Environmental Valuation & Cost-Benefit News

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-stavins/the-new-auto-fuel-efficie_b_206682.html

On My 19th, 2009, President Obama announced new Federal fuel-efficiency standards for motor-vehicles that would make the current standards -- known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy -- or CAFE -- standards significantly more stringent. These CAFE standards measure compliance as the average of a company's entire fleet of cars, and so are more flexible and less costly than model-by-model standards, better matching consumer preferences and lowering production costs.

Other good news is that the administration's proposal will yield a single standard nationwide, rather than two fuel efficiency standards, one for California and the 13 other states that chose to follow its more stringent ... standards.... The result would have been that the states adopting the more stringent California standard would have brought about no incremental benefit for the environment beyond the national CAFE program.... This has been validated in an interesting research paper by Lawrence Goulder (Stanford University), Mark Jacobsen (University of California, San Diego), and Arthur van Benthem (Stanford University)....

The new standards are greatly inferior to other possible approaches.

First of all, CAFE affects only the cars we buy, not how much we drive them, and so CAFE standards are less cost-effective than gasoline prices at reducing gasoline consumption.....

According to the administration, the increases in CAFE standards (including both scheduled increases already on the books and the new Obama proposal) will add -- on average -- $1,300 to the cost of producing a new car.

Because CAFE standards increase the price of new cars, the standards have the unintentional effect of keeping older -- dirtier and less fuel-efficient -- cars on the road longer....

Also, by decreasing the cost per mile of driving, CAFE standards -- like any energy-efficiency technology standard -- exhibit a "rebound effect," namely, people have an incentive to drive more...

The bottom line is that gasoline prices are a much more effective - and more cost-effective - means of cutting gasoline demand, both in the short term and the long term....

There is ... another policy instrument available that has the same desirable impacts as gas taxes on gasoline prices (and, more importantly, on all other fossil fuel prices, as well), but inspires dramatically less political opposition. And this instrument is not only politically feasible, but is right now achieving remarkable, broad-based political support in Washington. I'm talking about the economy-wide CO2 cap-and-trade system in Congressmen Waxman and Markey's legislation in the House of Representatives....

To seriously and cost-effectively address climate change, it is essential to put in place a single carbon price that affects all fossil fuels and all uses throughout the economy -- not only in the transportation sector, but also electric power, and the manufacturing, commercial, and residential sectors. This is precisely what cap-and-trade does.... The real bottom line is that cap-and-trade is the cheapest, best, and only politically feasible approach that can achieve the significant reductions in CO2 emissions that will be necessary to meet President Obama's ambitious climate goals.

by Robert Stavins, Director of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program
FOR FULL OPINION GO TO:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-stavins/the-new-auto-fuel-efficie_b_206682.html
The Huffington Post www.huffingtonpost.com
Posted: May 22, 2009

Link: http://www.citigroup.com/citi/press/2009/090423b.htm

On April 23, 2009 Citi announced that its newly completed Citi Data Center in Frankfurt is the first of its kind in the world to have earned the coveted Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum rating from the US Green Building Council (USGBC). This is the highest achievable award for new construction (V2.2 category).

The LEED Rating System is designed to encourage and facilitate the development of more sustainable buildings and is a leading-edge system for certifying the world's greenest buildings. Not only is this award a world first, it certifies the data center's unique achievement in regard to sustainability and energy efficiency.
...
Sustainability ... was a primary consideration in the delivery of the 230,000-square-foot building. Its innovative design was executed with no increased cost over more conventional data centers and without adversely affecting reliability and resilience of the systems it houses.

Special attention was focused on the significant impacts of Energy, Water and Waste and notable features include:
* Uses 30% of the power required for services that a conventional data center would use
* Optimized cooling design resulting in enhanced free cooling rate of 63%
* Reverse osmosis water treatment for cooling saves 50M liters per annum
* Overall CO2 emissions reduction of 11,750 t/a
* Water-efficient fixtures has reduced potable water use by 41% as well as utilizing harvested rainwater for 100% of the irrigation needs
* 100% of the construction waste was diverted from the landfill and operational waste is segregated for recycling
* Material selection was a high priority item for Citi, allowing both the LEED requirements and embodied energy calculations to influence the selection
* The recycled content of the materials specified on the project reached 27%, with local sourcing of materials exceeding 40%
* As an example of local consideration a vegetated roof area has been installed for 72% of the roof area as well as a full green wall irrigated from harvested rainwater
* Makes extensive use of virtualized technology, deployed in a modular design which both optimized energy usage and reduced the total amount of cabling required by 250km

Other major Citi projects that have received LEED certification include data centers in Singapore and Georgetown, Texas, two Citi office parks in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and a 15-story skyscraper in the New York City Borough of Queens.
...
The Information and Communications Technology industry produces 2% of global CO2 emissions, a figure equivalent to emissions from the aviation industry. In addition energy usage in data centers continues to grow as a result of developments in new, more powerful technology solutions.

Therefore efficient data center design plays an important role in our drive to cut carbon emissions. This exemplary building has the potential to change the way that data centers approach energy efficient and sustainable design.

Other special features of the building:
Large reduction in installed plant & elimination of lead acid batteries by use of unique topology of Diesel Rotary Uninterrupted Power units (DRUPs), which reduce UPS running costs

Green roofs minimize and reduce thermal gain into the data center in summer months and a green wall featuring indigenous plants and biodiversity is fully irrigated by water

Enhanced CRAC unit design reducing power consumption 9.3 kW to 3.3 kW per unit

Advanced cooling tower design reducing power consumption from 74kW to 22 kW

High quality work space environment featuring good daylight, natural ventilation and environmentally benign materials selected for the interiors

Enhanced commissioning beyond best practice standards

The office area provision features natural day lighting and ventilation via glazed facades with external louvres of white oak as a renewable resource

Landscaping includes generous green spaces throughout the site, the built mass being set back from the site boundaries buffered to all elevations with "garden zones."

Throughout the building green roofs, a living wall, soft landscaping to many external areas and extensive tree planting are used.
...
The Frankfurt facility also relies on a filtration process known as reverse osmosis to soften water without the use of chemicals; Citi says this saves 13,208,602 gallons of water per year. ...

For cooling, the Frankfurt data center relies on outside air rather than chillers, using water-side economizers 83 percent of the time (waterside economizers rely on cold outside air to cool an exterior water tower). While the facility is kept a bit warmer than traditional data centers, the internal environment is monitored closely and kept at a constant temperature.
...
In 2006 Citi set a goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions globally by 10 percent by 2011 and in 2007 the firm committed $50 billion toward supporting environmentally friendly initiatives including $10 billion to reduce its corporate environmental footprint through new procurement procedures, minimized energy use and its own real estate portfolio.

After 9/11 Citibank was compelled to locate data centers away from New York City.

Project Team:
Project Management: Citi Realty Services assisted by Drees & Sommer GmbH
Architecture/ Mechanical & Electrical Engineering Services: Arup Associates
Main Contractor: BAM Deutschland AG/Imtech Deutschland GmbH & Co.KG

Citi Group www.citigroup.com
Press Release dated April 23, 2009
also see "Citi’s Green Data Centers Provide Environmental and Business Benefits" by Penny Crosman Wall Street Technology www.WallStreetandTech.com
http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/it-infrastructure/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217600323 May 20, 2009

Link: http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/vol9/iss1/art14

Abstract:
Many environmental justice studies argue that firms choose to locate waste sites or polluting plants disproportionately in minority or poor communities. However, it is not uncommon for these studies to match site or plant location to contemporaneous socioeconomic characteristics instead of to characteristics at the time of siting. While this may provide important information on disproportionate impacts currently faced by these communities, it does not describe the relationship at the time of siting. Also, variables that are important to a plant's location decision – i.e., production and transportation costs – are often not included. Without controlling for such variables, it is difficult to evaluate the relative importance of socioeconomic characteristics in a firm's initial location decision. This paper examines the role of community socioeconomic characteristics at the time of siting in the location decisions of manufacturing plants while controlling for other location-relevant factors such as input costs.

When plant location is matched to current socioeconomic characteristics, results are consistent with what the environmental justice literature predicts: race is significant and positively related to plant location, while income is significant and negatively related to plant location. When plant location is matched to socioeconomic characteristics at the time of siting, empirical results suggest that race is no longer significant, though income is still significant and negatively related to plant location. Poverty rates are sometimes significant but act as a deterrent to plant location. Variables traditionally considered in the firm location literature – such as land and labor costs, the quality of labor, and distance to rail – are significant. The presence of pre-existing TRI plants in a neighborhood and average plant size are also significant.

by Ann Wolverton, U.S. EPA

The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy via The Berkeley Electronic Press www.bepress.com/bejeap
Volume 9, Issue 1; Published March 27, 2009; Article 14
DOI: 10.2202/1935-1682.2083

Link: http://www.pennenvironment.org/newsroom/energy/energy-program-news/new-report-green-buildings-could-save-500-billion-by-2030-cut-global-warming-pollution-30-by-2050

A comprehensive plan to make our nation’s buildings more efficient could save enough energy by 2030 to power all of the nation’s cars, homes and businesses for a year and a half, while saving Americans more than $500 billion, according to a new report by PennEnvironment. These findings offer a preview of what Pennsylvania could achieve by adopting green building policies, such as the statewide green building code proposed by Governor Rendell in February, and the many policies being pushed by state and local officials who joined PennEnvironment in releasing the report.

“Green buildings are a triple win for Pennsylvania, saving us money on energy bills, cutting global warming pollution, and helping to secure our energy future,” said Nathan Willcox, Energy & Clean Air Advocate for PennEnvironment. “We have the technologies to realize these benefits, and now we need the policies to put these solutions to work.”

Nearly half of America’s energy—and 10 percent of the energy used in the world—goes towards powering our buildings, and much of that energy is wasted. And buildings account for 40 percent of total U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, a major contributor to global warming. But PennEnvironment’s new report, Building a Better Future: Moving Toward Zero Pollution With Highly Efficient Homes and Businesses, found that by renovating old buildings, and ensuring new buildings use 50 percent less energy within ten years and are “zero energy” by 2030, we can cut U.S. global warming emissions at least 34 percent by 2050. The report also outlines policy steps that local, state and federal officials can take to promote green buildings and make these benefits a reality.
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PennEnvironment’s report calls for a comprehensive plan to make buildings more efficient, including:
• Upgrading and enforcing building energy codes to require 30 percent greater efficiency by 2012 and 50 percent greater efficiency by 2018, and have all new buildings and renovated buildings meet these codes;
• Setting codes to have all new buildings be “zero energy” by 2030, whereby energy efficiency advancements enable on-site renewable energy to meet all of the building’s energy needs; and
• Stimulating investments in energy efficiency retrofits in all existing commercial and residential buildings before 2030.

The report then calculated the potential nationwide economic, energy and environmental benefits that could be achieved by adopting these measures, including:
• Saving 144 quadrillion British Thermal Units (BTUs) of energy, or enough energy to power all of America’s homes, businesses, cars, and power plants for a year and a half;
• Preventing 11.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, nearly equivalent to the annual carbon dioxide emissions of the U.S. and China combined; and
• Paying back upfront costs and netting more than $542 billion in energy savings from renovating existing buildings by 2031.

The recently passed American Reinvestment and Recovery Act represented a first and important step at the federal level towards increasing the energy efficiency of our buildings. This legislation provided $25 billion for weatherization and energy-efficient upgrades for commercial and government buildings.
...

PennEnvironment www.pennenvironment.org
May 13, 2009

Link: http://www.solarcentury.co.uk/Press/Press-Releases/Solar-electricity-as-cheap-as-conventional-electricity-in-UK-by-2013

A common assumption, in Government and the traditional energy industry, is that solar electricity will not be as cheap as conventional electricity from coal, gas and nuclear power for more than two decades. For this apparent reason, solar photovoltaics (PV) have tended to play a very minor role in UK energy policy scenarios to date. Yet globally, the solar photovoltaics market is the fastest-growing of all energy markets. In the first three quarters of 2008 more than half of all venture capital investments in cleantech went into PV. ... The spectacularly fast growth of the German solar market in recent years shows that this revolution applies just as much to cloudy countries as sunny regions (4). And even in the UK solar PV has been by far the most popular renewable energy technology in the governments Low Carbon Buildings Programme. Now, new data contradicts the old assumptions.

On May 13, 2009 Solarcentury presented a new analysis showing that solar roofs on British homes will be generating electricity as cheap as conventional electricity ( a situation known as "grid parity") by 2013, and progressively cheaper each year thereafter. The race to grid parity is a major focus for the global solar industry. The numbers the company uses are from a recent study for the Department of Business by independent consultants, from field-tested performance data from Solarcentury's own numerous installations around the UK and in line with the Government's own modelling, and from prices available to the company from supply partners around the world. The details of the analysis are in the attached annex.

Derry Newman, Solarcentury Chief executive and former Managing Director of Sony UK, said: "even with conservative assumptions about electricity price inflation in the next few years, the solar industry has the potential to beat conventional electricity on domestic roofs within the term of the next government. If the current government allocates some of its green new deal stimulus-funding to accelerating solar into the mass market, we will be able to generate a jobs-rich new industry much faster than many people believe possible."

The German experience has shown that tens of thousands of jobs can be created within just a few years. Every megawatt of solar PV capacity creates 7-11 jobs, compared to less than 3 for every megawatt of wind power and 1 to every megawatt of coal and gas-fired generation.

Jeremy Leggett, Solarcentury Executive Chairman and an experienced investor in the solar industry overseas, said: "The feed-in tariff that the government has said it will bring in from April 2010 is vital. A burst of premium-pricing for solar energy, of the kind now on offer in 18 European countries, will stimulate a very fast-growing market, and if the green new deal involves explosive growth of energy-efficiency markets in parallel - as it must - people will be amazed at how much of the government's UK renewable-electricity target solar will be able to meet by 2020. The feed-in tariff will be ramped down over a few years. This is not like nuclear, where the market has to be underwritten with public money essentially for ever."

The full report can be downloaded at http://www.solarcentury.co.uk/content/download/15081/262086/file/UK-PV-report-03-09.pdf

Solarcentury is one of Europe’s leading solar energy companies, specialising in the design and supply of building integrated solar thermal and solar electric technology. Solarcentury is in business for a purpose: to help create a cleaner world and a sustainable future. The company offers support and guidance throughout the entire micro renewable planning and development process, from land appraisal through to design, installation and marketing.

Solar Century www.solarcentury.co.uk
Press Release dated May 13, 2009

Link: http://www.foe.org/report-sounds-alarm-subprime-carbon-and-need-regulate-carbon-markets

If it is not structured properly, global warming legislation could lead to the creation of an enormous, poorly regulated derivatives market with failures mirroring those that led to the current financial crisis, according to a report released today by Friends of the Earth U.S.

The report, Subprime Carbon? Re-thinking the World’s Largest New Derivatives Market, finds that existing financial regulations, as well as those in major cap-and-trade bills, are inadequate to govern carbon trading, creating a potentially huge regulatory gap.

“Global warming has reached a crisis point, and it’s imperative that Congress move quickly to put solutions in place, but it’s also important to be careful and do this the right way from the start,” said Michelle Chan, a senior policy analyst at Friends of the Earth and the author of the report. “If we aren’t careful, we could end up creating a massive, poorly regulated derivatives market that not only poses risks to the broader financial markets, but also undermines efforts to save the climate.”

The report outlines how lessons from the current financial crisis apply to carbon markets, which could become the largest derivatives markets in the world. In particular, it raises concerns about “subprime carbon,” risky carbon credits based on uncompleted offset projects (projects designed to sequester or reduce greenhouse gases). Subprime carbon credits may ultimately fail to reduce greenhouse gases and, like subprime mortgages, could collapse in value, yet they are already being securitized and resold in secondary markets. The report recommends that lawmakers include carbon trading in current debates about financial reform, and warns against hastily creating carbon markets without proper oversight.

“Fortunately, there are ways to minimize the environmental and financial risks of carbon trading, including prohibiting offsets and creating a stable price path for carbon,” Chan said. “We should also avoid putting all our eggs in one basket. Although many lawmakers are talking about carbon trading as if it’s the only way to reduce greenhouse gases, no single approach will solve climate change—a diverse set of complementary strategies is needed.”

The full report can be viewed at http://www.foe.org/subprimecarbon.

Friends of the Earth www.foe.org
Press Release dated March 26, 2009