On Thursday, July 31, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced it was granting $36 million toward 15 projects aimed at furthering the development of new and cost-effective technologies for the capture of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the existing fleet of coal-fired power plants.  The 15 projects will focus on five potential carbon capture technologies, including membranes, solvents, sorbents, oxycombustion (flue gas purification and boiler development), and chemical looping.  The proportion of DOE funding for the projects ranges from 75% to 33%, with an average government share of 66% of the projected cost.

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EPA has requested that the public provide comment on its wide-ranging greenhouse gas advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) by November 28, 2008, 120 days from the date the ANPR was published in the Federal Register.

As ClimateIntel previously noted, the EPA Administrator released advance copies of the ANPR on July 11, 2008, as part of a widely-reported announcement that EPA would defer any concrete regulatory action on climate change under its Clean Air Act authority until the next Administration.  The ANPR provides a detailed look at EPA’s regulatory authority under the various provisions of the Clean Air Act (stationary source provisions, mobile source provisions, stratospheric ozone, etc.) and analyzes both options and impediments to using that authority to address greenhouse gas emissions.  Because EPA published its lengthy analysis as an “advance” notice, any future Administration will need to start with a separate proposed rulemaking.  The 120-day comment period, however, provides stakeholders with an early opportunity to frame issues that a future Administration may want to consider if and when EPA revisits the issue of regulating climate change.

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Approximately 90 cities, 29 counties, and 20 towns across the United States have adopted some type of green building program.  So far, even what are considered the most aggressive green building codes, such Los Angeles’ and San Francisco’s, have not drawn any notable legal attacks.  On July 3, 2008, however, a group of national HVAC industry groups and local companies sued the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in federal district court to challenge two recently adopted green building city ordinances.

In 2007, the Albuquerque City Council unanimously adopted a High Performance Building Ordinance and a two-volume local Energy Conservation Code, which established air conditioner, furnace, heat pump, and water heater energy efficiency requirements that were more stringent the federal requirements.  For example, the new regulations would raise the standards for HVAC equipment in all new and retrofit commercial and residential projects to a Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) of 15 for air conditioning and an Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) of 90% for heating.  By comparison, the current U.S. Department of Energy (U.S. DOE) minimum standards for the same equipment are lower - at 13 SEER and 78% AFUE.

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On July 18, 2007, California became the first in the nation to adopt a state-wide green building code for new construction.  “By adopting this first-in-the-nation statewide green building code, California is again leading the way to fight climate change and protect the environment,” said Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in his press release.  The California Building Standards Commission “should be commended for bringing everyone to the table including representatives of the construction and building trades industry, environmental groups and labor organizations, and achieving something no other state has been able to,” lauded Commission Chair Rosario Mario.  Others, however, say that the new code should have been much stronger.

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In what may be seen as a precursor to climate change regulations, last week the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved new fuel quality regulations to reduce emissions from ocean-going vessels within 24 nautical miles of California’s coastline. The regulations will require both domestic and foreign flagged ocean-going vessels to use less polluting distillate fuel instead of heavy fuel oil. By 2012, CARB estimates that its regulations will result in a 83 percent reduction in particulate matter (PM), 95 percent reduction in sulfur oxides (SOx), and 6 percent reduction in nitrogen oxides (NOx). While the program will have a negligible impact on greenhouse gas emissions, the success of this program may influence future regulatory efforts to control such emissions from ocean-going vessels.

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In conjunction with the cap-and-trade draft design document released yesterday, the WCI also released the “Draft Essential Requirements of Mandatory Reporting for the Western Climate Initiative” (”reporting draft”).

The reporting draft covers ten categories of “essential requirements related to mandatory reporting of GHGs: definitions, pollutants, applicability, timing, confidentiality, report content and submittal, compliance, emissions quantification and monitoring, and verification and quality assurance.” Within each category, the reporting draft summarizes the proposed reporting requirements that will eventually be incorporated into model rules for the cap-and-trade program. It also discusses important decisions that are yet to be made “about the approach, definition and structure of the essential requirement.”

WCI is soliciting comments on the reporting draft. In-person comments may be made at the WCI Stakeholders meeting in San Diego, CA on July 29, 2008, while written comments may be submitted through August 13th.

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The Western Climate Initiative (WCI) today released the draft design for its regional cap-and-trade program. The WCI is a consortium of seven states, along with four Canadian provinces, that intend to implement a mandatory cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The basic shape of the program can be discerned from today’s draft design document. The cap-and-trade program will regulate emissions of all six major GHGs, not merely carbon dioxide. It will cover a broad array of industries, including electrical generation and industrial and commercial combustion facilities that emit at least 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent GHGs per year, as well as transportation fuels. In a later phase, residential and small commercial/industrial facilities will also be required to participate.

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India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) sets out eight focal points for the government’s sustainable development strategy through 2017. The NAPCC is likely to become a significant driver of new investment opportunities in the country’s renewable energy portfolio, and in solar generation in particular.

As the world’s second most populous country and second largest growing economy, India has unique challenges in developing an energy supply adequate to meet the country’s development needs, including providing electricity to the 44% of its population without grid access.

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After the demise of the Lieberman-Warner legislation in early June, it was widely acknowledged that legislators still lacked a comprehensive understanding of the science and policy choices surrounding climate change. It is widely expected that the 111th Congress will again take up the issue, but this time with an Administration supportive of its efforts and on-going international negotiations that will need more active American engagement. With the increased likelihood of some legislative success in the next Congress, the policy making process has shifted to committee inquiries and hearings.

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Project developers operating under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) now face additional scrutiny after several major organizations agreed to adopt a new voluntary verification standard. Eligibility for the CDM is premised on the requirement that a project will not proceed without the financial incentives provided by the creation of salable emission reduction credits. In other words, if a project is financially viable without generating emission credits, it is not eligible for CDM participation. This concept is known as additionality - the benefits generated by CDM projects must be additional to any that would have occurred without CDM support.

Organizations that verify emissions reductions for CDM projects, known as Designated Operational Entities (DOEs), have expressed concerns over their ability to reject ineligible projects, as a means of protecting the integrity of the CDM. As a result, a group of major DOEs recently agreed to criteria that may significantly impact the approval process for projects that wish to issue Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits. The criteria will be considered for official inclusion into the CDM process by the Executive Board of the CDM, likely later this year. Until then, it is a voluntary agreement between many of the major DOEs, but still impacts projects being proposed from July forward.

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