U.S. To Track Greenhouse Gases For First Time

The U.S. government will begin requiring big companies to monitor and report greenhouse gas emissions, officials said on Tuesday, a move that could make it easier for federal regulators to cut emissions if Congress does not pass a climate change bill.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said its new reporting system will help it understand where greenhouse gas emissions originate and ultimately help reduce emissions.

"This is a major step forward in our effort to address the greenhouse gases polluting our skies," said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. "The American public, and industry itself, will finally gain critically important knowledge and with this information we can determine how best to reduce those emissions."

The EPA said its reporting system will cover 85 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions spewed by roughly 10,000 facilities. An oil refinery, power plant or other facility would have to report its polluting data if its carbon dioxide emissions totaled at least 25,000 tons a year.

A 25,000 ton annual carbon dioxide threshold is comparable to the emissions from 131 rail cars of coal consumed, 58,000 barrels of oil consumed, or the emissions from the annual energy use of about 2,200 homes.

"The public has both a need and a right to know about the country's biggest emitters," said Mark MacLeod, director of special projects at Environmental Defense Fund. "The transparency provided today will inform smart policy that targets the biggest sources of heat-trapping emissions."

The global warming pollutants covered under the EPA's reporting system include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and hydrofluorocarbons.

The new reporting system takes effect in January 2010 and large emitters are required to file their annual emissions data in 2011. Vehicle and engine manufacturers outside of the light-duty sector will begin phasing in their emissions reporting with the 2011 car model year, the agency said.

The EPA has said it would prefer Congress to cut U.S. emissions, but the agency has taken action that will allow it do to so if necessary.

Democratic U.S. Senators plan to propose a bill this month to slash U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, a bill that is expected to face stiff opposition. The House of Representatives has already passed a climate change bill.

President Barack Obama, citing in part the EPA's action, told the United Nations that "the United States has done more to promote clean energy and reduce carbon pollution in the last eight months than at any other time in our history."

Source : REUTERS

Senate Urged To Let States To Let Them Impose Stricter Limits On Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Five states have asked U.S. Senate leaders to let them impose stricter limits on greenhouse gas emissions than what would be permitted under the climate legislation working its way though Congress, saying both levels of regulation are necessary to fight global warming.

The climate bill the House of Representatives narrowly passed in June would preempt statewide caps on greenhouse gases, while cutting total U.S. emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.

Senate leaders will reveal their version of the bill later this month and hope to vote on it later in the year.

The group of attorneys general, which includes Edmund Brown of California, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, and Anne Milgram of New Jersey, opposed limits on their ability to regulate the emissions, which they formed in the absence of federal climate regulations during the administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush.

"States should continue to be able to adopt caps that are more stringent than federal requirements in order to ensure that the ambitious targets set by the act, and required to avoid disruptive climate change, are met," the attorneys general wrote in a letter obtained by Reuters.

They had sent the letter on Monday to Senate leaders including Democrats Harry Reid and Barbara Boxer, and Republicans Mitch McConnell and James Inhofe.

The House version of the bill would preempt state caps on greenhouse gas emissions from 2012 to 2017.

That would effectively halt the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a group of 10 states in the East, from carrying out their cap-and-trade market that launched in January. Those states cap carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. The group has raised nearly $370 million for clean energy and efficiency funds by selling emission permits in quarterly auctions.

It would also preempt the Western Climate initiative that would covers six greenhouse gases across 11 U.S. states and Canadian provinces from launching in 2012.

The targets of both regional plans are weaker than those in the climate bill. But leaders in the states have said they would like the option to ratchet up their plans once a federal system kicked in.

The states also called on the Senate to strengthen the bill by pushing the reduction target up to 20 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels in order to better fight climate change.

The other attorneys general that wrote the letter were Terry Goddard of Arizona and Joseph Biden III of Delaware.

Source : REUTERS

Vancouver Cruise Ships To Plug In To Cut Pollution

Cruise ships docking in Vancouver, a popular hub for tourists bound for Alaska, can now plug into the city's electricity grid - cutting their engines and their diesel air emissions.

Port Metro Vancouver, Canada's biggest port, on Monday unveiled a shore power facility for cruise ships while in harbor, a first in Canada and only the third of its kind in the world.

Cruise ships can now plug into the electrical grid of the provincial utility, BC Hydro, which says that its mostly hydroelectric-generated power is 90 percent nonpolluting.

Long-term exposure to diesel engine exhaust likely causes lung cancer in humans and can trigger other lung and respiratory ailments, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Princess Cruises and Holland America Line have outfitted several of their fleet with onboard shore power equipment. Four Princess ships and one Holland America ship will use shore power in Vancouver during the 2009 Alaska season, which runs from May to September.

Source : REUTERS

U.S. sets awards to evaluate CO2 storage technology

The U.S. Department of Energy said on Monday it has awarded $27.6 million of funding to evaluate the potential risks of storing carbon dioxide underground, which is seen as a way to control global warming.

The total value of the 19 projects selected is about $35.8 million over four years, with $27.6 million of DOE funding, according to the DOE.

Coal-fired power plants provide about half of the electricity in United States but account for about 80 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from domestic power generation, making them top targets for environmentalists.

Coal companies, governments and environmental activists are hoping for breakthrough technologies that will help trap, transport and bury underground carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.

The funding includes $1.6 million for Columbia University, nearly $2 million for Schlumberger Ltd's Carbon Services, $2 million for Woodlands, Texas-based Fusion Petroleum Technologies and $2 million for Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Planetary Emissions Management Inc.

SOURCE : REUTERS

US marines in Afghanistan launch first energy efficiency audit in war zone

Commandant calls for 10,000-strong contingent to be more energy efficient to save lives and money

The US Marines Corps ordered the first ever energy audit in a war zone today to try to reduce the enormous fuel costs of keeping troops on the ground in Afghanistan.

General James T Conway, the Marines Corps Commandant, said he wanted a team of energy experts in place in Afghanistan by the end of the month to find ways to cut back on the fuel bills for the 10,000 strong marine contingent.

US marines in Afghanistan run through some 800,000 gallons of fuel a day. That's a higher burn rate than during an initial invasion, and reflects the logistical challenges of running counter-insurgency and other operations in the extreme weather conditions of Afghanistan.

"We need to understand where the fuel goes," Conway told a Marines Corps energy summit today. "The largest growing demand on the battlefield today is for electricity and how we create that."

He added: "We are going to more efficient. We have got to be."

Conway's announcement — and the summit itself, which is the first of its kind — were seen yesterday as a dramatic shift in the US military's approach to energy consumption and climate change.

The Pentagon began to acknowledge America's reliance on fossil fuels and climate change as a national security concern in 2002. A report from the Pentagon's military advisory board last May called on military bases to work to lower their carbon footprint. A number of bases inside the US have begun to tap into renewable fuel sources including wind and solar energy.

But the Marine Corps are the first service to try to put those policies into action on the battlefield.

The costs of shipping water and fuel to the troops is also becoming unsustainable. The price of a gallon of petrol in a war zone can cost up to $100. "It is a shocking figure to compute what it costs by the time you pour that gallon of gas into a Humvee or an aircraft in the place you are operating," Conway said.

He said he was looking to his energy auditors to find ways of cutting back energy consumption at operating bases, and also to pare down the equipment carried by each individual marine. An average marine carries about 9lbs of disposable batteries in their kit to power equipment such as night vision goggles and radios.

One immediate target of the auditors is likely to be climate control. Some 448,000 gallons alone are used to keep tents cool in the Afghan summer, where temperatures reach well over 40C, and warm in the winter, said Michael Boyd, an energy adviser to the Marine Corps.

The marines have been exploring ways to reduce that consumption by spraying tents with a foam coating.

"That's a huge saving and you are no longer putting trucks on those roads, and tanker drivers in harm's way and everyone else involved on the way," Boyd said.

SOURCE : guardian.co.uk

China Says Rich Nation CO2 Cuts Key To Copenhagen

Developed nation need to commit in Copenhagen in December

Rich nations must agree to large, measurable cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions, if the world is to set a framework to tackle global warming at U.N.-led talks in December, a senior Chinese official said on Wednesday.

"The Chinese side believes that in Copenhagen...the key to success is to decide large, quantifiable mid-term emission-cutting targets for the developed nations," the Xinhua article paraphrased Xie saying.

Xie Zhenhua, a deputy chief of the National Development and Reform Commission who steers climate change policy, told the official Xinhua agency that commitment from industrialized countries was crucial to a deal in Copenhagen in December.

He was speaking after the United States and China signed a deal that promises more cooperation on climate change, energy and the environment without setting firm goals.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it highlighted the importance of climate change in U.S.-Chinese relations, and said the sides discussed in detail how to cut emissions ahead of the Copenhagen conference.

China is very vulnerable to a warming world. Its scientists have warned of more droughts in the north and extra storms and flooding in the south, as well as a potential drop in harvests of over one third by the end of the century.

China is the world's biggest annual emitter of greenhouse gasses but on a per capita basis and over the course of history it is far outpaced by western nations that have smaller populations and have had decades of emissions intensive growth.

It has long insisted that a framework to arrange and fund large-scale technology transfers should be a key part of any climate change deal, because it is the cheapest way to ensure the maximum possible cuts in carbon dioxide.

Officials also say it will help developing nations to curb emissions growth without having to sacrifice the development needed to lift their people out of poverty.

SOURCE : REUTERS

U.S. And China Sign Memorandum On Climate Change

The United States and China, the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases, signed an agreement on Tuesday that promises more cooperation on climate change, energy and the environment.

Chinese and U.S. officials signed the memorandum of understanding at the State Department following two days of high-level economic and strategic talks.

The document was not released publicly but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it highlighted the importance of climate change in U.S.-Chinese relations.

"It also provides our countries with direction as we work together to support international climate negotiations and accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy," said Clinton at the signing ceremony.

She said the sides discussed in detail how to cut emissions ahead of a U.N. conference in Copenhagen in December that aims to set new global goals on controlling climate change.

Some in the United States argue Washington should not agree to specific reductions in industrial emissions, which could boost energy prices, until China also agrees.

But others say China already has taken more concrete steps than the United States, which must show, in the run-up to the Copenhagen meeting, it is serious about reducing emissions.

This month, during a visit to China by Chu and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, the two countries launched a $15 million joint project to create more energy-efficient buildings and cars and study the development of cleaner-burning coal.

SOURCE : REUTERS