Emissions

Europeans have set themselves up for a head-on collision between ecological purity and economic reality. With Congress poised to enact heavy-handed climate legislation, the United States may be doing likewise. Europe is finally realizing it cannot meet even current Kyoto Protocol commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 8 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Economic ministers are worried that Kyoto will harm living standards and send facilities and jobs to China and India, which aren't required to cut emissions.

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Thousands of government officials, industry lobbyists, environmental campaigners and observers are arriving on the Indonesian island of Bali for two weeks of talks starting today that are aimed at breathing new life into the troubled 17-year-old global-climate treaty. But few participants expect this round of talks to produce significant breakthroughs. At most, they say, it will result in new commitments to negotiate to update the original treaty by the end of 2009.

New SUVs, trucks protect passengers and the environmentTom Horton's May 15 article, "Down with sport utility vehicles," misrepresents the emissions levels of current SUVs and light trucks and could lead consumers to make purchasing decisions hazardous to their health.His assertion that 65 million light trucks produce higher emissions than 120 million cars is not supported. The fact is that late-model cars and light trucks, especially those built since 1994, are already low-emission vehicles, with emissions of major pollutants reduced more than 90 percent from earlier vehicles.

INCREASES IN auto air pollution in the Baltimore region since 1990 are disappointing, given state and federal efforts to curb harmful tailpipe emissions. Further action is needed to reduce vehicle pollutants in the region, one of the nation's worst for unhealthy smog. That includes analyzing new road proposals to assure that the traffic generated will meet federal clean air standards.But for road projects under way, with plans, designs and land in hand, there's no reason to apply an ever-changing, ever-tougher set of standards.

Believe it or not, the quality of air in the mid-Atlantic region is getting better, mostly because of reductions in carbon monoxide emissions from automobiles.A three-year University of Maryland study published in today's issue of Geophysical Research Letters shows carbon monoxide (CO) -- one ingredient in the noxious stew of chemicals known as ozone -- dropping 23 percent over the past 10 years. That suggests other pollutants are dropping as well, said Bruce Doddridge, a research scientist in UM's department of meteorology and one of the authors of the study.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most polluted in the nation, an environmental group has reported after analyzing government air-quality data.Readings for ozone, poor visibility and acid precipitation, grouped into a single air-pollution index, have risen sharply in the Smokies since 1993, the data show. A second park in the southern Appalachians, Virginia's Shenandoah, ranked second-highest among the 10 parks scored."The parks are in trouble," said Appalachian Voices Chairman Harvard Ayers, an Appalachian State University professor who did the analysis.

MARYLAND'S plan to clean up Baltimore's air pollution is close to the federally mandated goal for 2002, but squeezing out another 13 tons of pollutants from the local atmosphere each day presents some serious challenges.Of the nine U.S. metro areas with serious smog problems, Baltimore comes closest to meeting the federal standard, with only that 13-ton shortfall, the Environmental Protection Agency reports. Houston, on the other hand, exceeds the clean air standard by 118 tons per day.The current plan for the Baltimore metro region calls for expanded reliance on motor vehicle emissions testing and on cuts in pollution from coal-fired power plants in the state.

No 'right to pollute' under proposed rule for air emissions 0) bankYour article "Md. air rules spark debate" (June 12) suggested that Maryland is proposing "controversial rules that would make it easier for smokestack industries to get permits for emissions into the air." Let us get the record straight: there is no "right to pollute," as was suggested in the story.Maryland's air quality is better today than it has been since we started monitoring because of efforts by business and government to reduce air pollutants.

After an all-night session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, negotiators from more than 150 countries set a deadline early yesterday of two years for adopting operational rules for cutting emissions of industrial waste gases that are believed to cause global warming.With that, proponents of the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty under which the reductions are to be made, declared victory in the two-week round of talks.The treaty's backers said the conference revealed a shift in the worldwide debate on how to deal with the possibility of disruptive climate change brought about by emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide, produced by the burning of oil, coal, wood and natural gas.Buenos Aires made clear, they said, that industry and developing countries were becoming more engaged in the effort to control emissions and in trying to make the Kyoto Protocol work.

An article in Tuesday's Business section about Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s challenge to the state's nitrogen oxide emission limits erroneously described the consequences of those emissions. The emissions contribute to higher ozone levels.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 6/25/98

If international confabs held last week in New York and Pittsburgh produced anything worth noting in the area of climate change, it is this: Don't expect the world to reach a new agreement over controlling greenhouse gases in time for the United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen in December. Consensus is not around the corner, and the U.S. is not the only nation struggling with this important but difficult issue. Still, while the prospect of a blown deadline isn't ordinarily an especially good reason to cheer, there are too many positive signs of movement here and abroad to embrace a gloom and doom outlook.

WASHINGTON - -Congress will return Monday ready to engage in a historic debate on whether the country should shift to cleaner and more efficient use of energy and reduce the heat-trapping gases building up in the atmosphere. Before leaving for Memorial Day, the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved a bill that would set the country's first mandatory limits on greenhouse gases, promote renewable energy and increase the efficiency of buildings, appliances and vehicles. The bill now will be considered by other committees and should reach the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote this summer.

WASHINGTON -Potentially one of the most far-reaching elements in President Barack Obama's budget blueprint is its call to combat global warming with a "cap-and-trade" system for reducing carbon emissions from power plants and other industrial facilities. Overall, it would cut total emissions 14 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent below 2005 by 2050. The plan calls for setting emissions limits on facilities and tightening those limits each year to achieve the overall goals.

In its final days, the Bush administration is poised to exempt poultry farms from reporting how much ammonia and other noxious pollutants they are releasing into the air from the millions of tons of manure their flocks generate. The Environmental Protection Agency has asked the federal Office of Management and Budget to give final approval to a rule that would exclude poultry farms from environmental reporting required of other industries. The budget office reviews all proposed federal regulations to see that their benefits justify their costs.

Maryland earned nearly $16.4 million last week in the nation's first mandatory auction of rights for power plants to release climate-changing pollution, state officials reported yesterday. Most of the proceeds will go toward promoting energy efficiency among the state's electricity consumers and for providing some relief from soaring power bills. "It couldn't have gone any better," Shari T. Wilson, state secretary of the environment, said of Thursday's auction of allowances permitting power plants to emit carbon dioxide.

As energy prices soar and global warming awareness grows, more Americans are buying hybrid cars, outfitting their homes with low-energy light bulbs and worrying about the distance their food travels from farm to plate. But when it comes to air travel, how many pay attention to the jet fuel their flights consume and the carbon emissions those planes generate? Though aviation represents only 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, that share is likely to rise as air traffic grows - the Federal Aviation Administration says commercial flights in the U.S. alone will increase 60 percent by 2030.

CASTINE, Maine -- Being a good citizen these days, we're told, means striving to reduce our carbon footprint - to walk in a way that reduces our detrimental effect on the planet's biosphere. A "footprint" is a good metaphor for our individual impact on the social or natural environment. It's personal, tactile, organic, and immediately comprehensible. It's elementary. We're bipeds; we all walk and leave tracks. At my school, the students in sixth-grade science class can calculate the size of their carbon footprint with an online tool - based on heating fuel, car type and annual mileage, electricity use, and other factors.

Washington -- Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley plunged into the rising waters of the global warming debate last week, endorsing strict regulations on greenhouse emissions that could make the state's rules among the toughest in the nation. "The climate crisis is real," said O'Malley, a Democrat, throwing the weight of his office behind a plan that would cut pollutants from homes and businesses to 25 percent below 2006 levels by 2020, and 90 percent by 2050. O'Malley and a growing number of General Assembly members want to position Maryland at the leading edge of states that are taking steps to ease global warming in the face of what they say is foot-dragging by the Bush administration and Congress.

The Bush administration received a judicial rebuke long in the making this month when an exasperated panel of federal appeals judges held that the Environmental Protection Agency's weak-kneed approach to mercury pollution failed to follow the law. The court killed the rules and sent them back to the EPA for revision. That will almost certainly buck the decision about mercury standards to the next president - a sad situation for a nation that should be leading the fight against global environmental threats such as mercury.

In all likelihood, the U.S. will soon implement a cap-and-trade system to reduce its carbon emissions. Such a system sets a maximum level of pollution that the nation could emit each year. The system would create a limited number of emissions rights or permits that would decline over time. For each ton of carbon a polluter emits, it would need to hold one permit. Polluters would be allowed to buy and sell permits from each other as needed. While some thoughtful people oppose cap-and-trade systems for a variety of good reasons, they have one important economic feature: Economists widely agree that a well-designed cap-and-trade system can minimize the costs of achieving whatever emissions reduction target policymakers choose.