Closing Statement - Dog Days of Summer Getting Hotter

• Author: Leslie Carothers
• Position: President
• Pages: 60-60

Page 60 ❧ THE ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM Copyright © 2010, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.

Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, Sept./Oct. 2010

ELI Report

The summer of 2010 has been

bad news for the environ-

ment. e Deepwater Horizon

drilling rig explosion and months of

oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico

caused tragic loss of life and harm to

the region’s unique ecosystem and

the livelihoods of many residents.

Oil giant BP and its U.S. government

overseers demonstrated a lack of fore-

sight and competence, although the

private and public sector responders

went all out to control the damage

once the explosion occurred.

An environmental disaster in the

fossil fuel extraction sector had the

perverse ef‌fect of distracting and not

motivating the U.S. Senate to act on

energy and climate legislation. e

Senate may manage to approve legisla-

tion dealing with the oil spill liability

regime and the organization of the De-

partment of the Interior’s oil and gas

programs, but such issues are less im-

portant than the need to diversify the

country’s energy sources and mobilize

the modern energy technology waiting

for a price signal from a cap on carbon

emissions.

A recent report by the National

Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-

tration concludes that the last decade

was the warmest since recordkeeping

began in the 1880s. e dif‌f‌iculty of

adopting a complex, market-based

regulatory program in today’s dismal

economy explains but does not excuse

abandonment of the climate issue by

many senators who know better.

On the positive side, we are relearn-

ing old lessons about industrial safety

and sharpening existing legal tools to

reduce greenhouse gas emissions. e

replacement of BP’s CEO is the right

response to leadership failures beyond

public relations gaf‌fes. Independent

media report that the drilling opera-

tion was rushed and did not comply

with the company’s own procedures,

ostensibly to save time and money.

ese pressures are constant in indus-

try and must be countered by the tone

and priorities set by management,

starting at the top. BP has had very

serious accidents before. is time, the

new guy needs to walk the talk.

It is also encouraging that the big

four petroleum companies (other than

BP) are investing $1 billion to upgrade

their joint capability to respond to

future drilling accidents. Industry lead-

ers were embarrassed by references to

protecting walruses in a number of

their gulf spill plans, clear evidence of

their lack of attention to the contents.

e companies deserve credit for mar-

shaling their considerable expertise to

develop and work with public sector

experts on new plans tailored to the

real risks of deep ocean drilling. And

we are seeing new attention in policy

circles to how the public process of

environmental assessment can be

strengthened to take better account of

low probability, high impact risks in

the ocean and other commons.

e goal of reducing greenhouse

gas emissions is not lost. Federal leg-

islation remains the most f‌lexible and

cost-ef‌fective framework for cutting

emissions. But without it, there are still

plenty of policies and programs at all

levels of government to move the U.S.

closer to the goal of reducing emis-

sions by 17 percent over 2005 levels by

2020. at is the House bill’s objective

and was endorsed by the president at

Copenhagen last December.

A report from the World Resources

Institute examines a set of scenarios re-

lying on federal authorities to regulate

air pollution and vehicle and product

energy ef‌f‌iciency, among others, com-

bined with state reduction targets and

regional emission reduction plans. e

authors, Franz Litz and Nicholas Bian-

co, conclude that a “go getter” scenario

could yield a 14 percent reduction in

emissions, without considering the

impacts of programs like municipal

building ef‌f‌iciency standards and

changes in agriculture or forestry.

Action by EPA to regulate station-

ary source emissions is the boogie man

for fossil fuel partisans. e agency

will introduce carbon dioxide controls

in permitting large new and modif‌ied

sources early next year. Even if there

were congressional action to delay all

regulation of stationary source green-

house gases, the agency’s plans for

other electric utility pollutants (sulfur

dioxide, ozone, particulate matter, and

mercury) should signal the end of the

line for the 55 gigawatts of coal-f‌ired

plants that are over 50 years old and

have few or no pollution controls.

Next year, the federal registry of

greenhouse gas emissions will begin to

reveal the size and distribution of the

major emitters as they report their data.

Shining light on the relative ef‌f‌iciency

of various sources may be a less potent

spur to reductions than the Toxics

Release Inventory was for chemical pol-

lutants, but this information will be of

considerable interest to investors. ey

will join environmental activists, for-

ward thinking companies, and the con-

cerned public in pressing industry lag-

gards to upgrade energy performance

even if the Senate sits on the sidelines.

Closing Statement

Dog Days of Summer Getting Hotter

Leslie Carothers

President