More Bad News – EIA Faces a Funding Cut

1
by current events, energy • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In addition to the bad news about CBECS 2007, the U.S. Energy Information Administation is facing an immediate 14% funding cut. This means there will be less information and analysis about energy.

The following is from an EIA press release:

“The lower FY 2011 funding level will require significant cuts in EIA’s data, analysis, and forecasting activities,” said EIA Administrator Richard Newell. “EIA had already taken a number of decisive steps in recent years to streamline operations and enhance overall efficiency, and we will continue to do so in order to minimize the impact of these cuts at a time when both policymaker and public interest in energy issues is high,” he said… …

Initial adjustments to EIA’s data, analysis, and forecasting programs include the following:

Oil and Natural Gas Information

  • Do not prepare or publish 2011 edition of the annual data release on U.S. proved oil and natural gas reserves.
  • Curtail efforts to understand linkages between physical energy markets and financial trading.
  • Suspend analysis and reporting on the market impacts of planned refinery outages.
  • Curtail collection and dissemination of monthly state-level data on wholesale petroleum product prices, including gasoline, diesel, heating oil, propane, residual fuel oil, and kerosene. Also, terminate the preparation and publication of the annual petroleum marketing data report and the fuel oil and kerosene sales report.
  • Suspend auditing of data submitted by major oil and natural gas companies and reporting on their 2010 financial performance through EIA’s Financial Reporting System.
  • Reduce collection of data from natural gas marketing companies.
  • Cancel the planned increase in resources to be applied to petroleum data quality issues.
  • Reduce data collection from smaller entities across a range of EIA oil and natural gas surveys.

Electricity, Renewables, and Coal Information

  • Reduce data on electricity exports and imports.
  • Terminate annual data collection and report on geothermal space heating (heat pump) systems.
  • Terminate annual data collection and report on solar thermal systems.
  • Reduce data collection from smaller entities across a range of EIA electricity and coal surveys.

Consumption, Efficiency, and International Energy Information

  • Suspend work on EIA’s 2011 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), the Nation’s only source of statistical data for energy consumption and related characteristics of commercial buildings.
  • Terminate updates to EIA’s International Energy Statistics.

Energy Analysis Capacity

  • Halt preparation of the 2012 edition of EIA’s International Energy Outlook.
  • Suspend further upgrades to the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS). NEMS is the country’s preeminent tool for developing projections of U.S. energy production, consumption, prices, and technologies and its results are widely used by policymakers, industry, and others in making energy-related decisions. A multiyear project to replace aging NEMS components will be halted.
  • Eliminate annual published inventory of Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States.
  • Limit responses to requests from policymakers for special analyses.
– – –

Bad News About CBECS 2007

3
by current events, energy • Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I just got an email pointing me towards the following press release from the U.S. Energy Information Administration:

CBECS Status

EIA regrets to report that the 2007 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) has not yielded valid statistical estimates of building counts, energy characteristics, consumption, and expenditures.  Because the data do not meet EIA standards for quality, credible energy information, neither data tables nor a public use file will be released.  In the interim, EIA will develop key energy indicators for commercial buildings in collaboration with EIA’s forecasting staff for the Annual Energy Outlook.

Factors contributing to the failure of the 2007 survey include the use of a cheaper but experimental survey frame and sampling method by EIA’s prime contractor, design errors in the construction of the method and selection of common building types, and an inability to monitor and manage its use in a production survey environment.  EIA has reviewed and introduced significant changes in its procurement and project management standards that will prevent this type of loss in the future.

As reported in the EIA Press Release, “Immediate Reductions in EIA’s Energy Data and Analysis Programs Necessitated by FY 2011 Funding Cut” (http://www.eia.gov/pressroom/releases/press362.cfm), work on the 2011 CBECS has been suspended at this time.

…

The Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) is a national sample survey that collects information on the stock of U.S. commercial buildings, their energy-related building characteristics, and their energy consumption and expenditures. Commercial buildings include all buildings in which at least half of the floorspace is used for a purpose that is not residential, industrial, or agricultural, so they include building types that might not traditionally be considered “commercial,” such as schools, correctional institutions, and buildings used for religious worship.

The CBECS was first conducted in 1979; the eighth, and most recent survey, was conducted in 2003. CBECS is currently conducted on a quadrennial basis.

– – –

Bay Area Plan/YouChoose Bay Area

2
by current events • Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,


Image: USGS

A bevy of  Bay Area planning agencies have joined together for a series of interactive public workshops all over the Bay Area this month and next.

Using a web-based simulation tool workshop participants can consider different transit, land use and other policy choices for their region and see the implications. Participants will also be able to and voice their opinions and give direct feedback to the agencies.

The events are being sponsored by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) in conjunction with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District,  the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) and a group of nonprofits.

But why wait for a workshop? Check out the YouChoose tool here

Register for an event and make your voice heard here

Read more about the comprehensive regional planning process and the “One Bay Area” kick-off report here

– – – –

Reconnecting America: Transit Space Race 2011

1
by data sources, transportation • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

image: Wikimedia Commons

Reconnecting America has just released its 2011 report on transit projects in the United States.

The report, titled “Transit Space Race 2011: A Catalog and Analysis of Planned and Proposed Transit Projects in the US“, is a compendium of transit planning across the country. Due to the fluid and changeable nature of transit planning, the report comprises  a “snapshot in time” during a survey period of late 2010.

The result is a window into transit demand in communities nationwide, and most notably the huge gap between the volume of competitors and the number of available transit infrastructure dollars from the federal New Starts program.

Download the report here

– – –

Plastic Bag/ Retail Bag Laws in the U.S.

6
by waste • Tags: , , , , , ,

Remember the statewide plastic bag ban that almost happened here in California in 2010? AB1998 which passed the CA State Assembly in June of 2010 would have banned single-use plastic bags from all grocery stores beginning in 2012, and all convenience stores beginning in 2013.

The bill was contentious and narrowly missed passage in September of 2010. If it had passed, the state of California would have been the first in the nation to enact such a ban; However, plastic bag bans are already in effect in several California cities including Palo Alto, Malibu, Fairfax and San Francisco.

Too many retail bags in general?

California is not alone;  there are other single-use plastic bag bans in effect in a number of cities across the country, as well as increased effort to reduce the impact of retail bags in general.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection released a Retail Bags Report in February of last year. Among the findings is that only 12% of plastic bags and 37% of paper bags are re-used or recycled by Americans.

Apart from plastic bag bans, legislating retail bags can also come in the form of recycled content requirements, bio-degradable requirements, phase-outs, fees or taxes (although none have been successfully enacted in the U.S. to date), or combinations of impact-mitigating actions;

For example California mandated in 2007 that all retail stores over a certain size mark bags to indicate take-back and provide recycling bins for their customers, as well as re-usable bags for purchase.

The  map from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Retail Bags Report shown below, highlights the locales that have retail bag legislation in some form. See the full interactive map here.

An interesting site on plastic bags and their many laws:

plastic bag laws.org

– – –

Putrescible Waste

2
by terms, waste • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This post is part of our definitions series on “eco-lingo” and technical terms.

– – –

(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Putrescible waste is “solid waste that contains organic matter capable of being decomposed by microorganisms and of such a character and proportion as to cause obnoxious odors and to be capable of attracting or providing food for birds or animals (definition from the Argonne National Laboratory).

Basically, putrescibles are the bits of garbage that decompose and get stinky. This can include food waste, used diapers, and pet waste.

If the putrescible waste is removed from the standard waste stream, the remaining household solid waste (packaging, plastic films) and recycling (cardboard, glass, metals, plastics, and paper) is quite clean. As local government recycling programs face budget cuts, there is potential to use this separation of putrescible waste to creatively adjust waste and recycling programs.

If the putrescible waste is picked up pretty frequently (such as weekly), and possibly separated into compostable foodscraps and non-compostable waste (diapers and animal products), the remaining “clean” garbage and recycling could be picked up less frequently. There is potential to increase participation in food waste composting, since folks will want the stinky stuff out of their houses as fast as possible. Since a lot of the cost of recycling programs is the labor cost of pick-ups and sorting, there is also potential to reduce overall costs of program with careful planning of routes and pick-up schedule frequency.

– – –

What exactly does “sustainability” mean? How about “green”, “eco” or “environmentally friendly”? The truth is that these terms are just vague enough to mean many different things to many different people. With the staggering array of “green” products, ‘lifestyles’ and concepts being promoted by marketers and environmentalists alike (as well as the necessary coining of new terms to match new ideas) our definition series aims to make sense of the rising tide of “eco-lingo” and technical terms.

Pay-As-You-Throw

1
by terms, waste • Tags: , , , , ,

This post is part of our definitions series on “eco-lingo” and technical terms.

– – –


Image: Wikimedia Commons

“Pay-as-you-throw” is a variable rate pricing  tool used by communities to increase participation in recycling programs. Under a “pay-as-you-throw” structure, residents are charged for undifferentiated waste that must go to a landfill or incinerator and charged nothing for disposing of separated recyclables. This provides an obvious economic incentive for opting-in to recycling for the consumer and has been used throughout California to great success and  high diversion rates. The question, though, is whether we have finally outgrown “pay-as-you-go” policies.

With the state struggling with crippling budget deficits on every level of government, and with high participation rates in recycling (including newer higher-cost offerings, such as organic waste collection), the value captured from recycled products is not keeping pace with the cost of collections, routing, and processing.  In essence, while “pay-as-you-go” pricing structures may have had a vital role to play at a vital time, we can almost assuredly expect to see new pricing structures in the coming years.

– – –

What exactly does “sustainability” mean? How about “green”, “eco” or “environmentally friendly”? The truth is that these terms are just vague enough to mean many different things to many different people. With the staggering array of “green” products, ‘lifestyles’ and concepts being promoted by marketers and environmentalists alike (as well as the necessary coining of new terms to match new ideas) our definition series aims to make sense of the rising tide of “eco-lingo” and technical terms.