Back to Home Page
Back to Index

CONSERVATION CORNER
(For the week of August 10, 2009)
Another Way to Tackle Climate Change
by James L. Cummins

One can hardly make it through a day without hearing about climate change. Depending on where you sit, Mississippi has a lot to gain, or possibly lose, in the fight to stop, or slow, climate change. On the philosophical side, you may think all of this is a big hoax, you may be voluntarily offsetting every ounce of carbon you are emitting or you may be somewhere in between.

While the bill that has passed the U.S. House of Representatives has some good provisions in it, it also has some that are very bad, especially in the context of placing a significant financial burden on consumers while not benefitting climate change. I have a few thoughts of my own on this subject.

First, I think we should set a goal of doubling nuclear power generation in the next 30 years in the United States. Nuclear power is virtually carbon free, has a tiny footprint and provides clean base load power to backstop renewable power that is intermittent (solar and wind). Additional loan guarantee authority will be needed in the near term to meet this goal.

Second, we should foster alternative fuels where it makes sense. I do not think there should be state specific requirements. There is a great opportunity to use federal lands to thin forests to reduce fuel loads and use the feed stock for cellulosic ethanol and biomass for cogeneration with coal. Furthermore, this thinning will reduce wild fires.

We should strive to reduce the economic impact on the consumer by 1) not tax or charge for allowances for utilities to emit carbon, 2) create allowances based on emissions as close to now as possible (i.e., 2005 to 2008), 3) do not allow a carbon reduction program to go into effect until after the economy has improved, 4) use federal lands (i.e., Forest Service, etc.) and federal programs (i.e., conservation provisions in the Farm Bill) to generate cost-effective carbon offsets, 5) maximize the use of agriculture and forestry to reduce the cost of offsets and 6) maintain a common sense control of carbon policy, such as having administration policy developed by the Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy.

We should also foster green building. The South alone provides 60 percent of the nation's timber. Federal procurement policy should be amended so that it considers life cycle assessment of alternative construction methods. Commercial buildings under five stories can use wood instead of concrete and steel, and if the federal government considered life cycle assessment of greenhouse gasses, then wood would be the preferred choice, helping to get the timber industry moving.