California Kicks Off Cap-and-Trade Program to Auction Carbon Emission Credits

Today, California kicked off the first auction of their cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases under the California Air Resources Board (CARB) new cap-and-trade program. This is the first large-scale carbon market in the United States, and is expected to be the second largest carbon market in the world, after the European Union.

The outcome of today’s auction will likely determine the future of greenhouse gas policy in the United States. California’s program already includes the concept of potential “linkage” with other carbon markets, which means that carbon credits could be transferred between other cap-and-trade programs. This essentially allows for expansion of this market to other states or jurisdictions outside the U.S.

Locus has been involved in the development of California’s carbon market from nearly the beginning.  Locus was one of the first accredited verification bodies for greenhouse gas emissions, and has years of expertise in reporting greenhouse gas data. Locus staff have also been certified as carbon offset verifiers under CARB.  From experience, Locus knows that participants in the cap-and-trade program have many options available to them in how they calculate and report their greenhouse gas data, and how they select those options can have significant effects on the financial impact of the cap-and-trade program. Some of Locus’ customers have saved thousands by making simple changes to their greenhouse gas reporting methods, as recommended by Locus’ technical experts or by using Locus’ Cloud-based GHG software.

Hurricane Sandy Creates Concern about Toxic-Waste Sites

While the amount of damage that Hurricane Sandy caused is still being tallied up, particular attention needs to be paid to one environmental issue: Sandy’s impact on Superfund toxic-waste sites. The Wall Street Journal recently identified that out of the 198 sites in both New York and New Jersey, 45 are within a half-mile from coastal areas, thus making them extremely vulnerable to the effects of storms.

Even though a specific number was not given as to how many of these Superfund sites were flooded, it’s clear that several felt the impact of Sandy. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has tested water samples from Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal and nearby flooded buildings and has only found low levels of potentially cancer-causing pollutants. However, there are many more sites that need examined, such as the Raritan Bay Slag Superfund site in Sayreville, New Jersey, that poses the possible threat of lead contamination. The amount of hazardous toxic-waste that Sandy may have unearthed at Superfund sites like these makes it essential that there is a thorough evaluation of possible waste disturbance.

In addition to the Superfund sites, other concerns such as fuel spills and issues at water treatment facilities have members of the Coast Guard, officials from the EPA and the states of New York and New Jersey working to quell the threats. One thing is for certain: a considerable amount of work still needs to be done in order to assess the flooding damage.

To accurately determine the extent of the contamination caused by Sandy, numerous water samples must be collected and analyzed. The management of this data becomes extremely important due to the possible outcomes that may be discovered. By organizing this critical data in a centralized, Cloud-based environmental management platform, its accuracy is improved, and information can be analyzed at portfolio level a thousand times faster, providing actionable insight in real time- which is crucial in a situation like this.  Having a system like this in place will help the EPA and affected parties to not only assess the nature and extent of possible contamination spread more accurately and faster, but it will also help to prepare better for future events of a similar nature.  Information on which remedies worked, and which did not work as well, will assist the EPA and owners of contaminated sites with knowing what improvements are necessary.

Despite Sandy’s Wrath, Nuclear Energy Facilities Stand Strong

This past week, the East Coast experienced the strongest Atlantic tropical storm on record. Despite the chaos and devastation Hurricane Sandy brought with it, nuclear energy facilities in the northeast seem to have stood strong.

Due to strategic planning and preparation beforehand, such as securing equipment, making sure doors were weather-tight and emergency backup diesel generators were ready to go, 24 out of 34 facilities from South Carolina to Vermont continued to generate electricity during the storm. Even though not all facilities remained in operation, all 34 responded well. Of the 10 that were shut down only three closed because of storm conditions, and the remaining seven were already closed due to refueling or inspection.

This successful response was largely due to the actions of reactor operators and emergency response personnel. These workers ensured the power plants and areas around the facilities remained safe throughout the storm.

“Hurricane Sandy once again demonstrates the robust construction of nuclear energy facilities, which are built to withstand extreme flooding and hurricane-force winds that are beyond that historically reported for each area,” said Marvin S. Fertel, president and chief executive officer at the Nuclear Energy Institute.

This preparation for the unknown certainly paid off in the battle against Sandy. In addition, many of those reactors have installed Locus’ Cloud-based EIM system to manage their environmental data. Consequently, their access to key data, or ability to add new data, has been unaffected by the storm.

It is during tragic natural disasters like this that the value a Cloud-based system brings to critical infrastructure environmental information management is truly proven.  The last location that an environmental information management system should be running from is within the plant itself. Both Fukushima and the BP Gulf spill disaster have shown that no critical software should run at the facility itself; that software and data could be destroyed (or become inaccessible )along with the facility, and the data that would have helped determine the cause of the disaster would be lost for all practical purposes. For these and other reasons, a Cloud-based alternative for environmental information management is the preferred way of managing such data. In the case of a disaster these Cloud-based systems can also be accessed from any location with Internet access, so data can be instantly accessible up until the disaster onset, and can continue to be remotely collected during and after the event.