Two energy experts outlined an action plan to address Oregon climate change in Pacific Hall on Wednesday.
Jim Maloney, Eugene Water and Electric Board’s energy resources project manager and Angus Duncan, the director of the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, spoke to a class about their policies for handling climate change. Both were members of Governor Kulongoski’s first Advisory Group on Global Warming.
Thirty people listened, including community members and the students of the Global Warming Policy class.
Maloney said attention must be paid to climate change because it is going to increase the average rainfall, decrease the average snow pack, increase average temperatures and most importantly increase the frequency and duration of extreme temperatures.
“It’s not just going to be palm trees in the Willamette Valley,” said Maloney.
Maloney and Duncan are taking action by spearheading environmental legislation to decrease the greenhouse gas emissions in Oregon.
Duncan has used groups of stakeholders to brainstorm possible solutions to global warming.
“We agreed that even though Oregon has a very small part in emissions . . . we certainly emit more than other countries” said Duncan.
A cap and trade program was one solution that the group agreed on. Cap and trade programs use economic incentives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Using the cap and trade method, the government gives out either credits or allowances to companies that emit greenhouse gases. With these credits, companies can cash them in if they reduce their emissions, or they can trade them in order to gain more allowances if they can not meet the cap.
“In my opinion, there needs to be regulation such as the cap and trade for emissions to force large industrial emitters to manage, level off and finally decrease their carbon emissions,” wrote graduate student Theresa Brand. “It is good that this is just one of the strategies that Oregon will use. In this way, I don’t think it will ‘burden’ industry.”
Duncan’s other plans include following through on tailpipe standards for vehicles and meeting previously adopted standards for waste management and recycling.
By 2020, Duncan said he wants to see Oregon’s emissions 10 percent lower than the levels in 1990. Currently, Oregon is 18 percent above the levels in 1990.
Maloney, who advocates use of renewable energy at EWEB, has helped bring EWEB’s energy sources to 79 percent hydropower.
Maloney said the energy loads for Eugene are higher in the winter than in the summer, but loads in the summer are growing with the rising use of air conditioners.
“Everything Phil Knight builds around here gets AC,” Maloney said. “If we can’t sell (extra) energy from hydropower in the summer to California for their cooling, we can’t make any money.”
If California, Washington and Oregon were a nation, they would be the 11th or 12th largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, Duncan said. But Without Oregon or Washington, he said, California would still be the 11th or 12th largest greenhouse gas emitter.
Experts outline Oregon’s need to address climate change
Daily Emerald
March 10, 2007
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