In its first ever ruling on climate change, the Supreme Court decided Monday that carbon dioxide emissions were in fact air pollutants under the Clean Air Act and the U.S. government and Environmental Protection Agency need to address global climate change now. In the meantime, the city of Austin and local groups and businesses are trying to bring the issue firmly to Texas.
Carbon dioxide has a negative effect on the environment, because it absorbs heat from the sun and holds it in the atmosphere and reflects off the Earth's surface, a property that keeps the planet from being a frozen ball, but in large quantities can cause things to get too hot, causing global warming, UT geology professor Jay Banner said.
Colin Rowan, an Austin spokesman for nonprofit group Environmental Defense, said the court's ruling is just one of many national developments this year he hopes will advance global warming regulations across the country and in Texas.
Environmental Defense was one of the major players in the TXU coal plant buyout earlier this year that halted the construction of 11 coal plants. Rowan said if the plants had been built, they could have emitted 78 million tons of carbon dioxide per year.
"All of the arguments we've heard in the past about, 'Oh, we can't stop carbon dioxide pollution, because it's not a pollutant' - those excuses are gone now," Rowan said.
Because the gas is not directly harmful to people, some have argued that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, Banner said. It is also a colorless, odorless gas that is easier to ignore than other pollutants.
"If clear skies are what you're looking for, carbon dioxide won't affect that," he said.
In February, the Austin City Council approved a resolution to make city of Austin utilities and infrastructure completely carbon-neutral by 2020, Austin Energy spokeswoman Esther Matthews said. To be carbon-neutral, city departments must either emit no carbon dioxide at all or offset its emissions by creating carbon sinks, things such as planting trees, bushes and shrubs to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
"The city of Austin owns its [electrical] utility, Austin Energy, so the city council is our board of directors. Because we've had an environmentally concerned city council for many, many years, we have an environmentally concerned electric utility," she said.
Banner said Austin's goal of neutrality by 2020 is a good one and will hopefully encourage similar decisions in other cities.
Austin Energy began taking steps to offset global climate change about seven years ago with the Green Choice Energy Program, Matthews said. Austinites who use Green Choice energy in their homes and businesses are helping lower carbon emissions by using electrical energy created from wind power rather than from burning fossil fuels, the major source of carbon dioxide emissions, he said.
"[Green Choice] is about a sixth of our energy that we sell to our customers, and we intend to get that up to about 20 percent by 2015 and about 30 percent by 2020," she said.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, a major environmental agency that works with the government on other chemical emissions, has no official position on global climate change and carbon dioxide emissions, said commission spokesman Terry Clawson. The commission will follow the direction of the Environmental Protection Agency and whatever federal regulations it decides upon, he said.
A bill facing the state Legislature calling for a global warming task force to plan Texas' response to climate change is just one statewide effort Rowan and Environmental Defense are supporting, he said. For the most part, Rowan said, the group is trying to construct more efficient state energy policies with the hope of creating a system where Texas wouldn't need a new power plant for 15 years.
"We're not asking people to turn down their air conditioners or turn off their lights; we're talking about efficiency in the infrastructure, so that the things that we use, use less energy," he said.
Though Rowan said it is "embarrassing" how far Texas is behind the rest of the nation, he thinks the state has an opportunity to be on the forefront dealing with the problem.
"We have a lot of smart people in this state and a lot of business people who like to make money from innovation, and there's a lot of opportunity to be on the leading edge of the technology that's going to be needed to solve this energy problem, and why shouldn't that technology be developed in Texas?" Rowan asked.
Austin-based Dell computers is one company currently trying to formulate a plan for dealing with its carbon emissions, said spokesman Bryant Hilton. The problem the company is having with setting those goals is the questions they need to answer: What are the logistics and concrete steps for cutting emissions and will more alternative energy be available in the future, he said.
"It's just a lot to dig into, and that's why were putting that work ahead of setting public goals," Hilton said.
In the meantime, Dell is doing its part in Austin by encouraging its employees to use ride-share programs, promoting telecommuting when possible and working with Austin's Green Choice Energy Program to make up 12 percent of the energy the company uses at its sites in Round Rock and Austin, he said.
Rowan said he hopes recent recognition of the harmful nature of carbon dioxide emissions will make businesses realize that global warming is a business variable they must consider in all their plans.
"They're going to have be thinking about the impact that it's going to have on their bottom line if they ignore it," he said.
Governments, research and alternative energy sources are places to look for a solution, but Banner said it will take individual action to make an impact. About 22 percent of carbon emissions arise from residential use, but still suggest personal choices have large effects on the environment, he said.
Walking instead of driving and switching from incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent light bulbs that use one-fifth the energy and last longer are just some ways individuals can make a difference, Banner said. Even shopping at a local farmers market can make a difference, he said. Getting food from distant farms to the local grocery store takes a huge amount of energy, particularly jet fuel, which is one of the major sources of carbon emissions.
Banner said it seems that people's knowledge of the issue has increased in the last couple years, and the amount of activity in the area following the Supreme Court ruling, the TXU decision and Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth" is encouraging.
"Now [that] we have people listening to it, it'll be interesting to see what we do with it," he said.
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