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California regulators tonight approved the world’s first low-carbon fuel standard, a bold set of performance-based fuel rules that are being closely watched in more than a dozen other states and countries, as well as in Washington.

Many of the program’s details are still in flux, to be worked out by the Air Resources Board before the standard takes effect in 2012.

The goal was clear, though: achieve a 10 percent reduction in the carbon intensity of transportation fuels by 2020. Fully implemented, California’s LCFS is expected to cut those emissions by 15 million metric tons a year.

“The big picture is we want to incentivize the use of electricity for vehicles. … We want to incentivize innovation,” said Air Resources Board member Daniel Sperling.

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Happy Earth Day everyone!

We wanted to write a special post for Earth Day and fortunately we have great news to report: The Book Industry Environmental Council announced last week it has set goals for cutting the U.S. book industry’s greenhouse gas emissions in 20% by 2020 (from a 2006 baseline) with the intent of achieving an 80% reduction by 2050.

This is very exciting news and as the Council pointed out in its press release, this industry-wide commitment is a global first in publishing and hence has tremendous importance.

Because of the importance of this move and its implications for the book industry, we thought it’s important to take closer look at it and analyze it from strategic and operational points of view. Hopefully later on we’ll also bring you an interview with one of the Council’s leaders.

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EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced today that she has determined that greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to the public health and welfare. The next step is a 60-day comment period, but once that endangerment finding becomes official, it will mark a fundamental shift in how the United States addresses human sources of climate change.

So how did we get here?

The endangerment finding directly stems from the Supreme Court ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA, but it has roots that go back more than a decade to a most unexpected source: The mouth of former Republican representative Tom Delay of Texas.

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The news about octuplet mom Nadya Suleman raises serious concerns about medical ethics, profit motive, regulation, and oversight in the fertility industry. According to the CDC, 80 percent of U.S. fertility clinics don’t follow the embryo implant guidelines established in 1999 by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, and it turns out that the entire industry is self regulated.

“Assisted reproduction is a multibillion-dollar business. Like other commercial enterprises, it needs rules.” - Marcy Darnovsky, of the Center for Genetics and Society in Oakland.

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In response to the rapid decline of Arctic sea ice in the last thirty years, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council has unanimously voted to prohibit fishing in nearly 200,000 square miles of Arctic waters.

The plan bans commercial fishing in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, which stretches from 3 miles offshore to 200 miles offshore, starting at the Bering Strait and extending north and east to the U.S.-Canada border.

No fishing of any considerable scale occurs in the Arctic, and the few surveys of fish stocks done there have not shown large populations. But some experts say it’s that commercially valuable seafood species such as pollock or crab populations could expand in the Arctic, especially as water warms and ice unlocks.

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Worldwide, many industrial processes depend on steam boilers that are powered by what’s called heavy fuel oil (HFO). In the US, where coal and natural gas are plentiful, boilers are not typically run on HFO, but many homes in the Northeast US are still heated with furnaces that use HFO. These boilers are notorious for spewing out toxins into the environment when untreated.

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ExxonMobil, which has been hit before with environmental charges, will pay a $6.1 million penalty for failing to comply with pollution regulations in refineries in California, Louisiana and Texas. The company had agreed to reduce pollution in four refineries in those states, but came up short.

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The recent The New York Times story about two high school students who did DNA testing on fish shines a light once again on one of the seafood industry’s dirty little secrets — fish fraud. They found that one fourth of 60 samples of seafood taken in New York City restaurants and seafood markets were mislabeled.

But with lax FDA regulations and virtually no enforcement, the practice is more common than one would hope. In recent years, there have been numerous reports of fraud occurring around the country. Three years ago, a Times investigation also found that fish sold as wild Alaskan salmon by high-end New York City markets was mostly cheaper farm-raised salmon, selling for as much as $29 a pound. (See my previous post Plenty of Safe, Eco-Friendly Fish in the Sea.)

The U.S. Food Drug and Drug Administration, which oversees the safety of our seafood supply, defines fraud as the substitution of a less expensive fish for a more expensive kind, for example, tilapia for red snapper, farmed salmon for wild from Alaska, or basa or tra (Vietnamese catfish) for grouper.

Checklist: How to spot fish fraud

Being informed and knowing your seafood is the best way to arm yourself against fraud. Some things that should raise red flags are:

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From our friends at ZapRoot: The Endangered Species Act is in grave danger (as we’ve noted here at Red, Green and Blue). Turn your online searching green and charitable with GoodSearch. And, we bring to you all new Green Gadgets.

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IV. In Which Our Hero Is Called Upon One Too Many Times

The California Energy Commission expects ethanol to continue to become more integrated into the state’s energy system. In response to Federal legislation, ethanol blends are expected to increase from about 6 percent now to 10 percent by 2012. That will drive demand from 1 billion gallons of ethanol this year to 1.7 billion gallons by 2012. Put in perspective, if the expected changes occur, ethanol use will have grown 1.6 billion gallons in a decade. The total ethanol market will be larger than the Netherlands’ entire gasoline market, and only a little smaller than Thailand’s.  As rapid changes in industrial infrastructure go, it’s spectacular.

But now a host of new regulations are forcing even more changes to liquid fuel in the state.

Our dependence on oil, rightly called an addiction, has given rise to a strong movement to kick the habit. The coalition pushing for an end to crude oil derivative use for transportation fuel comes from an odd variety of corners with distinct interests.

Responding to those concerns, the California legislature and governor have promulgated a cluster of laws and regulations designed to change the fuels you put in your car. The following table summarizes these overlapping desires made law.

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According to the EPA, the annual cost associated with the implementation of the rule are estimated to be around $15 million.

“Today’s proposal paves the way for technologies that would protect public health and help reduce the effects of climate change,” said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. “With proper site selection and management, geologic sequestration could play a major role in reducing emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.”

EPA’s proposed regulation creates a national framework for the injection of carbon dioxide underground and protection of underground drinking water resources. The agency acted under the Clean Water Act because injecting carbon dioxide could push pollutants into underground drinking water supplies, according to Benjamin H. Grumbles, assistant EPA administrator for water. The rule would create a new class of injection wells under the authority of the Safe Drinking Water Act’s Underground Injection Control (UIC) program.

According to an EPA Factsheet (EPA 816-F-08-031), the new monitoring rule is needed because:

“The relative buoyancy of CO2, its corrosivity in the presence of water, the potential presence of impurities in captured CO2, its mobility within subsurface formations, and large injection volumes anticipated at full scale deployment warrant specific requirements tailored to this new practice.”

The rule, which would apply to well owners and operators, would require monitoring to trace the chemical, squeezed down into liquid form. “A cornerstone of this rule is that the carbon dioxide stays where it is put, and not leak or be released to the surface,” Mr. Grumbles said.

EPA is requesting public comments on the proposed rule for 120 days.

Other posts on carbon and carbon policy:

• “Wyoming Passes Carbon Capture and Sequestration Legislation”
• “CO2 Capture and Technology of the Future”
• “British Columbia Begins Taxing Carbon”

Photo: thewritingzone via flickr under a Creative Commons License
So what should companies in the industry  do?

The Council recommends three major goals: 1. Increasing average PCW recycled content in books from 5% to 30% for all paper types 2. Reducing the portion of books returned from 25% to 20% and 3. Reducing the portion of books in landfills by 30%. These are definitely good goals but it’s not enough.

The Council is defining here a market shift and such a shift is involved with both risks and opportunities, especially when each company needs to decide on the action plan required to implement these goals. In order to know how to best utilize the opportunities and avoid the risks, companies need not only goals but also a road map that will enable them to make the most out of this shift.

One example for such systematic approach that can take companies safely throughout this shift is the methodology that was developed by Prof. Andrew Hoffman of the University of Michigan and include 8 steps to build a climate change strategy. Here’s a short description of the required steps:

Step 1: Asses emissions profile - what kinds of direct and indirect GHG emissions are being created, from what sources and in what quantities?

Step 2: Gauge risks and opportunities - what risks are posed by emissions from operations and GHG-intensity of products and services? What opportunities can be found to take the company forward?

Step 3: Evaluate action options - what options are available for reducing emissions? Are there any “low-hanging” emission-reduction opportunities? how can climate-related strategies enhance top-line and bottom-line objectives?

Step 4: Set goals and targets - by how much can the company reduce its impact? how can targets be connected to business strategy?

Step 5: Develop Financial Mechanisms - what financial instruments are available to suport GHG reductions? What are the pros and cons of emissions trading for the company?

Step 6: Engage the organization - How can buy-in from the workforce be achieved? how can resistance overcome?

Step 7: Formulate Policy strategy - what are the best ways to influence climate change policy at the state, national or international level?

Step 8: Manage external relationship - what external constituents are important to the success of the climate-related strategies? how should they be engaged?

These steps can of be adjusted to fit each company’s operations, and as you can see from the example of IBM it may work even if you don’t go through all the steps, but one lesson companies hopefully will learn here is about the need to approach climate change systematically to achieve the best results.

Can it work on the industry level or only on a company level?

I believe the logic of the Council is that an industrial effort, in which some of the big players are involved, is the best and most feasible way to shake the industry and move it forward in the right direction. It definitely makes sense, but one thing that should be taken into consideration is that the Council’s move is quite unique - most voluntary climate change initiatives are presented by companies, because they see carbon strategy in terms of competitive positioning - an element that will add value to their unique value proposition. When this initiative is shared by all the competitors, then the competitive element is weakened, unless companies look at these goals as the minimum and not as a cap and will try to excel and move further to meet bolder goals.

What’s missing?

1. I didn’t see any reference to electronic content or in other words e-books. I know that this is a relatively small part of the whole industry and we still need to gather more information on the carbon footprint of e-books, but this is fast-growing niche that should be taken into consideration this way or another. Publishers should have more information about the implications of using more content electronically in terms of carbon emissions and evaluate whether this is a desirable path or not.

2. It will be interesting to learn more about the commitment of the big players in the book industry to these goals - are they all see it eye to eye and are fully committed to these goals?

All in all this is very good news and we’ll continue to follow the developments in the industry closely and bring you updates and analysis to get a better understanding of the big picture.

Does someone really need to point out that, if we continue down the road we are on, their views will be spoilt regardless?

A report by the Minerals Management Service in the US gave preliminary environmental approval to a proposed wind-farm off Cape Cod. Plans by developer Cape Wind Associates describe a wind-farm encompassing 25 miles of federal waters in Nantucket Sound, with 130 windmills generating power for thousands of households.

The findings showed that the plans would pose no significant threat to the environment, despite claims to the contrary by locals and politicians.

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Thursday morning’s session at the Papandreou Foundation’s Symi Symposium focused on the "green economy": how to craft economic policy that both internalizes the costs of a carbon-based economy, and creates incentives to move away from carbon-intensive energy sources. The presenters in this session were Joseph Stiglitz, professor of economics at Columbia University and former member of the Clinton administration, and Angelo Consoli, Director, Codeco s.s., European Affairs and Progressive Communication.

Professor Stiglitz’s presentation picked up on a theme that has run throughout the conference: the question of the best economic mechanisms to address climate change. Stiglitz argued (as have others) that a carbon tax is preferable to a cap and trade system (the model embraced by the Kyoto treaty, and much of the business world). Because changes in the market away from fossil fuels will inevitably make those energy sources less expensive, carbon taxes keep their prices high, reflecting the costs imposed on society by carbon emissions. Stiglitz also argued that such taxation responds to another reality: market-based approaches won’t work by itself, and government investments in infrastructure, research, and preparedness will be needed to round out a comprehensive approach to fighting climate change.

Other costs that the developed world likely will face stems from advancing the concepts of energy security and independence. If countries like China and India act in accordance with these concepts, that inevitably means that they’ll be burning more coal — China is already building coal-fired power plants at the rate of one/week. This could be disastrous in terms of climate change, but it points to the need for developing countries to build their energy infrastructure. If countries like China and India have to impede their own development to play a part in a global response to the climate crisis, Stiglitz argued that they should probably be compensated.

All of these question are important for the next round of climate negotiations. Stiglitz noted that in order to bring the developing world into this process, measuring carbon emissions on a per capita basis will be critical, as will a strict enforcement system. His last point: trade sanctions will likely be the most effective means of enforcing adherence to carbon mitigation strategies adopted by the international community.

Consoli’s presentation dealt with a completely different issue: the necessity (his argument) of developing the hydrogen economy in order to address global warming. He argued that one of the major impediments facing the growth of renewable generation technologies is storage, and that by using renewables such as wind and solar power to electrolyze water and create hydrogen, we can overcome that impediment. Consoli noted that the development of such systems, which would be decentralized, also has the benefit of empowering (in every sense of the word) people around the globe without access to electricity, or the capital to create it with current centralized generation technologies. The economic effect of such a transition involves a move from carbon-intensive energy sources, which require high amounts capital, to renewable sources that require high amounts of labor, so renewable production of hydrogen as an energy storage mechanism ends up boosting employment and economic growth.

Consoli presented the EU Parliament’s Written Declaration on energy, and it’s five pillars:

• Efficiency
• Renewables
• CO2 Reduction
• Hydrogen
• Smart Grids

As you might imagine, the questions and responses came quickly and furiously to these presentations, and included thoughts about the political reality of carbon taxation, the idea that such taxes create a right to pollute, the problem of hydrogen generation from "dirty" sources, and the methods by which governments can encourage their citizens to accept changes that could be painful in the short term. As usual, I’m giving a quick and dirty overview here — feel free to ask questions or offer your own responses.

So what should companies in the industry  do?

The Council recommends three major goals: 1. Increasing average PCW recycled content in books from 5% to 30% for all paper types 2. Reducing the portion of books returned from 25% to 20% and 3. Reducing the portion of books in landfills by 30%. These are definitely good goals but it’s not enough.

The Council is defining here a market shift and such a shift is involved with both risks and opportunities, especially when each company needs to decide on the action plan required to implement these goals. In order to know how to best utilize the opportunities and avoid the risks, companies need not only goals but also a road map that will enable them to make the most out of this shift.

One example for such systematic approach that can take companies safely throughout this shift is the methodology that was developed by Prof. Andrew Hoffman of the University of Michigan and include 8 steps to build a climate change strategy. Here’s a short description of the required steps:

Step 1: Asses emissions profile - what kinds of direct and indirect GHG emissions are being created, from what sources and in what quantities?

Step 2: Gauge risks and opportunities - what risks are posed by emissions from operations and GHG-intensity of products and services? What opportunities can be found to take the company forward?

Step 3: Evaluate action options - what options are available for reducing emissions? Are there any “low-hanging” emission-reduction opportunities? how can climate-related strategies enhance top-line and bottom-line objectives?

Step 4: Set goals and targets - by how much can the company reduce its impact? how can targets be connected to business strategy?

Step 5: Develop Financial Mechanisms - what financial instruments are available to suport GHG reductions? What are the pros and cons of emissions trading for the company?

Step 6: Engage the organization - How can buy-in from the workforce be achieved? how can resistance overcome?

Step 7: Formulate Policy strategy - what are the best ways to influence climate change policy at the state, national or international level?

Step 8: Manage external relationship - what external constituents are important to the success of the climate-related strategies? how should they be engaged?

These steps can of be adjusted to fit each company’s operations, and as you can see from the example of IBM it may work even if you don’t go through all the steps, but one lesson companies hopefully will learn here is about the need to approach climate change systematically to achieve the best results.

Can it work on the industry level or only on a company level?

I believe the logic of the Council is that an industrial effort, in which some of the big players are involved, is the best and most feasible way to shake the industry and move it forward in the right direction. It definitely makes sense, but one thing that should be taken into consideration is that the Council’s move is quite unique - most voluntary climate change initiatives are presented by companies, because they see carbon strategy in terms of competitive positioning - an element that will add value to their unique value proposition. When this initiative is shared by all the competitors, then the competitive element is weakened, unless companies look at these goals as the minimum and not as a cap and will try to excel and move further to meet bolder goals.

What’s missing?

1. I didn’t see any reference to electronic content or in other words e-books. I know that this is a relatively small part of the whole industry and we still need to gather more information on the carbon footprint of e-books, but this is fast-growing niche that should be taken into consideration this way or another. Publishers should have more information about the implications of using more content electronically in terms of carbon emissions and evaluate whether this is a desirable path or not.

2. It will be interesting to learn more about the commitment of the big players in the book industry to these goals - are they all see it eye to eye and are fully committed to these goals?

All in all this is very good news and we’ll continue to follow the developments in the industry closely and bring you updates and analysis to get a better understanding of the big picture.