The proposed siting and operational guidelines by the 22-member Wind Turbine Guidelines Federal Advisory Committee include a science-based "tiered" process that corresponds to the stage of development of each wind power project, ranging from preliminary assessments to post-construction impact studies. The process is intended to assist developers in assessing the environmental footprint of their projects.
The recommendations also call for meaningful incentives for developers that voluntarily adopt the tiered approach and cooperate with FWS while advancing their projects. The advisory committee includes representatives from federal, state, and tribal governments, as well as wildlife conservation organizations and the wind industry.
The advisory committee recommends the Interior Department assess all forms of environmental stressors to birds and wildlife, such as climate change, when making policy decisions. The committee also calls for stakeholders at federal, state, and tribal levels to develop a national research plan designed to reduce negative effects on wildlife while allowing further wind development. Secretary Salazar will review the recommendations and then direct the FWS to write turbine siting guidelines for public and private lands. See the FWS press release (PDF 48 KB) and the advisory committee recommendations (PDF 1.43 MB).
Report Examines Ways to Monitor, Verify GHG Emissions
The world has yet to reach a binding international agreement on climate change to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, but a report from the National Research Council (NRC) has already looked at how independent data may be used to verify GHG emissions reported by countries.
Developed countries can estimate their GHG emissions fairly accurately by keeping track of fossil-fuel consumption and calculating the resulting carbon dioxide emissions. Tracking emissions of other industrial gases that contribute to climate change yields a more precise estimate. But for developing countries, deforestation and agricultural land-use changes may contribute significantly to GHG emissions, and these sources are harder to track and tally.
Developing countries will need financial and technical assistance to build capacity to collect, analyze, and report GHG emissions, although the investment needed may be relatively small. The report estimates that significant improvements in the accuracy of emissions reporting from the 10 highest-emitting developing countries would require an investment of only $11 million over five years.
The report calls for independent verification of fossil-fuel use and actual emissions, including ground-based monitoring systems near cities and other large emission sources. Ground-based monitoring stations could also measure the isotope carbon-14 to distinguish between biomass and fossil-fuel emissions. Such measurements would need to be combined with improved models of how GHGs circulate in the atmosphere.
The report notes that high-resolution satellite imagery can estimate deforestation, growth of new forests, and agricultural land-use changes. Such monitoring would ideally be combined with an improved understanding of how such land-use changes affect emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane.
