Obama Signs Bill Excluding U.S. Airlines From E.U. Carbon Fee

Obama Vetoes European Carbon Tax

President Obama has signed into law a bill that requires U.S. airlines be excluded from European carbon emissions fees.  The bill shields U.S. airlines from paying a carbon tax merely for flying to Europe.

Earlier this month, the EU put the emission fees on hold for a year to buy time for a global agreement on aviation emissions. The rules were not frozen for airlines in the EU, however.

According to a White House spokesperson, “The Obama Administration is firmly committed to reducing harmful carbon pollution from civil aviation both domestically and internationally.  The application of the EU tax to non-EU air carriers is the wrong way to achieve that objective.” (The Hill, 11/27/2012)

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BP Suspended From New Federal Contracts

BP Temporarily Suspended from New Contracts with the Federal Government

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced that it has temporarily suspended BP Exploration and Production, Inc., BP PLC and named affiliated companies (BP) from new contracts with the federal government.

EPA

EPA is taking this action due to BP’s lack of business integrity as demonstrated by the company's conduct with regard to the Deepwater Horizon blowout, explosion, oil spill, and response, as reflected by the filing of a criminal information.

On November 15, 2012, BP agreed to plead guilty to eleven counts of Misconduct or Neglect of Ship Officers, one count of Obstruction of Congress, one misdemeanor count of a violation of the Clean Water Act, and one misdemeanor count of a violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, all arising from its conduct leading to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 people and caused the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history.

For the Deepwater Horizon investigation, EPA was designated as the lead agency for suspension and debarment actions. Federal executive branch agencies take these actions to ensure the integrity of Federal programs by conducting business only with responsible individuals or companies. Suspensions are a standard practice when a responsibility question is raised by action in a criminal case.

The BP suspension will temporarily prevent the company and the named affiliates from getting new federal government contracts, grants or other covered transactions until the company can provide sufficient evidence to EPA demonstrating that it meets Federal business standards. The suspension does not affect existing agreements BP may have with the government. (EPA)

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Thawing Permafrost Expected To Cause Additional Warming

Permafrost covering almost a quarter of the northern hemisphere contains enormous amounts of carbon, maybe more that currently in the atmosphere, and could significantly amplify global warming should thawing accelerate as expected, according to a new report released today by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).  Warming permafrost can also radically alter ecosystems and cause costly infrastructural damage due to increasingly unstable ground, the report says.

Policy Implications of Warming Permafrost seeks to highlight the potential hazards of carbon dioxide and methane emissions from warming permafrost, which will not be included in climate-prediction modelling done for the fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The report recommends a special IPCC study on permafrost and the creation of national monitoring networks and adaptation plans as key steps to deal with potential impacts of this significant source of emissions, which may become a major factor in global warming.

Most of the current permafrost formed during or since the last ice age and extends to  parts of northern Siberia and Canada. Permafrost consists of an active layer of up to two metres in thickness, which thaws each summer and refreezes each winter, and the permanently frozen soil beneath. 

Should the active layer increase in thickness due to warming, huge quantities of organic matter stored in the frozen soil would begin to thaw and decay, releasing large amounts of CO₂  and methane into the atmosphere.

Once this process begins, it will operate in a feedback loop known as the permafrost carbon feedback, which has the effect of increasing surface temperatures and thus accelerating the further warming of permafrost – a process that would be irreversible on human timescales.

Arctic and alpine air temperatures are expected to increase at roughly twice the global rate, and climate projections indicate substantial loss of permafrost by 2100. A global temperature increase of 3°C means a 6°C increase in the Arctic, resulting in an irreversible loss of anywhere between 30 to 85 per cent of near-surface permafrost.

Warming permafrost could emit 43 to 135 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2100 and 246 to 415 gigatonnes by 2200. Emissions could start within the next few decades and continue for several centuries.

Permafrost emissions could ultimately account for up to 39 per cent of total emissions, and the report’s lead author warned that this must be factored in to the treaty to address global climate change expected to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

Anthropogenic emissions’ targets in the climate change treaty need to account for these emissions or we risk overshooting the 2°C maximum warming target.

Recommendations

The report issues the following specific policy recommendations to address the potential economic, social and environmental impacts of permafrost degradation in a warming climate:

·        Commission a Special Report on Permafrost Emissions: The IPCC may consider preparing a special assessment report on how carbon dioxide and methane emissions from warming permafrost would influence global climate to support climate change policy discussions and treaty negotiations. 

·        Create National Permafrost Monitoring Networks: To adequately monitor permafrost, individual countries may consider taking over operation of monitoring sites within their borders, increasing funding, standardizing the measurements and expanding coverage. 

·        Plan for Adaptation: Nations with substantial permafrost, such as those mentioned above, may consider evaluating the potential risks, damage and costs of permafrost degradation to critical infrastructure.  Most nations currently do not have such plans, which will help policy makers, national planners and scientists quantify costs and risks associated with permafrost degradation.

(UNEP)

Additional information

The report was written by, and in collaboration with, the following partners:

Kevin Schaefer, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA;
Hugues Lantuit, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany;
Vladimir E. Romanovsky, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, USA;
Edward A. G. Schuur, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA.

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President Obama Proposes Small Business Tax Breaks

President Obama is proposing tax breaks to companies to hire workers or pay them higher salaries. The tax breaks would target small businesses and refund 10 percent of the cost of new payroll — in the form of new hiring or new wages — up to a total of $500,000 next year.

It is estimated that this credit would help nearly 2 million small businesses and is focused on middle-class workers and small businesses.

The proposal appeared in the president’s February 2013 budget request this year and, at a cost of about $30 billion, was rejected by Republicans. It appeared again in a statement released early Tuesday calling on Congress to immediately extend tax cuts for middle-class earners that are set to expire at the end of the year (fiscal cliff).

President Obama also called for allowing companies to deduct the full cost of investments from their taxes, a proposal that would allow companies to save $5 - $50 billion next year on taxes.

A jobs credit could be a cost-effective way of raising employment in the short run. The effectiveness of any jobs subsidy depends on how employers perceive its potential benefits when making hiring decisions.  (Wash Post, 11/27/2012)

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U.N. Climate Talks Stumble Between Rich & Poor Countries

Doha, Qatar

The 18th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 8th session of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol is taking place from Monday, November 26 to Friday, December 7, 2012 at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha, Qatar. The United Nations chose the Qatari capital of Boha as the location for this year's round of climate change talks.  Qatar is the world’s biggest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases.  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will be taking part in the Doha Climate Change Conference (COP 18 / CMP 8) with a wide-ranging programme of events as it prepares to launch the first part of its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) in September next year. The Chairman of the IPCC, Rajendra Pachauri, addressed the gathering.

A $100-billion-a-year promise from rich nations — including Canada — to help poor countries deal with climate change is still unfunded as of the end of 2012, a new report shows.  And a second fund, meant to jump start the promise, will run dry by Dec. 31.  Canada has given $400 million a year for the last three years to the latter climate fund to provide a down payment for poor countries to begin the work of cutting emissions and adapting to the inevitable effects of global warming. But that fund drew only three years’ worth of financial commitments from donor countries, for a total of $30 billion that will be drained by year’s end. 

 

The larger promise made by rich countries in Copenhagen in 2009 to raise $100 billion a year by 2020 is not going to happen.  The $100 billion figure must not be an empty promise nor the Green Climate Fund an empty bank account.

The two-decade-old U.N. talks have not fulfilled their main purpose: reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are warming the planet. The goal is to keep the global temperature rise under 2 degrees C (3.6 F), compared to pre-industrial times. Efforts taken so far to rein in emissions, reduce deforestation and promote clean technology are not getting the job done. A recent projection by the World Bank showed temperatures are expected to increase by up to 4 degrees C (7.2 F) by 2100.

This year marks the end of the first commitment period of the 1997 Kyoto protocol. But it was never ratified by the US, contains no obligations for developing countries and has been abandoned by others. Kyoto will limp on, as the EU and some developing countries want it, but without an effective new treaty there will be no global resolve to tackle emissions.  The United States rejected Kyoto because it didn’t impose any binding commitments on major developing countries such as India and China, which is now the world’s No. 1 carbon emitter.  (The Miami Herald, 11/26/2012, Metro News, 11/25/2012, The Guardian, 11/25/2012)

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/25/3112736/un-to-launch-new-round-of-talks.html#storylink=cpy

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Cape Wind Power Purchase Agreement Approved

Massachusetts Approves Cape Wind / NSTAR Power Purchase Agreement
 

Cape Wind secured another major milestone today with the approval by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) of the 15-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with NSTAR to buy Cape Wind's energy, capacity and renewable energy credits.
 

This decision helps secure the position of Massachusetts as the U.S. leader in offshore wind power, launching a new industry that will create jobs, increase energy independence and promote a cleaner and healthier environment.
 

 

With this decision, Massachusetts electric consumers have secured an abundant, inexhaustible, and clean energy resource that provides price stability and avoids all of the external costs of fossil fuels.
 

The NSTAR / Cape Wind PPA is for 27.5% of Cape Wind's power. In December, 2011, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court unanimously upheld the DPU's approval of Cape Wind's PPA with National Grid for 50% of Cape Wind's power.
 

Taken together, these two PPAs provide Cape Wind with the critical mass to continue securing project financing.
 

Extracts from the DPU Order approving the Cape Wind / NSTAR PPA:
 

"Accordingly, we conclude that the attributes of the Cape Wind facility, when considered in the aggregate, remain unique among Section 83-eligible resources and will provide benefits to NSTAR Electric ratepayers that far exceed those that could be provided by other potential Section 83 contracts. The critical unique attributes of the Cape Wind facility relate to its size, capacity factor, location on the regional transmission system, and stage of development."

p. 149.
 

"Accordingly, as we concluded in D.P.U. 10-54, at 229-230, the Cape Wind facility will produce far greater benefits in terms of its: (1) contribution to narrowing the projected gap between supply and demand of renewable resources; (2) contribution to compliance with GWSA emission reductions requirements; (3) contribution to fuel diversity; (4) price suppression effects; (5) ability to act as a hedge against future fuel price increases and volatility; (6) contribution to system reliability; and (7) ability to moderate system peak load. As discussed below, the value of the Cape Wind facility as compared to alternative Section 83-eligible resources is further enhanced when these benefits are considered in combination with the facility's favorable location on the regional transmission grid and advanced stage of development." p.150
 

Link to the MA DPU Order: 

Cape Wind is America's first offshore wind farm to secure Federal and State approval and to be issued a lease to operate by the Federal Government. Cape Wind will create jobs and promote greater energy independence and a cleaner environment. Cape Wind will also establish Massachusetts as a leader in offshore wind power. (Cape Wind)

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Proposed Coal-Fired Power Plants Worldwide

Some 1,200 new coal-fired power plants are being planned across the globe despite concerns about greenhouse gas emissions from such generating stations, the most polluting type, the World Resources Institute estimates. Two-thirds of them would operate in China and India.

In 2007 there were over 50,000 active coal plants worldwide.

There are currently 1,446 coal-fired generating units in the United States.

There are about 18,000 total individual electricity generators at about 5,800 operational power plants in the United States with a nameplate generation capacity of at least one megawatt. These power plant can have one or more generators, and some generators may use more than one type of fuel.

The three largest coal power producers are China (36.2 percent of the global total), the United tates (23.7 percent), and India (7.7 percent). [World Resources Institute, NY Times, 11/26/2012, SourceWatch, DOE-EIA, Wikipedia)

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