Thursday, November 29, 2012
Regulation of Greenhouse Gases
By
Henry Curtis
ililani.media@gmail.com
Yesterday the
Hawai`i Department of Health held a hearing on its proposal to regulate
greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) from the 24 largest stationary sources in
Hawaii. The proposal is that these companies each cut their 2010 emissions by
25% so that the State could achieve its 1990 emissions levels.
About
55 people showed up at the hearing, 40 were male, 15 female. HECO had a large but
silent contingent. Maybe a dozen people made comments, including Nicole Ferguson
(UH) Dr. Makena Coffman (Economics Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning), Sarah Preble, Duane Preble, Robert
Harris (Sierra Club), Jeff Mikulina (Blue Planet) and Henry Curtis (Life of
the Land). They all praised DOH for taking steps towards regulating greenhouse
gases.
DOH
proposed to exempt mobile sources, the H-POWER garbage-to-energy facility and biogenic
(biofuel) sources until some future date. Most of the testifiers opposed giving
free passes to specific industries.
Chevron
and Tesoro wasted to know why they were being singled out. Tesoro has already
achieved lower GHGE levels today than they had in 1990. Thus the DOH policy
would penalize them by requiring them to further reduce emissions by 25%, thus giving
them a disproportionate obligation, in effect making them shoulder the burden
for those who have chosen not to reduce their emissions.
DOH
also wanted flexibility. Companies could propose using emissions from a year
other than 2010 or choosing a different methodology for reducing emissions.
Most testifiers had grave concerns about this, favoring instead that the
process be open, transparent, objective, accountable and measurable.
DOH
said that H-POWER was good, since it reduced greenhouse gases that would be
emitted from landfilling waste. Henry Curtis suggested that H-POWER and the
landfill be counted as one unit, and that DOH seek to cut emissions from their
combined output.
Henry
Curtis noted that Biogenic Emissions are a major problem. Imagine cutting down
the entire Amazon Rainforest, paving 95% of it, and growing soybeans or palm
oil on the rest of it, to make biofuels and to ship them to the U.S. Clearly
that would be bad for the planet. The European Cap and Trade System, the Kyoto
Protocol, and the Waxman-Markey climate bill (which passed the U.S. House but
died in the Senate). These three systems all consider this Amazon
rainforest destruction as a positive step, since land use changes in developing
countries don’t count and increased use of biofuels in developed countries is a
positive impact.
Some
speakers supported a cap and trade system, whereby large emitters could buy the
right to emit from those who had achieved large cuts in emissions. Other
testifiers opposed cap and trade.
Several
speakers spoke of the need to consider life cycle emissions. The growing of
biofuels and the extraction of liquefied natural gas (LNG) can make them worse
than fossil fuels. Merely measuring what comes out of a smokestack is the wrong
approach.
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Comments:
Thank you, Henry, for following these issues on our behalf, researching what is being said, dissecting and laying bare the "logic" implicit in many of the corporate and government claims, disputing that "logic" and, finally, reporting back to the rest of us so we can learn from the process.
You have been an "early warning system" for a lot of environmental issues which have not yet appeared on my radar. You were an early and strong voice cautioning against bio-fuels when so many others were parroting greenwashed myths.
My high regards in this Thanksgiving season!
...favoring instead that the process be open, transparent, objective, accountable and measurable...
Yeah, like that has ever happened.
<< Home
Thank you, Henry, for following these issues on our behalf, researching what is being said, dissecting and laying bare the "logic" implicit in many of the corporate and government claims, disputing that "logic" and, finally, reporting back to the rest of us so we can learn from the process.
You have been an "early warning system" for a lot of environmental issues which have not yet appeared on my radar. You were an early and strong voice cautioning against bio-fuels when so many others were parroting greenwashed myths.
My high regards in this Thanksgiving season!
# posted by
: December 2, 2012 at 9:16:00 AM HST
: December 2, 2012 at 9:16:00 AM HST ...favoring instead that the process be open, transparent, objective, accountable and measurable...
Yeah, like that has ever happened.
# posted by
: December 2, 2012 at 9:17:00 AM HST
: December 2, 2012 at 9:17:00 AM HST << Home
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