CHANGING POWER IN NEW YORK:
Energy Options for National Security
and Environmental Protection

Report on January 17 Panel Discussion sponsored by the

UNITED NATIONS ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK (UNA-NY) and the
CITIZENS NETWORK FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (CitNet)         

 

Moderator:

Gail Karlsson, Vice President of Board of Directors of UNA-NY
                        Chair of CitNet’s Working Group on Energy and Climate Change    
                         gkarlsson@att.net 

Speakers:

J. Kevin Healy, Attorney, Robinson, Silverman, Pearce, Aronsohn and Berman,
                          Member of Governor Pataki’s Task Force on Greenhouse Gases  
                          healyk@rspab.com

Joanna D. Underwood, President of INFORM, Inc., a national environmental research
                          organization based in New York  
                          underwood@informinc.org

Colin Cathcart, Kiss and Cathcart Architects, Professor and Associate Director of
                         Environmental Studies Program, Fordham University
                          c.cathcart@kisscathcart.com

Special Guest:

L. Hunter Lovins, CEO of Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado, www.rmi.org
                         Time Magazine “Hero for the Planet” 2000
                         hlovins@rmi.org

 

INTRODUCTION

Gail Karlsson opened the meeting with a brief description of the sponsoring organizations and the purpose of the meeting.

The United Nations Association of New York supports the work of the UN and informs New Yorkers about issues of international and local importance through monthly educational programs. www.unanyc.org, info@unanyc.org.

The Citizens Network for Sustainable Development is a national network of individuals and organizations that was formed to provide input into the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (the Earth Summit) and which since then has facilitated citizen participation in the work of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. CitNet is currently involved in preparations for the September 2002 World Summit for Sustainable Development (www.johannesburgsummit.org) to be held in South Africa. There is a preparatory meeting for the Summit in NY at UN headquarters January 28 -February 8.  www.citnet.org, info@citnet.org.

The purpose of the meeting was to look at linkages between the work of the UN on sustainable development, particularly regarding energy and climate change issues, and to consider how New Yorkers can support that work through citizen actions at the state and city level.

The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center has forced us to recognize that tensions and conflicts in countries far away can directly affect our lives in disastrous ways. To the extent that we rely on oil from the Persian Gulf, we make our economy dependent on non-democratic regimes in an unstable and hostile part of the world. Instead of trying to increase oil supplies by drilling in environmentally sensitive areas, we would be better served by reducing our oil consumption and moving towards alternative sources of power for electricity, heat and transport.

Another reason to look at our energy policies is that emissions from burning fossil fuels are causing global climate change. The US has rejected the Kyoto Protocol, but since we are responsible for approximately 25% of greenhouse gas emissions, with about 5% of the world’s population, we have an obligation to take action to reduce our emissions. Many important actions have been initiated at the state and local level.

 

What can New Yorkers do:

1. Rebuild downtown Manhattan in a way that sends a message to the world about innovations in sustainable urban design, energy efficiency, and use of alternative energy sources.

2. Encourage Mayor Bloomberg to pursue the climate protection actions set out in his published platform for environmental responsibility.

3. Support City Council Resolution No.1923 to make New York a “Climate Protection City”.

4. Send a message to our Senators on the proposed national energy plan.

5. Review and comment on the NY State Greenhouse Gas Action Plan (available by e-mail request to ksm@nyserda.org) and the NY State Energy Plan (www.nyserda.org at “what’s new”) scheduled for public hearings February 26 (Manhattan) and February 27 (Brooklyn).     

  

PRESENTATION BY J. KEVIN HEALY

What are the two greatest threats to civilization over the next century? Certainly the most immediate is the terrorism that has been unleashed by extremists in the Middle East. The second is climate change.

Over the last decade a consensus has emerged among responsible scientists that human activities – specifically the burning of fossil fuels to produce energy – are responsible for a global warming trend which will accelerate in the coming years and which has the potential to cause severe socioeconomic, political and environmental disruption.

What is fascinating about these two significant issues is that they have something in common – and that something is oil. The US imports more than half of the oil it consumes and one quarter of that oil comes from the Middle East. It may be that the foreign policy that has developed around such dependency has something to do with the hatred that lies behind the recent terrorist activity. I am not expert in such matters, but I do know that the areas we rely on for much of our oil are politically unstable and that it is just common sense to reduce our dependence on them. Similarly, the problem of climate change relates directly to our consumption of oil and other fossil fuels for heat, electric power production and transportation.

Even though climate change is an issue of global proportions, the measures to deal with it lie to a large degree with state and local governments because they establish the rules for how we consume energy. The best examples of this are building codes which affect how much fuel is used to heat or light a building, the efficiency of its furnace, and what kind of fixtures it has.

Many of us for a decade have been urging the state and local governments to develop climate change action plans. I am, therefore, gratified by Governor Pataki’s initiative in this area, and by recent developments on the city level.

1. The NY State Department of Environmental Conservation and the NY State Energy Research and Development Authority last year issued a draft Greenhouse Gas Action Plan (available by e-mail request to ksm@nyserda.org).

2. Governor Pataki issued Executive Order No. 111 which set out an aggressive strategy for reducing the consumption of fossil fuels by state agencies and authorities by lowering energy consumption in state buildings, purchasing alternative fuel vehicles, requiring all new and newly-renovated state buildings to be green buildings, mandating the use of renewable energy sources for a percentage of power for state facilities, and purchasing goods such as light bulbs and refrigerators that meet stringent efficiency standards.

3. Governor Pataki created a Task Force on Greenhouse Gases made up of the heads of state agencies along with business leaders and representatives of major environmental groups to come up with other strategies to achieve meaningful greenhouse gas reductions over the next ten years in the areas of land use, transportation and power generation.

4. A NY State Energy Plan has been drafted, drawing on the work of the task force, and is open for public comment over the next few months. It contains information about stringent emissions standards for cars sold in New York, tax credits for the construction of green buildings, and the creation of a business park in Saratoga devoted to the commercialization of clean energy technologies.

5. At the NY City level, Mayor Bloomberg’s campaign platform included plans for achieving greenhouse gas emission reductions, and the City Council recently adopted a resolution making New York a “Climate Protection City.”

The time is ripe for taking action to make New York a worldwide model for energy efficiency.

PRESENTATION BY JOANNA D. UNDERWOOD

If there was ever a time when the United States should recognize the necessity of freeing its transportation sector from its century long addiction to oil, it is now -- in the wake of the violence of the last months, caused in large part by our reliance on foreign oil. Furthermore, if there was ever a time when our country had enormous opportunities for accomplishing this goal, it is also now. Recent political events make national energy options, particularly those relating to transportation, a crucial topic for public debate today.

The increasing reliance of the US and developing countries on foreign oil seriously threatens global political stability. Over the last 25 years, the use of oil in the American transportation sector has increased 43%, now comprising 67% of all oil used in this country. Oil use in all other sectors has declined 17%. Vehicle emissions are the largest source of air pollution in the US, causing 60-90% of air pollution in cities and disproportionately threatening the health of children. Diesel emissions have been linked to asthma attacks and cancer. Transportation-related emissions generate more than 25% of the greenhouse gases that make our country the leading contributor to global climate change.

INFORM research has identified both the future of transportation in the pollution-free hydrogen fuel cell and the role that natural gas can play in achieving that goal. Over the past 15 years, compressed natural gas has emerged as a clear alternative to oil-derived fuels. 90% cleaner than gasoline and diesel, compressed natural gas is a viable near-term option that, as today’s best feedstock for hydrogen, can also facilitate the shift to truly sustainable transportation.

Today, there is a growing consensus about hydrogen fuel cells. We are also seeing the stirrings of a transportation revolution, with almost every major auto maker marketing alternative-fuel-vehicle models and urban fleets across the country converting to natural gas fuel. Despite the progress to date, alternative fuels have thus far displaced only 0.22% of total transportation fuel use in the US. The biggest obstacle faced by the alternative fuel vehicle industry is the cost of infrastructure development. To make a rapid, widespread transformation of our vehicle sector, we need government leadership and economic incentives that drive rather than discourage change.

The shift to sustainable transportation is particularly important in New York City and State. 77% of  NY state residents breathe unhealthy air, largely due to the 10 million vehicles in our state. New York City has the highest rates of pediatric asthma in the country and an asthma-related death rate that is three times the national average. Within New York City, hospitalization rates for asthma in poor and minority neighborhoods – which host the busiest truck and bus routes/depots – are as much as 21 times higher than in affluent neighborhoods. New York is one of the states most dependent on foreign oil (80%), making it more vulnerable to price hikes and supply disruptions by foreign oil producers. 0.14% of NYS vehicles are alternative fuel vehicles, which is far below the national average.

New York City and State have taken some important first steps that highlight opportunities to promote change, yet there is much more that could be done.

1. NYC Transit could follow the lead of the NYC Department of Transportation and more than 75 other transit agencies and make a commitment to shift its entire fleet of 4,200 buses (the largest in the country) to compressed natural gas fuel.

2. 290 NYC taxis burn clean fuels, but more than 11,700 still burn highly polluting gasoline.

3. New York City is currently testing its first electric school bus, but the remaining 5,000+ school buses transporting NYC children are still burning gasoline or diesel. Compressed natural gas school buses are fully commercial and a viable option for NYC.

4. While some attention has been given to converting government agency vehicle fleets, such as the NYC Departments of Environmental Protection and Sanitation, very little attention has been given to private, heavy-duty diesel truck fleets. These trucks are a major source of air pollution in cities. Compressed natural gas engines are a fully commercial option.

5. NYC and NYS have some good government incentive programs in place (e.g., the NYS Clean Air/Clean Water Bond Act, funds available from the NY State Energy Research and Development Authority, and a tax credit program), but there is much more that can be done.

For example: government fleet purchases can be accompanied by minimum fuel purchase guarantees, which would ensure a market for the new fuel; refueling stations can be opened to the public, increasing access to fuel; the tax credit program could be expanded, better publicized, and extended until 2008; and “green curbs” could provide parking privileges for alternative fuel vehicle fleets.

To millions of people around the world, New York City, especially, is a symbol of their dreams of progress. We can not only create a healthier more energy-secure city with each clean-fuel taxi, bus and truck that we put on our streets; we can show that we place a high priority on our environment, on the health of our children, on our country’s energy security, and on the stability of the world’s climate.

PRESENTATION BY COLIN CATHCART

(accompanied by photos not reproduced here)

The firm of Kiss + Cathcart was formed in 1983 and has been a leader in sustainable design and the use of building-integrated solar photovoltaic panels for generating electrical power, as exemplified by the curtain wall on the 4 Times Square building and a new glass subway canopy for Coney Island.

The firm recently moved to a space on the top of  44 Court Street in downtown Brooklyn. There we will build a new showroom with a solar paneled roof which will allow the space to be energy independent and may even generate extra electricity to sell.

We were witnesses to the tragic events of 9/11and, despite the horror, this gives us an occasion to ponder the implications of our energy distribution system in this city and in this country.

Ironically, we now have an area at the center of our city that has no energy infrastructure at all. Ever since the industrial revolution, we have had centralized energy distribution networks. The massive investments represented by this network were amortized long ago, so we have used this infrastructure for free ever since. Now we have to pay to install a completely new system. Do we rebuild in accordance with our historically centralized pattern, or do we do something else?

Have you noticed the traffic barriers that have sprung up around power and telecommunications centers in town? These centralized plants represent vulnerable targets which, if hit, would cripple entire regions. Far more secure would be a pattern of dispersed generation, as decentralized as its consumption, linked by a flexible network.

Here, ironically we can learn from developing countries that have not had the luxury of infrastructure built generations ago. In communications, for example, cell phones are far more commonly used because there are few telephone cables, but plenty of transmitters, allowing them to leap-frog over developed countries with their Bell-vintage phone lines.

It’s the same with power. For example, on the Navaho reservation inArizona, the largest area of the US without a grid, Kiss + Cathcart’s work has provided each family in the service area with a photovoltaic array. Power is generated where it is used, cutting down on the huge

lengths of copper cable that would otherwise be required to transport the power from a central source. 

The same sort of thing can be done in big cities, incrementally, as part of building and equipment investments that are being made every day. At 4 Times Square, the developer was spending a tremendous amount of money to buy opaque glass to hide the floor lines of the upper floors. We showed him that if he installed photovoltaic panels instead, the small extra cost would be paid back in five years and from then on the power would be free.

Our project for an environmental learning center at Stuyvesant Cove along the East River provides a new template for energy-wise buildings in urban environments. It will be 100% powered by sun, earth, water and wind energy. Not only that, it will demonstrate a new linkage between the built environment and the natural environment, including living plant systems, the water cycle and the movement of the sun in the sky.

Two years ago we were asked to draw an alternative vision of downtown New York, as part of an exhibit at the Liberty State Science Center. Our drawing shows the World Trade Center in a new light, with all the exterior walls incorporating photovoltaic panels and all the roofs planted with trees and grasses. Windmills dot the skyline. We imagined fuel cells on every floor and in all the vehicles, and tidal turbines generating power from the Hudson River.

Who could have imagined the World Trade Center towers….gone! The irony is that with the towers gone, we may now act to make our dreams of alternative energy sources a reality. 

REMARKS BY L. HUNTER LOVINS

Hunter Lovins was in New York taping a segment of the new Bill Moyers television show NOW (shown on Channel 13 on Friday, January 18). She came to this program because it dealt with the same sorts of issues she raised on the show, one of the most important of

which is the fact that we would not need to import oil from the Persian Gulf, or drill in the Arctic, if we had higher gas mileage standards. 

The Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colorado is a non-profit organization that has done landmark work on sustainable energy technologies, green building design and fuel efficient cars. 

Ms. Lovins emphasized that alternative energy technologies are already widely used. Wind power is the fastest growing energy source, followed by solar power captured through photovoltaic panels. But the greatest potential right now for reducing oil consumption lies in energy efficiency improvements. The US has saved approximately $2 billion per year through energy efficiency measures, and could save another $3 billion more.

She warned, however, that this country’s energy grids are vulnerable to attack and cited RMI’s 1982 book Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security, which argues that the only effective protection is to make our energy system inherently less vulnerable – through energy efficiency and distributed generation of power from renewable energy sources – and to address the conditions that feed the pathology of hatred. Both of these strategies would cost less than current antiterrorism efforts. 

The Homeland Energy Security Bill, being advanced in the US Senate, aims to double the throughput of, and prolong for more decades America's dependence on, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. Yet recently one drunk with a rifle shut down that same pipeline, and a sixth of US oil production, for 60 hours with a single shot. As a centerpiece of energy

security, a less prudent choice can hardly be imagined.

For the future, on-site fuel cells will be important new sources of power for buildings and cars, using hydrogen produced from natural gas. Those who don’t recognize this and adapt will be left behind.

She ended with a reminder that the eyes of the world are on New York at this time, and we are confronted with tremendous opportunities for advancing, at the same time, community development, national security and environmental protection.

  

 

 

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