Global Warming Law & Grass For Electricity

A shot from the right at California’s global warming law

This is the Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.

The Global Warming Solutions Act became law in California back in 2006. It seeks to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by close to a third by 2020. Now there’s a new ballot initiative underway that is trying repeal the law. Mark Brush is here, so Mark who’s is behind this ballot initiative?

Well, it’s a group of conservatives and some republican lawmakers and they say California’s global warming law will cost jobs.

The movement has big supporters from conservative talk shows. On the John and Ken Show on KFI in Los Angeles they are outraged that global warming gasses are even called air pollution:

“I mean absolutely absurd. What a lie! Air pollution?! Air pollution? I’m sorry but global warming gasses are not air pollution. Carbon dioxide is what you exhale and methane comes from your rectal gas.”

Supporters of California’s global warming law say it’s the one thing that’s actually driving innovation and creating jobs in the state. Tom Soto is a venture capitalist who invests in clean tech businesses. He says the backers of this ballot initiative are hanging onto the past:

“I think it is a shameless last ditch effort of the oil companies and industry who are clinging by their bloodied fingernails onto something that simply is no longer sustainable.”

The organizers are hoping to capitalize on growing skepticism about global warming science around the country.

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This is The Environment Report.
Energy experts are thinking through how to replace coal that's burned in American power stations.
One alternative is to burn plants, because they can produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
This is called biomass power.
In the Midwest, there's talk of growing millions of acres of grass for biomass.
Shawn Allee looks at whether the region's up to the challenge.
**
One Midwest farmer who grows biomass crops is John Caveny of Illinois.
Caveny shows me a stand of miscanthus, a kind of gigantic grass.
CAVENY: You can get an idea of how big it is. It'd be eleven or twelve feet tall right now. and it's still not done growing.
ALLEE: It's pretty sturdy stuff
RUSTLE
CAVENY: That's the thing about it ...
RUSTLE
Caveny says you can burn miscanthus and other energy grasses to make electricity.
It'd be a great fit for the Midwest - you can avoid some greenhouse gas pollution and boost farmers' income.
But there's a problem.
Utilities won't invest in biomass electrical equipment until farmers prove they can grow enough grass.
Caveny says, that's OK - the energy grass market can start small.
CAVENY: You might might want to heat a shopping mall or a small strip mall or something like that.
Caveny predicts utilities will see these projects work.
Then, they'll follow through and power suburbs and cities with biomass electricity.
That's his prediction, though.
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BUZZ
>>
At a Midwestern farm expo, I find people who say biomass power can't get that big.
Bryan Reggie (redge-jee) is showing off equipment that squishes energy grass into briquettes.
REGGIE: It's roughly the size of a golf ball, but a cylinder in shape.
ALLEE: Like a hockey puck almost.
REGGIE: Yeah.
Reggie says you can burn these grass hockey pucks to heat farms or greenhouses.
But electric utilities?
Reggie says they'd need too much biomass.
REGGIE: When you get bigger scale, you have to start trucking in all your fuel from long distance. Biomass transportation costs are high, so you want to transport as little as possible. That's a good reason to keep it small and keep everything local.
Some energy experts agree with Reggie.
They say utilities won't swap energy grasses for coal unless they're forced to ... or coal prices go sky high.
**
LESTER: A little follow-up, here. Shawn tells us the only utility that's promised to burn significant amounts of energy grass is in Ohio. But that utility is being forced to as a punishment for clean air violations.
That's the Environment Report, I'm Lester Graham.