REPORT URGES ADMINISTRATION TO LIMIT SHORT-LIVED POLLUTANTS

Lindsay Kalter
GHG Monitor
3/15/13

The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) this week joined the growing list of organizations that have recently called on the Obama Administration to take more aggressive emissions-reduction measures in the absence of Congressional action. C2ES released a policy brief this week offering various recommendations that would cut short-lived climate pollutants, namely black carbon, methane and hydrofluorocarbons, from the atmosphere. The report calls for a “two-pronged approach” that would focus both on the reduction of carbon dioxide, which can remain in the air for more than a decade, and pollutants with shorter atmospheric lifetimes ranging from a few weeks to a few decades like black carbon. “Reductions in these pollutants are critical to slowing the near-term rate of climate change, and they represent really the best chance of keeping temperature change under the 2°C threshold that’s been adopted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,” said C2ES Senior Adviser Stephen Seidel, co-author of the paper, during a media teleconference.

The brief says limiting black carbon, or soot—“one of the most potent, but short-lived contributors to climate change”—can be done in part by expanding the Environmental Protection Agency’s existing regulations on diesel engines. Although EPA has made efforts to significantly reduce black carbon from new diesel engines, the report says these rules should include an incentive-based program to retrofit or replace the 11 million old engines on the road today. “EPA has issued rules that specify strict limits that will significantly reduce black carbon and other particles from new diesel vehicles,” the document states. “However, because properly maintained diesels are very long lasting, it will be decades before most of the older, higher polluting vehicles will be replaced with clean ones.”

In addition, the analysis proposes further regulation of methane emissions from the burgeoning natural gas industry under the Clean Air Act. The analysis notes that methane comprises 10 percent of the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions, and that natural gas accounts for more than 30 percent of methane emissions in the United States. As it stands, hazardous air pollutants for oil and gas production and processing are regulated by a pair of recent EPA rulemakings. The report states that the rules, which include measures to limit emissions from hydraulic fracturing, indirectly reduce methane emissions. However, the authors say that more can be done to address methane directly. “Requirements under the EPA rules have taken a first step,” co-author and principal of Vision Air Consulting John Bachmann said during the conference call. “But if EPA actually changed the rule or added a new rule that said what we’re regulating for production is, in fact, methane, then it would also not only address new sources, but also modifications that could happen at existing sources.” The report also recommends that EPA list coal mining as a major source category of greenhouse gas emissions, and provide state-by-state guidance that could help set standards for new sources and regulate existing ones.

Pressure Mounts for Executive Action

The report encourages President Obama to take action by regulating emissions from federal agencies. The analysis recommends the issuance of an executive order that mandates these agencies to “lead by example” by purchasing products made without HFCs. President Obama already signed an executive order in 2009 asking federal agencies to develop greenhouse gas-reduction plans that included short-lived climate pollutants. However, the report notes that few agencies have adhered to the order’s requests. “The Administration could issue a new executive order with the explicit goal of mandating a number of specific steps requiring federal agencies to do more to leverage their resources to reduce SLCPs,” the report says. 

C2ES is the latest in a string of NGOs, lawmakers and environmental groups to offer recommendations for emissions-reductions measures that could be spearheaded by the executive branch given the current Congressional gridlock. The World Resources Institute recently released an analysis pushing the administration to significantly ramp up its emissions reduction efforts in order to reach its stated goal of achieving a 17 percent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels by 2020. The Natural Resource Defense Council released a proposal in December encouraging the Obama Administration to take similar action, which it said would reduce emissions 26 percent by the end of the decade. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) launched a bicameral task force last month aimed at formulating recommendations for how the President can limit climate change without Congressional action, which the pair said during a press conference would include boosting standards for new and existing power plants. Four Democrats also floated a discussion draft of carbon pricing legislation this week.

A report published earlier this year concluded that the effects of black carbon on the climate are far worse than initially thought. The study, which was conducted by nearly three-dozen atmospheric scientists and is considered one of the most comprehensive ever done on the pollutant, said that black carbon is the second-most dangerous human contribution to the climate after carbon dioxide. The analysis says that even though soot stays in the atmosphere for a relatively short period of time, it still packs two-thirds of the punch of CO2, roughly twice as much impact as initially believed by many researchers. The pollutant is emitted from diesel engines, open biomass burning, industrial boilers and residential cook stoves and can lead to premature death, respiratory and cardiovascular problems.