Lexington, KY - The United States could yet take the lead in countering global warming, if the U.S. Climate Action Partnership's Blueprint for Legislative Action (www.us-cap.org) is a sign of things to come. Last June the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008 brought greenhouse gas cap and trade legislation to the Senate Floor for the first time.
Work lays ahead for legislators to shape a bill that will gain passage. Such legislation will have challenges for the Bluegrass State, given that Kentuckians use about 25 percent more electricity than the average American, and over 90 percent of that energy comes from coal-fired power plants.
The U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) includes over 25 major corporations and several leading nonprofit environmental organizations. Their proposals are based on 100 percent consensus from member organizations, said USCAP spokesman Jim Luetkemeyer. Ford, G.E., Alcoa, Dupont, and Duke Energy, all with major operations in Kentucky, are members of USCAP. The Blueprint, released in January, is an urgent 24 pages of proposals for legislation to advance energy efficiencies in the economy through conservation and innovation while also moving the United States and the world as rapidly as feasible to increasing reliance on renewable energy sources. A core recommendation is the establishment of a cap and trade system to "slow, stop and reverse" greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated by industries and utilities burning fossil fuels. It includes support measures for vulnerable populations and industry sectors.
In November 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (www.ipcc.ch) stated, "Warming of the climate is unequivocal, as is now evident from observation of increases in average air and ocean temperature, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising global average sea levels." Despite the scientific consensus that global warming is happening and that human activities are a major cause, scientists have found it difficult to convey the gravity of the situation. Global warming effects accrue incrementally, and the public has had a "let's wait and see" attitude, as though somehow it will be reversible.
Some states and cities across the country have taken initiative, and Lexington has been a part of that trend. "We've had an energy team in place since 2003 that deals with city facilities - to be better stewards of taxpayers' dollars and the environment," said Tom Webb, environmental compliance coordinator for LFUCG. The team works to cut costs and make energy use more efficient in government buildings and operations. "We signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement in 2005 (www.usmayors.org)," Webb said. "That agreement is designed to encourage communities to reduce their carbon foot print - on a local level, since there's no national legislation on carbon emissions."
In February of 2008, Lexington joined the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives (http://www.iclei.org), which provides a framework along with software solutions to help facilitate reducing the carbon footprint. "We are now in the process of quantifying our emissions for city facilities and the city as a whole," said Webb. Utility companies have provided the project with gross numbers of electricity consumption for 2005 and 2007, which are being modeled. "Once we get our emissions quantified, we'll set reduction targets. Then we'll set up teams and develop a local action plan."
"When looking at reducing the carbon footprint, you're looking at three areas: energy use, transportation, and waste management," said Webb. When national legislation on carbon emissions goes into effect, he thinks those communities that have already worked to reduce their carbon footprints will be better off. He also acknowledges that Kentucky will be more challenged than many other states that have more renewable energy sources in their mix.
"I think it is fair to say that historically Kentucky has been in a category of doing nothing," said Martin Kushler, director of utilities programs for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (www.aceee.org). Kushler was speaking of the past and the disinclination of Kentucky utility companies to work toward greater energy efficiency, but with energy so cheap, why bother? That is changing, at least with Kentucky Utilities (KU). KU will spend more than $25 million annually on their energy efficiency programs to educate and assist their customers, said Chip Keeling, vice president of communications for KU's parent company E.ON U.S. KU will commit $182 million over the life of the program, from 2008 to 2014, (www.eon-us.com/home.asp). Based on a simple calculation using KU's reported sales for 2007, Kushler, who monitors utilities nationwide, said that KU's annual commitment was at a good level (two percent of total sales). "This is a major step forward for Kentucky," he said.
Also signaling intent to address 2008's stinging Brookings Institution finding that ranked Lexington's carbon footprint among the worst in the nation is Mayor Jim Newberry. In the mayor's annual State of the Merged Government speech, Newberry singled out as "imperative that our city, our state, our country and our world move without delay toward combating the effects of global warming. I am past the point of debating whether our climate is changing. I believe the evidence is overwhelming in support of the notion that our planet's climate is rapidly changing, but even if you reject that idea, we should aggressively pursue every form of energy efficiency to achieve the benefits associated with lowering our utility bills."
Tom Fitzgerald, director of the Kentucky Resources Center (www.kyrc.org) and a nationally recognized legal expert on coal issues, is working on a number of fronts to bring better energy efficiency and environmental stewardship to the state. He sees the passage of House Bill 2 of 2008, which has been recognized by the Council of State Governments as a model for good legislation, as the kind of progress Kentucky needs more of. It offers tax incentives for energy efficiency improvements in homes and commercial buildings. "I'm meeting next week with the administration in Frankfort," said Fitzgerald, "to try to encourage them to take the next step and put people back to work in the state in the construction trade with a major program of retrofitting and rehabilitating existing housing stock in order to reduce the per capita use of electricity and natural gas."
Science suggests we have a window of opportunity to mitigate the effects we're having on the climate, but beyond that opportunity, we will be reacting to what we've wrought. "I have a lot of faith in the ingenuity of this nation," said Fitzgerald. "We always excel in pollution control and in developing technologies that enable us to address pollution."