Nobel laureate: Land Board should hold off on leasing coal
This item originally appeared in: Great Falls Tribune
72 544x376 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} The COP-15 Climate Summit in Copenhagen in December illustrated how difficult it is to reach a policy consensus among nations for carbon emissions reduction.
Even more difficult, in these times of state budget shortfalls, is to forgo easy money (hundreds of millions of dollars) to the state coffers from new coal leasing. Yet that is exactly what Gov. Brian Schweitzer and the Montana Land Board need to do on Tuesday. Montana's Board of Land Commissioners, which includes Schweitzer and four key statewide officials, is considering leasing the state's portion of 1.3 billion tons of coal for strip mining in the Otter Creek drainage of the Powder River Basin in southeast Montana.
From a state carbon emissions point of view, this is the single most important decision in the history of Montana. The combustion of Otter Creek coal would result in approximately 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the life of the mine. Total current emissions from the state of Montana are estimated at 50 million tons per year. So this coal burning would effectively double Montana's present total carbon dioxide emissions for the next half century.
I returned from Copenhagen in December just in time to see the Land Board make the initial decision to offer the Otter Creek coal reserves for leasing. In a 4-1 vote, the state decision makers acknowledged the critical challenge posed by climate change, but nevertheless committed to calling for bids. Gov. Schweitzer argued that so long as coal is burned, Montana should reap the financial benefit. He defends Montana's environmental track record by pointing to its commitments to curb energy use by 20 percent in state agencies and promote development of wind energy. But a final decision to lease Otter Creek coal would nullify the gains from these initiatives.
While the international negotiations for long-term global reductions in greenhouse gas emissions now aim for Mexico City in Dec 2010, immediate local decisions like this would perpetuate a high emissions economy well past 2050, the date negotiators in Copenhagen were targeting 80 percent reductions from present levels. Indeed, the ability of the global community to avert the worst-case climate change scenarios comes down to decisions like this one at the local level in each country.
Gov. Schweitzer delivered an acclaimed speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, in which he acknowledged the link between carbon dioxide and global warming, and called for "a new energy system that is clean, and green, and American-made." As governor of a Western state with tremendous potential for developing renewable energy, Gov. Schweitzer is indeed poised to lead on energy issues, but doing so will require him to make the hard decisions not to allow the construction of new high emission coal mines and coal-fired power plants.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 4th Assessment, of which I was a lead author, predicts that the Earth will warm between 1 and 4 degrees Celsius above current levels by 2100, depending on future carbon emissions rates. In Montana, we are already experiencing shorter winters, declining stream flows and more numerous major summer wildfires. What will Montana be like in 2100?
In Copenhagen every single other nation was waiting for the United States to show leadership through new policies to reduce carbon emissions. This Montana decision is a tangible opportunity to show that leadership.
If not now, when? If not us, who? Gov. Schweitzer and the Land Board should lead by example and vote not to lease the vast Otter Creek coal reserves. At a minimum, the Montana Land Board should postpone this leasing until the coal industry can offer proven, economically viable carbon sequestration technology. There is no imperative to make this lease now.
