Dec 5 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Rick Stouffer The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

A national energy program quickly implemented could eliminate the need for most new power plants through the year 2030, the leader of the Natural Resources Defense Council said Thursday.

And Rick Duke goes farther, adding that 80 percent of the potential energy savings is construction-related -- information that's sweet music to local companies like Bayer Corp.'s MaterialScience unit.

"If we are able to unlock efficiency in this country, it will pay for what we need to spend to solve climate problems," said Duke, addressing about 85 people from local companies at a Pittsburgh Technology Council briefing sponsored by Bayer MaterialScience at the Westin Convention Center Hotel, Downtown.

Duke's job with the environmental group is to work with corporate and government leaders on adopting clean-energy technologies and practices and convincing them that doing so can positively impact the bottom line.

"Bayer MaterialScience has products and technologies that really can lead to energy savings, (dealing with) cars, commercial buildings and housing," said Robert Kumpf, chief administrative officer.

Among the products that Bayer MaterialScience offers to reduce energy usage are foam insulations, lighting solutions and lightweight materials used in most vehicles produced in the United States today, he said.

Kumpf said Bayer MaterialScience has developed what's called "total lifestyle analysis," which tells a customer how long payback takes when using its polyurethane insulating foams. "It's on the order of months, compared to years," he said.

Duke said the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama must put into place next year a so-called "cap-and-trade" program concerning carbon emissions, so that the system is in place by 2012.

A cap-and-trade program sets a limit, or cap, on emissions. A source of carbon emissions, like a power plant or steel mill, can design its own strategy to reduce emissions, such as selling or purchasing allowances permitted under the program, installing pollution controls, or implementing efficiency measures. Each source must match allowances to its actual emissions to be in compliance.

Even with a cap-and-trade system in place in the United States and the European Union, an audience member questioned Duke on how growing economies such as China, India and Brazil can be brought into compliance.

Duke said a strategy is needed to bring the rest of the world into emissions compliance, but the United States "must show leadership in implementing a cap-and-trade program."

But not everyone is in lock-step with those views. Patrick Michaels, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington suggests that global warming alarmists check their thermometers.

"According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's research, between the mid-1970s and the late 1990s, the change in temperature was 0.17 degrees Centigrade per decade, or 1.7 degrees Centigrade per century," Michaels said. "I don't understand what's the hurry."

Addressing carbon cap-and-trading, Michaels said legislation President-elect Obama is in favor of would reduce emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2050. "The only way to reduce emissions by 80 percent is to make fossil fuels so expensive no one could afford it."

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