New Jersey and Virginia Prepare to Join Regional Greenhouse Gas Initative to Reduce Carbon Emissions

I’d like to break into the our regularly scheduled doom and gloom, to note a small but important piece of good environmental policy news that last month has poked green shoots up through the policy wasteland of the last 10 months.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is about to get two new members.

RGGI is a consortium of nine New England and Mid-Atlantic states formed to reduce carbon emissions from large power plants through a cap-and-trade system. The program, which applies to power plants with a capacity of larger than 25 megawatts, establishes a region-wide cap on carbon emissions.  Emitters bid in a competitive auction to purchase a permit to emit 1 ton of CO2. They trade in permits when they pollute, or can save unused permits for future use, or sell them to other bidders. States invest the proceeds in energy efficiency or clean energy programs.

The annual cap, which was set originally at 165 megatons of CO2 equivalent in 2008, and adjusted to 91 megatons in 2014, declines by 2.5 percent each year through 2020. The stakeholders are currently negotiating an extension of the program through 2030, which will further reduce CO2.

The first new RGGI member, New Jersey, was an original member of the consortium, but Republican Governor Chris Christie withdrew in 2011, and has vetoed several bills since that would rejoin. The incoming governor, Democrat Phil Murphy, has pledged to rejoin. 

In more exciting news, Virginia is also moving steadily toward joining the RGGI as well.  Gov. Terry McAuliffe issued an executive directive in May directing the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to develop a rule to limit carbon dioxide from existing power plants. His directive emphasized both designing the rule in such a way to allow Virginia to join a multistate emissions trading group – i.e. the RGGI – AND doing so in such a way that a legislative vote isn’t required.  

The proposed rule was finished in October and received preliminary approval in November from the state air pollution board. Several hurdles remain, but it is on track for adoption by the end of 2018.

Bringing New Jersey back into the RGGI fold is good news and will reinforce the program’s stability and expand its footprint to cover more carbon emissions -- New Jersey will have the second-largest amount of emissions of any of the current members. However, bringing Virginia into the scheme is extremely promising for several reasons.

Boring Bureaucrats help save the world: energy edition

When it comes to stopping global climate change, you probably don't think much about vending machines. Fortunately for all us, a lot of non-descript civil servants do.

Don't worry, the government is on it. (Really.)

Nor have you probably ever heard of the Department of Energy's Appliance and Equipment Standards Program (AESP). I'm sure it's staffed by lovely, if slightly nerdy khaki-wearing personnel.

But it's one of the Obama administrations most effective secret weapons in the fight against global warming.

Let's start with the two million beverage vending machines in the United States. Rules issued by AESP in 2015, will lead to machines coming online in 2019 required to be 16 percent more energy efficient in 2019 than today's. Over 30 years, it will save 7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, an average 233,000 tons a year. That's the equivalent of  shutting down Ohio's First Energy's Lakeshore Power Plant, which is a medium-sized coal plant in Ohio.

It will also save businesses at least $210 million in electrical bills over the same time.

Big deal, you say. The US emitted 6.8 billion tons of CO2 equivalent in 2014,  cutting 233,000 tons a year is a nice gesture, but hardly serious climate reduction.

We're just getting started. Read on to see efficiency standards really start to add up.

Today in counterproductive posturing, LA edition

I fail to see how stopping the construction of housing will make housing more affordable.

Granted, I do live inside the loop in Houston and I recognize from here and my experiences in Ann Arbor concerns about only building super-fancy housing for rich people. But the solution is mandating affordable housing or thinking about clever ways to subsidize housing for working class people, or better zoning rules like cutting parking minima. 

But simply stopping the construction large apartment projects in dense areas only drives up rents in the existing housing stock, which forces out working class and poor people. Or just as badly, it forces the development to the outer rim of the community -- which induces more sprawl, traffic, pollution, wasted time etc.

Saving the world one state or province at a time: a look at existing carbon-pricing schemes in North America

With the Paris climate accord in place, now comes the hard work of actually implementing emissions reductions goals to, well, save civilization. There are many, moving parts to making this work; one of the largest set of which involve putting a price on emitting carbon.

There are two major ways to do this: cap-and-trade program, and a direct carbon tax. Cap and Trade sets a total cap on emissions for regulated sectors then lets enitities purchase emissions credits they can cash in for their emissions or sell on a secondary market if they don't exceed their cuts. Carbon taxes, in contrast, directly place a levy on carbon emissions from regulated sources. Both have their supporters and detractors, and I'm not going to wade into that debate here (personally, I'd support a well-designed plan of either).

Follow me below the fold for a brief look at the carbon-pricing landscape in North America. I don't have detailed looks at the programs (though I do link to formal reports that detail each of the existing or proposed programs). What this should serve as is a basic lay of the land and give an idea of how these already successful programs lay an extremely important groundwork for the deeper emission cuts that will need to come.

California's Aliso Canyon Disaster and Regulating Methane Leaks

The big news from California regards a massive leak from Southern California Gas Company's Aliso Canyon storage well. The leak, which has been ongoing since October 23, is accounting for roughly a quarter of California's methane emissions.

This is bad news for numerous reasons: Methane is a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide in its heat-trapping effect over a 100-year period (and 75 times as potent over 20 years). Unburned hydrocarbons are also a noxious pollutant in their own right, causing respiratory distress, headaches and other health problems.

Worse yet, is that that SoCal Gas has proven unable to plug the leak and expect that it will continue until the spring of 2016.

What's perhaps the most infuriating for me is that this sort of leak doesn't appear to be covered by the state's Cap-and trade apparatus designed to limit emissions, since methane leaks from wells do not need to be reported as emissions under state law.  That's too bad, because as EEnews  notes, the leak is the equivalent to about three percent of the state's TOTAL annual greenhouse gas emissions.

If the leak had been covered under the California Air Resources Board's last auction (which calculates methane's impact at 20 times the, SoCal Gas would have needed to purchase SoCal Gas approximately 1.67 million permits at $12.73 per ton of CO2 equivalent to cover the amount of methane leaked at the time writing this. That's $21.3 million. Of course, applicable environmental damage and public health fines, compensation for victims, as well as medium-sized terms in state minimum-security prisons for relevant SoCal Gas executives would be layered on top of that. 

I'm not holding my breath -- though California is much more diligent about these sorts of things than my current residence of Texas.

The good news is that the state has been thinking very concretely about these sorts of emissions and I would imagine they likely will be deploying regulations and countermeasures on leaks in the near future. Colorado was the first state to regulate well and pipeline leaks in 2014.  The federal government is finalizing regulations (though these will certainly be challenged in court) as well. However, the federal regulations apply to new pipelines and wells and not existing ones.

Obama moves a bit more on the environment

The New York Times reports that President Obama has signed an executive order that will seek to have all federal agencies reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from their 2008 levels by 2025.

This isn't earth shattering in itself -- the federal government only accounts for 1 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. But it's not nothing either, as the government is the single largest purchaser of goods and services in the U.S.  It's policies can create markets for goods and service that can percolate through the rest of the economy, and its ability to bind federal contractors can help spread policies to a broader group of businesses.

The order extends a previous order signed in 2009 that required the government to cut emissions by 25 percent by 2020. The Feds are on track to meet it. Good on the administration for following up on earlier success.

Every ton of CO2 we keep out of the atmosphere helps. And this order will keep several million in the ground.

New Texas water fund offers some risks -- but also huge opportunities

Imagine that it's January 2015 and Governor Wendy Davis announces her first major budget initiative with a speech in drought-ravaged central Texas:

"My Fellow Texans, we stand at a start of a new journey. For too long, we have failed to invest in this state's people. We have failed to invest in this state's future. We have failed to invest in jobs. We have failed to invest in common-sense conservation initiatives that wisely use our resources and protect both our economic growth and our natural environment.

Today, that all changes.

Today my administration proposes that we invest $2 billion in this state's infrastructure.Today, we propose investing $2 billion in generating jobs.  Today, we propose investing $2 billion to help our communities who and in wisely using a precious natural resource.

It's fitting -- we're taking money from our rainy day fund and helping our drought-affected and cash-strapped communities gain access to much-needed water. And $200 million of the fund is reserved for the smallest parched rural communities who need water the most yet can't afford it.

But we're not going to be merely giving water away to Fracking companies profligate users. Getting access to water is important, but using it wisely is too. That's why least $400 million of the fund is strictly reserved to finance conservation projects -- better water pipes and control systems in our cities to stop waste, more efficient drip irrigation to make our successful agricultural sector even more competitive and storage projects that reduce erosion and runoff while simultaneously recharging our groundwater supplies.

 I know I would be pretty happy with that speech.

Well, the contents of that "speech" are essentially what Proposition 6 did.  It takes $2 billion from the rainy day fund and uses it to create a revolving loan fund -- essentially an infrastructure bank -- for water projects called the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT).  The general principal is somewhat similar federal funds out there already. At least $400 million of SWIFT goes to conservation programs and an additional $200 million is reserved specifically for rural and agricultural conservation projects.

Follow me below the fold for details