President Obama Orders Federal Agencies to Trim Greenhouse Gases
President Obama signed an executive order on October 5 that sets sustainability goals for federal agencies and focuses on improvements in their environmental, energy, and economic performance.
The Executive Order requires federal agencies to set a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction target for 2020 within 90 days. It also requires federal agencies to increase energy efficiency, reduce the petroleum consumption of their fleets, conserve water, reduce waste, support sustainable communities, and leverage their federal purchasing power to promote environmentally-responsible products and technologies. The new Executive Order makes reducing GHG emissions a priority for the federal government, which occupies nearly 500,000 buildings, operates more than 600,000 vehicles, employs more than 1.8 million civilians, and purchases more than $500 billion per year in goods and services.
In his order, President Obama requires agencies to meet a number of energy, water, and waste reduction targets, including reducing vehicle fleet petroleum use 30% by 2020; beginning in 2020, designing all new federal buildings to achieve net-zero energy use by 2030; increasing water efficiency 26% by 2020; minimizing buildings’ impacts on storm water runoff; recycling or diverting 50% of waste by 2015; and meeting sustainability requirements in 95% of all applicable contracts.
Within 180 days of the order, the federal government will develop guidance for locating federal buildings in a manner consistent with sustainable development.
Recent examples of federal environmental stewardship include the planned construction of a 600 kW wind turbine at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and the planned installation of an 8 MW solar PV system at the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood, Colorado. See the White House press release and the Executive Order (PDF 87 KB).
The Executive Order follows the president’s proclamation that October is National Energy Awareness Month. Obama is calling on U.S. citizens to mark the month by making clean energy choices that can rebuild our economy and make it more sustainable. Noting that the federal government is the largest consumer of energy in the US, his proclamation noted that the Obama Administration is committed to lead by example in the use of clean energy and energy efficiency. The proclamation also notes that we face a turning point in our nation’s energy policy, and that we can either allow climate change to wreak unnatural havoc, or we can create jobs deploying low-carbon technologies to prevent its worst effects. See the proclamation.
20 Solar Homes Take Shape on the National Mall for the Solar Decathlon
The assembly of 20 solar homes on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is rapidly approaching completion, as the 2009 Solar Decathlon prepares to open, free to the public, on October 9th.
The Solar Decathlon is an international event in which DOE challenges university teams to design and build homes that run entirely on solar energy. The teams ship their partially constructed homes to the National Mall, assemble them, and then compete in 10 contests.
This year, the 20 teams came from universities in Arizona, California, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin, as well as Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany, and Spain. Trucks rolled onto the National Mall just after midnight on the morning of October 1, and since then, the teams have been steadily working to assemble their solar homes. See the DOE press release and the Solar Decathon Web site.
This is the fourth Solar Decathlon – this year it features a stand-alone electrical micro-grid to which each team will have to connect their home. Starting on October 8, each home will be monitored in five areas related to performance and livability: comfort (maintaining comfortable temperature and humidity in the home), hot water (producing a sufficient quantity at a high enough temperature), appliances (such as keeping refrigerated items at the right temperature), home entertainment (running a television, computer, lights, and other devices), and net metering. For the net metering competition, homes must use zero net energy over the course of a week, and teams receive a bonus for producing more energy than their home consumes. Other contests rate the teams for their communications with the public and for the architecture, engineering, and market viability of their homes. The overall winner will be announced on October 16. See the Solar Decathlon’s Contests and Scoring page.
Homes will open to the public October 9, and will be open for tours weekdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends, through October 18 (with the exception of October 14). Not able to come to D.C.? You can keep up with the Solar Decathlon online through daily journals posted by DOE’s Richard King, the Solar Decathlon director; photos of the day from the event; YouTube videos; time-lapse photos from three cameras at the event; blogs from the teams; the Solar Decathlon Facebook page (become a fan!); and even a Twitter feed!
DOE, Chinese Ministry Co-Host Their First Electric Vehicle Forum
The first U.S.-China Electric Vehicle Forum, which brought together 140 U.S. and Chinese officials to discuss progress in the electric vehicle industry and opportunities, concluded October 1 in Beijing, China. David Sandalow, DOE’s assistant secretary for policy and international affairs, joined with Minister Wan Gang of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology to co-host the event, which highlighted the rapidly growing electric vehicle industry in both countries. The countries are the two largest auto markets and energy consumers, and together emit more than 40% of the world’s greenhouse gases.
"The U.S. and China share a strong common interest in putting millions of electric vehicles on the road soon, which will lessen our dependence on foreign oil and help address the global climate challenge," said Sandalow. "Working together, we can accomplish more than acting alone."
The Electric Vehicle Forum provided a venue for experts to discuss recent developments and identify promising opportunities for collaboration on technical advances and policy issues.
The forum builds upon growing U.S.-China collaboration on clean energy technologies. In July, the US and China announced plans to develop a U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC) that will facilitate joint research and development on clean energy by bringing together teams of scientists and engineers and providing an information clearing house to help researchers in both countries. The CERC has identified clean vehicles as a priority for joint projects and is expected to help advance cooperative projects identified during the Electric Vehicle Forum. See the DOE press release.
Obama Administration Invests $300M in a Green Federal Fleet
The Obama Administration met its goal of investing $300 million from the ARRA in fuel-efficient vehicles for the federal fleet. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced on October 1 that it met the goal of purchasing the new vehicles in fiscal year 2009, which came to a close on September 30.
The GSA started by ordering 3,100 hybrids on April 1 for $77 million, then ordered an additional 14,105 alternative-fuel and hybrid vehicles on June 1 for $210 million. In its final wave of purchasing, the GSA bought five compressed natural gas buses, 35 hybrid electric buses, and one hybrid car for $12.4 million, bringing the total to $300 million. Of the 17,246 vehicles, ordered from six manufacturers, most will be delivered by the end of October. Only the newly ordered buses will take longer, arriving in the third quarter of 2010.
GSA will use the new vehicles to replace older, less-efficient models in the federal fleet. The vehicles will save an estimated 16.7 million gallons of fuel over the next seven years, preventing the emissions of 334 million pounds of GHG and saving taxpayers at least $40 million in fuel costs. As the older vehicles being replaced are sold, the money from the sales will be used to make additional investments toward greening the federal fleet. See the GSA press release.
EPA Aims to Limit GHG Regulations to Large Facilities
The U.S. EPA proposed a rule that would limit future GHG regulations under the Clean Air Act to large industrial facilities emitting the equivalent of 25,000 tons or more of CO2 annually. The rule will require a permit when major emitters of GHGs make modifications that increase their emissions. That permit requirement will be triggered with emission increases equivalent to somewhere between 10,000 and 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide. The EPA isn’t sure where exactly to set this "significance level" for modifications, and it is seeking comments on the best value to use. The proposed rule will limit GHG regulations to facilities such as power plants, refineries, and factories, which produce nearly 70% of U.S. GHGs.
The EPA proposes regulations on GHGs from cars and light trucks under the Clean Air Act, as part of joint rule on fuel economy with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The EPA intends to finalize that regulation in the spring of 2010, and once that happens, GHGs will be treated as pollutants under the Clean Air Act.
That would automatically trigger regulations for relatively small GHG emitters, a situation that the EPA is working to avoid. Under the proposed rule, small and medium-sized businesses such as farms and restaurants, as well as many other facilities, would not be subject to GHG regulations. As noted in the proposed EPA rule, allowing GHG regulations to apply to relatively small emitters would cause state permitting authorities to be "paralyzed by permit application in numbers that are orders of magnitude greater than their current administrative resources could accommodate."
The proposed "tailoring" rule addresses six GHG: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. With the proposed industrial emissions thresholds, EPA estimates that 14,000 large sources would need to obtain operating permits. Most of these sources are already subject to clean air permitting requirements because they emit other pollutants.
In addition, 400 new sources or modified sources would be subject to review each year for GHG emissions. Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA will ensure these new or modified sources use the best available control technologies and energy efficiency systems to minimize GHG emissions. The EPA plans to develop sector- and source-specific guidance that will help permitting authorities and industrial facilities better understand GHG emissions for each type of facility, methods for estimating those emissions, available GHG measurement and monitoring techniques, and strategies to minimize GHG emissions. The EPA plans to revisit its thresholds after five years to see if they can be lowered.
Under the proposed rule, the EPA estimates that about 3,000 GHG emitters will be newly subject to Clean Air Act permit requirements, and most of those will be municipal landfills. Landfills account for about 23% of human-caused methane emissions in the US; the new regulations will likely encourage the capture of landfill methane emissions and their use as a renewable energy source.
The proposed rule, announced by the EPA on September 30, will be open for public comment for 60 days once it has been published in the Federal Register. As of October 6, it had not yet been published. See the EPA press release, a fact sheet on the proposed rule, and the full proposal (PDF 533 KB).
EIA Forecasts Lower Heating Bills this Winter
The average U.S. household will spend $960 for space heating during this winter’s heating season, marking an 8% decrease from last year, according to DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA). The EIA’s "Short-Term Energy Outlook," released on October 6, attributes most of the savings to lower fuel prices, particularly for natural gas, which is experiencing a price slump due to a growing supply that currently exceeds demand.
The EIA expects natural gas inventories to reach a record high of 3.8 trillion cubic feet by the end of October. Propane is produced during natural gas processing, so propane inventories are also higher than normal. As a result, households heated with these fuels will achieve the greatest savings this winter, with natural gas users seeing a 12% decline in winter heating bills and propane users seeing a 14% decline. Those using heating oil or electricity are projected to experience more modest declines of about 2% from last year. The EIA defines the winter heating season as running from October 1 to March 31 of the following year. See the EIA press release and the "Short-Term Energy Outlook."
The EIA also increased its projected drop in energy-related CO2 emissions for 2009. Back in August, when the EIA started projecting annual energy-related CO2 emissions, it forecast a 5% drop in 2009, while the current "Short-Term Energy Outlook" forecasts a 5.9% drop for the year. A number of factors contributed to the projected decline, including increased use of renewable energy, substitution of natural gas for coal in electric plants, a decrease in industrial demand for coal, less natural gas use in industry and buildings, and a drop in demand for jet fuel, diesel fuel, and heating oil.
Coal experienced the biggest drop in demand, at 10.1%, accounting for 63% of the drop in energy-related CO2 emissions. U.S. GHG emissions are dominated by energy-related emissions, so the decline in the latter would generally suggest an overall lowering of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. See the EIA press release and the EIA supplemental report, "Understanding the Decline in CO2 Emissions in 2009."
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EREE Network News is a weekly publication of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
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