The draft vulnerability assessment describes approaches taken to review the vulnerability of water utilities to future climate change.  The assessment discusses different types of models, analyses and climate change information being developed by four major water utilities that are leaders in climate change adaption. The utilities selected for the case studies are-

• East Bay Municipal Utility District (Contra Costa and Alameda Counties, CA)
• New York City Department of Environmental Protection (New York, NY)
• Seattle Public Utilities (Seattle, WA)
• Spartanburg Water (Spartanburg, SC)

Each utility used different research techniques based on their location, population, and seasonal weather patterns and reached different outcomes.  Nevertheless, the study highlighted many similarities related to the utilities’ vulnerability to climate change. Key climate change risks included reduction in water supplies, change in timing of runoffs, changes in sea level and sewer overflows and increases in droughts.

Some of the more notable observations NCEA made from the four case studies include-

• Conducting the assessment increased climate change risk awareness, informed decisions within the utility and provided support for adaptive measures to be taken;
• Different models may be used to better understand not only the future of climate change, but also managing and understanding the dynamics of the utilities’ systems;
• Each utility expressed an interest in receiving further information on the future of climate change and requested that their needs be reflected in future;
• Notwithstanding the uncertainty of climate change, these utilities better understand the risks they may face in the future and their capabilities to prevent problems.

Click here read more about the findings and readings of these four case studies and to read how each individual utility conducted their research finding. Also for more information on how to submit a comment with EPA on this draft, click here.

The saga of the Obama administration’s moratorium on Gulf of Mexico drillings operations took another strange turn yesterday.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit entered a “LIMITED REMAND” to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana for the purpose of holding a hearing, “calling witnesses if necessary” and issuing findings of fact and conclusions of law with respect to three specific questions.  Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC v. Salazar, No. 10-30585, slip op. at 2-3 (5th Cir. August 16, 2010)(capitalization in original).  

The court reasoned that it did not have before it a sufficient record on which to determine whether the second moratorium rendered moot the injunction the District Court had entered with respect to the first moratorium.  The three issues on which it ordered the District Court to rule are:

• Whether Secretary Salazar has the authority to terminate the original moratorium filed on May 28^th due to original decisions held by both the District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the Administrative Procedures Act;
• Whether the evidence provided for the July 12^th revision of the moratorium was available or unavailable for Secretary Salazar at the time he originally filed the May 28^th moratorium; and
• Describing the differences, if any, between the May 28^th and the July 12^th moratorium memoranda, what circumstances may have changed since the two were made, and if the issuance of the July 12^th moratorium rendered the May 28^th moratorium moot.

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As previously discussed on Akin Gump’s climate change blog, ClimateIntel.com, the Obama administration’s initiatives to “reinvigorate” NEPA have resulted in unnecessary and redundant obstacles to project development.  In analyzing CEQ’s “Draft NEPA Guidance on Consideration of the Effects of Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” issued February 18, 2010, in which the Council expressed the view that NEPA requirements apply to GHGs and climate change impacts, ClimateIntel recommended that CEQ promulgate categorical exclusions and seek necessary amendments to the statute to minimize redundancies in the modern environmental regulatory system.

In the August 16 report , CEQ does precisely the opposite.  Under the guise of “promot[ing] more robust and transparent implementation of NEPA practices, procedures and policies,” the administration announced a ban on the use of “categorical exemptions” for deepwater drilling activities.  The administration also announced that shallow water drilling activities would be subject to enhanced environmental review.  While the current moratorium on deepwater drilling renders these actions “academic,” as the moratorium is lifted, the oil and gas industry will face increased costs and further delays in obtaining regulatory approvals.

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Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will hold a hearing entitled, “Oversight Hearing on the Use of Oil Dispersants in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.” The issues raised regarding 1.8 million gallons of dispersant used to break up oil from the Gulf leak have already started to drive new scientific research and debate. The hearing will be held at 10:00 a.m. in Room 406 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Witnesses include Paul Anastas, assistant administrator in U.S. EPA’s Office of Research and Development; David Westerholm, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Response and Restoration; Ronald Kendall, professor of environmental toxicology and director of the Institute of Environmental and Human Health at Texas Tech University; David Smith, oceanography professor and associate dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island; Edward Overton, professor emeritus in the environmental science department at Louisiana State University; and Jackie Savitz, senior scientist and pollution campaign director at Oceana.

• Biomass-Based Diesel (0.80 billion gallons; 0.68 percent)
• Advanced Biofuels (1.35 billion gallons; 0.77 percent)
• Cellulosic Biofuels (5-17.1 million gallons; 0.004-0.015 percent)
• Total Renewable Fuels (13.95 billion gallons; 7.95 percent)

These standards derive from the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), which established annual renewable fuel volume goals designed to ultimately reach an overall level of 36 billion gallons in 2022.  EPA calculated the proposed percentages to achieve the target volume for 2011.  As a result, all those involved in the production of commercial transportation fuel must ensure that such fuel contains the requisite minimum volume of renewable fuel. 

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After abandoning plans for comprehensive energy and cap-and-trade climate legislation on July 22, 2010, Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) introduced a scaled-down alternative bill the following week, marrying various drilling and oil spill response reforms and a limited package of energy proposals addressing energy efficiency, natural gas vehicle and infrastructure incentives, and conservation.  Though less ambitious than prior iterations, the proposed “Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act of 2010” still covers considerable ground, including provisions to:

• Remove the liability caps for owners and operators of offshore facilities;
• Establish procedures for processing damage claims;
• Strengthen emergency response planning obligations on regulated industries and establish expedited damage claim procedures;
• Expand and direct funding to oil spill prevention and response research, as well a funding to support land and water conservation projects and programs;
• Reorganize federal oversight of offshore drilling to separate leasing, environmental and safety oversight, and royalty collection efforts;
• Increase criminal penalties for violations of oil spill prevention requirements;
• Override recent case law limiting punitive damages under maritime law; and
• Upgrade federal capabilities to respond to future spills, as well as the ongoing Gulf Spill cleanup;
• Allow states to require, with some limitations, disclosure of substances used in hydraulic fracturing efforts associated with natural gas recovery.

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Sens. Kerry and Lieberman originally introduced legislation that would create an economy-wide cap and trade regime.  That got pared down to a proposal to cap and trade the emissions from utilities only, but when 60 votes could not be found for even that proposal, its inclusion into an energy bill was nixed altogether.  Also jettisoned was a proposal to have a renewable energy standard mandated for utilities.  That leaves a less ambitious energy bill that contains incentives for renewables, the removal of the cap on oil spill liability, incentives for natural gas vehicles, the HomeStar program, and reforms of the on outer-continental shelf drilling.  This effectively kills climate change legislation for this year.  Keep an eye on the debate over the Rockefeller Amendment, which would delay any new EPA greenhouse gas regulations for two years in hopes that the stick of impending regulations would provide Congress with the incentive to create its own legislation.

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Opponents, however, simply vowed to keep fighting. On June 25, 2010 a coalition of six environmental groups and three individuals filed suit alleging that the Secretary’s approval violated the Endangered Species Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and Administrative Procedure Act, through various inadequacies in its consideration of project impacts on the roseate tern, piping plover and right whale. Officials have dismissed the suit as groundless, and the project’s developers have attacked the plaintiffs and their motives. Rancor and rhetoric have been abundant enough throughout the saga that Cape Wind has yielded both an acclaimed book and a soon-to-be-released feature film.

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Much of the Committees’ focus will continue to be on the efforts in the Gulf.  The Senate Commerce Committee will hold back-to-back hearings on the subject, first on the status of clean up efforts, followed by a mark-up of legislation on Thursday to reform federal oil spill response authorities.  The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on Tuesday to examine the Department of Interior’s role in regulating deep water wells, a hearing that could highlight partisan differences, as former Secretary Gail Norton and current Secretary Ken Salazar share the witness panel.  Finally, on an unrelated topic, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a Wednesday hearing on Federal green building guidelines.

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