Global Warming: a sea change in public opinion
by Vicki Wolf, April 2007

In the past few months there has been a sea change in public opinion and rhetoric regarding global warming. The few who doubt global warming is caused by human activity have faded into the background as top news stories daily report evidence that global warming is real and business publications tell energy companies they better watch their carbon emissions. Leaders across the country are working together to take action in response to this looming crisis.

The International Panel on Climate Change, a group of the world’s leading climate scientists who have been studying global warming for more than a decade, have issued a series of reports that declare that climate change is cause by human activity. They warn that action must be taken now to avoid series upon series of disasters in the near future.

In the energy industry, environmental activists have been able to gain national attention in a serious movement to stop the building of coal plants in Texas and other cities. Regarding the recent merger of two energy companies – Dynegy and LS Power – Wall Street Journal’s research firm, Innovest, urged investors in Houston-based energy company, Dynegy, “to be wary of the financial risk associated with a deal that includes building a fleet of new coal plants at time when federal and state lawmakers are weighing carbon control strategies.”

The eight coal-fired power plants in nine states would increase Dynegy’s annual CO₂ emissions by about 62.4 million tons and cost Dynegy as much as $1.56 billion in annual CO₂ allowance expenses – about 68 percent of the $2.3 billion value of the merger, according to the report.

These changes cannot come too fast, according to Joe Romm, author of “Hell and High Water: Global Warming – the Solution and the Politics – and What We Should Do.” “Houston is one of the most vulnerable cities in the world because it’s going to face both hurricanes and sea level rise,” Romm says. Two-thirds of the country’s petrochemical refineries are located in the Houston-Galveston area and along the Texas Gulf Coast.

It will be much worse for this area in coming decades when sea levels rise. At some point Houston will be below sea level. Certainly, cities like Galveston and Corpus Christi will become flooded. “They’ll try to build levies,” Romm says. “But we saw in New Orleans that levies are very hard to build against a category 4 or 5 hurricane.” Emissions trends must be reversed very quickly if we are to avoid the worst of global warming, according to Romm.

Bill White, mayor of Houston, the largest city in Texas, says he agrees change must happen fast. He says he has seen a profound transformation in the way people are responding to global warming. As an example, he cites the Houston Chamber of Commerce’s recent endorsement for limiting emissions in the city. He says the city is now working with low-income neighborhoods to help increase home energy efficiency. The first neighborhood to receive this assistance reduced energy consumption by 20 percent, according to White.

The City of Houston also is promoting use of hybrid vehicles, and the mayor says he also is encouraging the State of Texas to follow the lead of other major states in requiring fleets of government vehicles to reduce fuel consumption.

White agrees with the recent Supreme Court decision that declared that the Clean Air Act gives the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to regulate tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases. California has initiated a program to limit tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases, and now it is expected that the EPA will approve the program.

“The ruling let’s the EPA know what it should be doing under the Clean Air Act,” White says. “It’s a sad day when the federal government tells states they should slow down because they’re doing too much too fast,” he continues.

White joined other Texas mayors in opposing the building of new coal-fired power plants, and he is calling for dramatic changes in the way utilities are regulated. “We are advocating strongly for change in the way utilities are regulated in the state so that their profits are not based on the volume of electricity they sell,” he says. “We think that conservation should be viewed as a resource people can make money on the same way building new power plants are profitable,” White adds.

He describes action in several areas the City of Houston is taking to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions. The city is using top LEED standards for city facilities and is supporting the Houston design community with grant funding to provide energy efficiency architects for consultation. “But it won’t be simply voluntary,” White says. “By the end of the year, we will have a new set of building standards that we want to be a model for the nation for energy efficiency.” He adds that energy efficiency standards need to be provided in state building codes.

White also is enthusiastic about renewable energy and is planning for wind power to supply almost one-third of the energy used to run city facilities. “Houston will be one of the largest consumers of wind power, if not the largest in the State of Texas,” White says. “We found through this procurement process that we’ll actually save money in the long run if natural gas prices remain at the current level or higher,” he adds.

Global warming is now being viewed as an imminent crisis by many world leaders around the world. As this article was being posted, the United Nations was holding a meeting to discuss global warming as an international security issue. One example of possible future scenarios is the devastation and strife in Darfur, Sudan. One news report explained that the fighting in Darfur began over land and water rights. Now so many people are homeless, starving and dying daily there with no resolution in sight.

Houston’s Mayor White says, “I think one of the problems that has occurred, sometimes by design created by the emitters, has been to make this issue an ideological or partisan issue,” he says. “But we are all affected. If there is unanticipated risk to the stability of our climate, then we need to draw on much deeper sources of common wisdom, strength and values than the political slogan of the day.”