You asked what states are doing to control carbon dioxide (CO₂)

emissions.

SUMMARY

CO₂ and other greenhouse gases, produced in large part by the burning of fossil fuels, trap heat in the atmosphere. Environmentalists believe that this global warming will result in a wide range of harmful effects, including hotter summers, more frequent droughts, the melting of polar ice caps causing a rise in sea level, impaired air quality and higher rates of respiratory disease. We have attached Report 2002-R-0536, which discusses global warming in more detail.

Although global warming is seen as an international problem, the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, a non-profit, non-partisan organization, recently reported on a variety of approaches individual states are taking to address the problem. We summarize some of these approaches below and have attached a copy of the report, "Greenhouse & Statehouse: The Evolving State Government Role in Climate Change," issued in November 2002. It is also available on-line at http: //www. pewclimate. org/projects/states_greenhouse. cfm

While states have made some strides, there are limits on the extent to which they can reduce greenhouse gases, including CO₂. Some states refuse to address greenhouse gas reduction as a matter of policy, and many others lack the financial resources to tackle the issue. There also is the inherent dilemma that states taking individual approaches to a global problem will create a patchwork of programs difficult to coordinate.

THE PEW REPORT ON STATE APPROACHES TO CLIMATE CHANGE

Report author Barry Rabe, professor of environmental policy at the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment, notes that many states have become increasingly active in addressing global warming. They have enacted policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by promoting renewable energy and air pollution control, and in fields as diverse as agriculture and forestry, waste management, transportation and energy development.

About one third of the states have approved new legislation or enacted executive orders intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions since January 2000. Particularly noteworthy is California's adoption this year of CO₂ standards for motor vehicles (see below).

Rabe notes that some of these states dealt directly with the environmental issues presented by global warming, while others emphasized the economic development advantages in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The report examines the approaches taken in Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, and Wisconsin. We briefly summarize each approach below.

Georgia and Transportation

The Atlanta area emphasizes a series of voluntary initiatives designed to raise public awareness about and reduce reliance on traditional transportation. Officials are encouraging residents to use expanded mass transit, bike, walk, and use carpools, and to take advantage of flexible working hours and ride-matching programs. It is estimated that fewer vehicle miles traveled in 2001 resulted in 79,333 fewer tons of CO₂ a year.

Massachusetts' Multi-Pollutant Cap Strategy

In April 2001, Massachusetts became the first state to set a cap on multiple pollutants, including CO_2, emitted from operational power plants. Massachusetts requires each of six coal and oil plants to reduce CO₂ levels by 10% from their 1997-99 levels by the end of the decade. (Plants converting to natural gas have until October 2008 to do so. Plants adopting other strategies must do so by 2006. ) New Hampshire followed Massachusetts' lead. Its multi-pollutant law requires three existing fossil fuel plants to stabilize their CO₂ emissions at 1990 levels, which is about 3% below 1999 levels.

New Jersey's Comprehensive Approach

New Jersey is the first state to establish an official greenhouse gas reduction goal, planning to reduce total releases to 3. 5% below 1990 levels by 2005. To achieve this overall goal, the state set specific goals for various sectors, including energy, transportation, waste management and natural resource conservation. It also has encouraged "covenants," in which organizations pledge to reduce their emissions in accordance with the state goal. Covenant signers include corporations, a military base, all of the state's colleges and universities, public schools, and a nonprofit organization representing nine religious denominations and more than 6,000 New Jersey congregations. The state may surpass its 2005 goal by 1%, largely because of increased reliance on nuclear power, and may set a more ambitious target. The state also requires that utility customers receive information about the environmental characteristics (including CO₂ emissions) of the electricity they use.

Oregon's Siting of New Energy Facilities

Oregon created North America's first formal standard for CO₂ releases from new electricity generating stations. It requires that any new or expanded power plant attain a level of CO₂ releases of 0. 675 pounds per kilowatt hour, which is 17% below the most efficient natural gas-fired plant currently operating in the U. S. Plants can meet this standard through new technology or purchase CO₂ offsets through contributions to carbon mitigation projects, such as solar rural electrification, methane use at sewage treatment plants and coal mines, and reforestation. The state also created a nonprofit organization that purchases CO₂ offsets with funds provided by power plant developers. (In May 2002, this organization contracted to plant native hardwood trees in an Ecuadorian rainforest).

Texas Wind Power

Texas is one of 16 states (including Connecticut) that have enacted legislation requiring utilities to provide a certain percentage of their total electricity offer from renewable power sources (renewable portfolio standards). (Connecticut requires that 13% of its electricity come from renewable energy sources by 2009). Renewable energy sources include solar and wind power.

Texas began looking at alternative sources after it became a net energy importer in the early 1990s. Between 1999 and January 2002, it increased its wind power capacity from 187 megawatts to 1,101 megawatts. This enabled it to reduce CO₂ emissions by 1. 83 million tons a year, and to consider increasing its goal of obtaining between 3% and 4% of its electricity from renewable sources by the end of this decade.

The Pew report states that Texas officials were surprised to find out that citizens were more concerned with long-term reliability of supply than cost, and that the renewable energy measure succeeded in part because officials characterized the measure as an incremental step to increase long-term electrical supply in an environmentally friendly way not as a way of addressing global warming.

Wisconsin and Mandatory Emission Reporting

Wisconsin established mandatory reporting for large CO₂ generators in 1993, and remains the only governmental body in the U. S. with this requirement. All facilities releasing more than 100,000 tons of CO₂ annually must participate. Other facilities can and do report voluntarily.

Other States

Other states have concentrated their CO₂ reduction efforts on industries and resources particularly important to them_. Nebraska, for example, has focused on agriculture and a policy to store carbon in the soil, becoming the first state to tie farm policy to greenhouse gas reduction. It is exploring ways to trade carbon credits with European nations or Canada. Illinois, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Wyoming have adopted similar legislation.

Similarly, Minnesota began a tree-planting program after research showed it might be possible to increase the amount of carbon stored in its forests by 25%. But this "Releaf" program has been plagued by funding problems in recent years. (Minnesota also has adopted legislation that quantifies the environmental costs associated with each method of electricity generation and uses that figure when evaluating generation options. )

North Carolina, which is the nation's leading producer of meat and animal products, has worked with its hog producers to revamp waste handling methods in ways that will reduce the amount of methane they produce, as well as use the methane to drive electrical generators.

Regional Cooperation

The report notes that the governors of the New England states and the premiers of five eastern Canadian provinces have set goals to reduce regional greenhouse gas emissions, and laid the groundwork for a regional greenhouse gas inventory and registry. The group also may consider adding other states, such as New Jersey, New York and Maryland.

CALIFORNIA'S GLOBAL WARMING LAW

In July 2002, California governor Gray Davis signed into law a bill requiring California to adopt regulations to reduce emissions of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases from cars and light trucks registered in that state. We have attached Reports 2002-R-0796 and 2002-R-0652, which discuss that legislation in detail.

The motor vehicle industry has announced plans to challenge the California law in court. So far, it has not brought a lawsuit.

The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a national environmental organization that supports the California law, has drafted a memorandum for states that wish to follow California's lead.

Under the federal Clean Air Act (42 USC 7401 et seq. ) California may set its own motor vehicle emission standards, as long as they are stricter than the federal ones. It is the only state allowed to do so. However, federal law allows other states that do not meet certain National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to adopt the stricter California standards.

States must either follow the federal standard or the California standard. There can be no "third" standard (42 USC 7507). NRDC identifies 33 states, including Connecticut, eligible to adopt the California standard.

NRDC says that states wishing to adopt the California standard cannot do so piecemeal; they must adopt the entire California low emissions regime. These measures include the Low Emissions Vehicle (LEV) program, the LEV II program, and the Zero Emissions Vehicles (ZEV) program. The programs generally set increasingly stringent emission requirements for various classes of vehicles.

Connecticut and the National Low Emission Vehicle Standard

Connecticut is one of eight states that agreed not to adopt California standards through model year 2006 as part of the National Low Emission Vehicle (NLEV) program, a voluntary national program to reduce gases that contribute to smog. Connecticut will be free to adopt the California greenhouse gas emission standards when they take effect in the 2009 model year. According to NRDC, if Connecticut chooses to adopt the California standards for model year 2009, federal law requires that it do so before January 2, 2006.

NLEV's goal was to harmonize federal and California motor vehicle standards to reduce car manufacturers' costs and achieve emission reductions "equivalent to or better" than if each state adopted the California standard. Other NLEV states are Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia. The District of Columbia also is part of the NLEV program.

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