Green Wombat

photo: johnny blood
Energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in the United States declined 1.3 percent last year, according to a report released today by the U.S. Department of Energy. The survey by DOE’s Energy Information Administration notes that 2006 saw the biggest drop in the economy’s "carbon intensity" – carbon dioxide emissions per dollar of gross domestic product – since 1990. Good news to be sure but climate change skeptics and ExxonMobil shouldn’t get too excited. Weather conditions and the vagaries of the economy played a big role in the emissions remission. Meanwhile, the long-term prognosis remains grim: Between 1991 and 2006 U.S. energy-related greenhouse gas emissions rose 18 percent. And yesterday a report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that global C02 emissions are accelerating rapidly, with the growth rate tripling between 2000 and 2004. That’s due in part to the runaway Chinese economy.

In 2006, the U.S. benefited from a warmer winter and a cooler summer, which meant fewer people were turning up the thermostat or cranking the air conditioning. "The resulting decrease in carbon intensity … was driven by increased use of natural gas, the least carbon-intensive fossil fuel, and greater reliance on non-fossil fuels," the DOE states. The report does offer a glimmer of hope for the future: Although industrial output grew by 3.9 percent in 2006, related greenhouse gas emissions dropped by an estimated 1.2 percent.

User-generated legislation? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is appearing on Yahoo Answers this week to crowdsource ideas to include in bills to combat global warming. Yahoo Answers lets people throw out questions on just about any topic and get replies from the service’s 90 million members. The San Francisco Democrat’s virtual one-way town meeting is part of Yahoo’s (YHOO) "Be a Better Planet" campaign. As of this writing, more than 27,000 people have posted responses to Pelosi’s query on what they would like to see included in global warming legislation. Yahoo Answers participants rate each others’ responses, and at the moment some of the top suggestions recommend that Congress impose a national greenhouse gas emissions cap; mandate increased vehicle fuel efficiency; and promote mass transit and bicycling to discourage suburban sprawl. Then there’s the usual flamers and yahooism. (One top-rated answer urges the speaker to reject "ecomarxism.") Interestingly enough, posts by environmental experts like sustainability guru Lester Brown and eco-celebrities like TV environmental journalist Simran Sethi were given the thumbs-down by Yahoo Answers users, tagged "Answer hidden due to its low rating."

photo: California Governor’s Office
Utah today became the latest western state to join a regional compact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Utah Governor Jon Huntsman and fellow Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger of California signed the agreement to include Utah in what may eventually result in a western carbon trading market. The Western Regional Climate Action Initiative includes Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington.  The alliance aims to develop a regional cap on greenhouse gas emissions. That will prove a challenge, given the dependence of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah on coal-fired power plants. But those states will soon lose California has a market, given that regulators have banned utilities PG&E (PCG), Southern California Edison (EIX) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SRE) from signing long-term contracts to buy electricity from out-of-state coal-fired plants.

photo: green wombat

Green Wombat is in Norway this week. Today is the Scandinavian country’s national holiday – commemorating its independence from Denmark in 1814 – and it seems the whole of Oslo is gathered at the Royal Palace (photo above) for the festivities. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg recently declared a different sort of independence: "In the period up to 2050, Norway will undertake to reduce global greenhouse  gas emissions equivalent to 100 percent of our own emissions," he said in a speech last month. "This does not mean no emissions …. But it does mean that each tonne of greenhouse gases emitted is to be offset by an equivalent reduction elsewhere. This adds up to zero emissions." Norway finds itself in the particular situation of a country that obtains some 95 percent of its electricity from a renewable source – hydro power – yet is the world’s third-largest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia and Russia. North Sea oil has made Norway exceedingly wealthy yet also fuels global warming. Stoltenberg was sketchy on the details of how Norway would become 100 percent clean and green. But his government has begun a project to develop carbon-capture technology for a natural gas plant, and Norway sequesters C02 from some North Sea gas production under the seabed. The country also offers significant tax breaks for electric cars – which makes the $92,000 Tesla Roadster an affordable car in this country. But maybe Norway will get some advice from the Governator: An Oslo newspaper yesterday reported that the Norwegian environment minister has invited Arnold Schwarzenegger to a climate change summit in August.