Energy/Climate Change Actions Recommended by PCSD
ELECTRIC POWER
TRANSPORTATION
INDUSTRY
ACTIONS FOR THE ELECTRICPOWER AND INDUSTRY SECTORS
BUILDINGS
AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY
CROSS - CUTTING ACTIONS
ELECTRIC POWER
Action1
Owners and operators of publicly and privately owned
power projects should establish voluntary goals to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions from their facilities and implement
a plan to meet them.
Action2
Move towards improved environmental performance of
power generation facilities, recognizing the efforts being
made to attain health-based air quality standards and the
need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions cost effectively
while maintaining economic growth and reliable electric
service, and avoiding unreasonable burdens on particular
sectors or geographic regions.
Action3
As part of restructuring legislation, permit demand-side
management services currently provided by electric power
utilities to be sold separately from other services so that
value-added services such as energy efficiency and conservation
can be offered for profit.
Action4
States should establish a wire charge to encourage development
and installation of cleaner energy systems as the electric
power sector is restructured, recognizing that, as many
large industrial facilities subject to global competition
already make significant investments in energy efficiency as
a business mainstay, incentive programs involving surcharges
may not be warranted in all cases.
Action5
Improve the information provided to consumers and sellers
of power about the cost savings of energy efficiency
and conservation, particularly in industrial settings and
commercial buildings.
Action6
Establish uniform requirements for disclosure of the
environmental characteristics of power sources, and the
amounts and types of air and other pollutants generated
by these sources.
Action7
Eliminate or lower grid exit fees for cleaner power sources
used on site for small commercial or residential applications
that fall below a de minimis standard of power generation.
Action8
Develop a certification program for green power that
takes into account the varying availability of renewable and
other clean power sources in different regions of the country.
Electricity consumers should stimulate demand for
clean energy products by purchasing certified green power.
TRANSPORTATION
Action1
Government and businesses should accelerate efforts to
procure clean fuel/engine fleet vehicles and fuel them in
ways that result in real reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.
Action2
Establish consumer tax incentives for purchase of efficient,
advanced technology vehicles.
Action3
Establish new programs and strengthen existing policies
that foster alternative transportation choices and provide
an incentive to drive fewer miles including:
- Policies that encourage the use of mass transit such as tax benefits for employer-subsidized transit pass and parking cash-out programs.
- Credits or incentives for compact development.
- Policies that promote car-sharing programs such as those already established in Europe and the United States, which offer the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by lowering the total number of vehicle trips and vehicle-miles traveled within major cities.
- Public education and outreach efforts to identify and promote the benefits of efficient vehicles and other transportation choices to stimulate demand for these technologies.
- Research on the impact of telecommuting, information technologies, and Internet commerce on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Action4
Improve infrastructure for intermodal transportation (i.e.,
bike racks, bus shelters, train stations).
Action5
States and localities should establish appropriate road pricing
policies that reduce congestion, mitigate greenhouse
gases, and mitigate any impact on low-income commuters.
Action6
In cases where greenhouse gas reductions can be quantified
and verified against credible benchmarks, give communities
the opportunity to receive credit when they use
community design to lower traffic by adopting zoning
codes and other changes that encourage more efficient
land use patterns to reduce pollution from motor vehicles.
Action7
Increase and redirect existing support for research, development,
and deployment and production of advanced
vehicle components towards technologies that enable
greater efficiency including hybrid electric systems, lightweight
materials, clean engines, energy storage systems,
and fuels.
Action8
Support research to determine the potential of intelligent
transportation systems (a group of technologies that
could improve the flow of traffic through urban areas) to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Action9
Prioritize and accelerate efforts to develop infrastructure
for alternative-fueled vehicles that reduce greenhouse gas
emissions.
Action10
Perform additional research on how to reflect the number
of vehicle-miles traveled as a variable cost of insurance so
that drivers better understand the price associated with the
number of miles they drive.
INDUSTRY
Action1
Establish a rebate program of limited duration for commercial,
residential, and small manufacturing users of
electric power to reduce the upfront costs of renewable
energy technologies.
Action2
Help communities that want to create eco-industrial parks
by making relevant information available, allowing flexibility
in permitting and other regulatory areas while ensuring
that environmental goals are met or exceeded, and
enacting mixed-use zoning that allows for eco-industrial
parks that have low or zero emissions of greenhouse gases
and other pollutants.
Action3
Offer incentives to encourage climate-friendly business
development.
Action4
Develop accounting systems that value the energy savings
of buying efficient equipment.
Action5
Develop methods to account for the greenhouse gas emissions
avoided if new facilities employ climate-friendly
technologies.
ACTIONS FOR THE ELECTRIC POWER AND INDUSTRY SECTORS
Action1
Streamline the permitting process for new low-carbon or
carbon-free generating facilities and related infrastructure
in ways that preserve public comment and provide
accountability for performance. Relevant statutes that
affect the Electric Power and Industry sectors include the
Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the National
Environmental Policy Act, Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission rules, and state environmental laws.
Action2
Offer targeted temporary tax credits or incentives, low interest
revolving loan funds, matching grants, or other
appropriate incentives or rewards to reduce the cost of
installing climate-friendly power-generating technologies
and related infrastructure.
Action3
Improve the energy efficiency of equipment that uses
electricity.
Action4
Facilitate expansion of natural gas pipeline infrastructure
and capacity and expand natural gas markets by streamlining
duplicative and conflicting regulations, removing economic
disincentives, and simplifying the permitting
process in ways that preserve public comment and provide
accountability for performance.
Action5
Harmonize tax schedules for depreciation of new electric
power-generating equipment and related infrastructure
with the schedule for depreciation of other types of capital
equipment to create an economic incentive to install
climate-friendly electric power-generating equipment
more frequently.
Action6
In partnership with the private sector, government
research should focus on improving scientific understanding
and practical applications for the use of renewable
energy and distributed energy technologies such as fuel
cells and micro turbines.
BUILDINGS
Action1
Provide tax incentives or credits for installation of climate - friendly technologies
Action2
Adopt fiscal or regulatory policy incentives that encourage
continuous improvement of codes and standards for buildings
and appliances.
Action3
Governments should consider offering temporary and
targeted tax credits or incentives for new residential construction
that exceeds building code energy-efficiency
standards by at least 50 percent, and for retrofits of existing
residential buildings that significantly improve building
code energy-efficiency standards. Eligibility for these
incentives or credits should include appropriate verification
of the improvements against recognized benchmarks.
Action4
Amplify government procurement practices to achieve
greater use of energy-efficient materials and technologies
in buildings.
Action5
Build on existing efforts in local, state, and federal governments
to promote energy efficiency by establishing goals
for greenhouse gas emissions reductions from government - owned buildings and implement a plan to meet them.
Action6
Build on existing awards, recognition, and assistance programs
such as EnergyStar and Rebuild America to recognize
leadership in achieving energy efficiency in buildings.
Action7
Develop methods that allow industry and entrepreneurial
consumers to aggregate greenhouse gas emissions reductions
from the manufacture or use of more efficient appliances,
and ensure that appropriate protocols to verify and
quantify those reductions are available to facilitate participation
in emissions trading.
Action8
Develop methods to account for greenhouse gas emissions
reductions if builders choose to construct homes
that are more efficient than local standards. The methods
should include appropriate protocols to verify and quantify
those reductions against a credible benchmark.
Action9
Provide information to consumers, builders, architects,
developers, materials producers, and others on the cost savings
and climate benefits of energy efficiency and conservation.
Action10
In partnership with the private sector, government
research should improve scientific understanding and
practical applications for the use of energy-efficient and
renewable energy technologies in buildings.
Action11
Recognize and document increases in worker productivity
due to energy-efficiency improvements in buildings.
AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY
Action1
Local, state, and federal governments; businesses; and individuals
should identify among their own lands appropriate
land restoration projects that could increase carbon sequestration.
Action2
Focus agriculture research on renewable energy crop production,
recycling of organic wastes, fertilizer use, and nutrient
management.
Action3
Focus forestry, crop lands, and grazing lands research on carbon
sequestration, specifically measurement of carbon storage
in forest and other ecosystems, certification and verification
of carbon sequestration in forests and soils, monitoring
of sequestration projects, and .leakage. issues related to carbon
storage in forests. Link research efforts to support ongoing
international efforts to manage forests sustainably, including
the Montreal Process Criteria and Indicators for
Sustainable Forest Management programs.
Action4
Develop eco-efficient ways to capture energy from agricultural
byproducts (i.e., crop waste and manure), including
methane.
Action5
Develop accurate and precise methods to quantify and
verify the amount of carbon sequestered in soils and
forests as a result of changes in land use. If the potential
for carbon sequestration is adequately demonstrated and
reliable methods are developed, promote a more comprehensive
treatment of land use practices in international
agreements which includes appropriate credit for those
practices that sequester carbon.
CROSS - CUTTING ACTIONS
Action1
Support the development and deployment of systems and
institutions that assemble information about available
incentives and options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
to enable easier and more effective choices of climate-
friendly technologies.
Action2
Pursue export policies that foster cleaner infrastructure in
less developed countries and stimulate opportunities for
domestic manufacturers of climate-friendly technologies
to lower the cost of their products through economies of
scale. These policies should pay special attention to the
sustainable development and climate protection needs of
developing nations.
Action3
Begin to move towards tax policies that without
increasing overall tax burdens encourage employment
and economic opportunity while discouraging environmentally
damaging decisions.
Action4
As an extension of previous studies on environmentally
and economically damaging subsidies, and building on
previous Council recommendations, establish a national
commission to review the effect of federal tax and subsidy
policies on the goal of climate protection. In Sustainable
America, the Council recommended that this commission:
should review all existing tax and spending subsides
to determine if a national need remains to continue
individual subsidies. . .[and]. . .should recommend to
the President a list of subsidies that fail to meet this
test and should be phased out or rapidly eliminated.