Category Archives: Politics

U.S. senators oppose extension of ethanol subsidies and tariffs (EcoSeed)

by tgilbrea69
Posted on December 3, 2010 by tgilbrea69

The battle over federal support for ethanol has begun in the United States Congress as 17 senators opposed an extension of ethanol tariffs and subsidies beyond its mandated expiration at the end of this year.

In a letter to senate majority leader Harry Reid and minority leader Mitch McConnell, the senators said extending the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit and the tariff on imported ethanol were “fiscally irresponsible and environmentally unwise.” Senators Dianne Feinstein of California and Jon Kyl of Arizona led the bipartisan coalition. Currently, the law provides oil refiners, blenders and retailers of gasoline a 45 cent tax credit for each gallon of ethanol blended into their gasoline.

The senators called attention to the amount government would be required to spend if the ethanol subsidy is allowed to last beyond 2010. The senators said if the current subsidy is extended for five years, the Federal Treasury would pay oil companies at least $31 billion to use 69 billion gallons of corn ethanol. But the Federal Renewable Fuels Standard already requires them to use that much, the senators argued.

The senators also opposed the 54 cent-per-gallon tariff currently imposed on imported ethanol, saying the policy actually makes the United States more dependent on foreign oil. The senators said the tariff is nine cents per gallon higher than the ethanol subsidy it supposedly offsets. They said the lack of parity puts imported ethanol at a competitive disadvantage against imported oil.

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EPA Official Says Agency Ready To Defend Greenhouse Gas Rules

by tgilbrea69
Posted on December 3, 2010 by tgilbrea69

The Obama administration is preparing to defend its greenhouse gas policies after Republicans take control of the U.S. House of Representatives next year, the Environmental Protection Agency’s top clean-air regulator said Thursday.

“There is no question that we will be under increased scrutiny or continued scrutiny,” Gina McCarthy, EPA’s assistant administrator for air policy, said at a conference hosted by the American Law Institute-American Bar Association. Much of the stepped-up oversight from Capitol Hill is likely to focus on EPA’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, refiners and other facilities.

After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse emissions could be regulated under the Clean Air Act, the EPA developed a series of rules over the last year to address the emissions. The EPA issued a particularly controversial rule earlier this year that forces certain types of facilities to obtain greenhouse gas permits.

That rule, which goes into effect Jan. 2, is the subject of ongoing lawsuits.

Several lawmakers in Congress oppose the EPA’s actions and say the agency doesn’t have the authority to draft these rules. Some of the lawmakers, including Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D., W.V.), want to use legislation to stop the agency from pursuing its course of action.

McCarthy said the agency is confident it will be able to defends its actions, however. ”We welcome that” oversight and “we’re glad to provide information,” she said.

By Tennille Tracy, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6619; tennille.tracy@dowjones.com

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Houston, Oil Capital, Takes Steps Toward Green

by tgilbrea69
Posted on December 2, 2010 by tgilbrea69

At the recently opened farmers market outside Houston’s City Hall, Laura Spanjian, the city’s peppy new sustainability director, was in her element. With a reusable cloth bag tucked under her arm, she bounded around the colorful cluster of stands, shaking hands and pointing out vendors — raw foods! local ingredients! grass-fed Texas beef! — as a Latin band played. If this does not sound like Houston’s style, well, get used to it. The nation’s fourth-largest city, the sprawling capital of the oil industry, has recently embarked on a variety of green initiatives in an effort to keep up with the times and, it hopes, save money.

The local food craze is the most visible of these efforts, with the opening of the weekly farmers market in October and the planting of nearby Michelle Obama-style vegetable gardens tended by city hall staff members. But Houston is also transforming itself into an electric-car hub, a national leader in wind-power investment and an advocate for energy efficiency. “It’s a city rethinking what it needs to be successful,” said Stephen Klineberg, co-director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University. In recent decades, Mr. Klineberg said, as Houston’s economy has diversified beyond oil, the city has realized that it needs to pay attention to quality-of-life issues if it wants to attract talented people.

“Our problem,” he said, “is that people who don’t live in Houston say, ‘Yuck, why would you want to live in Houston?’ ” One recent arrival who ignored the yuck factor is Ms. Spanjian, who this spring brought her Smart Car from San Francisco and assumed the new position of sustainability director. She had previously worked on greening San Francisco’s transportation and utility sectors. Once in Houston, she promptly organized the farmers market and the vegetable gardens as well as programs to encourage office buildings to save energy.

Asked about the differences between Houston and San Francisco, Ms. Spanjian replied that in the Bay Area, “it’s more about greening, less about saving money.” In Houston, she said, “it’s really about both.” City officials acknowledge that they must go green in a way that is consistent with Houston’s wariness of regulation. This is, after all, the largest city in the country with no zoning. So the city government is trying to lead by example.

“We’re really trying to show you can do this in your own backyard,” said Ms. Spanjian, pointing out that the vegetable gardens and the farmers market required minimal expenditures (some of the garden materials came through donations from the H.E.B. grocery chain and other groups).

Another Houston initiative, the “green office challenge,” started in September. It encourages businesses to compete with one another to reduce water and energy consumption, with recognition by the mayor and the news media as the proffered incentive. Some 220 businesses are participating.

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EPA seeks policy shift, announces sustainability reform effort

by tgilbrea69
Posted on December 2, 2010 by tgilbrea69

Aiming to reform its policies, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has enlisted one of the biggest guns in the federal arsenal to help: The National Academy of Sciences. On Tuesday, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and National Academy of Sciences President Ralph Cicerone launched an effort to develop the so-called Green Book, a project to ensure all EPA policies are driven by sustainability.

The effort is reminiscent of the 1983 Red Book, written by the National Research Council to develop a strategy of risk assessment to guide the agency’s policies. That project triggered a dramatic shift in how the EPA developed regulations, focusing for the first time on scientifically evaluating risks to human health and the environment.

The National Research Council project was commissioned by EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson and announced as part of EPA’s 40th-anniversary celebration. Paul Anastas, EPA’s assistant administrator for research and development, said a new strategy focusing on sustainability is a necessary but challenging step in the “evolution” of the nation’s environmental laws and programs. “This is no small shift,” he said. “This is a seismic shift in how we pursue our mission…We are under no illusion that it will happen by next Tuesday.”

EPA’s current policies and regulations are driven by statutes that oversee individual issues, such as pesticides, air pollution and drinking water contaminants. But the project by the National Research Council will develop a framework for the EPA to link all environmental issues and ensure its policies rely on sustainable use of energy, water, land and other resources.

For the initiative to succeed, it will have to incorporate a lot of diverse, often contradictory factors, such as environmental justice, economic growth, chemical exposures and energy savings.  In announcing the effort, Jackson said she wants the framework to “apply across all of the agency’s programs, policies and actions.”

Instead of just focusing on risks, if there were a new “sustainability” approach, EPA would have to incorporate a range of sustainable approaches in its solutions to problems. For example, EPA officials said a new global indoor stove initiative deals not only with air pollutants, but also climate change, deforestation and women’s health issues.

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The New Congress and the Environmental Sustainability Agenda

by tgilbrea69
Posted on December 2, 2010 by tgilbrea69

As the Republicans prepare to take over the U.S. House of Representatives in 2011, there is little question that the effort to restore momentum to U.S. federal environmental programs will be set back. Fortunately, despite the prospect of a hostile House of Representatives, professional life in the U.S. EPA will not return to the bad old days of the Bush-Cheney years. Interior, NOAA and NASA will continue their crucial environmental work. The Republican-controlled House will cause the modernization of aging environmental laws to stall over the next two years. New problems, such as climate change, will need to be addressed under old laws like the Clean Air Act while Congress remains gridlocked. New resources for collecting and analyzing data on the state of the planet will not be made available. Still, as long as we have a President who understands the connection between environmental sustainability and economic wealth, there is a chance to make progress at the federal level.

During the Bush-Cheney years, much of the United States’ progress in protecting our environment, saving energy and moving toward renewable resources was made at the state and local level. That trend will continue and gain strength because America’s mayors and governors understand what the federal government seems to miss: Americans like to breathe, drink clean water and eat poison-free food. The environment is not optional. And environmental protection will not be delivered by the market alone; government must set rules and provide incentives and disincentives to influence the behavior of the market. I live in New York City and I can only imagine the city’s eight million people driving the streets without traffic lights. Yes, we regulate traffic…and those lights limit our freedom to drive whenever we want–really, if government didn’t operate the traffic grid around here, who would? The problem is that some regulation, like traffic control, is most effective at the local level, but some is best done at the national level. When the issue is national, as many environmental policy issues are, we need the federal government to act.

Take the example of electronic waste. What happens to your old laptop, iPod, cell phone, or PDA when it must be replaced? You toss it in the garbage. What happens to the toxics in that electronic device? You don’t want to know. Over the past decade, many state and local governments have worked on electronic waste rules to regulate this very toxic waste stream. The problem is that these local rules force manufacturers to adjust to different standards depending on where they sell their products. This is regulation that needs to be national in scope, but we won’t get national regulation of electronic waste with a Congress too busy at tea parties to legislate.

For more – Click HERE

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China announces that they are No. 1 in Greenhouse Gas Emissions

by tgilbrea69
Posted on November 24, 2010 by tgilbrea69

China has officially announced that it is the world’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.  Over the past four years, Beijing officials have tried to avoid the No. 1 mantle by saying the pollution data needs more study, or that a better point of analysis was to look at per capita emissions.

But Xie Zhenhua, China’s top climate diplomat, didn’t skirt the subject when he met with reporters Tuesday to outline his country’s negotiation stance headed into U.N.-led climate negotiations in Cancun, Mexico.

“Now we stand at world, No. 1 in emissions volumes,” Xie said, according to Reuters and other media accounts.  International emission monitors tagged China as the globe’s leading emitter in 2006-07, surpassing the United States, which was the 20th Century leader.  U.N. data now shows China contributing more than 22 percent of the annual greenhouse gases, followed by the U.S. with just under 20 percent. India and Russia are next with about 5 percent each.

China heads into the two-week U.N.-led talks, saying it should not be forced to accept mandatory emission limits. Instead, it wants to maintain a clear line between the legally binding obligations of developing nations and rich countries that are historically responsible for climate change.  But Todd Stern, the lead U.S. negotiator, told reporters earlier this week that the Obama administration will continue to insist that China, India and other emerging economies accept mandatory commitments alongside Europe, Australia, Japan and other developed countries as part of the next international climate treaty.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45574.html#ixzz16DsuCy2Y

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Tulsa takes steps to improve its Sustainability

by tgilbrea69
Posted on November 23, 2010 by tgilbrea69

New LED lights for the six surgical suites and boilers have been installed at the downtown Tulsa hospital, which is overseen by a city trust.  They were paid for with part of a $3.8 million federal Department of Energy grant awarded to the city to implement sustainability projects.  ”These are going to be providing very good returns on our investments,” a city official said, estimating that it will amount to $210,000 annually.

Hospital CEO Jan Slater said some of the boilers dated to the original building in 1944.  ”Well, welcome to the 21st century,” the mayor quipped.  When the medical center was turned over to the city in May 2009, a major concern was where the funding would come from for capital improvements, Slater said.  The grant also is being used to hire a consulting firm that will provide many energy-saving recommendations to the city in the form of a sustainability plan. A dozen proposals are being evaluated.

“Here we are in Tulsa, Oklahoma, an energy capital of the world. … This is one way we can enhance our capabilities and create new jobs,” the mayor of Tulsa said, noting that savings achieved could help fund more police officers and other city priorities.
Another project funded through the grant is replacing downtown’s traffic and pedestrian lights with LED versions that will save “tens of thousands of dollars annually,” the mayor said.

Read more HERE

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U.S. requires oil and gas firms to report carbon output (EcoSeed)

by tgilbrea69
Posted on November 19, 2010 by tgilbrea69

United States environmental regulators finalized rules requiring oil and natural gas plants to monitor and report all their greenhouse gas emissions beginning next year.

The oil and gas industries release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Combined, the industries are one of the largest human-related emitters of methane, which is about 20 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, the Environmental Protection Agency said.

The new rules add those industries to the E.P.A.’s greenhouse gas reporting program that started this year.

Beginning on January 1, 2011, oil and gas facilities that emit more than 25,000 metric tons per year of carbon dioxide equivalent must monitor and report data on their greenhouse gases to the E.P.A.

Starting in March 2012, companies will have to issue annual reports on their emissions.

They will not have to reduce emissions through the program, but they could be required to in coming years.

For more – CLICK HERE.

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