REDUCING GREENHOUSE GASES Corporate and state officials discuss strategies for cutting emissions in advance of regulation

Bette Hileman C&EN Washington

E arly this month, business execu­tives and state officials met in Washington, D.C., to discuss their

efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emis­sions and the government policies that could aid or hinder these efforts. They also outlined how companies could es­tablish a baseline for emissions reduc­tions. This is the first step in setting up a verifiable system under which emis­sions reductions could be claimed if Congress eventually passes legislation that requires emission cuts and gives credit to companies that take early ac­tion to reduce greenhouse gases.

The conference was sponsored pri­marily by the Pew Center on Global Cli­mate Change. The Arlington, Va.-based Pew Center, established in 1998, aims to bring scientific, economic, and techno­logical expertise to the global debate on climate change.

Several business leaders at the confer­ence revealed actions their companies are taking to address climate change. They all said they are reducing green­house gas emissions now because they believe this will be required in the future, either by government regulation or un­der the Kyoto Protocol to the United Na­tions Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Dennis H. Reilley, executive vice pres­ident and chief operating officer at Du-Pont, said that DuPont will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 65% from the 1990 level by 2010. At the same time, the company will hold its energy use flat, with 1990 as a base year, and increase its use of renewable energy sources to the point that these will provide 10% of Du-Pont's energy needs by 2010.

DuPont is well on its way to achiev­ing these goals, Reilley said. By 2000, it will reach a goal set in 1991 of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 45% from the

1990 level. It has accomplished this pri­marily by reducing point sources of ni­trous oxides and fluorochemicals, which are greenhouse gases.

Reilley recognizes that the science of global climate change is uncertain. But, he said, "no business leader can afford [to wait for certainty]. We rely on good science and tried-and-true values to make plans and decisions in the face of uncertainty."

Robert V. D. Luft, chairman of Enter­gy Corp., New Orleans, said his company will achieve cumulative cuts of 27 million metric tons by the end of 2000. Entergy operates power plants generating nearly 30,000 MW of electricity.

Entergy achieved these reductions, Luft said, by increasing the capacity and availability of its five nuclear power

plants, improving the efficiency of its fossil-fuel-based power plants, and im­proving its transportation and distribu­tion system.

Motorola will reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases by reducing its use of perfluorocarbons (PFCs), Richard J. Guimond, Motorola director of environ­ment, health, and safety, told the meeting. Motorola uses PFCs to etch and clean semiconductors. It aims to cut PFC use in half by 2010 by finding other ways to clean.

John B. Carberry, director of environ­mental technology at DuPont, pointed out some of the pitfalls in establishing a baseline for emissions reductions. After a company chooses a base year, it is rela­tively easy to specify the business units and the types of greenhouse gases emit­ted. The not-so-easy tasks are finding all the sources and deciding whether to ac­count for the fuel used in transporting products and employees on travel. And the really hard questions, Carberry said, are how to account for a company's share of energy use in joint ventures, in business­es that are sold or purchased, and in facil­ities that are transferred internationally.

For a large corporation that has facili­ties in many different countries, it is im­portant to measure emissions on a global basis, said Judith Bayer, director of envi­ronmental government affairs at United

New Jersey's strategy for reducing greenhouse gases

The New Jersey Department of Environ­mental Protection (NJDEP) claims that it is the first and only agency in any state to establish a quantitative timeline and goals for greenhouse gas reductions. In March 1998, New Jersey set a goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions 3.5% below 1990 levels by 2005.

In early September, at the Washington, D.C., meeting on taking early action to reduce greenhouse gases sponsored by the Pew Center, Leslie J. McGeorge, NJDEP's director of the Division of Sci­ence & Research, described why New Jersey decided to establish such a goal.

One reason is that New Jersey is a coastal state, so it is concerned about climate change and associated sea-lev­el rise, she said. Second, the state has a long history of being a leader in tack­ling emerging environmental issues. Third, New Jersey firms produce many innovative technologies that can con­tribute to reducing greenhouse gases. In addition, New Jersey officials be­lieve the state will derive air quality and other collateral benefits from re­ducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

The first step New Jersey took toward

reducing emissions was to establish an emissions inventory. It determined that 88% of the state's greenhouse gases comes from the burning of fossil fuel. Of this total (about 150 million metric tons of carbon dioxide measured as carbon), 38% comes from transportation, 24% from energy use in residential build­ings, 22% from commercial buildings, and 16% from industry.

To achieve its goal, NJDEP has es­tablished numerical greenhouse gas reduction targets for each of these sec­tors, McGeorge said. The greatest sav­ing will be achieved in the commercial buildings and industrial sectors. Con­siderable energy savings can be achieved in the industrial sector by re­pairing steam leaks and air compres­sors and by replacing fixed-speed mo­tors with variable-speed motors, she said. NJDEP plans to reduce emis­sions in the transportation sector by purchasing more energy-efficient vehi­cles for the state fleet. However, it is not considering any other measures, such as tax incentives, to induce citi­zens to purchase more energy-efficient vehicles, she said.

SEPTEMBER 27,1999 C&EN 2 5

g o v e r n m e n t & policy

Technologies Corp. (UTC), Hartford, Conn. Otherwise, emissions might ap­pear to be going down, when really they are going up for the corporation as a whole. UTC has 225 facilities in 36 countries.

Establishing an emis­sions baseline has a number of advantages, she said. It reveals previ­ously unexplored oppor­tunities for reducing emissions, and it allows a company to compare it­self with its peers. Also, when a baseline is set up before it is mandated by regulation, it gives the company time to experi­ment in its efforts to re- Reilley duce greenhouse gases and may help it gain a competitive ad­vantage. UTC has set a goal of reducing Btus consumed per dollar of product 25% by 2007, using 1997 as the baseline.

Luft stressed the importance of pass­ing legislation that would give companies credit for early action to reduce emis­

sions. "It's absolutely essential to give credit for voluntary, good-faith actions tak­en in advance of mandates," he said. "Oth­erwise, companies that have already made

the most cost-effective re­ductions would be at a competitive disadvantage to competitors that have done nothing," he added.

But Jimmie Powell, staff director for the Senate Committee on Environ­ment & Public Works, said there is little chance that the early-action bill (S. 547) introduced by Sen. JohnAChafee(R-R.I.)will be taken up before late 1999 or January 2000.

David Garman, chief of staff for Sen. Frank

Murkowski (R-Alaska) and a foe of the Kyoto protocol, said he is very much op­posed to the idea of giving credit for ear­ly action. This would give a competitive advantage to large companies, he said, and would make it more likely that the protocol would be ratified eventually.^

GAO reports Superfund cleanups going well

A fact lost in the seemingly endless con­gressional debates over reform of the Superfund law is that the program is still functioning. And a new review of Super-fund's progress by the General Account­ing Office (GAO) shows that significant headway continues to be made in clean­up of the nation's abandoned hazardous waste sites.

GAO examined data from the Environ­mental Protection Agency on the 1,231 waste sites EPA has on its National Prior­ities List (NPL). It found that some 595 of the sites were either finished with clean­up or all remedies were in place, and there was no further need for the sites to be on the NPL.

At another 424 sites, at least one cleanup remedy has been selected or was already under way, according to EPA site managers interviewed by GAO investigators. For 135 sites, no

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