican president and a GOP-led Congress -- or make key changes that would undermine its implementation, such as delaying deadlines for states to submit compliance plans.
But other sources warn that a future EPA would have to undertake a formal notice-and-comment rule to undo or change the climate policy, and prove that its new stance is reasonable and not arbitrary. In the meantime, the newly finalized rule would retain the force of law.
“They have to come up with a proposed rule to rescind the rule they have, and they have to come up with a reasonable, rational basis for doing so,” says one attorney tracking the rule. “That's not an easy undertaking. It's politically and legally difficult. . . . At the end of the day, a court will look at that and say, 'Well wait a second, why did you change course?'”
The scenario depends heavily on a Republican candidate winning the White House in 2016, given that Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has vowed to preserve EPA's climate rules and her primary challengers have tried to out-flank her with more aggressive environmental stances.
Many GOP presidential candidates have voiced opposition to the ESPS, with two sitting governors vowing not to write compliance plans and several sitting senators pledging to support bills that would block the rule. But few candidates in the early stages of the campaign have outlined a detailed proposal for rescinding the regulation.
The attorney tracking the rule says a new approach on implementation or enforcement is “the easiest thing to do. It's hard to get sued for slowing your enforcement.”
The source says a new EPA might offer states “guidance and finesse how the states comply with the rule. It's hard to do, because the rule is the rule, but it's up to EPA to decide whether you're complying with the rule.”
For example, the next administration will oversee much of the compliance plans that states submit, and might be “more lenient with the states than they might otherwise be” under the Obama administration.
Republican Administration
The industry consultant is far more optimistic about a Republican administration's options. The source says a new administration's EPA could quickly announce it will “take a second look” at the rule's timelines and targets, given that final state plans are not due until September 2018 -- midway through the new president's first term.
“It sends a signal to the utilities that they don't necessarily have to power down facilities or jump in there and make changes right away,” the source says. “They can afford a couple of years before they start power switching or building new generation or shutting down coal plants.”
Such a move would “put a hold on things,” and allow the administration to develop a new regulation to either rescind the rule or make significant changes.
Regarding formal efforts to change the rule, an industry attorney says much will depend on whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld the ESPS in the initial round of litigation, and if so, on what grounds.
If the court were to find the Clean Air Act unambiguously requires EPA's interpretation, then it would be nearly “impossible” to undo the rule, the source says. If the court upholds the rule after finding EPA reasonably interpreted an ambiguous statute, then a “new administration would have to demonstrate their interpretation is also a reasonable interpretation.”
Such efforts might be easier than a new administration reversing course on a bedrock determination such as EPA's finding that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions endanger welfare and the environment -- a finding that was upheld by the Supreme Court and bound the agency to regulate GHGs as a “pollutant” under the air act.
The industry source adds that a new administration could take office after the D.C. Circuit has issued its ruling on the merits, with pending certiorari petitions seeking Supreme Court review of the ruling. ESPS opponents might seek a stay pending high court review, the source says, and a new administration “could say, 'We don't oppose that.'”
The potential alignment of the litigation timeline and the beginning of the next administration is “one of the reasons . . . why this administration wants so badly to have this rule tested by the D.C. Circuit before it leaves [office],” the industry attorney says. If the rule is upheld at that stage, it can later be undone administratively, “but it's much tougher.”
One analogy is President Obama's health care law. The law is “wildly unpopular” among Republicans in Congress, but as it is implemented, “exceptions have become settled, sort of baked into the mix,” and stakeholders have “made plans about the future based on the fact that it's there. The same thing has the potential to happen with the Clean Power Plan.”
Completely rescinding the ESPS would be “a heavy lift,” the source says. “You have to establish it is not arbitrary or capricious, or contrary to law, to undo the rule. You now have to make the opposite case that this EPA is trying to make.”
While the attorney tracking the rule says “McCarthy was a bit overstating” the difficulty, a future EPA would still face significant political challenges. “You look like you're not doing anything when there's a problem,” the source says, noting there would be fierce criticism from environmental groups. There might even be push back from some utilities concerned about regulatory uncertainty.
“As much as utilities are not wild about any of these rules . . . the Clean Power Plan is all about long-term planning,” the source says. “If you muck it up and nobody knows what's going to happen for four to five years, then what are you supposed to be doing? Companies aren't going to be really happy not knowing what's happening. That's part of the political blowback.”
Agency Discretion
Even so, the industry consultant points to the significant agency discretion in Clean Air Act section 111(d), the section EPA used to craft the rule. Undoing the ESPS “isn't like trying to rescind” an air toxics rule or a national air quality standard. In those cases, the Clean Air Act requires EPA “to issue regulations by a date certain.”
And while the air act says EPA “shall” regulate existing sources if new sources are subject to a section 111 standard for GHGs, the law grants EPA discretion on the timing and scope of such regulation.
“You put out a regulation requiring all coal-fired plants to meet a 1.5 percent efficiency standard,” the source says. “You're regulating. You're regulating CO2.”
The source adds: “There is so much in this proposal that was a policy call by the agency, that a new policy call can change it.”
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Strong EPA Methane Rule Required to Fully Realize Clean Power Plan Benefits
Aug 26, 2015 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Elena M. Krieger, Ph.D. and Seth B.C. Shonkoff, Ph.D., MPH
Within the past month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unveiled two major initiatives intended to meaningfully cut our nation’s contributions to climate change. The Clean Power Plan aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the power sector by nearly one-third from 2005 levels by 2030. The proposed Methane Pollution Standard will contribute to the administration's target of 40-45 percent reductions in methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. While each of these initiatives has received its own praise and skepticism, conversations have not touched on the importance of how they interconnect. While a rapid transition to clean, renewable energy is the fastest way to achieve carbon reductions, given the Clean Power Plan’s reliance on natural gas to meet emission targets, effective design and implementation of the Methane Pollution Standard is critical to achieving power sector GHG emission reductions.
With last week’s release of draft methane regulations designed to reduce leakage from new and modified oil and gas infrastructure, the EPA demonstrated strong potential for meaningful climate action. Methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas - shorter-lived than carbon dioxide, but over 80 times as strong in the short term. With record global temperatures this year and faster than anticipated sea level rise and loss of Arctic ice, curbing GHG pollutants as soon as possible is increasingly important to protect our nation and the global community.
The final Clean Power Plan projects that natural gas fuel switching will largely be responsible for reducing GHG emissions by 32 percent from the power sector. These reductions are based, in part, on the nearly 50 percent increase in gas generation from 2005 to 2014, as well as an additional projected 20 percent growth in gas generation by 2030. The assumption that displacing coal with increased natural gas consumption will lead to a reduction in overall GHG emissions is predicated on future actual reductions in methane leakage across the entire natural gas lifecycle, which requires a strong set of methane regulations.
Methane can leak across all components of the natural gas system, from production and storage to distribution to homes and businesses. The EPA estimates current leakage rates around 1.5 percent, far below estimates found in the majority of recent field measurements published in scientific literature. While exact leakage rates are uncertain, recent studies have typically found upstream leakage rates of 0.42 percent to 8 percent. Science shows that leakage rates of greater than 2.8 percent dramatically erode the near-term climate benefit of switching from coal to natural gas. But lower levels of methane leakage also significantly contribute to the dangers of climate change.
Furthermore, the EPA’s Clean Power Plan employs an outdated 100-year methane global warming potential (GWP) of 25 to calculate its emission reductions. This number, which compares atmospheric heat trapped by methane relative to carbon dioxide, is now out of date and far below the most recent IPCC climate consensus of 36 GWP. Further, methane’s near term warming contribution is even stronger. Despite this, the EPA omits the most up-to-date IPCC consensus on the 20-year GWP of 87. Accurate baseline emission estimates and GWPs are critical for effective implementation of both the Clean Power Plan and Methane Pollution Standard.
The EPA proposed methane rule is the first federal-level attempt to reduce upstream methane emissions from the oil and gas sector and should be applauded. However, shortfalls in the current version of the rule could limit its effectiveness. In addition to setting a baseline using potentially inaccurate leakage rates, the rule only applies to new oil and gas wells, leaving an estimated 90 percent of oil and gas sector emissions in 2018 unregulated, according to a recent ICF study. For methane regulations to be effective, the proposed rule should reflect the most up-to-date science on leakage rates, and planned rules that cover existing oil and gas operations must be rapidly introduced and implemented.
States have a lot of flexibility in crafting their own Clean Power Plan implementation plans. The best option for the climate and public health is for the power sector to shift away from natural gas as well as coal and move directly to renewable energy sources to achieve emissions reductions targets. As it stands, however, the final EPA methane standards can either enhance or inhibit the Clean Power Plan’s effectiveness in reducing GHG emissions and the climate impact of natural gas used for heating, cooking and industry. Accurately accounting for and reining in upstream methane emissions from both new and existing oil and gas wells will help ensure that the Administration’s Climate Action Plan achieves its intended climate benefits.
Krieger is director of the Renewable Energy Program at PSE Healthy Energy, an energy science and policy institute based in California and New York. Shonkoff is executive director of PSE Healthy Energy and a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.
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Calif. Senate Leader Says He'll Amend Clean Energy Bill to Increase Oversight
Aug 26, 2015 | E&E - Climatewire
By Debra Kahn
California lawmakers are adjusting their landmark climate bills to appease opponents.
Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León (D) said yesterday that he would amend his bill to give lawmakers more control over the regulations that would implement Gov. Jerry Brown's (D) sweeping energy and efficiency goals announced in January.
The bill, S.B. 350, would extend the state's current renewable portfolio standard to 50 percent by 2030, beyond the current target of 33 percent by 2020. It would also mandate a halving of vehicles' petroleum use by 2030 and a doubling of existing buildings' energy efficiency.
Another bill, by state Sen. Fran Pavley (D), would extend the state's 2020 emissions target of 1990 levels to 40 percent below that by 2030. Both bills are awaiting passage by the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
After speaking at the state Capitol yesterday, de León told reporters that he would edit the bill to increase oversight of the California Air Resources Board, the agency that would be tasked with achieving the majority of the goals.
"The reality is, does CARB deserve more regulatory oversight? Without a doubt. And I plan on doing that," he said, according to a video by The Sacramento Bee. "We're working out amendments right now; we will share that with everyone very shortly."
Pavley said last week that she would also amend her bill, S.B. 32, to give lawmakers more authority by requiring the state Air Resources Board to report on where emissions reductions occurred and what the effect has been on the state's economy (ClimateWire, Aug. 24).Industry wants more details
At yesterday's news conference, she said the amendment "invites and encourages legislative oversight in the development of those regulations to make sure, as required in A.B. 32 and S.B. 32, that they're cost-effective and technologically feasible," she said.
But she warned that if the Legislature doesn't act, the state will still retain the authority to impose 2030 cuts, as the 2006 law provides for and as Gov. Brown has decreed in an executive order. "They're moving forward," she said. I want the Legislature to engage in this process."
The president of the main oil industry group funding the opposition, the Western States Petroleum Association, said de León's proposed tweaks didn't go far enough.
"Still no details on arbitrary cuts," Catherine Reheis-Boyd said on Twitter. "Nor a response to [manufacturing, transportation, agriculture] impacts. Inclusive public policy best for CA."
Ahead of de León's announcement, another lawmaker called the oil industry opposition "desperate."
"It's for good reason that our opposition is investing so many million dollars in lies, scare tactics and deception," said S.B. 350 co-sponsor Sen. Mark Leno (D). "It's because they are desperate."All carbon permits sell out at latest cap-and-trade auction
California's Air Resources Board saw high demand for carbon permits in its most recent auction for businesses that have to comply with the state's cap-and-trade system, the agency reported yesterday.
Last week's auction sold all 73.4 million permits for companies to cover their 2015 emissions, as well as all 10.4 million permits for 2018 and later emissions. The 2015 permits sold for $12.52 per ton, slightly above the 2018 price of $12.30 per ton.
Prices have been on a steady uptick since late 2013. Last week's 2015 permits were 23 cents more expensive than the last auction in May.
Environmentalists said the results underscored the need to pass S.B. 32.
"The earlier business can get certainty about future climate regulation, the more opportunities they will have to continue this impressive trend and the more positive results we'll see at these quarterly checkups," said Katie Hsia-Kiung, carbon market analyst for the Environmental Defense Fund.
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19 Areas Miss Compliance Deadline for 2008 Ozone Standard
Aug 26, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
Nineteen areas failed to meet a Clean Air Act deadline to comply with the 2008 national standard for ground-level ozone, according to U.S. EPA.
EPA set the standard for ozone at 75 parts per billion in 2008. The agency had classified the regions in "marginal" nonattainment, a designation reserved for areas that are just out of compliance with the ozone standard.
EPA said the regions missed a July 20, 2015, deadline to come into compliance with the 75 ppb limit. In a proposed rule to be published tomorrow in the Federal Register, EPA said it would bump up 11 of the areas to "moderate" nonattainment under the standard, a designation that comes with more requirements for states to clean up pollution.
The remaining eight areas would receive a one-year extension based on recently submitted monitoring data.
EPA will ask for comment on two new deadlines for state air regulators to submit plans to clean up the 11 areas being reclassified: Jan. 1, 2017, or the beginning of the 2017 summer ozone season. The areas would be required to come into compliance with the 2008 limit by July 20, 2018.
"The reclassified areas must attain the 2008 ozone NAAQS as expeditiously as practicable," EPA said.
The 11 areas are the Chicago and New York City metropolitan areas, as well as regions in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia and Arizona.
In the proposed rule, EPA said it also found that 17 marginal areas have met the Clean Air Act deadline.
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A Carbon Tax Could Help Prevent Dangerous Levels of Deforestation -- Report
Aug 26, 2015 | E&E - Climatewire
By Brittany Patterson
The world is on track to lose 7.14 million acres of tropical forest -- a landmass equivalent to the size of India -- by 2050, amounting to a rate of deforestation much faster than previous estimates.
According to a report out Monday from Washington, D.C.-based think tank the Center for Global Development (CBD), deforestation at that scale would release about one-sixth of the remaining carbon budget the world has available, or the amount of emissions that can be released into the atmosphere before global temperatures increase 2 degrees Celsius and trigger dangerous global warming impacts. But the authors assert that much of the damage can be avoided if the world adopts a carbon tax to mitigate deforestation.
"Deforestation is already very high, and we're predicting it's going to rise and accelerate in the coming decades," said lead author of the report Jonah Busch. "It's long been known that with forests, reducing tropical deforestation is a big climate change solution and a cheap one."
Using new, fine-scale satellite data for tropical forests across 101 countries, Busch and co-author Jens Engelmann were able to create an in-depth historical record of deforestation patterns from 18 million satellite-based measurements of forest loss from 2001 to 2012.
"What we saw in those images is what has been talked about for a while, but never proven -- deforestation starts out small, with tiny cuts in remote areas, but from there accelerates very rapidly before eventually plateauing and eventually falling," he said. "It doesn't proceed the same amount year after year after year."
The researchers overlaid maps of predicted deforestation with data on the topography of the region, accessibility to the land, protected areas, the viability of certain crops, and carbon stocks in the forest. They then estimated how landowners would respond to different forest conservation policies based on information on how changes in crop prices affected deforestation in the recent past.
"Industrial agriculture is by far the biggest driver of deforestation. It's beef, it's soy, it's palm oil, it's timber production," Busch said. "That type of agriculture is very responsive to prices. When the prices go up, deforestation goes up. When prices go down, deforestation goes down. That relationship between prices and what happens is what is at the heart of our model."Learning lessons from Brazil
The researchers found that if developing countries were to introduce a price of $20 per ton of carbon dioxide on deforestation, emissions would drop by more than 20 percent by 2020. A $50-per-ton price would cut emissions nearly in half by 2050, for a savings of 77 gigatons of CO2. Rich nations could also pay developing ones to keep their tropical forests intact. Conservation policies like those Brazil has implemented would also help, they suggest.
Steve Schwartzman, senior director of tropical forest policy at the Environmental Defense Fund, said the challenge in creating policies that reduce deforestation is that on the most basic level, "anything you do with a tropical forest once you cut it down generates more revenue than the standing forest."
He said Brazil, which has cut deforestation in the Amazon nearly 80 percent since it began a nationwide effort to reduce deforestation in 2004 while increasing agricultural production, has proved that policies to protect forests can be effectively implemented.
"The less good news -- it's really kind of the same news that the CGD paper is showing -- is that Brazil has done this all with a command-and-control mechanism and has failed to put in the place the incentives that its original national plan called for," Schwartzman said.
The country had plans to create a carbon market, but the political will dried up, he said.
Ruben Lubowski, chief natural resource economist with EDF, said it's unclear if Brazil will be able to sustain its high level of deforestation reduction.
"Big picture, what I think universally has to happen is there has to be some value to the forests," Lubowski said, "basically, making the standing forest worth more than the dead forest -- and that's what some of these programs, like REDD+, are trying to do. They're trying to create a sense of value that can change the factors of each decision."
REDD+, or Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, is an U.N. conservation strategy where wealthy nations pay poor nations to keep forests standing.
The program has hit snags in the past because wealthy nations have expressed concern that they cannot accurately verify if the forests they invest in are actually being conserved, said Steven Running of the University of Montana's Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences.A new warning from 'real data'
There are challenges, too, with using carbon taxes to curb forest razing, Running said.
Most tropical deforestation clears native forests for things like soybeans, palm oil and other export commodities that bring in high profits.
"And whether a carbon tax would be a enough to be an alternative for these high-profit commodities is very possibly not likely," he said, adding that a successful carbon credit system would need to be international or global.
Still, he said, the new monitoring data could be helpful in jolting the rest of the world into action.
"It's exceedingly important that we just now, in the last few years, have reached the capacity where we can globally monitor forests every year and deforestation rates with policy-level accuracy," Running said.
Lubowski said the use of this new accurate satellite data is one of the groundbreaking things about the CBD report.
"This report is a big step forward in that it's based on very detailed, new satellite data on deforestation," he said. "There's a lot of uncertainties, huge amounts of uncertainties with crop varieties, economic growth in the future, population especially projecting decades out, but I think the main thing for this study is that it's grounded in real data. It's projecting that without seriously policies deforestation is going to go up and even accelerate over time."
That is a different outcome than a lot of other models have shown, he said. Many have projected a slow decrease over time in deforestation as the best tracts of land are cleared, which has led some forest experts to suggest the problem will simply resolve itself.
"This new analysis suggests that this is not the case," he added. "And that's really because this study is using a lot finer-scale data that better captures the way deforestation tends to spread, almost like a bacteria."
Busch said that as world leaders approach the climate change talks in Paris this fall, these data illustrate how important it is that the global community fund policies to curb deforestation, which can ultimately have a huge impact on reaching emissions reduction goals.
According to the data, tropical deforestation produced nearly as much annual emissions as the European Union from 2001 to 2012. During that time, the European Union's cap-and-trade system was only able to cut emissions by about 5 percent at $20 per ton. Reducing tropical deforestation could cut emissions by 4 ½ times at that price.
"Reducing tropical deforestation is a big way to fight climate change and a cheap way to fight climate change, and I hope this is the year that countries step up on international finance and cooperation to reduce deforestation," he said.
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Obama Must Advance Green Energy's 'Quiet Revolution' -- Report
Aug 26, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
By Scott Streater
The Obama administration must take steps in the coming months to ensure that the unprecedented growth of renewable energy development on public lands continues, according to a report released today by the Center for American Progress.
The report from the liberal think tank, co-authored by David Hayes, a former Interior deputy secretary who is now a visiting senior fellow at CAP, outlines a four-point plan to help continue the push to expand solar, wind and geothermal power regardless of who's elected president next year.
The goal of the report is to highlight a path forward that advances the "quiet revolution" in renewable energy sparked by the Obama administration, according to a summary, which was also co-authored by Nidhi Thakar, CAP's deputy director of public lands.
The Obama administration has approved 57 commercial-scale renewable energy projects on federal lands since 2009, including 34 solar, 11 wind and 12 geothermal power plants. If all are built and placed into operation, they will have the capacity to produce roughly 15,000 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power 5 million homes and businesses.
President Obama's Climate Action Plan unveiled in 2013 challenges the Interior Department to approve 20,000 MW of renewable energy on federal tracts by 2020 -- a goal Interior says it's on target to reach.
But this unprecedented push in renewables could go away when the next administration takes office.
Included in CAP's four-point plan is a recommendation that the Obama administration establish more renewable energy zones, such as the 19 solar energy zones established as part of the Western Solar Plan finalized in 2012 that is designed to guide large-scale projects to areas with low natural resource values.
The recommendation calls for establishing at least 10 new solar energy zones. It also calls for "expanding offshore wind energy zones to cover deeper waters off the coast of Maine and in the Pacific Ocean to facilitate the deployment of floating turbine technology," as well as "specifying low-conflict wind and geothermal energy zones" on federal lands.
"With the United States emerging as a global leader in the shift to low-carbon fuel sources, and with projections of rapid growth in renewable energy demand over the next several decades, now is the time to assess how the federal government can build on its successful renewable energy programs on America's public lands," the report says. "Specifically, how can the Department of the Interior and other federal land management agencies cement recent gains and further accelerate responsible renewable energy development on the nation's public lands and waters?"
The other points recommend in the report:Institutionalizing programs that have helped better coordinate and streamline the permitting of solar, wind and geothermal projects, as well as the interagency rapid response team for transmission, which prioritized the review and approval of a handful of new transmission lines needed to deliver renewable energy from remote sites to major load centers.Establishing a "new revolving loan fund" that would accelerate "the financing of creditworthy renewable energy projects on public lands and waters that employ proven technologies."Developing partnerships and pilot projects with local communities to site smaller-scale renewable energy projects on nearby federal lands that the local areas could tap into.
"CAP recommends that the federal land management agencies, including the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, and the Department of Defense, reach out to interested leaders in communities near public lands and work in partnership to prioritize the development of community-based renewable energy projects on public lands that will serve the adjacent communities, as well as local federal needs," according to the report.
The CAP report comes on the heels of Obama's speech this week at a clean energy summit in Las Vegas in which he said now is "not the time to pull back" on investments in solar and wind power technology, and promoted renewables development as a way to expand the economy and reduce the impacts of climate change (ClimateWire, Aug. 25).
The administration this week also called for $1 billion in additional federal loan guarantee authority to support distributed clean energy projects aimed at expanding everyday Americans' access to renewable energy technologies (Greenwire, Aug. 24).
Steps like these, as well as other "innovations and reforms," will be needed moving forward, the CAP report says.
"The nation's public lands have played an instrumental role in transitioning America's energy mix from traditional fossil fuels to clean energy," the report concludes. "The United States must continue to produce more renewable energy production from its public lands and offshore waters in order to enhance its energy security and energy independence, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and continue to pivot toward a clean energy future."
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Climate Rally to Coincide with Pope's Visit
Aug 26, 2015 | E&E - Greenwire
Environmental groups are planning a huge climate rally timed with Pope Francis' address to Congress.
Francis is scheduled to speak to lawmakers Sept. 24 and has "expressed an interest" in addressing the public afterward from the Capitol's West Front, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has said.
The environmental groups, which include the Moral Action on Climate Network, Earth Day Network, League of Conservation Voters and Sierra Club, have filed for a permit for a gathering of 200,000 people on the National Mall.
The rally is expected to be located between Fourth and Seventh streets on the Mall and will last several hours.
The groups say that while they do not know whether Francis will address climate change in his remarks, his June encyclical calling climate change a moral issue has been heralded as a significant boost to the movement.
"Even though many of us disagree on so many social issues, the moral issue of climate change is something we are getting behind, with the pope's leadership," said co-founder of Interfaith Moral Action on Climate Lise Van Susteren.
John Carr, director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, said that even though climate change is an important issue to Francis, the Vatican is unlikely to coordinate with the march organizers.
"The goal here is to reach people who have not been engaged. It's not helpful to have groups that are ideological, partisan, being the ones pushing it," Carr said (Eilperin/Boorstein, Washington Post, Aug. 25). -- AW
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