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With these landmark purchases, PG&E’s ClimateSmart program will purchase 214,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emission reductions, including 200,000 metric tons from The Conservation Fund's Garcia River Forest, located on California's North Coast, and 14,000 metric tons from Sempervirens Fund's Lompico Headwaters Forest, located in Santa Cruz County.
“These investments mark a major milestone in the use of high quality forest sequestration offsets as an effective mechanism to address climate change,” said Nancy McFadden, senior vice president of public affairs for PG&E. “We’re honored to be making these purchases on behalf of our ClimateSmart customers. Through their commitment to the environment, we’ve been able to sequester a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions and protect some of California’s most precious resources.”
PG&E’s ClimateSmart program is a voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction program that allows customers to balance out the greenhouse gas emissions that are produced by the energy they use, making their energy use “climate neutral.” To date, more than 17,500 customers have enrolled in PG&E’s ClimateSmart program.
With today’s agreements, PG&E will now be turning those enrollments into investments in forestry projects that will sequester greenhouse gas emissions. Following an extensive competitive bidding process, PG&E selected these projects because they met the stringent verification protocols set both by the California Climate Action Registry and PG&E. PG&E will permanently retire the reductions on behalf of its enrolled ClimateSmart customers – thereby deriving no benefit from the offset purchases.
“Protecting our forests is one of many solutions required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Gary Gero, interim president of the California Climate Action Registry. “We commend PG&E for its ongoing environmental leadership and for taking on the challenge to fund real, transparent and verifiable carbon emission reduction projects.”
“Voluntary carbon storage projects like the Garcia River and Lompico Headwaters illustrate the important role California forests and forest landowners can play in helping the state achieve its ambitious goal of reducing greenhouse gas reductions to 1990 levels by 2020,” said Mary Nichols, Chairman of the California Air Resources Board (CARB). “By purchasing offsets that are verifiable under CARB-approved protocols, PG&E has demonstrated that corporations can make progressive decisions about investing in real, measurable reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.”
The selected projects, owned and operated by The Conservation Fund and the Sempervirens Fund, are located in redwood forests on the North Coast of California and the Santa Cruz Mountains – both coastal redwood forests, which have the highest carbon density per acre in the world.
The Conservation Fund’s Garcia River project, which is managed in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, was recently among the first to be verified by the California Climate Action Registry. The Nature Conservancy also holds the conservation easement on Garcia, which protects the property from development. Sempervirens Fund’s Lompico Forest project is in the process of seeking verification from the Registry.
“The Conservation Fund’s sustainable management of the Garcia River Forest captures more than 77,000 tons of carbon emissions annually, which is the equivalent of taking more than 14,000 cars off the road every year,” said Chris Kelly, California Program Director of The Conservation Fund. “We look forward to working with PG&E’s ClimateSmart program to develop and demonstrate projects that can help them continue to set the standard for forest based climate change solutions.”
“Sempervirens was proud to be selected by ClimateSmart’s competitive process,” said Brian Steen, Executive Director of Sempervirens Fund, California’s oldest land conservancy. “PG&E's commitment to offsetting its ClimateSmart customers’ greenhouse gas emissions through the preservation of redwood forests means we will be able to preserve more threatened forest lands for environmental and public benefit.”
As more customers enroll in the ClimateSmart program in the next two years, PG&E will seek more GHG reductions through even more projects. Using the competitive bidding process, PG&E plans to invest ClimateSmart funds in a range of innovative projects, such as livestock manure management projects that capture methane gas from dairy farms and conserving and restoring California's native forests. Through the first three years of the program, ClimateSmart has set a goal to invest in projects that yield 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide reductions or more.
PG&E has enrolled as the first participant in ClimateSmart by committing more than $1.5 million of shareholder funding over the next three years to make the energy use in the company's offices, service centers, maintenance facilities and other company buildings completely climate neutral.
When a customer enrolls in ClimateSmart, PG&E will calculate the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the customer's electricity and gas usage. For the average residential customer, PG&E estimates the cost will be less than $5 per month.
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Developed in collaboration with federal and state natural resource agencies, the O&M HCP is an innovative new program that allows for a regional, activity-based approach to comply with the state and federal Endangered Species Act throughout the utility’s northern and central California service area.
“PG&E’s regional mitigation plan is a creative and responsible corporate approach to protecting imperiled species,” said Susan Moore, field supervisor in the Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office.
PG&E’s Operations & Maintenance Habitat Conservation Plan is an extension of the utility’s commitment to serve its customers and protect the environment by effectively balancing the utility’s need to maintain existing gas and electric infrastructure, and perform work in a way that avoids and minimizes impacts to protected wildlife and plant species.
“Our extensive network of gas and electric infrastructure spans over 74,000 square miles and is home to wildlife and other important natural resources,” said Steven Kline, vice president, corporate environmental and federal affairs at PG&E. “As we upgrade and maintain our gas and electric facilities to meet California’s growing needs, protecting threatened and endangered species and their habitats is critical. PG&E’s new Habitat Conservation Plan will protect more than 175 sensitive wildlife and plant species system wide, and is the latest example of how we are developing innovative solutions to ensure responsible stewardship of these resources while continuing to provide our customers with safe, reliable and clean energy.”
The utility’s new O&M HCP program is designed to ensure the long-term protection of sensitive species through a process that allows PG&E to access and maintain its facilities in a timely manner.
Unlike most HCPs which govern habitat protection for future land development, PG&E’s O&M HCP is the first to be activity-based, addressing protection for existing land uses. Other innovative aspects of the program include the wide range of sensitive species to be covered and the governance of many small-scale operational activities dispersed over a large geographic area.
This approach improves PG&E’s service to customers by avoiding schedule delays associated with acquiring individual, project-by-project permits for threatened and endangered species.
Developed in collaboration with federal and state natural resource agencies, the O&M HCP program also allows PG&E to more effectively partner with local stakeholders and environmental groups in support of habitat and species conservation efforts. As part of the program, PG&E is looking forward to partnering with local, state and federal conservation organizations to protect 15,000 acres of
sensitive habitat.
PG&E’s O&M HCP will first be rolled out to the San Joaquin Valley region in early 2008, the first in a series of six regions that cover PG&E’s service area stretching from Eureka in the north to Bakersfield in the south. Additional regions include the Bay Area, Sacramento Valley, North Coast, Central Coast and Sierra Nevada. Recognizing the unique features of each region, PG&E is developing the plans to reflect the species, geography, and operational activities specific to each region. All six regions will roll up into one permit – PG&E’s Operations and Maintenance HCP.
The San Joaquin Valley O&M HCP will cover almost all of the utility’s routine operations, maintenance, and minor new construction activities that occur within the San Joaquin Valley for the next 30 years. It also establishes clear goals and measures for protecting, managing and monitoring 23 wildlife and 42 plant species, including the San Joaquin kit fox, California red-legged frog, vernal pool fairy shrimp and western burrowing owl.
As one of California’s largest landowners, PG&E is committed to protecting California’s natural resources. In addition to PG&E’s Habitat Conservation Plan, the utility has partnered with the Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council to permanently protect 140,000 acres of watershed lands associated with the utility’s hydroelectric system – one of the largest individual dedications of private lands to conservation. PG&E’s Land Conservation Commitment protects a broad range of public beneficial uses including natural habitat of fish, wildlife and plants; preservation of open space; and public outdoor recreation, among others.
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Assembly Bills 2149 and 2150 would regulate the use of words or phrases that suggest special expertise in the finances of the elderly.
Under these bills, insurance agents and financial planners would be prohibited from claiming to be a “Senior Financial Expert” or similar title without undergoing state-recognized training on the subject.
“They use these titles to gain seniors’ trust,” said Berg, D-Eureka. “We want to make sure those titles actually mean something.”
Nothing says “trust me” to an older person like the words “Certified Senior Advisor” written in gold letters on a business card.
But too often that trust is not deserved. Too often older people are convinced to buy long-term investment instruments such as annuities that are ill-suited to their needs, but which pay lucrative commissions to the sales agents. And all too often the people who sell these products have little or no legitimate training in managing the finances of older adults.
Elder financial abuse is one of the fastest growing segments of crime. Nearly a quarter million older Californians fall prey to some sort of swindle or abuse each year.
A recent New York Times investigation found that the number of “certified” senior experts in the sales force has increased 78 percent in the last five years. Some of these agents are, of course, legitimate experts, but many either obtain their “credentials” through dubious means, or simply invent a title themselves.
“There are a lot of good people out there doing business with seniors,” said Berg, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Aging and Long-Term Care. “This regulation will help the good actors as much as it will hinder the bad ones.”
The bills are sponsored by the California Alliance for Retired Americans and the Congress of California Seniors. The Gray Panthers of California and the Older Women’s League are also in support.
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The number of commercial buildings and manufacturing plants to earn the Energy Star for superior energy efficiency is up by more than 25 percent in the past year, and the amount of carbon dioxide emissions reduced has reached an all-time high of more than 25 billion pounds.
"From a historic office tower in the Big Apple to a small manufacturing plant in America's heartland – the Environmental Protection Agency is pleased to see so many organizations offering high-efficiency Energy Star buildings and facilities," said Robert J. Meyers, principal deputy assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Air & Radiation.
Nearly 4,100 buildings and manufacturing plants have earned the EPA's Energy Star through the end of 2007, with the addition of more than 1,400 in 2007 alone. They include about 1,500 office buildings, 1,300 supermarkets, 820 K-12 schools and 250 hotels.
Here in Lake County, the Lucerne Elementary School is included on a list of Energy Star qualified buildings.
Also, more than 185 banks, financial centers, hospitals, courthouses, warehouses, dormitories and – for the first time – big-box retail buildings earned the Energy Star. More than 35 manufacturing plants such as cement, auto assembly, corn refining, and – for the first time – petroleum refining are also being recognized.
In total, these award-winning commercial buildings and manufacturing plants have saved nearly $1.5 billion annually in lower energy bills and prevented carbon dioxide emissions equal to the emissions associated with electricity use of more than 1.5 million American homes for a year, relative to typical buildings.
Commercial buildings that have earned the Energy Star use nearly 40 percent less energy than average buildings and emit 35 percent less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, offering a significantly smaller carbon footprint. About 500 Energy Star buildings use 50 percent less energy than average buildings. Many of these buildings excel due to good energy management practices such as routine energy efficiency benchmarking.
Energy use in commercial buildings and manufacturing plants accounts for nearly half of the total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 50 percent of energy consumption nationwide.
For more than a decade, EPA has worked with businesses and organizations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through strategic energy management practices. Today, there are Energy Star-qualified facilities in every state across the country. To qualify for the Energy Star, a building or manufacturing plant must score in the top 25 percent using EPA's National Energy Performance Rating System.
Energy Star was introduced by EPA in 1992 as a voluntary, market-based partnership to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency. In 2006, Americans, with the help of Energy Star, saved about $14 billion on their energy bills and prevented greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 25 million vehicles.
To learn more about Energy Star buildings and facilities: www.energystar.gov/buildings.
To find Energy Star buildings and industrial facilities in your area: www.energystar.gov/LabeledList.
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