Global Warming Battle Waged in Texas

The nonprofit Rainforest Action Network urged 54 financial institutions last week not to participate in lending Texas-based TXU Corp. the $11 billion it needs for the construction of 11 new coal-burning power plants across Texas. The new plants would produce some 78 million tons of new carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions each year they are operating, which is more greenhouse gas pollution than is produced by 21 states or by small countries like Sweden, Denmark and Portugal.

"The world’s financial institutions can prevent this project from ever leaving the ground by simply declining to be a part of it,” a RAN statement declared. The group is targeting Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, the three lead funding groups of TXU’s expansion. Dozens of other financial institutions have committed to help fund the plants.

For its part, TXU’s CEO says the company plans to invest in new technology to limit carbon emissions from coal-burning plants, but environmentalists complain that such measures would do little to reduce the carbon footprint of the new facilities.

Other groups joining RAN in opposing construction of the new plants include the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Public Citizen, CERES and the Texas-based Seed Coalition. Also, the Democratic mayors of both Dallas and Houston, as well as several Texas county executives and other mayors, have raised objections to TXU’s coal-based expansion plans.

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US Renewables Can Reach 700 gigawatts (GW)

The U.S. renewable energy industry collectively tallied its future deliverable energy capacity at 550 to 700 gigawatts (GW) in Washington, DC yesterday. At such a GW-production rate, the U.S. could produce, at a minimum, 25% of the country's electrical energy requirement with renewable energy by 2025.
According to Michael Eckhart, American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) president whose organization hosted the 5th annual national policy conference "Renewable Energy in America: Phase II Market Forecasts and Policy Requirements" in DC Nov. 30, this is the first time a panel of renewable energy experts has assembled such a combined production capacity forecast.
"The industry panel identified 550GW - 700GW of renewable energy potential that can be built within the next 10-20 years -- even at a 50% discount -- this makes the "25X25" proposal feasible, reasonable, and doable," added Eckhart. The 25X25 is a popularly touted policy goal of 25% renewable production by 2025, yet the estimate coming from the conference could potentially double that production.

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American Drive Less, but Carbon Emissions Hit Record High

For the first time in 25 years, Americans are driving less. A study by Cambridge Energy Research Associates finds that the average American drove 13,657 miles in 2005, down from 13,711 in 2004, or 54 miles less per year average -- not much, but at least in the better direction. Last year also saw SUVs comprise a smaller chunk of new-vehicle sales; even though gas-guzzlers still account for more than half of such sales.

While consumption continues to rise, demand grew at a rate of only 0.3% last year and 1% for the first 11 months of 2006, compared to 1.6% per year from 1990 to 2004. High prices were a critical factor with gas sucking up about 3.8% of average U.S. household spending. The graying of the population has also contributed, as older drivers tend to drive less.

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However, in 2005, carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels climbed to a record high of 7.9 billion tons, an increase of some 3% from the previous year. Annual global emissions have been increasing since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth century, when humans first began burning fossil fuels on a large scale to produce energy. Since the early 1900s, emissions have been rising at an increasingly rapid pace. Annual emissions have grown by a factor of fifteen since 1900, advancing nearly 3% a year over that time.

Half of all energy-related carbon emissions come from only four countries. The United States, with less than 5% of the world’s population, accounts for 21% of carbon emissions. It is followed by China, which emits 18%. Both countries are heavy users of coal, the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel. Russia accounts for 6% of carbon emissions, just ahead of Japan, which produces 5% of the global total. Other major contributors to global carbon emissions are India, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, South Korea, and Italy. The United States, Australia, and Canada each emit roughly 5 tons of carbon per person each year. This is five times the figure in China and 17 times that in India.

Some 40% of energy-related emissions come from the burning of fossil fuels, such as oil, coal, and natural gas, to generate electrical power. The transportation sector is the second-largest source worldwide, responsible for 20% of all carbon emitted. Residential and commercial buildings account for roughly 15% of the total, and the industrial sector, another 15%. The remaining 10% of energy-related emissions come from a variety of minor uses, including fuels burned by sea-going ships.

As global emissions of carbon increase, they raise the levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. The average atmospheric concentration of CO2 reached 380 parts per million by volume in 2005, up 2.2 parts per million from 2004 levels and up 103 parts per million from pre-industrial times. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a global body of some 2,000 scientists, estimates that the current atmospheric CO2 concentration has not been exceeded over the last 420,000 years and probably not during the past 20 million years.

Experts predict that the effects of global warming will be far more dramatic if carbon emissions force atmospheric CO2 levels above 550 parts per million. Beyond this threshold, widespread flooding, droughts, and storms will be more severe. If carbon emissions continue to increase as projected, this level is likely to be reached in the second half of this century. To prevent this from happening, scientists estimate that carbon emissions must be cut by some 70%.

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China and India Leapfrog to the Front of the International Green Building Movement

By Kevin Sullivan

Standing in the hazy shadow of the Taj Mahal on the banks of the fetid Yamuna River, Bill Clinton challenged India during his visit in 2000 to become a global leader in environmental development. He pledged millions of dollars of U.S. aid to help India usher in a greener future.

Just four years and $20 million later, India surpassed Clinton’s challenge by completing the first platinum rated LEED building outside the U.S., and only the third of its kind in the world. The CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre in Hyderabad, a 2000-square-meter complex, is a hybrid mix of high-tech features like photovoltaic panels and daylight sensors and traditional Indian methods of climate control like wind towers. The upstart Indian Green Building Council, launched in 1997 and housed at the GBC, is already creating waves in the global green building movement.

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CEOs and Generals Call on White House to Reduce Overall Oil Dependence

A bipartisan group including the CEOs of Fedex, UPS and Dow Chemical, along with some of the nation’s best known retired generals, has come together to urge the White House to push for a new energy policy that reduces U.S. dependence on foreign oil. The group, which calls itself the Energy Security Leadership Council (ESLC), warns that weaning the country off foreign oil won’t be enough, and that the White House and Congress need to take decisive action to promote homegrown alternatives as soon as possible.

According to a new report (“Recommendations to the Nation on Reducing U.S. Oil Dependence”) issued by the group, exposure to petroleum price shocks is a “function of how much oil a nation consumes and is not significantly affected by the ratio of ‘domestic oil’ to so-called ‘foreign oil.’”
The report also warns that the nation’s oil dependence makes it especially vulnerable to terrorist attacks, given that 97 percent of America’s transport system is dependent on oil with 90 percent of the world’s oil supply controlled by foreign governments. “America must address this critical weakness,” says retired Marine Corps general P.X. Kelley of the ESLC. “An oil supply interruption cannot be reasonably dismissed as improbable,” he adds.

The group timed the release of the report in hopes of influencing White House policy on the issue prior to President Bush’s January 2007 State of the Union address. But the chances of affecting federal policy on such a key transportation fuel is unlikely at this point. Meanwhile, environmentalists are hoping that the new Democrat-led Congress can pass veto-proof legislation in the new year focusing American attention on generating marketable alternatives to oil.

For these reasons, NWA - Landscape Architecture and Construction have made the switch to biodiesel and implemented other strategies to cut our dependence on fossil fuels. As a result, NWA won the 2006 Santa Barbara County "Green Award" for sustainability and innovation.

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