"DJ 31 States Developing Central Greenhouse Gas Registry
10/27/2006
Dow Jones News Services
(Copyright © 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
amtddj.inlumen.com
By Mark Golden
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--Thirty-one states are quietly working on a single official database to which companies may - or in some cases will have to - report emissions of greenhouse gases. This registry, if it's established, could become the foundation for reducing emissions and trading emission permits in most of the U.S.
Three different groups representing most of the Northeast, Midwest and West are working on the central registry. They have decided it makes sense to build one registry, instead of three or four regional ones. The top environmental directors in all the states have been briefed on the idea and support the discussions. However, no state has taken an official position on a centralized multi-state registry, because the idea hasn't reached the level of an official proposal.
Leaders of the nascent registry say they hope to have a written commitment from each state by the middle of next year, and a functioning registry by the end of 2007.
"Things are moving rapidly. We haven't hit any road bumps," said Joel Levin, head of business development at the California Climate Action Registry, which likely will serve as a model for the central registry because it has been operating for a few years.
Registries are an essential first step to controlling greenhouse gases, which scientists believe are the main main force behind global warming. Before emissions of greenhouse gases can be reduced either voluntarily or by law, they must be measured. Registries rely on counting standards so that everyone agrees, for example, how many tons of gases are emitted by a certain type and size of coal-fired power plant, how many tons of carbon dioxide an acre of fir trees absorbs, and how many tons of CO2, the most common greenhouse gas, are the equivalent of a more potent greenhouse gas, like methane.
Managing The Problem
"More and more people are realizing we have to manage this problem, and more and more people are realizing that you can't manage what you can't measure," said Heather Kaplan, climate policy analyst for the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management, or Nescaum. Like Levin, Kaplan is one of the leaders in trying to build a central multi-state registry.
Deadlines in California and some Northeast states are pushing the process along. California's new climate change law designates the California Climate Action Registry as the official body to which companies are to report their carbon emissions. Numerous companies, including California's three largest electric utilities, already report their emissions voluntarily to the California registry. Starting July 1, 2008, the state's biggest greenhouse gas emitters will be required to report their emissions to the registry.
Under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, eight Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states have committed to capping total emissions of CO2 from power plants starting in 2009. The rules allow electric utilities that reduce more than what is required to sell their excess emission reductions as credits, or allowances, to companies that haven't sufficiently cut their emissions. Such "cap and trade" systems require registries for tracking who owns specific allowances and credits for reducing emissions early.
"It won't serve the needs of these states if this multi-state registry takes five years to become operational," said Levin.
Less than two weeks ago, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York Gov. George E. Pataki agreed to explore ways to link California's future greenhouse gas emission market and the Northeast's upcoming market. Such an arrangement, the governors said, would help build a large, robust carbon trading market that would reduce emissions for the lowest cost.
Also involved in the large, multi-state registry are six states in the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium, which, like the Northeast states, had been working on its own registry under official orders from the member states before focusing on one, central registry. Minnesota has joined that Midwest contingent.
Need For Neutrality
The Western Regional Air Partnership is representing Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah and Washington in the discussions on the central registry. Several Native American tribes are also involved.
"We're focusing our efforts on the multi-state registry," said Michael Koerber, executive director of the Midwest consortium. "We've always wanted to be consistent with other programs and this seems like a good opportunity to link up. It makes it easier for companies."
"We want to make sure that if a company is ready to report emissions, it not result in problems in differences for them," said Koerber, for whose states reporting emissions is voluntary.
Participants stress that the multi-state registry would be "policy neutral." That is, it would handle reporting by companies from states where reporting emissions is either voluntary or mandatory. Only four of the states involved - California, Connecticut, New Jersey and Maine - have laws on the books requiring companies and public entities to start reporting emissions within a couple of years.
Naturally, the policy-neutral position extends to whether or not states have requirements to reduce emissions. To date, only California has enacted a law that imposes broad limits on greenhouse gas emissions across the state's entire economy.
But the 31 states are preparing for what appears to be a growing trend to address global warming at the state level, while the federal government refuses any mandatory reporting or reductions.
"Every state I've talked with wants to do something, and that includes some very conservative states," says Levin. "They won't all do what California is doing, but they at least want to help their companies to develop a baseline in the event that national reporting comes along."
Companies Support Effort
Some companies, too, support the effort. They would prefer to report emissions once, based on one counting standard, than several different times.
"Industry doesn't want to contend with 50 ways of measuring greenhouse gas emissions and 50 ways of reporting them," said the Northeast's Kaplan. "That would be like the 50 states having their own currency."
At this point, there is no visible opposition to the single registry, although states and business groups opposed to any U.S. action against global warming may try to stop its development. Registries of the three groups were to be based on international standards, and the centralized registry will be too. In a sense, the centralized registry is three groups of states deciding together not to reinvent the wheel.
"We don't see this as being a very complicated process politically," said Kaplan. "It's kind of a no-brainer."
The leaders on the project continue to discuss the technical obstacles of creating a registry that will work for all the states, with all their different policies on global warming. They met physically in San Francisco last month, and plan to meet again early next year.
-By Mark Golden, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-765-6118; Mark.Golden@dowjones.com " |
