By J.R. Pegg
Author: Environment News Service
Provider: SustainableBusiness.com
WASHINGTON, DC, February 12, 2004 (ENS) – Conservationists eager to see the federal government tackle global warming were encouraged Wednesday by the decision of five electric power companies to support a mandatory cap on carbon dioxide emissions.
The companies combined serve more than seven million power consumers. They are the first to answer the clean energy challenge set forth by the World Wildlife Fund, which warns that large emissions reductions are needed to curb global warming.
"The survival of over a million species and many of the world's most biologically rich natural areas may hang in the balance, depending on whether we act responsibly now or continue to ignore global warming," said Ginette Hemley, managing vice president of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
Most scientists believe that if human emissions of greenhouse gases are left unchecked, there is a 90 percent probability that surface temperatures on Earth will rise between 1.7 to 4.9 degrees Celsius (3 to 8.8 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100. This will result in rising sea levels, the melting of the polar icecaps, erratic and severe weather patterns, and a host of other environmental problems that could have far reaching impacts.
The five companies that signed onto WWF's climate initiative, called the PowerSwitch! Initiative, are Austin Energy, Burlington Electric Department, the FPL Group, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, and Waverly Light and Power.
"These commitments demonstrate that innovative electric companies can make the switch to clean energy and reduce heat trapping CO2 emissions," Hemley said. Gathering support for carbon dioxide (C02) emissions reductions among the power generating industry is critical, she says, because the sector emits 40 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, and the United States is responsible for about 22 percent of global CO2 emissions.
Companies signing on to the PowerSwitch! Initiative agree to support binding limits on national CO2 emissions and to commit to one of the following by 2020: increase renewables to 20 percent of electricity sold; increase energy efficiency by 15 percent; or retire the least efficient half of their coal fired power generation.
Under commitments to WWF, renewable sources of energy may include solar, wind, sustainably harvested biomass, low impact small scale hydropower, geothermal power, and methane recovery from landfills or farms.
Energy efficiency efforts may include improving energy efficiency in power production, upgrading distribution technologies, transmission optimization efforts, or reducing overall demand from customers to diminish the need for new electricity generation capacity. The Bush administration and many in Congress have opposed mandatory carbon reductions, arguing that the science behind global warming is uncertain and the economic price of mandatory cuts is too high.
But the five companies signing onto the PowerSwitch! Initiative disagree.
Roger Duncan of Austin Energy says his company believes that "all utilities need to make a commitment to collectively reduce our carbon emissions." "Unfortunately, we do not think that the voluntary efforts to date have been successful," said Duncan.
Austin Energy, a community owned electric utility and a department of the City of Austin, Texas is the 10th largest public power utility in the nation, serving 880,000 individuals. It has agreed to generate 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources and increase energy efficiency by 15 percent by 2020. "We think this is the best business decision for our utility," Duncan told reporters.
The other four companies signing on to WWF's pledge cited similar thinking, with all noting that the decision had firm roots in good business.
Burlington Electric Department in Vermont committed to generating 20 percent of the electricity it sells from renewable sources of power and increasing its energy efficiency by 15 percent by 2020.
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District in California, which is the sixth largest public utility in the nation, says it will generate 20 percent of the electricity it sells from renewable sources of energy, and Waverly Light and Power of Iowa committed to increasing its energy efficiency by 15 percent by 2020.
FPL Group, Inc. is one of the largest U.S. power companies and is by far the biggest signing on to the WWF's pledge. Its principal subsidiary, Florida Power & Light Company, serves more than four million customer accounts in Florida. FPL committed to improving energy efficiency by 15 percent in its power generation facilities.
FPL Vice President of Environmental Services Randy LaBauve said his company's support of mandatory CO2 cuts is driven by the need for regulatory certainty. He said regulators should explore including CO2 regulations as part of multipollutant legislation structured in "a market based system that provides allocation of allowances on an output based, fuel neutral basis."
A multipollutant, market based approach to controlling greenhouse gas emissions was recommended last month by the National Research Council's Committee on Air Quality Management in a report writtenafter two years of study.
LaBauve said the WWF pledge is "another step toward real improvements for our environment while preserving the economic viability of the U.S. economy. Quite simply, it is the right thing to do." LaBauve did not comment on the bipartisan bill defeated last fall in the Senate that would have set a nationwide cap on industrial emissions of C02 and would have reduced those emissions down to 2000 levels by 2010 through an emissions trading system.
The WWF estimates that the U.S. power sector could cut CO2 emissions some 60 percent by 2020 and could reduce its dependency on fossil fuels by using available energy technologies and supporting innovative polices.
The savings to consumers if such a target is met would be more than $80 billion a year by 2020, according to WWF. "It can be done," Hemley said. "These five taking action are the pioneers."
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