Upbeat Week | Green Energy News

September 19, 2004 – Vol.9 No.26

UPBEAT WEEK.

In the midst of bleak news from around the planet - deadly hurricanes in the U.S., ongoing carnage in Iraq, rapidly melting glaciers in Antarctica - there was a surprising amount of positive news this week.

--- The California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved a measure that would force automakers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on cars sold in that state. By 2012 the rules could lead to cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks by 22 percent on average, 30 percent by 2016.

CARB doesn’t limit greenhouse gas emissions to carbon dioxide, but also to methane, nitrous oxide, and hydrofluorocarbons (from vehicle air conditioning systems) as well. So automakers don’t have to focus only on fuel efficiency - and thus carbon dioxide reduction - to comply with the ruling.

While in the past the automakers have been successful at trimming CARB’s demands, this time may be different. Other states, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maine have already adopted California’s stringent vehicle emission standards. Connecticut, New Jersey and Rhode Island are in the process of doing so. Those seven states could easily side with California on this ruling too. Lawyers from the major automakers may prove no match for a legal army.

There’s a hurdle, of course. First the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has to approve of California’s (and other state’s) action. To make their case California must prove that global warming can damage their state. In including other greenhouse gas emissions California isn’t trying to regulate fuel economy, which it can’t do. It can go after harmful emissions, however.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has a friend in the White House, supported the ruling in his campaign.

--- The oft-unpredictable, sometimes frightening, Vladimir Putin has directed his cabinet ministers to sign - as soon as possible - documents that would clear the way for a vote in the Russian parliament to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

Whether Putin actually is concerned about global warming and climate change is uncertain. He does, however, want Russia to be a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). European members, who must approve Russia's membership, have implied that a Kyoto signature would help the nation join the club.

--- In a big surprise the U.S. Congress has agreed to a production tax credit (PTC) for wind energy and other renewables for 2005. The credit of 1.8 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity produced by wind farms built next year could bring an additional 2000 megawatts - about $2 billion worth - of new wind capacity.

The PTC extension was included in a broad family tax cut bill which President Bush is planning to sign.

Visit the California Air Resources Board at http://www.arb.ca.gov/ .