Lifecycle greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions analyses seek to quantify the GHG emissions created by the manufacture of the product through transportation to the consumer, use and disposal. Such analyses are generally considered the most effective means of establishing the full impact of a product on climate change. Estimating the emissions generated at each stage, however, is difficult and controversial. The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) will weigh in on the debate this year when the agency commences a rulemaking on lifecycle GHG emission reduction targets for renewable fuels. The methodology that EPA chooses to measure lifecycle GHG emissions will be critical to the burgeoning biofuels industry and will likely set the standard for future regulation of other carbon-intensive industries.

The 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, Pub. L. No. 110-140 (2007) (the “Act”) requires for the first time that biofuels meet stringent lifecycle GHG emissions targets to qualify for the Renewable Fuel Standard (“RFS”). The Act obligates EPA to complete a rulemaking by December 2008 that would establish the appropriate model and inputs for estimation of lifecycle GHG emissions and finalize emission reduction targets that renewable fuels must meet to be considered for the RFS. EPA is working on the draft rule and expects to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking by late summer, making it highly unlikely that EPA can meet the statutory deadline.

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This week both Senate and House committees will have hearings concerning global climate change and rising energy costs. These hearings begin on Wednesday in both the House Transportation and Infrastructure and Small Business Committees.

The Transportation Committee will be holding a hearing on Metropolitan Transportation Challenges, a focus of the hearing will likely be congestion pricing plans, with specific focus on the impending decision on New York City’s proposal.

The Small Business Committee will have a hearing on rising gas prices. The witness list has not yet been posted.

Also, Wednesday at 2:30pm, the Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on coal gasification technologies. Dr. John Marburger, the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology; James Childress, exec. Director of the Gasification Technology Council; Michael Mudd, from the FutureGen Alliance; and David Hawkins of the NRDC are all slated to appear.

On Thursday at 10am, the Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on possible EPA greenhouse gas regulations. Witnesses will include:  Robert Meyers, principal deputy assistant administrator, U.S. EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation; David Doniger, policy director, Natural Resources Defense Council’s Climate Center; and Lisa Heinzerling, professor of law, Georgetown University Law Center.

At the same time, the Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing on the FY2009 NOAA budget.

Across the Capitol, the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee will hold a confirmation hearing on David Hill, who has been nominated to be the new Inspector General for the EPA.

Finally, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions will hold a hearing on the public health implications of climate change on Thursday at 10am. Scheduled to appear are Jonathan Patz, professor of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin; John Balbus of Environmental Defense; and Kristie Ebi, president of ESS, LLC.

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The plastics industry has a strong interest in monitoring the development of domestic climate change regulatory policies. In Congress, both chambers are conducting record numbers of hearings on all aspects of the climate change issue and a bill has been passed out of committee in the Senate. In the 2008 Presidential race, all three leading major candidates have indicated support for legislation containing mandatory emissions limits. Even the Supreme Court of the United States has determined CO₂ is a pollutant subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act.

In this environment, any meaningful legislation is likely to have direct impacts on the plastics industry and its customers. Consider the following:

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At yesterday’s hearing before the House of Representatives Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Administration officials and representatives of civil aviation organizations leveled strong criticism against European Union (EU) plans to bring civil aviation into its Emissions Trading System (EU-ETS). Under proposed directives issued in December 2007 and January 2008, the EU has laid out a plan to cap and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of air carriers operating in the EU – including foreign-based carriers flying into or out of EU airports.

As noted by Committee Chairman Ed Markey (D-Mass.), civil aviation accounts for 12 percent of U.S. transportation CO₂ emissions and three percent of U.S. total CO₂ emissions. According to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), civil aviation represents at least three percent of the total anthropogenic impact on climate change.

Witnesses at yesterday’s hearing – entitled “From the Wright Brothers to the Right Solutions: Curbing Soaring Aviation Emissions” – described a range of technology and policy measures, centered around increasing fuel efficiency, that are best-suited to curb aviation emissions. But the witnesses were uniform in condemning the EU plan to subject aviation to mandatory emissions reductions.

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One year ago today, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, holding that “EPA has the statutory authority to regulate the emission of [greenhouse] gases from new motor vehicles.” The court ordered the agency to make a determination on whether greenhouse gases “cause[s], or contribute[s] to, air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare” (quoting 42 U. S. C. §7521(a)(1)).

Since that decision, EPA has not issued its determination. As a result, Massachusetts - joined by a large group of states, cities, and environmental organizations - filed suit today against EPA in an attempt to force the agency to comply with the Supreme Court’s order.

The petition asks the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to issue a writ of mandamus “requiring EPA to issue within sixty days its determination on whether the air pollution to which greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles contribute ‘may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.” A writ of mandamus is “an extraordinary remedy reserved for extraordinary circumstances” but is argued to be appropriate here because the “agency’s unreasonable delay . . . signals the ‘breakdown of regulatory processes.’”

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Environmental groups have filed an administrative challenge to a state permit issued to Duke Energy Corporation for a proposed $2.4 billion expansion of its Cliffside, N.C., coal-fired power plant. The contested case petition, filed on March 27, alleges that the North Carolina Division of Air Quality’s (NCDAQ) permit violates state and federal clean air standards for a list of air pollutants, including carbon dioxide (CO2).

Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), which brought the petition on behalf of a number of federal and regional environmental groups, argues that the Clean Air Act’s (CAA) Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) provisions require NCDAQ to apply the Best Available Control Technology (BACT) for carbon dioxide. SELC grounds its argument in the premise that CO2 is “subject to regulation” under the CAA — a premise that is not accepted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is currently being litigated before the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board in the In re Deseret Power Electric Cooperative case.

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