WRI Publications Feed: U.S. Climate Action

Clearing the Air: Reducing Upstream Greenhouse Gas Emissions from U.S. Natural Gas Systems

Sarah Parsons — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 17:48:29 -0400

Key Findings

Fugitive methane emissions from natural gas systems represent a significant source of global warming pollution in the U.S. Reductions in methane emissions are urgently needed as part of the broader effort to slow the rate of global temperature rise.
Cutting methane leakage rates from natural gas systems to less than 1 percent of total production would ensure that the climate impacts of natural gas are lower than coal or diesel fuel over any time horizon. This goal can be achieved by reducing emissions by one-half to two-thirds below current levels through the widespread use of proven, cost-effective technologies.
Fugitive methane emissions occur at every stage of the natural gas life cycle; however, the total amount of leakage is unclear. More comprehensive and current direct emissions measurements are needed from this regionally diverse and rapidly expanding energy sector.
Recent standards from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will substantially reduce leakage from natural gas systems, but to help slow the rate of global warming and improve air quality, further action by states and EPA should directly address fugitive methane from new and existing wells and equipment.
Federal rules building on existing Clean Air Act (CAA) authorities could provide an appropriate framework for reducing upstream methane emissions. This approach accounts for input by affected industries, while allowing flexibility for states to implement rules according to unique local circumstances.

Fact Sheet: 2012, A Year of Record-Breaking Extreme Weather and Climate

Sarah Parsons — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 10:13:20 -0500

Summary

The United States experienced its hottest year on record in 2012.

On a global scale, not only did last year mark the 36th consecutive year the annual global temperature was above average, but each successive decade in the last 50 years has been the warmest on record. Additionally, the recent draft National Climate Assessment states that it is “virtually certain” that global temperatures will continue to warm throughout the remainder of the century, and the longer we delay reducing greenhouse gas emissions the greater the magnitude of warming will occur. In a warmer world, the trend of increasing extreme weather and climate events is expected to continue – 2011 and 2012 each experienced more extreme weather and climate events costing over $1 billion each than any other year in recorded history.

The 8-inch rise in average global sea level over the last century has intensified the impacts of storm surge. This was exemplified during Hurricane Sandy, where record high water levels and abnormally warm ocean temperatures amplified the storm’s impact along the coast of the Northeast United States. State officials in New York and New Jersey estimated aggregate losses of nearly $80 billion from Sandy, shattering the aggregate $55 billion in losses caused by weather and climate disasters in 2011 – a year when a record 14 extreme weather and climate events caused at least $1 billion in losses each.

Download the full fact sheet for more figures relating to temperature, Hurricane Sandy, wildfires, drought, sea level rise, and melting ice.

Can the U.S. Get There from Here? Using Existing Federal Laws and State Action to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Sarah Parsons — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 16:51:17 -0500

Summary

U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are expected to rise unless additional policy actions are taken. This report identifies a suite of policies that the Administration can pursue that do not require new legislation by the U.S. Congress. If pursued with “go-getter” level ambition, those policies can reduce U.S. emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels in 2020.

Key Findings

Without new action by the U.S. Administration, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will increase over time. The United States will fail to make the deep emissions reductions needed in coming decades, and will not meet its international commitment to reduce GHG emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.
The U.S. EPA should immediately pursue “go-getter” emissions reductions from power plants and natural gas systems using its authority under the Clean Air Act. These two sectors represent two of the top opportunities for substantial GHG reductions between now and 2035.
The U.S. Administration should pursue hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) reductions through both the Montreal Protocol process and under its independent Clean Air Act authority. Eliminating HFCs represents the biggest opportunity for GHG emissions reductions behind power plants.
U.S. states should complement federal actions to reduce emissions through state energy efficiency, renewables, transportation, and other actions. States can augment federal reductions.
New federal legislation will eventually be needed, because even go-getter action by federal and state governments will probably fail to achieve the more than 80 percent GHG emissions reductions necessary to fend off the most deleterious impacts of climate change.

This chart shows potential reductions under existing federal authorities and state action through 2035.

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Can The U.S. Get There From Here? from World Resources Institute (WRI)

Testimony: American Energy Security and Innovation: An Assessment of North America's Energy Resources

Sarah Parsons — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 15:21:07 -0500

Summary of Key Points

Our energy choices need to factor in both opportunities and risks. This testimony gives particular attention to why we must consider the risk of climate change, both on our resources being developed and utilized today and on our choices for development into the future. It concludes with the following recommendations:

Congress should request that the National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee review the current authorities of federal agencies and national laboratories, and recommend how consideration of risks associated with climate change can be more directly incorporated into decision-making.
Congress should support efforts to better assess the impacts of climate change on America’s energy infrastructure and incorporate this into planning and investment decisions.
Congress should keep in mind four important criteria in considering policies to drive more effective clean energy growth and competitiveness: any energy policy should be comprehensive, long-term, targeted, and inclusive.
In capturing energy efficiency across the economy, Congress can play a constructive role in two key areas:
- Informed consumer choice: supporting and expanding programs to help ensure product labeling is accurate and publicly reported in a timely manner, to encourage energy-wise investment decisions throughout the U.S. economy.
- Efficiency standards: supporting and extending the ability of federal agencies to develop and update energy efficiency standards for vehicles, appliances, and other energy-consuming equipment that is sold into U.S. commerce.
Congress must work toward reaching bipartisan agreement on national energy policies that encourage more efficient energy consumption, increase the diversity of domestic energy production, maximize deployment of low-carbon energy technologies, and minimize environmental impacts throughout our energy systems. In the near-term, it is also critical for Congress to provide funding and incentives for low-carbon and clean energy technologies.

Sea-Level Rise and its Impact on Florida

Sarah Parsons — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 12:22:26 -0500

It is well-established that global warming has resulted in global sea-level rise. Since 1870, average global sea level has risen by about 8 inches. As the climate has become increasingly warmer, the annual rate of sea-level rise has accelerated. Average annual sea-level rise between 1993 and 2011 was 78 percent higher than between 1961 and 1993.

Four county governments in Southeast Florida, in response to impacts of sea-level rise, established the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact in January 2010. The purpose of this agreement between the county governments of Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Palm Beach Counties – which have a combined population of 5.6 million — is to develop mitigation and adaptation strategies through joint efforts and to actively inform critical policymaking and government funding decisions at the state and federal levels.

Impacts of Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Change Connection

Sarah Parsons — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 12:11:57 -0500

Summary

Extreme weather events are on the rise in the United States and globally, with growing and costly disruptions to businesses, people’s livelihoods, and critical infrastructure. Hurricane Sandy is the most recent event to expose the vulnerability of the United States to extreme weather.

This fact sheet highlights the historical magnitude of the storm and estimated losses, plus statements by government officials and leading scientists who view this tragic event as a harbinger of future climate change impacts.

Evidence is mounting that human-induced warming is contributing to increased frequency and intensity of several types of extreme weather events, including heat waves, torrential downpours, and coastal flooding. These trends are expected to continue – with associated damages worsening – in an increasingly warmer world

Fact Sheet: The Connection Between Climate Change and Recent Extreme Weather Events

Sarah Parsons — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 16:20:06 -0400

What do we know about the connection between climate change and recent extreme weather events, such as the heat waves, drought, and fires?

Scientists agree that climate change has already primed the pump for extreme weather events:

A recent report by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists compared the rising risk of extreme weather events to a baseball player’s improved performance after taking steroids. “For any one of his home runs… you would not know for sure whether it was caused by steroids or not…. But you might be able to attribute his increased number to the steroids.”
Recent climate science assessment reports by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Global Change Research Program find that several types of extreme weather are on the rise, that man-made climate change is likely responsible, and that these trends are expected to continue. Jonathan Overpeck, a professor of geosciences and atmospheric sciences at the University of Arizona, said, “This is certainly what I and many other climate scientists have been warning about…. This is what global warming looks like at the regional or personal level.”

Extreme Heat

Government scientists at NOAA are saying that man-made climate change has increased the probability of longer and more intense heat waves.
This year the U.S. has been breaking high temperature records at a ratio of 10-to-1 over cold temperature records (in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, the typical ratio was 1-to-1).
The U.S. has just experienced the warmest 12-month period since record-keeping began in 1895.
More than 26,000 new record temperature highs have been set this year (2012) alone in the United States.
According to NOAA, June 2012 marks the 36th consecutive June and 328th consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20th century average. Thomas Karl, Director of NOAA’s climate office said, “We believe there is an important human component explaining these record-breaking temperatures, and that’s the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.”

Droughts

The recent study by NOAA scientists found that the conditions leading to the 2011 Texas drought are 20 times more likely to occur now, in a world warmed by greenhouse gas emissions, than in the 1960s. The head of NOAA’s climate office, Tom Karl, stated, “What we’re seeing, not only in Texas but in other phenomena in other parts of the world, where we can’t explain these events by natural variability alone. They’re just too rare, too uncommon.”
Nearly two-thirds of the contiguous U.S. is currently suffering from drought.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has designated 1,297 counties across 29 states as disaster areas–this is the largest natural disaster area declaration in U.S. history.
U.S. government research shows that global warming intensifies both drought and heat, making drought events even dryer and heat waves even warmer than they otherwise would have been. Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said man-made global warming “…creates stronger, more intense, and longer-lasting drought. No doubt about it.”
The U.S. Global Change Research Program has projected more frequent and severe droughts across much of the United States in the coming decades. For the Great Plains region, 70 percent of which is farmland, their projection is dire: increasing temperatures and evaporation rates and more sustained drought, further stressing already overstrained water resources.

Fires

This summer’s wildfires in Colorado were promoted by hot and extremely dry conditions and belownormal snowfall during the recent winter. Early summer statewide snowpack in Colorado was at 2 percent of its historic average. According to the USDA Undersecretary, Harris Sherman, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, whose firefighters are on the front lines, “The climate is changing, and these fires are a very strong indicator of that.”
According to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, climate change has likely contributed to a significant increase in big forest fires in the West. Over the past 30 years, large and long-duration forest fires in the American West have increased fourfold, the length of the fire season has expanded by 2.5 months, and the size of wildfires has increased several-fold.

Download the fact sheet to see full citations.

An Updated Response to EEI’s Timeline of Environmental Regulations

Kevin Lustig — Mon, 21 May 2012 10:16:48 -0400

This fact sheet updates the analysis done in our earlier response to EEI’s timeline of environmental regulations.

EPA remains on track in issuing rules that provide a path to a cleaner power fleet.

After years of delay, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is working to reduce dangerous and toxic pollutants released to the air and water by electric power plants, as required by the Clean Air Act (CAA) and other statutes. Four key points about EPA’s actions are clear:

Clarifying EEI’s Timeline

Figure 1: Edison Electric Institute’s Timeline of Environmental Regulatory Requirements for the Utility Industry (Click to enlarge)

Figure 2: Modified Edison Electric Institute Timeline, Removing All But New Compliance Obligations (Click to enlarge)

Figure 3: Timeline of Actual Compliance Obligations for Electric Power Plants (Click to enlarge)

Contrary to assertions by industry groups, EPA is pursuing a realistic timeline over the next five to ten years to bring the electric power industry into compliance with the law.
In most cases, the electric power sector has been on notice for several years (in some cases several decades) that these pollutants would be regulated.
Without new regulations, these pollutants will continue to impair America’s waterways, heat the planet, perpetuate acid rain, and lead to preventable hospital visits and premature deaths.
In each of its rulemakings, EPA provides for an extensive, open, and evidence-based public process. This leads to more robust and fair rules for the electric power sector. As EPA finalizes each rule, it will establish an increasingly clear pathway for investments in an American electric generation fleet for the 21st century.

CEOs and other representatives of major electric power corporations have suggested that EPA’s regulatory timeline is unworkable. The largest industry trade group, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), produced a slide in 2010 (updated in May 2011) that purports to display an onslaught of new requirements for power plants. EEI has distributed this slide (reproduced in Figure 1) widely on Capitol Hill, where it presumably hopes to win lawmakers’support for additional delays in EPA rules or even a stripping of EPA’s regulatory authority.

WRI has identified four categories of EPA activities on the EEI timeline that are potentially misleading. When these activities are removed, only the timing of actual new compliance obligations is left. In Figure 2, “X”s (color coded for each filter in the screening process) have been applied to remove events from EEI’s timeline that are not consequential from a compliance standpoint.

Rules that have been remanded or vacated by court decisions that do not impose compliance obligations.
Rules that were already in effect when EEI circulated its chart, representing compliance obligations that already exist; there are no new requirements imposed by these rules.
Public input through the rulemaking process (which leads to more robust and fair rules for the electric power sector, and should not be conflated with new compliance obligations).
National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) rules for various pollutants that set standards for states to achieve. They do not establish new requirements for electric generation units.

The EPA regulatory process is far from a “train wreck.” EEI’s misleading timeline consists mostly of procedural events and activities that will not impose a direct compliance obligation on power plants. This serves only to spread confusion about EPA’s actual regulatory schedule.

Figure 3 shows a more accurate picture of the timeline for new requirements applicable to electric power plants.

EPA is carrying out the intent of Congress (through the passage of the bipartisan Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and subsequent amendments) to clean the nation’s air and water. These rules can help the United States transition to cleaner and more efficient power plants by establishing a clear pathway for investments in an electric generation fleet for the 21st century.

The CAA requires EPA and states to regulate and reduce harmful pollutants from major emissions sources, including power plants. To date, this framework has delivered substantial improvements in air quality and significant public health benefits estimated between $82 and $556 billion annually. Over the next decade, power plants will be subject to new rules under the CAA as well as the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to control substances that cause serious health problems and substantial damage to America’s natural resources. These rules will take effect after long lead times; in most cases industry has been on notice for years that these pollutants would be regulated.

Many of the regulations under consideration by EPA have been in the regulatory pipeline for over a decade. Due to administrative delays and litigation resulting in court decisions remanding or vacating previous rules, many of these rules have not been finalized or the final rules were reversed. In many cases Congress has set statutory deadlines for EPA to act, EPA has missed the deadlines, and courts have ordered EPA to act.

Download the complete fact sheet (includes additional figures, footnotes, and references) (PDF, 476 Kb)

Fact Sheet: U.S. Electricity Markets Increasingly Favor Alternatives to Coal

Kevin Lustig — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:20:35 -0400

The U.S. electric power system is gradually shifting toward cleaner forms of generation. One sign of this transition is the declining use of coal for electric power production.

In 2011, use of coal for U.S. power generation dropped to its lowest level in more than a decade, according to the federal government’s independent U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). In fact, the EIA reported1 earlier in 2012 that coal’s share of total U.S. electric power generation dropped below 40% for the last two months of 2011, the lowest level since 1978.

To understand the cause of this decline, it is important to examine contributing market forces. Doing so provides important context for recent coal plant retirement announcements, particularly given that some companies have attributed retirements to EPA rules that are still years away from going into force. For example, FirstEnergy Corp. announced in late January 20122 that it would retire several of its smaller coal-fired power plants, explaining that the decision was “based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which were recently finalized, and other environmental regulations.” FirstEnergy, however, had previously cited a range of reasons3 for its decision to reduce operations at many of its smaller coal plants.

Furthermore, available evidence does not support the notion that regulations are the primary driver behind recent coal plant retirement announcements. These business decisions4 are heavily influenced by such market forces as lower natural gas prices, declining growth in electricity demand, rising coal prices, and increased cost-competitiveness of renewables.

Download the fact sheet to keep reading and see full citations.

Midwest Manufacturing Snapshot: Energy Use and Efficiency Policies

Kevin Lustig — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:22:57 -0500

Summary

The workforce and economies of Midwestern states are more reliant on manufacturing than in any other U.S. region. Like the U.S. as a whole, during the past decade, the Midwest lost one-third of its total manufacturing workforce. With the central focus of state governments on economic development, there is a growing interest in understanding how industrial energy efficiency investments could contribute to regional economic recovery and long-term competitiveness for U.S. manufacturers. However, state-level energy-use data are not currently available from public sources at the level of detail needed to identify which sectors are using how much energy and where.

Introduction

Steel mill in Illinois. Photo credit: flickr/Payton Chung

Manufacturing remains a cornerstone of the U.S. economy, and nowhere is this more evident than in the Midwest. Manufacturers are also significant consumers of energy; yet, manufacturing subsector fuel use data are not available at the state level, which greatly limits the public’s understanding of industrial energy efficiency potential and other related questions of public interest. Given the centrality of manufacturing to the Midwestern economy and energy consumption, policymakers, industry and other interested stakeholders would benefit from more detailed information regarding energy use across all manufacturing sectors.¹

The primary purpose of this paper is to enable a constructive dialogue around effective strategies for achieving complementary environmental and economic outcomes in the Midwest. For the first time, this paper estimates manufacturing subsector-specific energy use for the 10 states in the Midwestern Governors Association (MGA).² Detailed manufacturing energy-use and economic activity data are presented alongside state-by-state policy summaries, giving a snapshot of where energy is being used and current state approaches for reducing energy-related costs and emissions.

Some context for this paper is worth noting at the outset. The year 2011 saw modest economic recovery for U.S. manufacturing, as a whole, after a decade of historic job losses and high energy prices. In 2012, state budgets will likely remain tight and the last of federal Recovery Act funding for state energy efficiency programs will be spent. Many policymakers are prioritizing policies that spur new investments to create jobs and economic development in their states. With these goals in mind, energy efficiency investments offer promising returns, in terms of both economic growth and employment. More productive energy use begets a more productive and efficient economy, now and for decades into the future (Laitner et al., 2012).

This working paper is divided into five main sections. The first section describes national and regional trends in manufacturing energy use and economic activity. The second section describes available public data and our methodology for deriving more detailed state-level manufacturing subsector energy-use data. The third section introduces in greater detail the concept of industrial energy efficiency (EE) and highlights four emerging policy trends. The fourth section profiles the 10 member states of the MGA, including graphics and discussion of state-specific energy use and recent manufacturing trends, as well as high-level summaries of relevant state policies. The final section discusses further work needed to build on the information presented here to more specifically identify policies needed to reduce the energy intensity and increase the cost competitiveness of Midwest manufacturing.

As noted in Section 2 of this paper, public data are available from government sources that describe state-level energy-use and economic-activity by industry and manufacturing, in general. However, no public data sources allow for consistent, direct comparisons on manufacturing subsector energy-use among the states of the Midwest. ↩
Member states of the MGA are Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. ↩

WRI Publications Feed: U.S. Climate Action

Clearing the Air: Reducing Upstream Greenhouse Gas Emissions from U.S. Natural Gas Systems

Key Findings

Fact Sheet: 2012, A Year of Record-Breaking Extreme Weather and Climate

Summary

Can the U.S. Get There from Here? Using Existing Federal Laws and State Action to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Summary

Key Findings

Interactive Graphic

Embed this graphic on your site.

Presentation

Testimony: American Energy Security and Innovation: An Assessment of North America's Energy Resources

Summary of Key Points

Sea-Level Rise and its Impact on Florida

Impacts of Hurricane Sandy and the Climate Change Connection

Summary

Fact Sheet: The Connection Between Climate Change and Recent Extreme Weather Events

Extreme Heat

Droughts

Fires

An Updated Response to EEI’s Timeline of Environmental Regulations

This fact sheet updates the analysis done in our earlier response to EEI’s timeline of environmental regulations.

Clarifying EEI’s Timeline

Download the complete fact sheet (includes additional figures, footnotes, and references) (PDF, 476 Kb)

Fact Sheet: U.S. Electricity Markets Increasingly Favor Alternatives to Coal

Midwest Manufacturing Snapshot: Energy Use and Efficiency Policies

Summary

Read More

Introduction