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Interesting article but fails to address several key points such as:
1) What is the "regulated market" for aquiring "allowances"? Who/what owns & controls this market? What is done with the sales revenues?
2) How does the "carbon offsets" process work? What "others" are being paid to cut carbon emissions and what "other ways" are employed to cut emissions? What is done with these sales revenues?
3) What is the EPA required process and oversight for facilities to annualy report carbon emissions?
4) How does present technology such as switching to lower carbon fuel, improved combustion efficiency, and reducing the quantity of fuel burned not remove carbon from the exhaust stream?
I wrote the article in question. Here are answers, many of which appeared in prior BOM articles on GHG emissions issues.
The regulated market for allowances at this time exists in several geographic regions wherein groups of states have laws requiring electric utilities to purchase allowances in quantities related to the magnitude of their GHG emissions. Google on RGGI to read about the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in the Northeast, for example. This issue was discussed in some detail in a prior BOM article that was referenced in the print version of my article, but not in the online version.
As explained in my article, carbon offsets may be purchased (all US markets are presently voluntary) as a way to counter one's GHG emissions by paying someone else to do something that reduces GHG emissions (e.g., capping a landfill that would otherwise emit methane). For more details, go to www.chicagoclimatex.com.
As explained in the article, the proposed EPA reporting process will require only those holding Title V permits to calculate and report their annual GHG emissions. The rules for this process have not yet been issued, and (as mentioned in my article) may be delayed while challenged by lawsuits.
Switching to a lower carbon fuel does not REMOVE carbon from a boiler's exhaust stream, it simply puts less of it into that stream. To REMOVE carbon from an exhaust stream involves physically capturing it after it has been created by combustion but befoe it is released from an exhaust stack. At this time, that process (called carbon capture) is still experimental.
Best wishes,
Lindsay Audin
www.energywiz.com