When it comes to energy reform on Capitol Hill, there’s a lot of maneuvering going on right now. So far this year, seven different pieces of legislation from both democrats and republicans have either been introduced, passed Senate committee or passed in the House. Melaine Nutter, an aid for Congresswoman and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi stated very clearly at a recent Business Council on Climate Change meeting that Pelosi has made climate legislation one of the flagship issues of her leadership.
With Pelosi at the helm, the House of Representatives as passed one of the seven bills, called the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES). It would include a cap and trade on carbon emissions, require the EPA to set vehicle greenhouse gas emissions standards, increase incentives for plug in vehicles, bring more efficiency to buildings and promote performance standards for coal fired power plants. In addition, it would require the country get at least 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 42% by 2030.
However, it’s up the the Senate to finish the job of putting a price on carbon emissions and building a new, green and cleaner energy economy. As it stands today, the American Power Act, introduced by Senators John Kerry and Joe Liberman is likely to be the foundation with which the Senate forms is version of climate and energy legislation. This month the Congressional Budget Office scored their bill and said that it would cut the deficit by $19 billion over the next decade via cap and trade revenue. This bill calls for increased off shore drilling as well as many of the programs in the ACES bill. It is slightly more lenient in terms of a renewable energy procurement, requiring only 15 percent of energy produced in the US come from renewable sources by 2020, as opposed to the 20 percent in the House ACES bill. However, the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions mirror that of ACES- a 42 percent reduction by 2030.
Once the Senate gets around to passing its own version of climate legislation, it will have to be rectified with the House's ACES bill. Time will tell whether the comprised legislation has enough teeth in it to put a dent in carbon offsets, reduce climate change and accelerate our path to a cleaner energy economy. At that point some may argue the bill isn't worth President Obama's signature. Then again others might be happy with the incremental improvements we get.
Climate change
Climate Legislation for 2010 Update
Connecting to the GRID
I had the pleasure of attending ConnectivityWeek on behalf of EcoTuesday last week which was held in Santa Clara, CA. ConnectivityWeek is a collection of events that together focus on the application of Information Technology (IT) on the energy challenges facing the world, challenges as illustrated by climate change and the need for sustainability. Spanning all the major industries and energy consumption areas of commercial, residential, industrial and infrastructure, conference sessions at ConnectivityWeek explores how IT can be leveraged towards the new energy paradigm facing the world. Co-located at ConnectivityWeek was a conference and an exposition on key enabling technologies and applications required to make the future energy vision a reality.
The conference was kicked of by a keynote by the father of the Internet – Vint Cerf. As he states “Smart Grid is only the beginning” and “The good thing about the Internet is: everything is connected. The bad thing about the Internet is: everything is connected.”
With more than 1,300 attendees and 270 speakers meeting to discuss the current state of the Smart Grid and what the futures holds, these are certainly “electrifying” times. Looking back, this conference first took place in 2006 and since then, the term “Smart Grid” has become a common term in our everyday vocabulary among entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, utilities, government, and many technology leaders.
With so many players in the market and solutions to choose from, the ultimate winner will be us as the consumer and the environment. Why the “environment”? We will be smarter consumers with smarter devices thus allowing us to make smarter choices in how we use and mange devices not only at work but at home. Sustainability in action both directly and indirectly as we connect/disconnect to the GRID.
To learn more about the conference, please visit their website http://www.connectivityweek.com/2010/. In addition, ConnectivityWeek will return to the Santa Clara Convention Center from May 23 to May 26, 2011.
Dave Rochlin Rocked EcoTuesday on March 23rd!
Climatepath’s mission could be summed up in one sentence – “make consumers aware of the real carbon economy and not limit them to the market economy”.
This is what Dave Rochlin, CEO of Climatepath, expounded during the last week’s EcoTuesday event. We are living in a capitalist society, where we believe price is always set by market forces, supply and demand. We also believe that the true cost of a product is already reflected in the price we pay. But contrary to the wisdom, market forces subsidize the product cost in many ways. What we pay may be just the production cost (fixed cost + variable cost + transportation cost). But, each product has its own lifecycle and many of the lifecycle costs are hidden from the consumer.
When we pay less for the products we use, we are actually pushing the problem to another part of the world or to the next generation. Therefore awareness needs to be created in the society regarding these costs. Dave demonstrated the lack of awareness by posing three simple questions to the audience:
(1) Do you use organic material because it is good for the environment? – Many hands went up.
(2) Do you use fair trade products and practices so that you are aware of how the product is produced? – Again many hands went up.
(3) Do you buy carbon offsets to reduce your carbon footprint? – None of the audience raised their hands.
Dave mentioned simple steps to adopt conservation in everyday life:
Wash clothes in cold water – the detergents work great in cold water as well as hot water. Washing in cold water cuts the fuel consumption tremendously. Also drying them in sunlight really helps.
Transportation, esp. air transportation is the biggest user of fuel. Cutting down non-essential travel, limiting the air travel to few trips per year can really help with the fuel consumption.
Dave is big on technology help to solve the sustainability problem. He suggests usage of network computing, cloud, storage on network as possible solution to prevent people migration.
Overall, the talk was both entertaining and enchanting for an audience of nearly 12 people (26 registrants). Dave truly rocked!!
Climate Change and a Future Low Carbon Economy
Dave Rochlin to speak at ECOTUESDAY on a future of low carbon economy.
Dave is the CEO of ClimatePath, a leading provider of solutions to help businesses measure and reduce their climate impact. Climate path also has a voluntary ethical offset marketplace where businesses and individuals can support verified carbon credit generating projects that match their values and interests. He has an extensive background in the international NGO and social enterprise sector, as well as in technology, consumer products, and consulting. Dave was previously a COO of the NGO Transfair USA. He left TransFair to start ClimatePath with the idea that the principals of transparency and sustainable development that underlie fair trade should also be applied to carbon footprinting, reduction, and offsetting.
Dave speaks and writes frequently on green business, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability, and teaches both innovation strategy and ethics in the executive MBA program at St. Mary’s College.
Attend the Ecotuesday March event at Silicon Valley and learn with Dave how the carbon markets, footprinting, conservation, energy management, green innovation, mandates and legislation is helping in averting the climate crisis.
The Copenhagen Climate Conference - How You Can Participate
The time is now! The Copenhagen Climate Conference, probably the biggest, most important global conference on climate, is happening Dec 7-18, 2009. That is three months from now. It is a United Nations conference committed to creating an agreement as a planet on how to take dramatic action to reduce global warming. There are 3 challenges to address with this plan: the targets and specific actions to take to reach those targets, financing, and building a global carbon market that is effective.
