Greening the grid and climate justice.

• Author: Kaswan, Alice
• Position: Greening the Grid Building a Legal Framework for Carbon Neutrality

1. INTRODUCTION II. THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS AND RISKS OF REDUCING GHGS A. Enviromnental Benefits and Risks 1. Fossil Fuels and Environmental Injustice 2. Environmental Benefits 3. Environmental Risks B. Potential Economic Benefits and Risks 1. Existing Disparities 2. Energy Transformation's Economic Opportunities a. Alternative Energy Development in Disadvantaged Areas b. Urban Revitalization c. Implications for Climate Policy 3. The Economic Risks of Greening the Grid a. Potential Regressive Impacts b. Addressing Climate Change Policies' Adverse Economic Impact C. The California Example: A Comprehensive Approach III. THE POLITICS OF INTEGRATING CLIMATE JUSTICE INTO CLIMATE POLICY IV. PARTICIPATORY JUSTICE I. INTRODUCTION

   Policymakers in Washington and in statehouses around the nation are debating climate change policy. The central concern is, of course, reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs). But when? By whom? How? The answers to these questions have critical implications for renewable energy's role in climate policy. In this Essay, I argue that climate justice considerations, like environmental and economic justice for the most vulnerable, provide strong support for a transformative approach that weans the nation from fossil fuels and greens the grid.

   Scientists exhort that dramatic reductions in GHG emissions are necessary to avoid catastrophic impacts from climate change. (1) The most recent federal legislative proposal sets an ambitious goal: an eighty-three percent reduction from 2005 emission levels by 2050. (2) While some may argue that we should delay significant reductions, (3) or pursue strategies that do not require an expensive investment in alternative energy, (4) reductions of this magnitude cannot be achieved without relinquishing our reliance on fossil fuels. (5)

   Moreover, as this Essay will elaborate, climate justice principles justify a rapid transition to renewable energy. (6) From a broader social welfare perspective that incorporates the full benefits and costs of policy strategies, carefully designed efforts to green the grid could provide net societal benefits even if they appear more expensive than less transformative options.

   Climate justice is relevant not only to the issue of whether (and at what rate) to green the grid, it is highly relevant to the development of alternative energy policy itself. Climate policy presents a "democratic moment"--a time to consider our basic infrastructure and its ideal design. (7) Green jobs advocate Van Jones states that "[t]oday the clean-tech revolution and the transformation of our aging energy infrastructure are poised to become the next great engines for American innovation, productivity and job growth, and social equity gains." (8) He argues that "we have the chance to build this new energy economy in ways that reflect our deepest values of inclusion, diversity, and equal opportunity for everyone." (9) A comprehensive approach that integrates the environmental and economic ramifications of the new energy infrastructure can most effectively maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of the transition ahead. (10)

   Some of the opportunities created by alternative energy, like increasing U.S. energy security and stimulating green technology development, have been widely discussed. (11) Less attention has been given to "climate justice"--to integrating environmental and economic justice into comprehensive energy planning. This Essay argues that as strategies to green the grid are developed, policymakers should integrate goals like reducing co-pollutants, ameliorating impacts on low-income consumers, and creating economic opportunities.

   Part II of this Essay focuses on renewable energy's environmental and economic benefits and risks. Part III grapples with a critical political question: Would a comprehensive approach frustrate or further the enactment of federal climate legislation? While the answer is complicated, this Essay argues that, on balance, a comprehensive approach could enhance the prospects of federal legislation. Finally, in Part IV, this Essay notes the importance of a participatory process for evolving green energy policy.

2. THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS AND RISKS OF REDUCING GHGs

   1. Environmental Benefits and Risks

      1. Fossil Fuels and Environmental Injustice

         Climate policies are likely not only to reduce GHGs but also to significantly impact co-pollutant emissions. The same combustion processes that generate carbon dioxide generate locally hazardous air pollutants. (12) By reducing fossil fuel combustion, greening the grid could serve a critical environmental justice function.

         The nation's reliance on fossil fuels has led to extensive air pollution, including sulfur and nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, particulates, mercury, and other hazardous components. (13) Emissions are disproportionately concentrated in disadvantaged areas (14) since many of the most significant emissions sources, like refineries, power plants, transportation corridors, ports, and other industrial land uses, are located in poor and minority neighborhoods. Power plant emissions have contributed to persistent ozone nonattainment in many parts of the nation, (15) and coalfired power plants are a significant source of mercury pollution. (16) Although the federal Clean Air Act (17) has improved air quality in its four decades of implementation, many areas of the country continue to fail to meet minimum public health standards. (18)

         Concentrated areas of pollution have created significant public health and welfare consequences. For example, fossil fuel-generated nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compound emissions create ozone, which causes heart and respiratory problems and is strongly linked to increased asthma, an affliction that is particularly severe in the African American population. (19) Mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants settle in water bodies and enter the food chain, creating a neurological risk for fish eaters. (20) A recent study analyzing the public health benefits that would result from recently-proposed federal climate legislation estimates that the economic value of reducing copollutants is substantial, independent of the economic benefits associated with avoided climate change. (21) The consequences of these public health threats fall not only on those directly exposed, but on society as a whole through higher medical costs, lost school and work days, and lower productivity. (22)

      2. Environmental Benefits

         The environmental benefits flowing from co-pollutant reductions are significant. Replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources like solar, wind, water, and wave energy creates a critical opportunity to reduce fossil fuel pollution and its associated public health impacts. (23) Several studies have projected that climate policies will lead to substantial reductions in harmful co-pollutants from fossil fuel combustion. (24) California, in assessing the public health benefits associated with its proposed strategy for reducing emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, has identified significant reductions in air pollution from proposed reductions in fossil fuel use in general and the use of renewable energy in particular. (25) The disadvantaged communities hardest hit by nonattainment would benefit the most. (26)

         The co-pollutant reduction benefits that flow from greening the grid have important implications for climate policy. They provide additional arguments against delay. Delaying transformation in the hope that carbon sequestration and storage or climate engineering will ultimately solve the carbon problem becomes a less appealing option when the ancillary environmental benefits of transitioning away from fossil fuels are taken into account. (27)

         Moreover, incorporating environmental co-benefits changes the calculus for determining the best mix of mechanisms for reaching GHG reduction targets. For example, one of the most contested realms of climate change policy is the extent to which facilities subject to a cap-and-trade program should be allowed to use offsets. (28) Under a cap-and-trade program, facilities receive or purchase allowances and can trade allowances with other regulated facilities. Some facilities reduce emissions and sell the extra allowances, while others maintain or increase their emissions and purchase allowances to account for them. (29) A critical question is whether regulated entities should be allowed to not only buy allowances from other regulated. facilities, but buy "offsets" from sources outside of the regulated sectors--in other words, whether they should be permitted to pay nonregulated entities to "offset" their emissions. (30) Should U.S. companies be able to buy cheaper offsets from developing countries, rather than reducing themselves? Similarly, should U.S. companies be able to buy offsets from farmers or timber companies for their biological carbon sequestration rather than reducing emissions? Offsets are politically appealing because they are likely to reduce the cost of achieving GHG reductions for emissions-generating sectors and likely to create profit opportunities for offset-generating sectors. (31)

         The most recent legislative proposal, the Waxman-Markey bill, allows liberal use of international and domestic offsets. (32) Assuming the offset policy worked as intended, (33) offsets would lead to GHG reductions, and would lower the net cost of achieving a given goal. According to some calculations, however, under Waxman-Markey the electricity sector could comply with the law by using offsets and would not have to reduce its own emissions until 2025. (34) That type of generous offset policy would allow the electricity sector to avoid making actual reductions and would significantly reduce the incentives for greening the grid. As a consequence, allowing the liberal use of offsets would reduce the co-pollutant reduction benefits associated with a...