Carbon Regulation is Already Here

Most people talk about carbon taxes, cap and trade, and other carbon-related costs and regulations as if they were something new and unusual. In fact, most companies already face a very complex environmental and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) regulatory system that includes both private standards and government laws and regulations.

The private and public restraints on GHG emissions range from the Walmart Sustainability Index that requires 100,000 Walmart suppliers to disclose their carbon footprints and sustainability initiatives, to regional GHG cap and trade programs that require power plants to reduce their emissions or purchase allowances in an open auction. And, of course, the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments instituted a cap and trade program for acid rain that achieved 100% compliance in reducing sulfur dioxide emissions during the 1990's.

The most prominent GHG cap and trade program today is the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The ten Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states that comprise RGGI have agreed to a mandatory, market-based effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The member states have capped CO2 emissions from the power sector with the goal of reducing those emissions by 10% by 2018. States sell nearly all emission allowances through auctions and invest proceeds in consumer benefits: energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other clean energy technologies.

Similarly, the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) is a collaboration of seven western US states and three Canadian provinces working together to identify, evaluate, and implement policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, spur investment in clean-energy technologies that create green jobs, and reduce dependence on imported oil. WCI has announced plans to implement a cap-and-trade system in January 2012 that will provide financial incentives to reduce carbon emissions. The program will start with power plants, then extend to large industrial producers and transportation.

These GHG cap and trade programs, however, are only the highly visible tip of the iceberg. Almost every company in the US faces a complex web of private standards and public laws that regulate their GHG emissions, other environmental impacts, and overall sustainability. CERCLA, RCRA, NEPA, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Ocean Dumping Act, and the Endangered Species Act are just a few of the US laws regulating the environmental impacts of companies and individuals in the US. Companies that export to Europe must also be aware of the specific regulatory, green labeling, and other environmental requirements in the European Union and locally.

My good friend Stan Alpert believes that smart companies can use their compliance with environmental regulations as a competitive advantage and ultimately to reduce costs. Stan should know. In addition to working for many years as the Chief Environmental Prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office that covers parts of New York City and all of Long Island, Stan has extensive experience as a lawyer in private practice advising green and sustainable businesses.

Stan has put together a free online webinar entitled Sustainability is Smart Business: A Legal Perspective. The seminar covers the triple bottom line, carbon regulation in the US and internationally, and toxin reduction in the product and waste streams. Businesspeople can view the webinar by clicking here. US lawyers who wish to receive free Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits for watching the webinar can view it by clicking here.

John Howley
Woodbridge, New Jersey

The Power of Green Thinking (and Small Green Acts)

A friend invited me to join a Facebook group called the Carbon Conscious Consumer (C3) Campaign. The group has a simple agenda: To promote "6 easy steps that anyone can take to reduce our carbon emissions."

Many people scoff at such lists of "easy" ways to save the planet. Thomas Friedman, for example, worries in his book "Hot, Flat, and Crowded," that the "amount of time, energy, and verbiage being spent on making people 'aware' of the energy-climate problem, and asking people to make symbolic gestures to call attention to it, is out of proportion to the time, energy, and effort going into designing a systemic solution." He points out that the energy problems we face are huge -- if you convert global energy consumption into oil equivalents, we are consuming 420 million gallons per hour. We need game-changing technologies and policies, not just six easy ways to go Green.

I agree. So why did I join the C3 group and invite my friends to join too?

Because our daily thoughts and actions drive our national policies and investments.

Think about the 1980's and 90's. Does it surprise you that a nation of people who drove SUVs and built McMansions elected politicians in both parties who did not think about climate change or how our oil consumption was subsidizing despotic regimes? This is not an ideological issue. Very few people in either political party thought much about energy efficiency when buying cars and homes in the 80's and 90's. That thoughtlessness was an important driver of our national energy policies during those decades.

Since then, we have become more aware of energy and the environment as a result of a few extraordinary events. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the realization that the terrorists came from countries subsidized by our oil purchases. The escalation of oil prices a couple of years ago. The current Great Recession. The debate over global warming.

Those of us who lived through gasoline and home heating fuel shortages during the oil embargo of the 1970's know too well how transitory these trends can be. How do we sustain our interest in sustainability?

By changing the way we act. People who act every day in small Green ways will enter the polling booths with a completely different mindset than people who drove their gas guzzling SUVs to the polls.

Besides, we must do something while we wait for the game-changing technologies. The six simple steps will have a meaningful impact.

Let's take just one of the six simple steps: Breaking the bottled water habit.

World consumption of bottled water has increased by 70% since 2001 to more than 200 Billion litres. Of that amount, Americans bought more than 33 Billion litres. That's a lot of plastic bottles that need to be manufactured, filled with water, shipped to warehouses and stores, cooled in stores or home refrigerators, and recycled or thrown into landfills where they will take up to 1,000 years to decompose. Each stage of this process uses much more energy than running tap water through a filter.

Will reducing or eliminating all this waste solve our energy and environmental challenges? No. But it's a start. And an American public that thinks about how much energy and other resources are consumed to produce a bottle of water is one that will think about energy and environmental issues when choosing its leaders.

That's why I joined the Carbon Conscious Consumer (C3) Campaign and am promoting the group to my friends. Because thinking and acting Green in our daily lives will make a difference today, and it is the only way we will build a public consensus to invest in the game-changing policies and technologies we need for the long term.

John Howley
Orlando, Florida

President Obama Orders 28% Reduction in Government Greenhouse Gas Emissions

President Obama announced yesterday that the Federal Government will reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 28 percent by 2020. Every federal agency has been ordered to send a sustainability plan to the White House by June explaining how they will meet this ambitious goal.

The announcement came after a review of GHG emissions by all federal agencies that began when the President signed Executive Order 13514 back in October 2009.

A 28% reduction in GHG emissions would have a tremendous impact on overall emissions in the US, because the federal government is the largest single energy user in the country. It would reduce Federal energy use by the equivalent of 646 trillion BTUs, equal to 205 million barrels of oil or taking 17 million cars of the road for one year. It is expected to save a cumulative total of $8 to $11 billion in avoided energy costs.

Key to the success of the GHG reduction program is measuring and verifying actual reductions in energy consumption and GHG emissions. The Executive Order requires agencies to measure greenhouse gas emissions and to maintain a greenhouse gas inventory -- in other words, their carbon footprint. White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairwoman Nancy Sutley emphasized this point, telling reporters, "You can't manage what you can't measure."

Compliance with the measurement and reporting requirements will have a significant impact on virtually every company that does business with the federal government. For example, Section 2(h) of the Executive Order directs each federal agency to ensure that 95% of new contracts for products and services (except weapon systems) are energy efficient (e.g., Energy Star), water efficient, bio-based, environmentally preferable, non-ozone depleting; contain recycled content; and are non-toxic or a low-toxic alternatives. It will be up to the supplier to prove that their products meet these criteria.

The General Services Administration (GSA) is required to give the White House additional procurement recommendations by April of this year. The GSA is considering:

• requiring vendors and contractors to register with a voluntary registry or organization for reporting greenhouse gas emissions;

• requiring contractors, as part of a new or revised registration under the Central Contractor Registration or other tracking system, to develop and make available its greenhouse gas inventory and description of efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions;

• using Federal Government purchasing preferences or other incentives for products manufactured using processes that minimize greenhouse gas emissions; and

• other options for encouraging sustainable practices and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

When President Obama first signed the Executive Order last year, the White House issued a press release announcing that it was intended to "leverage Federal purchasing power to promote environmentally-responsible products and technologies."

The message to private business is clear: If you want some of that purchasing power to come your way, then you better start measuring and documenting your carbon footprint, energy efficiency, and sustainable practices.

John Howley
Orlando, Florida