We all have a responsibility to reduce our carbon footprint and lessen the impact of global warming. That’s why the 2013 Green Inaugural Ball, aside from “greening” the event, has teamed up with Carbonfund.org Foundation to reduce its carbon footprint with two carbon offset projects: The Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge Reforestation Project and the New Bedford Landfill Gas-to-Energy Methane Project.

As a green event, we just couldn’t miss out on the opportunity to reduce the Green Ball’s climate impact, and help pave the road toward a clean energy future.

Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge Reforestation

Photo via Carbonfund.org. 

This area was once covered in dense forests, but now it supports less than 20% of its original 22 million forested acres due to decades of land conversion for agriculture. Why are forestry projects important? They help offset the effects of climate change, and help improve the quality of top soil, reduce and control erosion, protect and filter water while reducing the threat of flooding, produce oxygen and nutrients and provide habitats for wildlife.

New Bedford Landfill Gas-to-Energy Methane Project

This landfill gas-to-energy plant, located in Greater New Bedford, MA., not only produces 3.3 megawatts hours of clean electricity, but also reduces the amount of methane released into our atmosphere. Why is the destruction of methane important? It’s approximately 21–to–23 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and a major contributor to climate change. A major concern about climate change is the release of an enormous amount of methane—previously trapped in permafrost in frozen tundra areas like Siberia and Northern Canada—into our atmosphere.

Want to reduce your carbon footprint? Check out this list produced by Carbonfund.org Foundation on how you can do just that:
http://www.carbonfund.org/reduce

About Carbonfund.org Foundation

Carbonfund.org Foundation is the leading nonprofit carbon-reduction and climate solutions organization, making it easy and affordable for individuals, businesses and organizations to reduce their climate impact by supporting third-party validated renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects. Carbonfund.org has over 600,000 individual supporters and over 1,800 business and nonprofit partners including Discovery, Motorola, Amtrak, Dell, JetBlue, Virgin America and Staples.

Haven’t purchased your 2013 Green Inaugural Ball ticket yet? Purchase them soon before the event sells out.
Heading to the Green Ball? Don’t forget to tweet using the #GreenBall2013 hashtag.

Shelley Cohen is Chair of the Greening Committee for the 2013 Green Inaugural Ball. Ms. Cohen is an urban eco-mom with eighteen years of experience in environment and energy-related fields. She currently serves as a Senior Project Developer for Ameresco where she specializes in developing renewable energy and energy conservation projects, and is responsible for developing over 15MWs of renewable energy. Prior employment included jobs with EPA, the White House, and the office of Senator Joseph Lieberman (CT). Ms. Cohen’s green home includes eco-friendly materials, 12kw of solar PV, a cool roof, rain barrel, organic garden, and has been featured in local and national media. Ms. Cohen serves on the board of the National Wildlife Federation, and in 2012 was trained as a Climate Leader through the Climate Reality Project.

In a truly significant national commitment to curb greenhouse gases, the Obama administration, a labor union and key auto manufacturers including Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Honda and Hyundai have joined with the state of California to reach a critical deal requiring passenger vehicles to average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

Also announced—and broadly agreed upon—were the first ever standards for heavy duty trucks that will reduce their fuel use by 10 to 20 percent by 2018. Currently, more than 30 percent of fossil-fuel carbon dioxide emissions in this country come from petroleum that is used mainly by the transportation sector.

Fuel efficiency standards that cover all cars and trucks mean that we will see innovation and fuel savings in all types of vehicles, from semi-trailers and school buses to pickup trucks, minivans, family sedans and electric cars like the Chevrolet Volt, pictured here.

These landmark White House agreements came about through responsible negotiations with automakers, environmentalists and labor unions. While we did not get the full 60 mpg for which we had called for, these standards will make a very significant dent in tailpipe pollution. And we will continue to work with all the parties to speed innovation in cars and trucks.

New Fuel Standards Mean Gas Savings for all Vehicles

According to the Union of Concern Scientists, the latest passenger vehicle agreement will cut carbon pollution by more than 308 million tons in 2030—the equivalent to shutting down 72 coal-fired power plants. The group also predicts “lower fuel expenditures at the pump by over $80 billion in 2030—even after paying for the cost of the necessary technology, consumers will still clear $50 billion in savings that year alone.” These savings mean billions more being spent at home, boosting our economy locally and improving our serious trade deficit. They also will reduce our dependence on Middle East oil by saving as much as 23 billion gallons of gasoline annually by 2030, which is equal to the total current annual imports from both Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

The many hybrid models now in the market have certainly contributed to improving the nation’s overall fuel efficiency. As an owner of a hybrid, I can assure you that I enjoy passing gas stations that I once stopped at to fill up. But standards that cover all cars and trucks mean that we will see innovation and fuel savings in all types of vehicles, from semi-trailers and school buses to pickup trucks, minivans, family sedans and electric cars.

Will the House of Representatives Stand in the Way of More Efficient Cars?

The final rule for heavy duty trucks was adopted in August. The handshake agreement for passenger vehicles will be proposed formally as a draft regulation open for public comment and input by the end of September. A final rule, if adopted, will be published in July 2012.

Leave it to the U.S. House of Representatives to oppose the passenger vehicle agreement and try to block any responsible solution to a serious environmental and economic problem. In a three-page letter sent to the CEOs of nine major automakers, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said the committee “has begun an investigation into the nature of the negotiations.” He added that the deal appears “to have been negotiated in secret, outside the scope of law, with potentially significant negative impacts for consumers.”

The Obama administration has estimated that, under the plan, consumers will save $1.7 trillion at the pump. It appears that the only “significant negative impact” will be to big oil interests that have made record profits in recent years and pocketed many billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidizes, and their Middle East suppliers who will sell a lot less oil to the United States. The legislative backlash should be expected, since oil interests are making huge contributions to lawmakers who watch out for their interests and protect their tax subsidies.

We commend the Obama administration for working in a spirit of cooperation with affected interests to forge a reasonable compromise with major benefits for the public, the economy and wildlife. We are saddened by all attacks on our landmark environmental and conservation laws, including the Clean Air Act, that underpin these standards. As this passenger vehicle agreement (as in previous fuel-efficiency agreements) will be submitted to a formal rule-making process in which all U.S. citizens will have a chance to voice their opinions, we encourage NWF members to actively participate as it moves forward.

Share Your Views

What do you think about these new standards? Do you know if your representatives support them? Comment on this blog or connect with me on Facebook or Twitter and let me know what you think.

Related Links:

• Is an electric car right for you?
• New Report: Standards Deliver “Trucks That Work” For Wildlife, Economy
• Learn about National Wildlife Federation’s efforts to promote clean fuels

A Nightmare that will haunt us all

For those who do not live close enough to the tar sands to see the immediate impacts, the tar sands still have an effect on you. How? The tar sands present a major source of pollution that will only further exacerbate global warming. Being such an ‘unconventional’ and ‘unique’ oil (aka: dirty oil), the tar sands emit three to five times more greenhouse gases than conventional oil. A recent study by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center revealed that the tar sands project has higher emissions than 97 nations combined.

This is not a sustainable project and the Canadian government is merely turning a blind eye to the consequences its actions. Sadly, the US is the largest consumer of the tar sands oil as 60% of tar sands oil is sent to the US.
The U.S. Department of State is currently going through the permitting process for the latest and largest tar sands pipeline. TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline would move up to 900,000 barrels of tar sands oil daily from Alberta, Canada to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast, traversing 2,000 miles through rivers, farmland and forests from Montana to Texas. Unless we stop it, this pipeline would effectively open the entire U.S. market and international markets to this environmentally damaging and costly high-carbon fuel.

Hard-hitting impacts on local communities

What has this done to the local communities? With all boom & bust situations like this, local communities are hit hard with social ills from the sudden influx of miners and workers inundating the area. The tar sands are no different. Alberta has the highest school dropout and divorce rates in Canada. Sadly, Alberta women suffer the highest level of spousal abuse in Canada. Drug use has also risen exponentially since before the project began. Approximately $7 million worth of cocaine now travels up Highway 63 to the tar sands region every week. In fact, roughly 40% of all tar sands workers test positive for cocaine and marijuana use. Local drug stores can’t keep enough urine cleansing products on their shelves due to workers fearing a random drug test. As a result, a black market for clean urine has developed.

The social ills, cultural consequences and environmental impacts are having an irreparable effect on the land and the indigenous way of life. The tar sands project is a living curse that grows larger and larger every day.

Monstrous Machinery

Such a monstrous project requires monstrous machinery. Being so grand in scale, the project requires massive machines like those that are seen in the movie Avatar. In fact, the trucks from the tar sands have to be specifically designed for the project. They are the largest power shovels and dump trucks in the world, capable of hauling 400 ton loads. Each truck burns roughly 50 gallons of diesel fuel an hour.

Activist and Executive Director of Honor the Earth Winona LaDuke stands in front of one of the monstrous loads of machinery.

Tar sands machinery has been manufactured in Korea, shipped across the Ocean, shipped through the Columbia River (Washington & Oregon) and is now traveling from Port Lewiston, Idaho through Montana and eventually shipments will travel all the way to northern Alberta. Paid for by ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, Imperial Oil, these shipments will cross through some of America’s most beautiful and scenic highways, national historic trails, tribal reservations and other places with both historic and current value.

These are no ordinary shipments. These are behemoth-sized loads. To give you an idea, some of these loads will roughly be the size of the Statue of Liberty on its side. For Howard Hughes fans out there, the shipments will be 9 feet longer than the Spruce Goose airplane. They will weigh up to 300 tons and require 90 tires, 24 axles and two trucks attached to the rear to help push it along. American roads have never seen loads this big. There is no classification for shipments like this and it has forced agencies to look at ‘special permits.’ Roads have been modified, turnouts have been created and the loads are now traveling from 5 to 30 mph in the middle of the night to avoid affecting traffic. Traffic has been affected and cars have been stuck sitting behind these trucks for hours at a time. Traveling down these mountains and narrow roads, one of the loads even scraped up against the side of a mountain and skidded against the rocks. These loads are a disaster waiting to happen and Governor Otter of Idaho thinks so too. In fact, Otter is demanding $10 million in bonds from Imperial Oil in case an accident does occur.
Sign the petition at All Against the Haul protesting the shipments.

Stand up for the Nez Perce peoples

The Nez Perce peoples pray the $10 million is not necessary. Crossing over nearly 70 miles of the Nez Perce reservation, tribal members have been working to stop the loads. After seeing through a number of candy-coated lies presented by Imperial Oil, the tribe has passed a resolution against the shipments in July 2010. Unfortunately, Imperial Oil is pushing through anyway. Working to protect their land, health and safety, the Nez Perce are seeking a number of venues to safeguard its people from the hazards presented by these loads .

Beginning with tarry mud in Northern Alberta, the destruction of First Nations homelands, the contamination of the Boreal forest and the transportation of loads of unheard sizes, the tar sands are pure destruction. The First Nations of Alberta deserve better. The Nez Perce deserve better. We all deserve better.

Don’t stand by. Take action now.

By Larry J. Schweiger

The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) sent a letter to Capitol Hill yesterday opposing any “disapproval resolutions” or riders that are seeking to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s finding that greenhouse gas emissions threaten human health and the environment.

The UAW understands that “cleaner cars and strong climate policy can drive economic recovery and create 150,000 American jobs.” Coming from Pittsburgh, a former rust best city that has reinvented itself as a clean economy city, I can understand and appreciate the importance of the stand that UAW has taken on behalf of all the working men and women they represent to oppose this threat to green jobs.

From the UAW letter:

“In our judgment, Congress should move forward to enact comprehensive climate change legislation that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Although we recognize the difficulties involved in this effort, we believe that legislation can be crafted that will reduce global warming pollution while at the same time creating jobs and providing a boost to our economy. In particular, we believe such legislation can help to provide significant investment in domestic production of advanced technology vehicles and their key components, as well as other energy saving technologies. But such progress will be undermined if a disapproval resolution or rider were to overturn EPA’s endangerment finding.”

McNair Wagner, Robert Boyd and I woke up very early this morning (7am CET = 1am EST), put on our warmest clothes and made our way to the Bella Center for the U.N. Climate Conference. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of different organizations from all over the world represented at booths brimming with information. In a single (although very large) room, I was able to collect materials ranging from the IPCC's report, "Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis" to the special Copenhagen edition of Ode Magazine ("for intelligent optimists"). 

We walked through the exhibition hall, picked up a daily programme and went our separate ways. My first sessions was "Taking Action at Home" with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in the U.S. Center. The main room was full more than 30 minutes before the event began, so I watched on a screen from the lobby just outside. I was in good company, though, because I ran into McNair, Robert and Energy Action Coalition's Executive Director Jessy Tolkan. Administrator Jackson's major announcement for the day was that the EPA has found once and for all that greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten public health and the environment and confirmed the scientific findings that GHGs are at unprecedented levels due to human activity.  Read the official news release here.

Later in the day, I got a look at what communities are doing about those GHGs, in the form of Smart Grid technology (which we've written about before here) and the role of regulators in promoting and developing it in both Europe and California. In case you're not familiar with smart grids, they allow for significant improvements in the efficiency of energy distribution due to better monitoring, controls and storage capabilities. Smart meters would allow homeowners to monitor their energy consumption in real time and power companies could measure actual demand with greater accuracy, enabling them to meet that demand with minimal waste and losses. These grids also have increased ability to manage both central (power plant) electricity generation as well as distributed generation (small-scale solar and wind, etc.). As more and more electric cars hit the road, households will also be able to assist in energy storage (which can be very difficult to do on a large scale), again to prevent waste and energy loss. (Visit the U.S. Department of Energy's website for more information about this technology.)

My last session of the evening was titled, "Sustainable Living or Sustainable Building." Panelists discussed simple changes that we can all make to our living spaces, such as insulation and lighting retrofits, that will not only make them significantly more efficient, but more comfortable as well. The speaker discussing building insulation reinforced my excitement to start weatherization volunteer/training programs throughout the Southeast, which I learned a good deal about just last weekend by attending the BuildINSULATE! workshop at Warren Wilson College. You can watch a video about the workshop here, but also expect to hear a lot more about weatherization programs from me in the future.

Every county in the United States has a weatherization assistance program to help insulate and upgrade low-income homes. The Warren Wilson INSULATE! crew has come up with a great model that can be easily adapted to any inhabited part of the U.S., which will make homes more efficient (leading to less GHGs emitted in the future), reduce rising energy costs that can account for more than 50% of household spending in certain cases, and train participants in proper weatherization techniques that they can use in their own homes and communities, perhaps even creating a source of income for those seeking employment in the new "green" economy.

The administration estimated the requirements would cost up to $1,300 per new vehicle by 2016 — but that it would take just three years to pay off that investment and that the standards would save more than $3,000 over the life of the vehicle through better gas mileage. [...]

The proposal is expected to increase vehicle fuel efficiency by about 5 percent annually and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 950 million metric tons. The plan would also conserve 1.8 billion barrels of oil, according to the official — the equivalent to taking 42 million cars off the road, Jackson said.

The National Wildlife Federation’s Joe Mendelson applauded the move:

The Environmental Protection Agency has taken an important and overdue step to clean up tailpipe pollution. The effort will jump-start the modernization and retooling of our auto industry, protect our environment, and reduce our reliance on oil.

Now, America needs an equally ambitious plan to expand the clean energy economy and clean up smokestacks from corporate polluters. The Senate must act this fall to pass comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation that includes a cap on global warming pollution.

Have you told your Senator to protect wildlife by passing clean energy & climate legislation? It only takes a moment. Click here!

Photo via Flickr’s jtuason

The Associated Press reports:

“Brazil’s environment minister says increased policing brought a sharp drop in Amazon deforestation over the past year, despite a jump in July. Environment Minister Carlos Minc says destruction in the 12-month period through July totalled 4,375 square kilometres (1,689 square miles). He says that is a 46 per cent decline from the same period a year earlier.   Minc said Tuesday that deforestation during all of 2009 – forecast to be around 8,500 square kilometres (3,280 square miles) – will be the smallest amount in 20 years.” See full article.

I’m going to Canada next week to see the environmental and social impacts of these fuels firsthand. I’ll be joined by several colleagues who share my concerns about these fuels.

State Dept. Pollution Pipeline Undermines Obama’s Climate Goals

NWF Memo to Editorial and Opinion Writers

The Washington Post and several Canadian news sources are reporting the U.S. State Department has approved the construction of a multibillion-dollar pipeline from Canadian oil sands to refineries in the United States. The State Department-approved Alberta pollution pipeline will not just move fuel, but it will move one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet — tar sands oil.

Turning tar sands into oil requires massive amounts of energy and results in as much as 3 times as much greenhouse gas emissions to produce as conventional oil, studies show. The full lifecycle emissions from the tar sands oil from this Alberta Pollution Pipeline (including production and tailpipe emissions) could be more than 3 billion tons of heat-trapping gases pumped into the atmosphere (yes, that is “Billion” with a “B,” not a typo) thru the year 2050.

Meanwhile, President Obama has called for the U.S. and other developed nations, including Canada, to cut emissions by more than 80% during this same time period. Building this pipeline while trying to shift to cleaner energy sources is like going on a diet while buying a lifetime supply of Twinkies.

A better solution for our oil dependency is for the Senate to act swiftly to pass a clean energy and climate bill such as the bill approved by the House in June. The bill creates incentives for homegrown renewable energy technologies like wind and solar and electric vehicles and will create millions of jobs in the process. According to recent analysis by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the America Clean Energy and Security Act would reduce oil imports by 590,000 barrels per day by 2020 — more than we will get from this pipeline project, and as much oil as we currently import from Iraq. The American Clean Energy and Security Act will save $650 billion from being spent on foreign oil over the next 20 years. Among many oil saving measures, the American Clean Energy and Security Act includes a strong investment in battery technologies and a smarter grid that can help get renewable energy sources like solar and wind to our homes to charge up our automobiles with electricity.

The State Department’s position on greenhouse gases from the “Alberta Clipper” line: “The administration believes the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions are best addressed through each country’s robust domestic policies and a strong international agreement.” President Obama and the State Department deserve credit for actively pursuing this global agreement as well as domestic clean energy legislation. All the more reason to avoid locking in highly polluting energy infrastructure like this pipeline that will make little economic sense when we commit to homegrown renewable energy sources and put a price on carbon pollution.

The State Department decision threatens to get the Obama administration off course on its winning energy strategy to simultaneously deal with three inter-related opportunities at the same time: limit carbon pollution in order to promote clean energy and clean energy jobs, increase energy security, and protect our planet. To date, these efforts have gotten high marks from the public. A recent Zogby poll found that 71% of likely voters support the American Clean Energy and Security Act.

NWF urges you to write in favor of the President’s and Congress’ efforts to pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act, and against this pipeline that undermines a cleaner energy future.

Financial Times.com reports:

“China and India have been resisting pressure from developed nations to agree to a target of reducing emissions by an overall average of 50 per cent by 2050. Mr Su Wei [China's climate director] restated Beijing’s view that as China still needs to grow its economy to help its people escape poverty, it is too early to discuss emissions caps.  But he indicated an openness to compromise. “China will not continue growing emissions without limit or insist that all nations must have the same per-capita emissions. If we did that, this earth would be ruined.”

His estimate of the peak of China’s emissions is in line with the more pessimistic forecasts issued by climate change experts. The UK’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research recently said China’s energy-related CO 2 output would peak in 2030 at 57 per cent above current levels.  See full article.