Sustainability - - A Focus On Carbon

Trump’s announcement that the US is withdrawing from the Paris climate accord is deeply disappointing.  His decision flies in the face of solid science on the role of human activity in climate change.  What is needed is climate policy grounded in a solid set of facts.  It is for this reason I take issue with the Resolution adopted by the Portland City Council and Multnomah County at the Council Session on June 1st.   "Until economic forms of utility-scale electricity storage are achieved, it will be next to impossible to economically replace all fossil fuel electricity generation with renewables."   Two policies were adopted in that Resolution.  Both policies apply community-wide, not just to City or County facilities.  One goal states that  by 2035  all residents and businesses in the City and County will only use electricity generated from renewables.  This means that PGE and PacifiCorp must deliver electricity to our homes and businesses that is onl

Maybe yes, maybe no.  It depends on several factors that boild down to the qualityu of the offset.  The Natural Reosurces Defense Council, NRDC, has a concise summary of the issue with some suggestions. It's worth noting that at least there is the potential for a carbon offset to reduce current CO2 emissions whereas a Renewable Energy Certificate, in and of itself, will not reduce current CO2 emissions. As the NRDC summary indicates, the first course of action is to reduce our current activity that is causing the CO2 emissions.

No, a REC does not cut existing CO2 emissions. If an existing fossil-fuels electricity generating plant is retired, that can cut exizting CO2 emissions if and only if a new one isn't built. image courtesy of groupe-edsi.com

The party who owns the Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) gets to claim the environmental benefit.    This can lead to some counter-intuitive outcomes from renewables development. For example, if Portland General Electric (PGE) builds a utility-scale wind farm in its balancing area, it could argue that it uses the electricity it produces to meet its needs.   However, unless PGE keeps and retires the RECs associated with that electricity, PGE cannot claim the environmental benefits of that wind farm.   It could sell the RECs to some other party and use the proceeds of that sale however it choses. Alternatively, if PGE purchased RECs from any one of a number of entities that have them, then PGE could claim the environmental benefit of those RECs even if it didn’t build the PV solar or utility-scale wind farm.   image courtesy of renewablechoice.com

I f your home or apartment has an electric stove, or an electric water heater, or an electric furnace, or and electric clothes dryer you're helping Portland with such a goal.  If you also own an electric vehicle and only use it, or walk, or bike that’s a help too. If any of your appliances operate on natural gas, or propane, or fuel oil, you'd need to replace them with ones that operate on electricity.  That means using an electric water heater or a heat pump water heater.  Your oil or propane or natural gas furnace would need to be replaced most likely with a ducted heat pump or perhaps one or more thru-the-wall heat pumps.  Your gas range would need to be switched out for an electric one.  Same with the clothes dryer. As for your vehicle, you’d need to retire your gas-powered (or diesel, or biofuel) car, even if it's a hybrid, for an EV.  However, keep in mind that your new EV still results in fossil fuel use. As is reported at this  link , &qu