Democrats to Propose Greenhouse Gas Emissions Bill
House Democrats will propose a new bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on Tuesday. The legislation, co-sponsored by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), who chairs the panel’s Energy and Environment Subcommittee, aims to cut emissions by 20% from 2005 levels by 2020 and to increase energy efficiency in order to reduce electricity demand by 15% by 2020. The bill targets an overall 80% reduction in emissions by 2050.
Although Democrats have a majority, any emissions bill is expected to face a tough road given the current economic situation and political opposition. Even Sen. McCain, who was an early supporter of cap-and-trade recently described current proposals derisively as “cap-and-tax“. Additionally, Congresspeople from large coal producing states will likely oppose any emissions legislation across party-lines. Whether the U.S. can put together a meaningful greenhouse gas bill this year will be key to the success or failure of the international climate change conference to be held in Copenhagen in December of this year.
Looming Water Shortages Cut in Favor of Renewable Energy
WSJ has an interesting article today about the influence that dwindling water resources is having on the trend towards developing more renewable energy sources. Water is commonly overshadowed by greenhouse gas emissions in the discussion about dirty power versus renewable power. However, consumption of water by traditional power plants is a gigantic environmental issue. In fact, as the WSJ notes, “the electric-power industry accounts for nearly half of all water withdrawals in the U.S., with agricultural irrigation coming in a distant second at about 35%.”
Although most of this water is eventually recycled back into nearby lakes or streams, 2-3% is lost by evaporation, and the heat from the water released back into the natural environment can be detrimental to surrounding life. READ MORE
U.S. Offers $535 Million Loan Guarantee to Solar Panel Manufacturer
Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced on Friday that the federal government would be offering a $535 million loan guarantee to solar panel manufacturer Solyndra. The California based company will use the funds to widely expand its photovoltaic panel manufacturing capacity.
The loan guarantee is the first to be offered under the Energy Policy Act of 2005. During the Bush Administration the program was bogged down by Energy Department bureaucracy, as well as congressional foot dragging.
The money for this loan guarantee comes from appropriations from the Obama stimulus package. “The leadership and actions of President Barack Obama, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and the U.S. Congress were instrumental in concluding this offer for a loan guarantee,” said Solyndra CEO and founder, Dr. Chris Gronet.
Solyndra’s new facilities will eventually produce solar panels capable of producing 500 megawatts a year.
Ohio Leads the Nation in Toxic Air Pollutants, Largely From Coal
The EPA’s annual Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) was published on Thursday. The report takes an accounting of the amount of toxic chemicals reported to be released into the U.S. environment each year. The current report looks at data from 2007.
The vast majority of toxic releases nationwide came from electric utilities and mining operations. The state of Ohio lead the nation in air pollution, with over 115 million pounds of toxic pollutants being released into the air. Nearly two-thirds of those toxins were from coal-fired power plants. The main pollutants included hydrochloric and sulfuric acids, mercury, lead and barium.
The report has been short on details since 2006, when President Bush cut back on reporting requirements for industries. However, these changes were undone by the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act, signed into law by President Obama on March 11.
Hybrid Sales Fall Precipitously as Gas Prices Remain Low
Not surprisingly, as gas prices have fallen in recent months, so have sales of hybrid vehicles. In February, only 15,144 hybrids sold in America, down two-thirds from last April, when sales for that segment peaked (and gas was an average of $3.57 a gallon). While auto sales across the board have fallen dramatically as a result of the economic situation, the drop in hybrids has been even more precipitous.
Two main lessons can be learned from this situation, with the most obvious being that the higher gas costs, the more consumers will purchase efficient vehicles. But the second lesson, which is less apparent, is that as Congress forces automakers to build more alternative fuel cars as a condition of the bailouts, it is putting these companies in a new bind– since consumers don’t want to purchase these efficient vehicles while gas is reasonably cheap.
Apparently, the only entity that is more out-of-touch with the American consumer than the domestic automakers is Congress. By forcing automakers to build efficient cars while gas prices hover around $2, Congress could be setting the stage for another domestic auto industry crash in the coming years.
Of course, this could all be solved by just following the number one lesson above– and dramatically increasing the federal gasoline tax so that consumer (and industry) behavior changes permanently. But Congress, like the automakers, rarely makes the right strategic decision.
Saudi Oil Minister Reaffirms Importance of Fossil Fuels, but Forecasts Eventual Shift
On Monday, the Saudi Arabian Oil Minister reiterated the importance that fossil fuels will continue to play for many years into the future:
“Given their massive scale, non-renewables will remain the world’s energy workhorse for many decades to come… While the days of easy oil may be over, the days of oil as a primary fuel source for the people of the world are far form over.”
Yet, the Minister also recognized that Saudi Arabia is preparing for the eventual shift towards clean energy, noting, “The world’s largest oil exporter also hopes to be the world’s leading solar power provider someday… All energy sources will have a role to play in meeting future demand.”
House Subcommittee to Look at Offshore Drilling
The NY Times (via Greenwire) reports that on Tuesday:
The [House] Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee will hold the latest in a series of hearings on petroleum development on the outer continental shelf, or OCS, that will feature an official with the Minerals Management Service, Interior’s acting inspector general and a Government Accountability Office expert.
The House hearing is expected to explore allegations that oil companies are failing to produce energy from tens of millions of acres of existing leases on federal lands and waters even as the industry is pressing for new areas to be made available, among other OCS drilling issues.
President Obama’s 2010 budget addresses some of these concerns by calling for:
several changes, including new fees on nonproducing Gulf of Mexico leases, part of a “use it or lose it” strategy Democrats say is needed to encourage production from acreage already offered for leasing.
AT&T to Make Major Investment in Compressed Natural Gas Vehicles
AT&T announced on Wednesday that it would be deploying around 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles over the next 10 years. AT&T plans to spend $565 million total, with $350 million of it devoted to purchasing about 8,000 compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles. This will make AT&T the single largest corporate user of CNG vehicles in the world.
T. Boone Pickens, who has been advocating a transformative shift from oil to natural gas for commercial cars and trucks, and also owns Clean Energy Fuels Corp., which is the largest provider of CNG for transportation in the North America, exclaimed, “I believe this is going to be a big momentum play. When other fleet operators put their transportation teams on this, you’re going to see a major shift away from imported diesel and onto domestic natural gas.”
Proposed Legislation Would Speed Up Permitting Process for Transmission Lines
Targeting a major hurdle in the wide scale development of renewable energy, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced a bill last week that would give the federal government the authority to fast-track permits for new transmission lines.
The proposal is contained in the Clean Renewable Energy and Economic Development Act, which would provide the regulatory framework to develop a national grid that is capable of transmitting renewable energy from remote locations such as the Desert Southwest and Great Plains to the country’s population centers, often thousands of miles away. Streamlining the permitting process for new transmission lines will be key if we are to achieve President Obama’s plan to produce 25% of the nation’s electricity from renewable sources by 2025.
Study Finds Sharp Decline in Ocean Organism Resulting from Climate Change
According to a study published in Nature Geoscience, ocean acidification driven by climate change is sharply affecting the health of microscopic sea organisms called foraminifera. These amoeba-like organisms live on the surface water of oceans and traditionally absorb huge amounts of carbon pollution from the atmosphere.
The foraminifera have been a buffer against climate change, as they absorb CO2 from the air and transform it into their calcium-based shells. When they die, their shells sink to the ocean floor, thereby storing the carbon indefinitely. However, due to increased ocean acidification resulting from greenhouse gas emissions, modern shells now weigh 30-35% less than those found in sediments ranging from before the Industrial Revolution. This decline in shell size is both a cause and effect of climate change. It is caused by increased ocean acidification, but it will also magnify the effect of greenhouse gas emissions, since less carbon will now be removed from the atmosphere.
Additionally, the study found a historic link between higher atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and low shell weights in a 50,000-year-long record obtained from a Southern Ocean marine sediment core.
Pickens’ Busy Week: Predicts New Oil Spike and Promotes Pickens Plan on The View
T. Boone Pickens reiterated on Thursday his belief that oil prices are on the verge of another spike. Speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s ECO:nomics conference, Pickens predicted that U.S. crude oil prices will hit $75 by the end of 2009. Pickens also asserted, “If you don’t think we’ll see $200 to $300 oil in 10 years, you are kidding yourself. You think OPEC is a free market? We have no control over what is going on.”
Pickens had a busy week, also appearing on The View on Monday:
Coen Brothers Direct Anti-Coal Commercial for Gore’s Reality Coalition
The Coen Brothers directed this commercial for Al Gore’s anti-coal Reality Coalition.
Senate Committee Conducts Hearing on Smart Grid Technology
A hearing on smart grid technology in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee took place on Tuesday. The hearing focused on how government funding is being used and what type of interoperability standards are being implemented in the roll-out of a national smart grid.
Some of the specific issues included how to address cyber security concerns that smart grid communications create and how to promote common software communications throughout the industry. Additionally, it was noted that a key to effective smart grid technology is the ability to offset inconsistent electricity generation from renewable sources such as wind and solar. An effective smart grid needs to efficiently communicate dips in power from one energy source and replace it with power from other sources.
NIMBYs Oppose California High Speed Rail
There is a Simpsons episode where every time a new law is proposed, a woman screams hysterically “what about the children!?” The joke is, of course, that she is yelling this about issues that don’t even affect the children. Watching some of the local opposition to the California High Speed Rail project brings this episode to mind.
The high speed rail project which was approved by the state’s voters in November, is being opposed by a number of municipalities in the peninsula region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The city of Palo Alto has now joined Menlo Park and Atherton in actively opposing the project as it currently exists. READ MORE
Senate to Examine Smart Grid Technology
Even though Congress recently approved $11 billion for it in the stimulus bill, many are still unclear as to what smart grid technology really entails. As a result, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will take up this issue in a hearing on Tuesday.
“Clearly, everyone agrees we should do more,” Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) said, “but we know we have to get down to the details of what does that mean.”
Witnesses at the hearing will range from the Department of Energy to Google. As we noted recently, Google has jumped head-on into the smart grid debate by strongly advocating the use of open standards and protocols for all smart grid technologies that are funded by the government.
