Hawaii’s gov signs slew of renewable energy bills

(Photo of Hawaiian beach from Flickr and and photographer Michael Bina)

News Update 1: Blue Hawaii is now Green Hawaii. Gov. Linda Lingle (R) has signed a number of bills aimed at increasing renewable energy and reducing dependence on foreign oil. The state has a goal of 20% renewables by 2020 and 70% by 2030. The new laws:
• Mandate that all new homes have solar water heaters.
• Plan for $1.5 million in revenue bonds to be invested in 3 alternative energy facilities, 1 solar, 1 tidal and 1 hydrogen.
• Give rebates for photovoltaic systems.
• Make it easier for solar energy facilities and biofuels producers to lease land.
Support is bi-partisan. Some of the bills were introduced by the governor, the rest by legislators on both sides of the aisle. Hawaii has a lot to lose (literally) if the seas rise due to melting of Greenland and Antarctica. (Source: ClimateWire)

House approves funding for Amtrak, high-speed trains, study of biofuel use

(Photo of an Amtrak train in Bloomington-Normal, IL, from Flickr and photographer Jim Frazier)

Washington Report 2: The House of Representatives voted 311-104 Wednesday for an Amtrak reauthorization bill that includes $1.75 billion over 5 years for developing 11 high-speed intercity rail corridors. It also provides $2.5 billion for states to provide new or improved intercity rail. Another provision funds studies of how a biofuel blend instead of straight diesel could cut CO2 emissions and the feasibility of bio-based lubricants. The Senate passed a similar bill in October. Now the two go to conference to resolve their differences. President Bush has threatened a veto but both chambers passed their bills by more than a two-thirds majority so would likely be able to override a veto. A bipartisan transportation panel had recommended a high-speed network across the country, costing an estimated $66.3 billion by 2015. (Source: E&E Daily)

A week of news on ethanol and hunger

(Photo of cornfield from Flickr and photographer vampire_bear)

Weekly Angst: Not long ago some touted ethanol as an answer to fossil fuels. The Bush administration said it could save us from our “dependence on foreign oil.” In the U.S., for now, ethanol means corn – that’s what’s being produced and it’s popular in farm states like Iowa and Illinois. But scientists have pointed out life-cycle carbon emissions from corn ethanol are about as bad as from gasoline – and its potential supply is limited. Even Bush recognizes we need to move quickly to non-food, cellulosic products and the new Energy Bill calls for that to happen. But, recently an even greater concern has arisen. Corn prices have skyrocketed, farmers are switching from other crops, like wheat and soybeans, and now they are soaring in price too. Hunger on the rise as food costs grow and supply can’t meet demand. A series of news items over the past week tell us where we are right now with this dilemma.

News item: Midwest drought could spike food, gas prices
Increased dependence on corn and other grains for feed, food and fuel leaves the country vulnerable to a weather catastrophe that could cut supply and push prices up even more. The price of corn is already up 20% this year. Corn could reach $8/bushel (from $5.40 now) if a drought or heat wave hits the Midwest, experts say. A problem could occur as early as this summer, as global warming and La Niña increase the likelihood of drought. (LA Times, 3/2)

News item: Tough times for ethanol force shakeout
High corn prices are squeezing profits at small ethanol distillers. Production capacity nearly doubled in the past year to 8 billion gallons a year, but the high price of corn, and of natural gas to run the distilleries, is leading to consolidation and some bankruptcies. There are also problems getting the product to customers. While farmers benefit, profits for ethanol companies hit a low in November, surged briefly when Congress passed the Energy Bill, and now are dropping again. (Reuters PlanetArk 3/3)

News item: UN warns of ‘new hunger’ as food prices surge
A perfect storm of high food and oil prices, low food supplies, climate change, demand from China and India, and diverting crops to biofuel are causing a food crisis, the executive director of the UN World Food Programme said. The “newly hungry” have money but will be priced out of the food market, adding to the 25,000 worldwide who die each day from hunger now. Record food prices are likely to continue for several years and will cause social unrest and anarchy in the streets, she warned. Afghanistan is one of the most vulnerable nations. One solution is to use more land for food, less for biofuel, she said. (PlanetArk, 3/3)

News item: U.S. won’t meet its ethanol mandate, EIA says
It’s unlikely we’ll meet the Energy Bill ethanol mandate of 36 billion gallons/year by 2022 because of the lack of “advanced” cellulosic ethanol, the Energy Information Administration told a Senate committee. Instead EIA foresees 32.5 billions gallons/year. Most U.S. ethanol is now made from corn, with only small production from switchgrass, wood chips and other agricultural and forest waste, boding ill for the future. The projection assumes the end of tariffs on ethanol imports and significant supply coming from abroad. (PlanetArk, 3/5)

News item: California company begins cellulosic refinery
Ethanol company BlueFire will soon build a cellulosic refinery next to a landfill in Lancaster, Calif., to make ethanol from grass clippings, tree trimmings, and other biomass. The goal is to produce 3.5 million gallons by the end of the year, and eventually 17 million gallons a year. By 2011, the company hopes to be building 5 refineries a year, with a capacity of 55 million gallons each. The federal government is providing up to $385 million to BlueFire and 5 other companies for capital costs to build cellulosic refineries. (Greenwire, 3/3)

Ethanol's unintended consequences

Weekly angst: A glass of beer costs more in Germany because the price of barley doubled in two years. Mexicans rioted last summer because they couldn’t afford tortillas. A key ingredient in soap is getting scarce because it’s now used to supplement feed for cattle. All these are unintended consequences of the growing demand for corn ethanol.

Corn is currently the grain of choice for the boom in biofuels, though soy, palm oil and sugar are in play. Corn ethanol is subsidized, can be made cheaply and has a strong lobby in the U.S., where the crop is now bigger than at anytime since before WWII. Corn enthanol production has grown 80% in 2 years and takes 24% of the nation’s corn crop. So corn prices have gone up from $2 a bushel to an average of $3.35, spiking to $4. The price is at an 11-year high. There are 111 ethanol plants here and another 235 in construction or on the drawing board. If all are built, they would use half the U.S. corn crop, leaving less for consumption by people and livestock.

All this happened before the Energy Bill was passed in December, calling for 36 billion gallons annually by 2022, 15 billion of which could come from corn. Production is now about half that, at 7 million, but growing rapidly. The bill specifies that after 2016 a higher and higher percent must come from “advanced” ethanol, like cellulosic, which is better for the environment. But it looks like we’re in for a big increase in corn ethanol over the next 8 years and beyond.

And that presents all kinds of problems:
1. Rising food prices
2. Little change in greenhouse gases
3. More toxic fertilizer and pesticides
4. Use of scarce water resources
5. Deforestation and loss of biodiversity

Rising food prices
Corn prices have doubled since September 1906. As farmers shift to more profitable corn, soy, wheat, barley and other crops have become scarce and expensive. Inflation for food is now forecast at 7.5% a year during the next 5 years. And there is growing concern for the very poor of the world who will be unable to afford the basics. Every 1% increase in food staple prices will result in a 0.5% loss in caloric intake, the World Bank says.

Environmental damage
Corn uses fossil fuels to fertilize, grow, harvest, manufacture and transport corn ethanol, so when all is said and done the lifecycle reduction in greenhouse gases is minimal at best. Corn absorbs less nitrogen than other plants, so it runs off into rivers, including the Mississippi, where it adds to the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, hurting the fishing industry. The Sierra Club successfully sued plants in Iowa and Indiana that were making neighbors ill from toxics in the air and water.

Using precious water
Corn ethanol requires 3.7-5 gallons of water to make 1 gallon of fuel. Many regions of the country are already water-starved and can ill afford to share their drinking water with thirsty biofuel plants.

Deforestation and loss of biodiversity
As ethanol crops become more profitable, more grassland and rainforest is turned into farmland, reducing biodiversity in its wake. This is happening in Indonesia, where palm oil is used for ethanol and in the Amazon where sugar cane is the dominant source. One of the unintended consequences of Europe’s biofuels mandate several years ago was that economics led them to outsource farming to developing countries. Clearing rainforests and transporting fuels back to Europe negated the GHG benefits of biofuels over gasoline.

Is cellulosic ethanol the answer?
Cellulosic ethanol is better for global warming but it now costs twice as much to make as corn ethanol. But producers say the energy bill will act as a catalyst and help bring down the price.

Switchgrass is expected to be the main cellulosic feedstock in the future. It produces 5 times the energy it uses, and the lifecycle emits 94% less CO2 than gasoline, according to Reuters.
Other advantages:
• It is not used for food or feed, so won’t pressure prices
• It can be grown on marginal land
• It helps sequester CO2 in land because its root system remains after harvest
• It requires less irrigation and fertilizer
Other potential sources of cellulosic ethanol include corn waste, wood waste, sugar cane waste and poplar trees.

Range Fuels recently broke ground in Georgia for the first plant to make commercial cellulosic ethanol from wood waste. It is one of 6 companies to get a grant from the Dept. of Energy and expects to make 20 million gallons a year initially and 100 million eventually. Range is owned by Sun Microsystems’ co-founder, Vinod Khosla.

POET, the largest U.S. ethanol producer, expects to make commercial levels of cellulosic ethanol from corncobs by 2013.

Several other cellulosic plants are in the planning stages, including one in northern Michigan that would use timber and wood byproducts, and another in Florida that would use sugar cane waste and woodchips.

(Sources: Reuter’s PlanetArk, Greenwire, Associated Press, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Union of Concerned Scientists, Truthout.com)

Global Warming win short-lived

Weekly angst: The victory in Congress didn’t last very long. A comprehensive energy bill to curb Global Warming passed the House on a 235-181 vote Thursday afternoon. But by Friday morning, opponents had defeated a cloture motion in the Senate, and negotiations were under way to strip the bill of some of its main provisions in order to get the 60 votes needed for passage and have a prayer of getting the president’s signature.

Likely to survive are the 35 mpg corporate fuel economy (CAFE) standards and the biofuels section (though that may be changed). Most likely to go are the requirement for private power plants to get 15% (actually just 11%) of their power from renewable sources like wind, solar and biomass by 2022 and the shift of $21 billion in tax breaks from oil and gas to renewable energy development and efficiency.

But without those provisions, how the devil will we make the switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy quickly enough to prevent catastrophic warming? Big oil, coal and power plants won this round and we lost. The fossil fuel economy is barely dented.

The cloture vote, which showed the votes aren't there to prevent a filibuster, put most Democrats on the right side of the issue and most Republicans on the side of fossil fuels. There were some exceptions. GOP Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins (Maine), Norm Coleman (Minn.), Arlen Spector (Pa.), Gordon Smith (Ore.) and John Thune (S.D.) voted with the good guys. (Collins, Coleman and Smith have tough re-election campaigns against Democrats next year). And Dems Evan Bayh (Ind.), Mary Landrieu (La.) and Richard Byrd (W.Va.) voted with the bad guys. If you live in any of their states, let them hear from you.

What was in the House bill
In addition to the 35 mpg CAFE standard for cars and light trucks combined in 2020, and the 15% RES for large investor-owned electric power plants (4 percentage points of which could come from buying offsets) the same year, the bill included:
• A nearly 5-fold increase in biofuels, to 36 billion gallons in 2022, with 21 billion from “advanced” (mostly cellulosic) fuels that cut GHG 50-60% (as opposed to corn, which cuts very little).
• A $21 billion tax package with $13 in new taxes (or eliminated tax breaks) for oil and gas, and incentives for energy efficiency in buildings, appliances, furnaces and lighting, renewable energy sources and plug-in hybrid cars.
• Increased testing of carbon capture and sequestration, the main hope for “clean” coal.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was credited with tough negotiations (mainly with fellow Democrats) to get such a strong bill approved.

The importance of CAFE
The 35 mpg CAFE standard would cut oil consumption by 1.1 million barrels a day in 2020, or the equivalent of taking 28 million cars off the road. This is the first move to raise mileage standards since the oil crisis of the 1970s. In fact, by 1988, with the crisis behind us, the auto companies were building larger cars again and were allowed to meet a 27.5 mpg standard, not the scheduled 28.5. That, of course, didn’t include SUVs, which are classified as light trucks and have a 22 mpg standard. Why is CAFE politically acceptable this year? We can probably thank the lofty price of oil. People are ready to save money at the pump. And the auto industry and UAW were won over by concessions granted to their champion, House Energy Chair John Dingell (D -Mich.), in the form of flex-fuel credits and money to retool.

Efforts to salvage renewables and taxes
Sen. Energy Chair Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Friday they would negotiate through the weekend in an effort to find some middle ground and salvage the RES and tax portions of the bill – at least partially. They need an additional 7 votes. While 20 states already have their own renewable electricity standards, the Southeast and some Midwest states are concerned they don’t have enough wind to meet the standard. One GOP Senator suggested a much smaller tax package might be OK’d. A chief opponent, the retiring and ill Sen. Pete Domenici (N.M.), ranking member of the Energy Committee, wants nuclear loan guarantees in the bill and reportedly prevailed on fellow Republicans to oppose the bill passed by the House.

Bush veto threat
A final concern, of course, is a presidential veto. Bush doesn’t like the $13 billion in oil and gas taxes or the renewable fuels provision. He wants to include coal-based transportation fuels (which release more CO2 than gasoline) and to pre-empt state laws on alternative fuels. Many in Congress would like to see CAFE standards and energy efficiency, at least, signed into law.

Next step
The aim is to come up with a bill that can pass the Senate with at least 60 votes, and has some chance of getting the president’s signature. Once passed by the Senate, it will have to go back to the House for a vote. Leadership wants to accomplish this before the planned Congressional recess on Dec. 22.
(Sources: PlanetArk, Greenwire, E&E News PM, The End of Nature by Bill McKibben)

Congressional round-up

Lieberman-Warner bill passed out of Boxer's committee
In another milestone this week, the Senate passed its first mandatory cap-and-trade bill out of Sen. Barbara Boxer’s (D-Calif.) Environment and Public Works Committee by an 11-8 vote. The compromise bill, which most environmentalists think is too weak, and opponents think is too strong, will now go to the floor for what promises to be a lively debate, though no one is saying when. The bill covers 80% of the economy, mandating 70% in GHG cuts by 2050. The vast majority of allowances would be given to industries that will be affected, with only a small portion auctioned. Fee credits will be phased out by 2031.

News in brief

Green economy will result in more jobs, studies say
The move from a fossil-fuel to a “green” economy will have a net worldwide job gain, according to a new UN report. In addition to “green collar” jobs, there will be construction, transportation, engineering, manufacturing and sustainable agriculture and forestry jobs, the report said. In Brazil, the ethanol business has created a half-million jobs, and in China 150,000 are employed in solar heating. The jobs will more than make up for layoffs in old fossil-fuel industries, showing a small net gain, the report said. A second study, by the American Solar Energy Society, estimates that in the U.S., policies favoring renewable energy sources and energy efficiency could produce 40 million new jobs and $4.5 trillion in new revenue by 2030. Most of the jobs, 32 million, would be in efficiency measures such as retrofitting buildings, while 8 million would be in the renewables sector, with solar, wind, ethanol and hydrogen cells seeing the most growth. (Source: Greenwire)

Tropical zones expanding as the Earth gets warmer
Tropical regions are pushing north and south toward the poles at a rate much faster than expected. In the past 25 years, they have moved 2.5 degrees latitude, or 140-330 miles, according to a study in the journal Nature Geoscience last week. Climate models had predicted it would take 100 years to move just 2 degrees. The expansion brings with it a shift in high-altitude wind and rain patterns, and affects agricultural zones and water availability. (Source: Greenwire)

Skiers, marchers, bikers protest against climate change
Protestors called attention to Global Warming Sunday in 50 cities around the world. In Berlin, a sculptor carved a polar bear in ice at the Brandenburg Gate. In Auckland, 350 formed “Climate SOS” by lying in the grass at a park. In Taipei, 1,500 marched with signs saying “No carbon dioxide.” In Manila, hundreds rallied with windmills on their heads. In Helsinki, 50 skied on asphalt streets saying, “Give us our snowy winters back.” And here in the U.S., 50 took a polar bear plunge into Walden Pond. (Source: Associated Press)

News from Bali

Climate scientists lose patience, plead for radical action
More than 215 leading climate scientists, some of whom have taken no stance up to now, petitioned the delegates at the Bali UN climate conference to halve global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The petitioners come from more than 2 dozen countries. “The science community is basically fed up,” one signer from Canada told the Associated Press.

Other headlines this first week of the Dec. 3-14 190-nation conference:
* Saving rainforests is a high priority but one about which there is disagreement. The conference is likely to launch pilot projects trying two approaches – trading on the carbon market and using a fund to compensate countries for stopping slash-and-born. Deforestation was not in the Kyoto Protocol but causes 20% of GHG worldwide. Many want it in the next international treaty.
* Carbon capture is not on the Bali agenda. The technology is still unproven and would cost about $1 billion per plant, though ultimately it may be the answer to low- or no-carbon use of coal. Perhaps carbon capture and storage will be part of future talks, Yvo de Boer, top UN climate official, told Reuters.
* The U.S. delegation continues to oppose mandatory cuts of GHG, and made light of the passage of the first cap-and-trade bill from committee onto the Senate floor last week. The National Environmental Trust blasted U.S. greed and waste, saying the country is responsible for 27.8% of cumulative Global Warming.
* Host country Indonesia planted millions of trees to offset the estimated 47,000 tons of carbon dioxide caused by the 12-day conference. The estimate includes air transport to and from Bali. Hosts also eliminated cars from the conference site and provided 200 bicycles for ministers to use if they didn’t want to walk. (Sources: PlanetArk, AP, India Times)

Xtreme weather watch

Rainfall and snowstorms are now more severe. Since 1948, the number of intense storms has increased between 22-26% in the U.S., a new report from Environment America shows. New England and the mid-Atlantic states have been hit the worst. Mass., R.I., Vt., N.Y. and La. have all seen an increase of more than 50%. Climate scientists say this is consistent with Global Warming because warm air holds more moisture. For more, see http://environmentAmerica.org. (New York Times)

Did a cyclone just hit the Northwest? Heavy rain and hurricane-force winds of up to 129 mph hit Oregon and Washington in back-to-back storms last Sunday and Monday. In Bremerton, Wash., rainfall was recorded at 11.78 inches. The storms, which washed out roads, caused mudslides, and resulted in at least 5 deaths, were among the worst in memory. More than 100,000 people were without electricity. One Portland resident noted, “This was really a hurricane – or cyclone – and we never get those here.” (AP)

The cyclone that swamped low-lying Bangladesh last month left a huge humanitarian crisis, the UN said last week. Some 2 million residents need immediate help to save their lives. They need food, shelter, drinking water and sanitation. A total of 8.5 million were affected, more than a half-million homes were completely destroyed and 1.5 million livestock were wiped out. Cyclone Sidr hit with 155 mph winds and a 5-foot storm surge Nov. 15. International aid so far tops $143 million. (PlanetArk)

Take Action

In this season of packages and bags and wrapping paper, think green. Carry one or more canvas or reusable bags with you to put your purchases in. Tell store clerks to keep their paper and plastic bags. Use recycled wrapping paper. And when possible re-use packaging that comes to you from online or catalog items.

Make a year-end donation to environmental groups that do research and fight the good fight for all of us – in Congress, statehouses, elections and courts. They include the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, League of Conservation Voters, Environmental Defense, World Wildlife Federation and Union of Concerned Scientists. And that doesn’t exhaust the list, if you have another favorite. Without them, there would be little, if any, progress.