New light in the search for climate solutions

As America’s leaders searched in recent months for the right responses to global warming, Environment New Mexico Research and Policy Center released four studies illuminating the paths forward—and at least one dead end.

Our first report looked at America’s carbon pollution since 1990. The national trend is troubling, with emissions rising by nearly a fifth.

Yet we found that in 17 states and in Washington, D.C., emissions peaked by 2005 and began to decline thereafter.

Why the decline? A key factor is the decision by state and locals to improve energy efficiency programs and invest in clean energy.

“These findings suggest that the pollution reduction goals being debated in Congress are modest and achievable,” said Emily Figdor, Environment New Mexico’s federal global warming program director.

Sithe Global Power is proposing to build another large coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Reservation, which would emit over 12 million tons of carbon dioxide, ozone, mercury and other pollutants into the air each year.

Environment New Mexico has fought against the construction of this plant, and both the EPA and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have withdrawn permits due to concerns about its environmental impact.

America on the move

We further examined state initiatives in another report, released on the eve of the global summit on climate change in Copenhagen.

While most of the world views the U.S. as a laggard on the issue, and rightly so, our report found state initiatives having a significant impact: By 2020, they should reduce carbon emissions by 536 million metric tons.

That’s more global warming pollution than is currently emitted by all but eight of the world’s nations.

The report won praise from many of the nation’s governors, including California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger, Colorado’s Bill Ritter, Wisconsin’s Jim Doyle, and Illinois’s Pat Quinn. Environment America’s Dan Jacobson and Courtney Abrams traveled to Copenhagen to trumpet the report’s findings.

America's biggest polluters

Further reductions are, of course, both possible and necessary, and a third report suggests where we can achieve them. “America’s Biggest Polluters” found that power plants released 2.56 billion tons of carbon pollution in 2007, a whopping 42 percent of the country’s total.

We found the nation’s oldest plants to be the dirtiest. Less than half of all plants were built before 1980, but these coal-fired clunkers emit nearly three quarters of the industry’s carbon.

Finally, our research team also released a report taking a critical look at nuclear power’s role in solving global warming (see sidebar, at right).

As our state and federal advocates lobbied senators to strengthen and pass national global warming legislation, Environment New Mexico also sought to build support for a series of Obama administration initiatives.

In November, Environment New Mexico’s Emily Figdor testified at an EPA hearing in favor of strong action to hold power plants accountable for their carbon emissions.

Together with our allies, we helped mobilize tens of thousands of people to send official comments to the EPA.