|
 The fate of the "climate bill" (the Kerry-Boxer Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act) in the U.S. Senate is uncertain at best, with consideration by the full Senate to be next spring at the earliest, if at all.
The Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, met Monday with five of the six committee chairs that have jurisdiction over this bill, which has been reported out from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. One of the committee chairs, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, said "Some people are talking about not doing it until after the 2010 election."
Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, but who did not attend the meeting, has not said whether her panel will take up the bill in this Congress. Sen. Max Baucus, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, when asked about his markup schedule, said, "Sometime soon; I don't have a date." Pressed for more specifics, Baucus told the press, "I mean some time next year. The first part of next year."
In addition, a number of the senators regarded as "fence-sitters" in the climate change debate have made statements in recent days that move them off the fence and into the negative column regarding Kerry-Boxer. For example, Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia said of the bill Monday, "In its present form, I would not vote for it."
Webb joined Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee in proposing legislation that would boost the Energy Department's loan guarantee authority to $100 billion and provide $750 million per year over the next decade for five "mini-Manhattan" projects for carbon capture and sequestration, advanced biofuels, advanced batteries, solar power, and reprocessing and recycling spent nuclear fuel. Webb was also quoted as having "some real questions on cap and trade."
Sen. Richard Lugar, (R,Indiana) the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Washington Post last week, "The Senate will have to start from scratch in terms of crafting climate legislation." And, "I don't see any climate bill on the table right now that I can support."
Senators Kerry of Massachusetts, Graham of South Carolina, and Lieberman of Connecticut, who recently joined to develop an alternative to the Kerry-Boxer legislation based on an October New York Times op-ed by Kerry and Graham, have committed only to releasing a framework of their bill before the U.N. climate change conference next month in Copenhagen. The White House originally hoped to finish a bill in time for Copenhagen, but ambitions for those talks have now been scaled back, in part over the lack of U.S. action on climate change. The Obama Administration has acknowledged that there will be no binding agreement on emissions coming out of Copenhagen, which pushes the matter back to the conference in the fall of 2010 in Mexico City.
Clean Air-Cool Planet is now tackling the environmental impact of food and dining services with the creation of its Charting Emissions from Food Services (CHEFS) tool. CHEFS measures the carbon impact of every aspect of food services, including purchasing, energy, and waste.
This summer and into the fall, CA-CP has worked with pilot schools to help develop and test a prototype, created by the local life cycle analysis experts at Earthshift. Founding sponsor and project partner ARAMARK has been actively involved in collecting data with its ten pilot schools. CA-CP has also been working closely with the Yale Office of Sustainability, which hosted two Climate Fellows this summer to work on the project and has actively convened departments from across campus to provide input and feedback.
Food has a large impact on the environment - according to the PEW Center on Global Climate Change, 1/3 of anthropogenic warming can be associated with “worldwide agriculture and land use change.” To maximize its potential benefits, CHEFSv1, due to be released early next year, will be designed for use by all institutions with dining services, including hospitals and corporations, with any food vendor. Please visit our CHEFS page for more info.
Clean Air-Cool Planet is pleased to announce the release of its Historic District Commissions (HDC) guide. This is a guide to energy retrofits and renewable energy siting for historic structures, for use by historic preservation groups, community organizations, municipal governments, preservation and building officials, individual property owners, and others interested in historic preservation. It establishes a common ground for the historic preservation and energy-efficiency and renewable energy communities.
Special thanks to Meg Guiliani and Virginia Way, who compiled the guide during their summer ’09 climate fellowships. Please visit Clean Air-Cool Planet's website for more information.
 Clean Air-Cool Planet and the New England Carbon Challenge are proud to announce the pilot launch of Button Up NH, a highly successful home weatherization workshop pioneered in Vermont and now available in New Hampshire.
Button Up NH presenters will conduct nine free home weatherization workshops in regional hubs across the state this winter, including New London, Lebanon, Grafton, Plymouth, Sanbornton, Concord, Rye, Atkinson and Dover.
Evening workshops are conducted by qualified home energy experts who will introduce homeowner-participants to the basics of home energy budgets and the value of home weatherization. Each workshop will include information on how simple household adjustments and modest investments can lead to significant energy savings over the long haul.
Workshop topics will include: residential heat use and loss, the short term benefits of simple do-it-yourself weatherization, the value of a professional home energy audit, the long term benefits of extensive professional energy retrofits, and the technical and financial resources available to make it happen.
Button Up NH workshops are free and open to the public. Button Up was developed in Vermont and adapted in partnership with the Sustainable Energy Resource Group (SERG). The Button-Up program was originally created as Button Up Vermont in 2008 by Central Vermont Community Action Council with the support of Efficiency Vermont and the Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network, and with funding from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. For more information, please contact Garry Dow, Button Up NH Coordinator, at (603) 422-6464, ext. 115 or gdow@cleanair-coolplanet.org.
Photo: CA-CP's Krista Macomber helps Bill Burtis, manager of communications, measure a meter of sea level rise.
Clean Air-Cool Planet has been visiting coastal communities this season with hip-boots on, to dramatize the sea-level rise now predicted by climate scientists. The Hip-Boot Tour, which ends Thursday in Washington, DC, is a series of community roundtables and outreach events in cities and towns on the east coast. The communities were chosen because they stand to be inundated by a meter or more of sea level rise which is now considered likely by 2100.
In cooperation with local groups in Hampton, Portland, ME, Philadelphia, PA, Norfolk, VA, Wilmington, NC, and Miami and Tampa FL, CA-CP brought the latest science in sea level rise and ice sheets to officials and citizens.
In each community, scientists with firsthand experience in Greenland or the Antarctic presented the latest research, which indicates a rapid escalation in the contributions of polar ice discharge to sea-level rise and the potential for “dynamic changes” in ice sheets at the poles.
Each event also featured a spokesperson from Clean Air-Cool Planet addressing policy solutions, including stringent cap-and-trade legislation and U.S. participation in an international campaign to reduce short-lived pollutants, including methane and black carbon, which scientists believe are accelerating the warming in the Arctic.
To see maps showing coastal inundation likely to occur in key cities, based on scientists' latest estimates of sea level rise, visit our Hip-Boot Tour information site.
Clean Air-Cool Planet is pleased to announce a partnership to help New Hampshire communities prepare for energy-reduction projects.
The New Hampshire Municipal Energy Assistance Program (NHMEAP), funded by the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission and the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions Fund, provides a guided step-by-step process supported by CA-CP and five other partners.
Selected towns receive a baseline energy inventory to determine priorities. Then the program will provide a reduced-cost audit of a building with markedly low performance, and a consultation on saving energy and money. In-depth land use audits will also be completed for six beacon communities which are yet to be determined.
The effort aims to set the ground work for future technical assistance through Regional Planning Commissions and other agencies, and for gaining access to funding through state and federal programs for implementation projects. Communities will be able to see how their current regulations and practices stand in the way of energy reduction.
Out of over 60 applicants to the program, 33 were accepted in the first round. It was important these communities represent various population sizes and all 10 New Hampshire counties. Their potential results were assessed for transferability to other local communities. Communities’ socio-economic ranking as measured by the New Hampshire Community Development Finance Authority was considered, as were letters of support accompanying applications. A second round of applicants is likely to be called soon.
Eight energy project assistants have been hired from across the state to provide in-house service to selected towns. Each project assistant is currently working in at least three communities to complete baseline municipal energy inventories and help stakeholders become more informed about and committed to energy conservation opportunities.
NEWS FROM OUR CORPORATE PARTNERS
Oakhurst Dairy introduced a hybrid diesel electric delivery truck to its fleet earlier this month, an industry first. The truck will be used to deliver Oakhurst products to locations within 70 miles of the company’s Portland, Maine headquarters. It is expected to use between 30% and 50% less fuel - about nine fewer gallons per day - and reduce about 52,000 pounds of CO2 emissions annually. Click here to read more about Oakhurst’s greater sustainability commitment and leadership.
Clean Air - Cool Planet is working with a new web-based business recently started by Kate and Tom Chappell, formerly of Tom's of Maine. Rambler's Way Farm has developed a line of soft, comfortable next-to-the-skin worsted wool apparel that is 100% domestically produced. CA-CP will be helping the company to measure and reduce supply chain carbon from the Rambouillet sheep farms in Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, Texas and Utah, through the washing, spinning, knitting in South Carolina, final cut and sew in the Northeast, and distribution, as part of Rambler's Way Farms commitment to leadership on sustainable business practices.
The natural and organic foods supermarket’s newest store in Dedham Mass. is the first supermarket in the state to generate on-site power with fuel cell technology. The 400 kW cell will generate nearly 90% of the store’s power – a feat, considering this is the chain’s largest store in New England, a 60,000-square-foot facility.
“Whole Foods Market is excited to be able to use this clean and highly efficient technology at our new Dedham store to help reduce our impact on the environment and lessen our overall energy demands from traditional sources,” said Kathy Loftus, Whole Foods Market Global Leader of Sustainable Engineering, Maintenance and Energy. “We strongly believe in green power for the long term, so installing the larger fuel cell is ideal—it works with the vision of all involved, especially the community it will serve.”
Whole Foods Dedham also boasts a state of the art refrigeration system which is Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) GreenChill certified and will not only increase efficiency, but also prevent leaks of harmful gas into the atmosphere. Integration of a range of sustainable features has earned the store certification from the Green Globes environmental building rating system. For more information, please visit Whole Foods’ website.
Summer 2010 climate fellowship placements will be announced on December 15th in a special edition of the Cool Current – keep your eyes peeled!
The highly competitive Clean Air-Cool Planet Climate Fellowship program pairs outstanding students with challenging real-world opportunities to propel society toward a low-carbon future. Highly qualified graduate and undergraduate students in fields such as environmental policy, economics, statistics, engineering, physical and biological sciences complete challenging, in-depth projects. Fellows may be asked to create or update greenhouse gas inventories, conduct feasibility studies, implement operational and process changes to reduce GHG emissions, or create web-based tools and resources.
Claire Roby and Anne Stephenson will be presenting a two-day workshop at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan, on Dec. 17-18, 2009. The session, entitled "Calculation, Reduction, and Planning of Carbon Footprint in Schools/Universities and Communities," resulted from a meeting between Professor Shin-Cheng Yeh and Claire Roby, CA-CP's Carbon Accounting Coordinator, at the ACUPCC Summit in Chicago in August.
A fairly broad audience of 50-100 is expected. Participants will be mostly university representatives but could include community leaders, students, or personnel from primary and secondary schools.
Anne will introduce the trend in low-carbon economy and life styles. Claire will then talk about strategic planning and implementation of greenhouse gas inventory and reduction in campuses and communities. The United States will be used as an example in both presentations. Anne and Claire will provide feedback to attendees’ breakout discussions and then lead a discussion of next steps and the future of the school’s network.
In response to teacher demand for more activities about actions individuals can take to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, CA-CP and the New England Carbon Challenge are jointly presenting a “Teaching About Climate Change Solutions” workshop for educators on Saturday, January 23, 2010 at the New England Aquarium in Boston.
The workshop details what is happening with climate change and our oceans at the policy level as well as greenhouse gas emission reductions from the national level to the individual. Solution based classroom activities from the Climate Change Backpack (and a few more) will be conducted, and educators will learn about steps they can take with their students to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Resources, including information on the New England Carbon Challenge and the Climate Change Backpack are provided.
Highlights include a presentation about the New England Carbon Challenge by its founder and co-director, Julia Dundorf. Attendees will receive a private tour of the Aquarium through a climate change lens and information about the New England Aquarium’s Climate Change Initiative. Professional Development Credits can also be attained.
For more information and to register online, please click here or contact Karin Jakubowski at kjakubowski@cleanair-coolplanet.org.
Every year, Clean Air-Cool Planet honors individuals, corporations, communities, and campuses that have demonstrated true leadership, innovation, and creativity in the fight against global warming. These “climate champions” lead by exemplary dedication to principles of sustainability.
On October 15, a gala dinner at the Boston Harbor Hotel honored founding Clean Air-Cool Planet board member and former Board Chair Susan Tierney, along with other 2009 Climate Champions selected for their leadership in effecting climate change solutions. More than 250 people attended. To see photos from the event, please click here.
Take Action:
Featured events and initiatives
For more information on global warming solutions, visit CA-CP's website.
|
See What Scientists are Saying About Sea Level Rise 
Climate Champions Awarded at Gala Dinner in Boston 