Biomass Wars

***
Here are two well-done web sites with opposite views on the benefits of using biomass for heat and power.

Partnership for Policy Integrity (OFPI)

National Alliance of Forestry Owners
___

Nuclear Energy Pro and Con

Two interesting articles from the Chemical Engineering magazine evaluating nuclear energy--one for and one against. Especially interesting now that we've seen demonstrated some of the risks.

Nuclear Energy: A Vital Component of Our Energy Future

Nuclear Renaissance: A Flawed Proposition

***

NEPA & Climate Change

Two Marten Law articles:

Ninth Circuit Requires Climate Change Analysis under NEPA; 11/2007

CEQ Marks 40th Anniversary of NEPA With New Guidance on Greenhouse Gas Impacts, Mitigation and Categorical Exclusions; 2/2010

_______________________________________________
Excerpts from 2/2010 Draft guidance from the CEQ:

"NEPA demands informed, realistic governmental decision making. CEQ proposes to advise Federal agencies to consider, in scoping their NEPA analyses, whether analysis of the direct and indirect GHG emissions from their proposed actions may provide meaningful information to decision makers and the public. Specifically, if a proposed action would be reasonably anticipated to cause direct emissions of 25,000 metric tons or more of CO2-equivalent GHG emissions on an annual basis, agencies should consider this an indicator that a quantitative and qualitative assessment may be meaningful to decision makers and the public. For long-term actions that have annual direct emissions of less than 25,000 metric tons of CO2-equivalent, CEQ encourages Federal agencies to consider whether the action’s long-term emissions should receive similar analysis. CEQ does not propose this as an indicator of a threshold of significant effects, but rather as an indicator of a minimum level of GHG emissions that may warrant some description in the appropriate NEPA analysis for agency actions involving direct emissions of GHGs."

"With regards to the effects of climate change on the design of a proposed action and alternatives, Federal agencies must ensure the scientific and professional integrity of their assessment of the ways in which climate change is affecting or could affect environmental effects of the proposed action. 40 CFR 1502.24. Under this proposed guidance, agencies should use the scoping process to set reasonable spatial and temporal boundaries for this assessment and focus on aspects of climate change that may lead to changes in the impacts, sustainability, vulnerability and design of the proposed action and alternative courses of action. At the same time, agencies should recognize the scientific limits of their ability to accurately predict climate change effects, especially of a short-term nature, and not devote effort to analyzing wholly speculative effects. Agencies can use the NEPA process to reduce vulnerability to climate change impacts, adapt to changes in our environment, and mitigate the impacts of Federal agency actions that are exacerbated by climate change."

_________________________________________________

Climate Change Impacts Report; 6/2009

From the report home page:

"This web page will introduce and lead you through the content of the most comprehensive and authoritative report of its kind. The report summarizes the science and the impacts of climate change on the United States, now and in the future. It focuses on climate change impacts in different regions of the U.S. and on various aspects of society and the economy such as energy, water, agriculture, and health."

"In addition to discussing the impacts of climate change in the U.S., the report also highlights the choices we face in response to human-induced climate change. It is clear that impacts in the United States are already occurring and are projected to increase in the future, particularly if the concentration of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continues to rise. So, choices about how we manage greenhouse gas emissions will have far-reaching consequences for climate change impacts. Similarly, there are choices to be made about adaptation strategies that can help to reduce or avoid some of the undesirable impacts of climate change. This report provides many of the scientific underpinnings for effective decisions to be made – at the national and at the regional level."

King County, WA, Climate change worksheet

"King County is the first local government in the nation to officially add greenhouse gas emissions to the environmental review of construction projects. King County's policy covers projects undergoing environmental review mandated by the SEPA and applies to the County's own developments as well as projects where the County is the lead permitting agency.

 

"GHG emissions associated with development come from multiple sources:

• The extraction, processing, transportation, construction and disposal of building materials
• Landscape disturbance
• Energy demands created by the development after it is completed 

"Transportation demands created by the development after it is completed.
King County has developed a GHG emissions worksheet that can assist applicants in answering the SEPA checklist question relating to GHG emissions. The worksheet is available as a fill-in Excel spreadsheet** or in PDF** format."

The SEPA GHG emissions worksheet estimates all GHG emissions that will be created over the life span of a building project. This includes emissions associated with obtaining construction materials, fuel used during construction, energy consumed during the buildings operation, and transportation by building occupants."

 

Dept. of Development and Environmental Services Climate Change Home Page

WCI Final Design of C&T System

"On July 27, 2010, the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) released the Final Design for its regional cap-and-trade program...However, the sustained economic downturn has withered state-level support for the WCI and cast doubt over the extent to which the program will be implemented by WCI’s January 2012 deadline. Some member states have expressly withdrawn support for the program, while others have indicated that they will not have regulations in place necessary to meet the January 1, 2012, implementation deadline. Nonetheless, the Final Design represents the clearest and most detailed articulation of an alternative to comprehensive federal climate change regulation."

WCI C and T Final Design Article
(Martin Law article)

Lifecycle Assessment

Even if we don't work on any true lifecycle assessments, many EIS climate change analyses will likely employ LCA methodology. Here are a couple LCA references.

EPA / AWMA LCA Webinar slides

LCA article

Senate Climate Bill Introduced Amid Considerable Fanfare, and an Uncertain Future

Good summary and analysis of the new Senate cap & trade bill...

Senate Climate Bill article (Marten Law)

Proposed GHG reporting for petroleum and natural gas production - Subpart W

March 22, 2010 "(P)roposed rule for the mandatory reporting of vented and fugitive methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from petroleum and natural gas industry facilities emitting 25,000 metric tons or more of carbon dioxide equivalent per year."

Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule Regulatory Initiatives Climate Change U.S. EPA

EPA Raises Initial Threshold for Greenhouse-Gas Regulation - WSJ.com

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will set an emissions threshold of at least 75,000 tons a year—and possibly more than 100,000 tons a year—for power plants and other industrial projects for the initial stage of stationary-source greenhouse-gas regulations between 2011 to 2012, the head of the agency said Wednesday [3/3/2010].

EPA Raises Initial Threshold for Greenhouse-Gas Regulation - WSJ.com

NEPA and Climate Change on Federal Lands

PowerPoint presentation:
http://www.eli.org/pdf/research/NEPA_and_Climate_Change.pdf

Critique of carbon markets

"December 2009 saw world leaders come together in Copenhagen to try to agree on a post-Kyoto deal to save the planet from global warming. But the attempts to hammer out a new deal met with an apparent failure. But was it a failure? Many commentators would argue that the apparent failure can be seen as a welcome breathing space to question the underlying mechanisms that are supposed to help us fight climate change. In this way, Upsetting the Offset is a very timely book, as it critically engages with the political economy of carbon markets, which have emerged as the dominant instrument to mitigate climate change."

Upsetting the Offset

Minnesota MPCA GHG guidelines

Climate Change web page
http://www.pca.state.mn.us/climatechange/

Environmental review web page
http://www.pca.state.mn.us/programs/envr_p.html

General Guidance for Carbon Footprint Development in Environmental Review
http://www.pca.state.mn.us/publications/p-ear1-07.pdf

Completion of a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Evaluation
7/16/2008 policy memo
http://www.pca.state.mn.us/publications/greenhousegas-memo0708.pdf

EPA GHG Endangerement and Cause & Contribute Findings

Final findings on 12/7/2009.

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/endangerment.html