Congress Cleaning Up Its Own Backyard
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 06.11.07
Congress may be in for some big changes. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants this session to become carbon neutral, "The House must lead by example and it is time for Congress to act on its own carbon footprint."
Senator John Kerry has also sponsored legislation which aims to make the entire Capitol complex carbon neutral, permanently, by 2020. It’s an impressive target considering that it constitutes 23 buildings, including the Library of Congress and a coal-burning power plant, staffed by a total of 15,000 people. It currently produces 316,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year.
As well as these lofty and perhaps unlikely goals, there has been a series of smaller achievements. The Architect's Office has stated that almost all newly purchased vehicles should be alternative-fuel compatible, and workers have switched 2,000 desk lamps over to CFLs.
All these steps appear positive, but will fall some way short of neutrality. It’s likely that carbon offsets will be needed if they are to achieve this, making it a rather hollow victory. We often see stories here at TH of some organisation attempting carbon neutrality, it’s a popular goal.
However, if it is not practical or likely, then it would be perhaps more sensible to make incremental improvements, rather than stumble to reach an unobtainable target and then make up the rest with controversial offset programs.
The changes being made are positive, and helpful. It’s important that Capitol Hill should set a good example as well; they create legislation that controls who can emit what, so they should be aiming to fall well below acceptable limits. But it seems as though they may have overstretched themselves with these statements. The complex is huge, and makes use of a coal power plant that is unlikely to be replaced any time soon. It’s unlikely to be carbon neutral in any true sense any time soon. :: Yahoo!
See also :: Tell Congress to Support Clean Energy :: Congress May Insure Against Coal-Induced Flatulence :: Tell Congress to Support Clean Energy
I am surprised by the take of this article that it is an impractical goal for the Congressional Complex to go Carbon Neutral. This week in DC, College and University Presidents representing 271 Univerisities and Colleges - many with far larger footprints and campuses - are meeting to discuss how best to go carbon neutral and are making goals more aggressive than Congress.
"However, if it is not practical or likely, then it would be perhaps more sensible to make incremental improvements" - All I have to say is that they have 13 years to make incremental changes to reduce their emissions to zero, only 8% a year. Especially with the resources of Congress and the already green features of DC at their disposal.
Check Out Dispatches from the Youth Climate Movement - www.itsgettinghotinhere.org
Matthew,
It's true that some forms of carbon offsets are controversial (like planting trees), but I think an important distinction to make are the very valid carbon offsets from the Carbon Climate Exchange. When you purchase this type of offset, you are buying up actual carbon reductions within the carbon market, making them unavailable for another entity (like a polluting factory) to purchase. In essence, you're driving up the cost of credits, making it easier for companies to actually reduce carbon than pay for high-priced offsets in the future. Try Drive Neutral for this type of offset.