By John DeFore

The first-ever RGGI auction, which we reported on last week, has concluded, and now begins the long process of seeing how it works.

Critics are skeptical, saying the emissions caps were set too high and therefore led to allowance prices that were too low. GOOD Blog contributor Ben Jervey calls it a “doomed-to-failure program (or, at least, doomed-to-very modest success)” while allowing that it “will prove invaluable, mostly for the lessons learned from what goes wrong.”

But RGGI members, who never claimed they’d fix the world immediately, are taking a brighter view: The six states involved in the first round raised $38.5 million from the auction, money RGGI says they’ll invest in “energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, and programs to benefit energy consumers.” That’s something by itself, even if it takes time for the cap-and-trade plan to have much impact on emissions.

The going rate for a single allowance, once the gavel fell, came to $3.07 per ton of emissions. All twelve million-plus of the allowances put up for sale were sold, not just to power-plant operators but also to financial and environmental organizations.

Fifty-nine buyers took part in the auction, presenting a demand (close to 52 million allowances) that was four times as much as the available supply. Maryland, putting the most allowances up for sale, took home a hefty $16.4 million. According to Deputy Director of Communications Dawn Stolzfus, the state passed a law this year to determine exactly how that money will be spent (even if the categories are broad) — allocating, for instance, 10.5% to “clean energy & climate change programs, outreach & education.”

The next RGGI auction is December 17, and they’ll be held on a quarterly basis for the next three years.

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By John DeFore

Some unenthusiastic recyclers grouse about having to keep separate collection barrels for glass, plastics and paper. Imagine the whining taking place in Southern California right now, as certain Los Angeles residents are being asked to start separating food scraps from the rest of their trash as well.

Following the lead of existing programs in places like Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area, L.A. is testing a food-waste recycling program in pursuit of its zero-waste goal. As the L.A. Times reported when the plan was announced, around 5,000 residents of three neighborhoods are being recruited for the experiment: Each gets a two-gallon bin (the size of a small cooler), which they’re to keep in the kitchen and fill with a variety of food-related waste — not just apple cores and spoiled leftovers, but egg shells, bones, and even non-food items like pizza boxes and paper plates that have been soiled by food contact and therefore are forbidden in the normal recycling bin.

On collection day, residents are to empty these kitchen bins into curbside receptacles they already have — the green ones used for leaves and tree branches. That material should, in the colorful language of a city report, “absorb fugitive liquids” and keep odor to a minimum. Together, food and lawn waste eventually will be turned into compost.

Los Angeles already has a program helping restaurants recycle their wasted food, but estimates that over a quarter of what goes into residential trash bins is food waste as well. According to this NPR report, planners believe that if it were to expand throughout the city, this household scrap collection could divert “600 tons of wasted food that go to the landfills every day.”

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By John DeFore

This week, for the first time in the United States, an auction was held allowing power plants to bid against each other for the right to spew carbon dioxide into the air.

The goal, of course, is to reduce atmospheric carbon by finding the best way of putting a price tag on it for polluters. Ten Eastern states — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont — have formed the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (or RGGI, pronounced “Reggie”) to coordinate their efforts by placing mandatory overall caps on emissions levels, then auctioning off allowances for CO2 emissions that can be traded between companies. As a result, companies will have a financial incentive to clean up their own act as quickly as possible.

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By Barbara Kessler

While the world waits for Washington to act on one looming crisis - the Wall Street mortgage debacle - states in the Western U.S. acted today on another crisis, announcing a plan to reduce emissions to combat global warming.

The Western Climate Initiative, a collaborative of seven Western states and four Canadian provinces, agreed to try to reduce carbon emissions to 15 percent lower than 2005 levels by 2020.

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By Julie Bonnin

With virtually no Houston streets untouched by Hurricane Ike’s monumental devastation, crews from the city’s waste department, aided by waste removal workers who have come from other cities to help, have their work cut out for them.

City spokeswoman Marina Joseph says the numerous uprooted and downed trees and branches collected from the nation’s fourth largest city is expected to amount to 4 to 7 million cubic yards. (In 2001, following Hurricane Alicia, about 1 million cubic yards of tree waste was collected in three months time).

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By Julie Bonnin

When Houston made headlines for abysmal recycling rates last month, it dealt a blow to the work Mayor Bill White has been doing to improve the city’s environmental reputation. White, who was Deputy Director of the U. S. Energy Department under President Bill Clinton, has pushed to clean up the city’s environmental record, with victories such as special recognition for the city’s commitment to development of a solar infrastructure (from DOE this past spring), and its designation as the nation’s top municipal purchaser of green power (from the Environmental Protection Agency).

But there may yet be hope for turning Houston a deeper shade of green. Weeks after being called the worst recycler of the country’s 30 major metropolitan areas, city officials have announced their intention to launch an ambitious pilot program that involves the latest in “single stream” recycling.

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By John DeFore

The Ethisphere Institute, publisher of the quarterly Ethisphere magazine, today announced a list of what it calls the “Global Sustainability Centers of 2020.”

Listing ten large and ten mid-sized cities (a population of 600,000 was the dividing line), the report honors municipalities who have built “strong and principled foundations” and long-term city planning.

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By Harriet Blake

Residents of the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area will again get a chance to trade in their pollution-emitting old clunker for a newer, less polluting car with the help of state money.

The North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) reports that it has about $12 million for the second year of the AirCheckTexas Drive a Clean Machine campaign, which began taking applications in mid-August.

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By Diane Porter

There are already undeniable legacies of the 2008 Olympic Games: eight gold medals hanging around U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps’ neck, for instance, or the otherworldly sprint that helped Jamaican runner Usain Bolt break Michael Johnson’s record in the men’s 100 meter race. There are visual reminders, as well; the Olympic pavilions, Bird’s Nest and Water Cube will remain a part of central Beijing life for decades.

Perhaps the most crucial legacy, however, is yet to be played out. As hotels empty, athletes and television crews return to their home countries, and Beijing goes back to a life more sheltered from the world, the lingering question is this: Will the enormous and by most accounts successful efforts to reduce the city’s pollution during the Olympic games continue in some fashion, improving life for those who live there and reducing the city’s footprint on the global environment?

“Beijing will be built into a livable city,” said Du Shaozhong, deputy head of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau in a press conference the day before closing ceremonies.

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By John DeFore

Last Wednesday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his desire to turn the city into a wind-power titan, sprinkling the city with turbines and building huge wind farms off the coasts of Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island.

Speaking at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas, he issued a formal request encouraging green power entrepreneurs to submit plans for a range of sustainable energy projects. But what got the most attention was the suggestion that “perhaps companies will want to put windfarms atop our bridges and skyscrapers,

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By Nima Kapadia

Some of the largest cities in the U.S., including New York, Las Vegas and New Orleans, have agreed to measure and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions to better understand the potential risks and opportunities associated with climate change.

Thirty cities in all will participate in the pilot program coordinated by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and the International Council on Local Environment Initiative (ICLEI) Local Government for Sustainability.

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By John DeFore

Though it was an odd thing to call a “groundbreaking” — the act involved no shovel stuck in soil, but rather the placement of a panel on a metal stand — a ceremony alongside an Oregon highway this month inaugurated what Governor Ted Kulongoski calls “the nation’s first solar highway project.”

Speaking in a promotional video made at the event, Kulongoski was joined by Transportation Commission chair Gail Achterman, who explained that the solar panel being mounted was the first of 594 that will soon cover 8,000 square feet alongside the right-of-way at the interchange of Interstates 5 and 205 south of Portland.

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