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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Brought to you by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute
States Set to Sue Over Tougher Emissions California and at least a dozen other states are preparing to sue the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for blocking states’ efforts to regulate auto emissions. In 2005, California requested a waiver from the EPA to allow it to enforce standards for cars and trucks that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The EPA has not yet granted the waiver, preventing California and the 14 other states who adopted the standards from moving forward. “Unfortunately, the Bush administration has really had their head in the sand,” California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. said. “In this case, there has been an unreasonable delay.” Plans were originally made to file the lawsuit on October 24, but California is postponing further action until the week of October 28, due to the wildfires taking place in southern California. Jennifer Wood, a spokeswoman from the EPA, said that the agency is still reviewing the waiver application and will make a final determination by the end of the year. “We’re interested in a good decision, not a good headline,” she said.
Senate Looks at Health Risks Caused by Global Warming The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing on October 23 to investigate the human health risks associated with global warming. The witnesses included Julie L. Gerberding, M.D., director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who testified that it is not a question of whether there will be health effects from global warming, but rather “it's a question of who, where, when and how.” Among the risks, she said, were increased rates of asthma and cardiovascular diseases, malaria, dengue, malnutrition, migration and premature death. Susan R. Cooper, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health and speaking for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, also noted that global warming “has the potential to place unprecedented demands on public health infrastructure.” Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chairwoman of the Committee, has since criticized the White House for editing out at least seven pages of the testimony submitted by Dr. Gerberding and requested the release of documents detailing how and why the testimony was edited. “I am deeply concerned that important scientific and health information was removed from the CDC Director's testimony at the last minute,” Sen. Boxer said in a letter to the White House. Dana Perino, a spokeswoman for the White House, said that no censoring of the testimony took place. “It was not watered-down in terms of its science. It wasn't watered-down in terms of the concerns that climate change raises for public health,” she said. Click on the following links for more information:
Senate Passes Lautenberg Measure to Protect Oceans from Acidification On October 16, the Senate passed the Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill which included an amendment (S.AMDT.3251) to focus research on increasing acidity in the oceans. The measure was crafted by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D–NJ) and co-sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to direct funds to the National Academy of Sciences to study the acidification of the oceans and how this will affect the United States. Carbon emissions in the atmosphere have lowered the ocean pH, increasing the acidity of the ocean by 30 percent in the last 100 years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports. “The change in ocean chemistry caused by greenhouse gases is corrosive and affects our marine life, food supply and overall ocean health,” Sen. Lautenberg said in a press release. “This study will help establish the research and monitoring critical to protect the health of our oceans and to assess the social and economic impacts to our country.” Click on the following link for more information:
Boxer Calls for Senate Climate Vote before Bali Meetings Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, has told colleagues she wants to get the "America's Climate Security Act" (S. 2191), introduced by Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner (R-VA) on October 18, through the full committee by December, before the United Nations annual climate change conference in Indonesia. Sen. Warner said, “This bill is my top priority for the next 14 months. At the UN meeting, negotiations are set to begin on a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. The protocol expires in 2012. According to E&E Daily, Boxer will lead a congressional delegation to the UN talks in Bali and wants to show that Congress under Democratic control has made progress on the climate issue. The senator is especially interested in contrasting her efforts with the Bush administration and its long-standing opposition to mandatory curbs on heat-trapping emissions. Click on the following link for more information:
Oceans are Absorbing Less CO2 Research to be published in the Journal of Geophysical Research next month indicates that the world's oceans are absorbing less carbon dioxide (CO2) than they used to, a development that could speed up global warming—as oceans currently absorb a significant amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere. The 10-year study by researchers from the University of East Anglia has shown that the uptake of CO2 by the North Atlantic Ocean halved between the mid-1990s and 2002-2005. Dr. Ute Schuster, a lead author, said "Such large changes are a tremendous surprise; we expected that the uptake would change only slowly because of the ocean's great mass." Lead author Dr. Andrew Watson said, "The speed and size of the change show that we cannot take for granted the ocean sink for carbon dioxide—perhaps this is partly a natural oscillation or perhaps it is a response to the recent rapid climate warming. In either case we now know that the sink can change quickly and we need to continue to monitor the ocean uptake." The research also found evidence of a slowdown in the uptake of CO2 by the Southern ocean, although it is not as great or as sudden as in the North Atlantic. The researchers gauged CO2 absorption through more than 90,000 measurements from merchant ships equipped with automatic instruments. Click on the following links for more information: Research carried out by the Global Carbon Project, the University of East Anglia, UK, and the British Antarctic Survey and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere have risen 35 percent faster than expected since 2000. Inefficiency in the use of fossil fuels increased levels of CO2 by 17 percent, and an additional 18 percent came from a decline in the natural ability of land and oceans to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. Over half the decline of the carbon sink efficiency is the result of intensifying winds in Antarctica's Southern Ocean disrupting the sea's ability to store carbon. According to the study, carbon released from burning fossil fuel and making cement rose from 7 billion metric tons per year in 2000 to 8.4 billion metric tons in 2006. The growth rate increased from 1.3 percent per year in 1990-1999 to 3.3 percent per year in 2000-2006. Dr. Pep Canadell, lead author and executive director of the Global Carbon Project, said "In addition to the growth of global population and wealth, we now know that significant contributions to the growth of atmospheric CO2 arise from the slow-down of natural sinks and the halt to improvements in the carbon intensity of wealth production." Author Dr. Corinne Le Quere said, "What happened for 30 years is that we became more efficient in producing wealth from our emissions, but that has stalled since 2000. There's a slow change from oil and gas to coal which is more CO2 intensive. As developing countries grow so does their use of energy and coal is easier to access and cheaper—the decline in global sink efficiency suggests that stabilization of atmospheric CO2 is even more difficult to achieve than previously thought." Click on the following links for more information: On October 17, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a report finding that the Arctic is under increasing stress with warming temperatures as shrubs colonize the tundra, changing wildlife habitat and local climate conditions. James Overland of NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory said that unlike previous years, "winter and spring, the temperatures are all above average throughout the whole Arctic and all at the same time—this is an unusual feature and it looks like the beginning of a signal from global warming." The report found that winds blowing warm air toward the North Pole and unusually persistent sunshine added to the warming trend, and stressed that what happens around the North Pole affects the entire planet. Click on the following links for more information:
Climate Panel Urges Focus On Coal-Burning Plants A report issued October 22 by a 15-member panel of leading scientists has named energy as one of the greatest threats facing humans this century. The InterAcademy Council, a Netherlands-based network of national academies of science, released the 174-page report which details current and developing technologies, and government incentives and other policies that could lead the world to clean, affordable and sustainable energy supplies.“The first thing it says, really, is that conservation and energy efficiency will remain for the next couple of decades the most important thing the world can do to get on a sustainable path,” said co-chairman Steven Chu, Nobel Prize-winning physicist from the United States. Another key statement in the report was that proliferation of coal-fired power plants around the world may pose "the single greatest challenge" to preventing climate change. The panelists noted that many of the scientists and engineers who are designing new coal-fired power plants are now looking to sequester the carbon emissions that are emitted into geological formations. However, the InterAcademy Council noted that this is poorly financed in the energy industry and would need more money to fully research this technological and economic challenge. “Some would argue this is an absolutely cornerstone policy with currently inadequate investment and attention,” said panelist Ged Davis, a British energy economist. Click on the following links for more information:
Climate Warming Poses Threat to Biodiversity A study by researchers from the Universities of York and Leeds in England, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, says that global temperatures predicted for the coming centuries could trigger a mass extinction. They say predicted temperatures are within the range of greenhouse phases early in the Earth's history when up to 95 percent of plants and animals died out. Experts examined the link between climate and diversity over 520 million years and found that global diversity is high during cool (ice age) periods and low during warm (greenhouse) phases. Roughly 251 million years ago, an estimated 70 percent of land plants and animals died, along with 84 percent of ocean organisms-—an event known as the end Permian extinction. The cause is unknown but it is known that this period was also an extremely warm one. Lead author Peter Mayhew of the University of York said, "The rule appears to be that greenhouse worlds adversely affect biodiversity." Click on the following links for more information:
EESI Briefings October 30, 2007 Loan Guarantee Provisions in the 2007 Energy Bills: The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) invites you to learn about the loan guarantee provisions in the 2007 energy bills that have passed the House and Senate and await conference (HR. 6/HR. 3221). The Senate bill’s provision would significantly alter how the Department of Energy (DOE) provides taxpayer-funded loan guarantees for new energy technologies, especially to costly nuclear power plants. The briefing will be held Tuesday, October 30 from 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM in Room 340, Cannon House Office Building. The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) invites you to learn about the extensive biomass resources that are available in every state and region of the country to be tapped for sustainable production of electric power and heat. In 2005, bioenergy was the largest component of renewable electricity production in the nation, comprising 56 percent of all renewable electricity and 1.3 percent of total electricity. The briefing will be held Wednesday, October 31 from 2:30 – 4:00 pm in 1302 Longworth House Office Building.
November 1, 2007 Can States Meet the Proposed 15% National Renewable
EVENTS October 29, 2007 AMS Environmental Science Seminar Series
November 11-14, 2007 Energy Efficiency Global Forum and Exposition The Energy Efficiency Global Forum and Exposition will provide information on how energy efficiency can have a positive impact on every end-use sector, including transportation, the built environment, electricity generation, and more. This conference is being held in Washington, D.C. to demonstrate to policymakers that energy efficiency is the cheapest, quickest, and cleanest resource for meeting the world’s ever-increasing demand for energy. For more information see: http://eeglobalforum.org/
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Fredric Beck This EESI publication is a free, weekly electronic newsletter intended to inform interested parties, particularly the policymaker community, of the latest climate change-related news. Permission for reproduction of this newsletter is granted provided that EESI is properly acknowledged as the source. The Environmental and Energy Study Institute is a non-profit organization established in 1984 by a bipartisan, bicameral group of members of Congress to provide timely information on energy and environmental policy issues to policymakers and stakeholders and develop innovative policy solutions that set us on a cleaner, more secure and sustainable energy path. |
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