Emissions Standards and Global Warming
Wald, Matthew. (15 Feb 2007). “Study Questions Prospects for Much Lower Emissions.”
The New York Times. Retrieved 16 Feb 2007 at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/15/business/15carbon.html?ref=science&pagewanted=print
Congress, in response to the 1990 Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, has begun to respond to demands that the United States address the crisis of global warming in a meaningful fashion. Recently, Congress has attempted to place mandatory caps upon emissions. However, the utility industry argues that it will take “decades” before they are able to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. A report of the Electric Power Research Institute states electrical companies will need more than 20 years of investment and research to reduce their emissions below the levels of 1990. “The 1990 Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which the Bush administration declined to support in 2001, calls for emissions from large industrial nations to be below 1990 levels by about the year 2010” (Wald, 2007). Electric companies are responsible for one-third of America’s global warming gases.
One of the researchers on the Electrical Power study, Dr. Brian Hannegan, worked as an environmental and economic adviser to the White House and on the Republican staff of the Senate Energy Committee. He called the report optimistic even as it currently stands, noting that: “cutting carbon dioxide…would mean pursuing every option, including energy efficiency, zero-carbon wind and sun power; new nuclear reactors; coal plants that capture and sequester their carbon; and even plug-in hybrid electric cars, which would require making more electricity but would reduce carbon dioxide and save gasoline” (Wald, 2007). To fulfill the Kyoto Protocol, the report also called for increased use of nuclear power, a highly controversial energy source, as well as increased use of solar and wind power, and coal plants that would capture their carbon dioxide, compress it and pipe it underground for sequestration. An environmental lobbying group, the Natural Resource Defense Fund, stated that the industry group’s projections would not provide the necessary savings soon enough (Wald, 2007).
This article serves as an important reminder of the frequent conflict between science and politics. Science suggests two different hypothesis — one, that the Kyoto Protocols are feasible, another that they are not. Democrats, in defiance of an unpopular president who is largely viewed as sympathetic to big business interests and hostile to the environment; wish to pass more stringent mandatory requirements, as they are proud their new legislative majority. Industry analysts say these standards are impossible to meet. Environmental lobbying groups with a different political agenda challenge industry scientists. Much of the technology used to cut emissions is in an experimental stage, and it is uncertain if it is economically feasible or even effective. The report also suggests consumers purchase more hybrid cars, but consumer concern for fuel efficiency seems to be waning rather than increasing, unlike the presence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Congress can limit consumer choice, but this, along with other suggestions such as increased use of nuclear power, is a controversial prospect.
Increasing consumer investments such as tax breaks and hybrid vehicles to engage in environmental conservation is one way to use the market to influence the demand side for products, encouraging consumption of products that help rather than hurt meet the Kyoto standards (Field & Field, 2006). Also, using tax incentives for utility companies that are actively researching and deploying conservation technology might be another way to create improved compliance. But whether these incentives will truly produce enough of a behavior modification remains unclear, and as scientists continue to debate how much of global warming is human-generated and thus alterable, the ability of incentives to influence supply and demand in a meaningful way that will impact the environment remains murky.
Works Cited
Field, Barry C. & Martha K. Field. (2006). Environmental Economics: An Introduction.
4th Edition. Boston: Irwin/McGraw Hill.
Wald, Matthew. (15 Feb 2007). “Study Questions Prospects for Much Lower Emissions.”
The New York Times. Retrieved 16 Feb 2007 at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/15/business/15carbon.html?ref=science&pagewanted=print
