Sustainability Law Blog

Yesterday we discussed the upcoming auction of carbon dioxide emissions allowances at RGGI. Today we focus on developments at RGGI's western cousin, the Western Climate Initiative (WCI). The WCI is a consortium of seven western states and three Canadian provinces that just added its fourth Canadian member, the province of Ontario, on July 18.

On July 23, the WCI unveiled new recommendations for the scope of a carbon cap-and-trade program that each member state or province can use to develop its own program. By following the WCI recommendations, the individual programs can be linked to form a regional program. Under the recommendations, facilities emitting 25,000 or more metric tons of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases would be required to participate in the cap-and-trade programs.

California will likely be the first state to use the WCI recommendations to form a cap-and-trade program, which is required under Assembly Bill 32 passed by the state legislature in 2006. Other initiative members will likely follow suit after observing the initial performance of California's program.

Posted by David J. Petersen, partner practicing in the Sustainability and Real Estate & Land Use Practice Groups.

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Two regional climate initiatives that are common topics on this blog, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in the northeast U.S., and the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) in the west, continue to move forward with development of regional carbon trading markets.

RGGI is a bit further along. On July 24, it issued a formal notice giving potential bidders for emissions trading allowances 60 days to prepare for the first allowances auction. Six eastern states – Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont – will auction 12.5 million carbon dioxide allowances in September. Each allowance, which will permit the emission of one ton of carbon dioxide, is initially priced at $1.86, but RGGI expects the winning bid prices to be much higher. Bidders must pre-qualify through an online process. Read more about the auction process here.

Check back tomorrow for a report on what's happening at the WCI.

Posted by David J. Petersen, partner practicing in the Sustainability and Real Estate & Land Use Practice Groups.

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Governor Kulongoski recently revealed his new comprehensive water strategy initiative, Headwaters to Ocean (H2O). The initiative's primary goal is to "achieve sustainable water supplies and quality to benefit Oregon's people, communities, economy, environment and ecosystems, and fish and wildlife" in the face of the pressures of climate change and rapid population growth. The H2O initiative is part of the Governor's legislative package designed to mitigate the impacts of global warming. To fund this initiative, Governor Kulongoski intends to ask the 2009 Legislature to put a referral bill before voters requesting $100 million from projected lottery dollars per biennium for 10 years. This bill, if passed, would then be placed on the November 2010 ballot. If approved, the H2O initiative would join a new class of climate change-based initiatives funded by lottery dollars.

The use of lottery money to fund climate change-based initiatives seems to be an emerging international concept. For example, the Climate Group, an independent, not-for-profit organization that works internationally with government and business leaders to advance climate change solutions, recently secured €1.5 million (approximately $2.36 million) from the Dutch National Postcode Lottery. The monies will be used to fund a global hub for climate change leadership involving influential state and regional governments around the world, including California and New York. Similarly, an injection of ₤1.25 million (approximately $2.47 million) in lottery funds from the UK's national lottery will help to fund a project aimed at making a small Scottish town, Stirling, the UK's first carbon neutral city.

Given the fact that Oregon is considered a forerunner in sustainability in the United States. Oregon's use of innovative funding to address climate change seems befitting its status as a "green state."

Posted by Jeanette C. Schuster, Attorney practicing in the Sustainability and Real Estate and Land Use Practice Groups.

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Posted In: Climate Change , Sustainable Practices

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Nine Midwestern governors and the Canadian province of Manitoba recently signed an agreement to create a regional energy security and greenhouse gas reduction strategy. This coalition is the third regional coalition in North America, joining the Western Climate Initiative and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in the northeast. These regional initiatives show that the states continue to be the incubators for real action on global warming. This is no coincidence -- in recent surveys, 81% of Americans have said that the government should do more to combat climate change. If the feds are not going to lead on this issue, they should get out of the way and let the states and these regional coalitions respond to public sentiment by moving forward with innovative approaches to fighting climate change.

Posted by David J. Petersen, partner practicing in the Sustainability and Real Estate & Land Use Practice Groups.

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King County, Washington (which includes Seattle) recently became the first county in the nation to require a climate change impact analysis of any proposed project, as part of required environmental review. Washington state's SEPA law, like the federal NEPA, California's CEQA, and similar laws in other states promote informed decision making by requiring an evaluation of the environmental impacts of projects subject to government approval.

Because climate change science incorporates the study of so many individual environmental disciplines and the relationship between them, King County's approach is an important step forward. It reflects evolving environmental analysis towards consideration of global and regional, rather than just local, impacts.

King County, Washington may have been first, but the dominoes are falling fast. California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced a settlement of the state's lawsuit against San Bernardino County for failure to evaluate the greenhouse gas impacts of County-approved projects. The settlement requires the County to develop a comprehensive greenhouse gas reduction plan (read details of the settlement here). Brown has put several other California counties on notice that he expects the same, and some have voluntarily implemented greenhouse gas reduction measures. Massachusetts also recently began requiring evaluation of greenhouse gas impacts under its environmental review law.

This is a trend that is intended to arrest some harmful projects early in the process. It also will begin to condition local decisionmakers to habitually take climate change impacts into account when asked to approve new development.

Posted by David J. Petersen, partner practicing in the Sustainability and Real Estate & Land Use Practice Groups.

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Utah, Manitoba and British Columbia recently joined the five charter members (Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona and New Mexico) of the Western Climate Initiative, a now-international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

Initiative members will continue to pursue their own states' greenhouse gas goals also, which may be more stringent than the WCI's collective goal. The regional plan calls for each WCI partner to update the others on its emissions inventories every two years. It also details the criteria for new partners to join the group, which turn on whether the new entrant is undertaking efforts comparable to the current partners' to address climate change.

By August 2008, the WCI also expects to have designed the framework for a cap-and-trade market for emissions credits on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. In such a market-based system, businesses that can reduce emissions more cheaply and more significantly could sell their emissions allowances to companies that are less efficient at, or are unable to cut, emissions. In theory, this market-centered system leads to the most cost-effective reductions.

Notably, the Republican governors of California and Utah are strong supporters of the plan. The next step? Several other states and provinces are considering joining, including the state of Sonora in Mexico.

Scientists suggest that the world by 2050 needs to reduce carbon emissions by a whopping 50 percent to 85 percent from current levels to stave off the dangers from climate change.

Posted by David J. Petersen, partner practicing in the Sustainability and Real Estate & Land Use Practice Groups.

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