Miami-Dade Ahead of the Curve on Reducing Greenhouse Gases?
By Martha Musgrove
Associate Editor
No need to bore deeply into the political debate over global warming and greenhouse gases to get to the bottom-line: money. The problem’s not real and it will cost too much to fix. Got it? Good. End of debate. Next problem …
But what if reducing greenhouse emissions turns out to save money?
Disregard – if you dare – the still untallied billions in damages and personal misery wrought by that blown-out BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico that now symbolizes the reckless chase for fossil fuels. Those fuels drive the engines of our lives, but they’re also emitting the heat-trapping gases that are turning Earth’s atmosphere into a greenhouse.
What if, there are real money-saving efficiencies to be found in concerted efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions? While developing climate-friendly alternatives?
Miami-Dade County has found such savings. In a four-year effort to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in its own operations, the county also managed to reduce fuel purchases by 3.7 million gallons. Roughly calculated that’s a savings of $7 million to $10 million, based on the high-low range of prices the county paid for fuel.
Carlos Alvarez
Mayor Carlos Alvarez lists a wide range of strategies to keep Miami-Dade “ahead of the curve in the green movement.” He has also committed $12.5 million of the federal stimulus dollars to projects with cost-saving benefits and the potential for reducing emissions. Included were the purchase of hybrid buses, replacement of high-watt traffic-light bulbs with LED modules (a $2 million annual savings), the use of landfill biogases to power nearby water and sewer plant, installation of high-reflective “Cool Roof” systems on county buildings, and the addition of solar-power systems to recreation facilities.
“We have many pre-existing and new initiatives being implemented that give us fuel and emissions reductions,” says Nichole Hefty, climate change program coordinator in the Department of Environmental Resources Management. However, she also cautions, “It’s sometimes hard to tease out a particular initiative’s contribution.”
Multiple Benefits From ‘Thinking Green’
Does it matter whether the reduction of greenhouse gases is a primary or secondary benefit? The point to be made is that opportunities abound to achieve multiple efficiencies and economies once “thinking green” becomes a management principle.
So, maybe money isn’t the problem that terminates debate. Maybe the terminator is money’s tight ties to politics in this 3-D age of doubt, distrust and dismay.
Miami-Dade County stepped into the political “climate wars” early, championing efforts to forestall global warming and to prepare for climate changes. As a low-lying coastal community with a population greater than 17 states, it is virtually compelled to do so. As Alvarez told the Federal Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force at last month’s “listening session” on rising sea levels, “We are painfully aware that we are vulnerable to sea-level rise and the effects of climate change.”
Harvey Ruin
Harvey Ruvin has been a driving force on the issue. The former five-term county commissioner and for 20 years now the county clerk, he delivered some of the first “wake-up” calls. Comfortable in the role of visionary, he continues to command attention because of his credible record, overcoming skepticism to persuade county commission colleagues to enact one of the nation’s first bans on ozone-depleting chemicals, setting limits on sulfur-dioxide emissions that trigger acid rain, rewriting building codes to include energy-efficiency standards, and reforming county purchasing practices.
To Ruvin – imbued with the spirit and fervor of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, subsequent Kyoto Conference and most recently Copenhagen – attaining sustainability in the face of climate change is local government’s raison d’être. [Check out his climate-change rap on YouTube.]
Where the Action Is: Local Government
Local government is “the major key” to dealing successfully with climate change, he insists. “It’s not the only key – we need support from federal government,” he concedes, “but local government is where land-use and transportation decisions are made, building codes written, environmental regulation occurs. … When local government officials get together, we bond and share ideas. At the national level, there’s a lot of red tape, at the international level a lot of protocols to dance around. Local government is where things have to get done.”
In the last of his commission terms, Ruvin sponsored and steered to enactment the county’s Urban CO2 Reduction Plan. The plan proposed that by 2006 the county would reduce carbon-dioxide emissions to 20 percent below the 23.4 million tons released in 1988.
It proved to be an out-sized goal. CO2 emissions actually increased by 8.5 million tons, rising to 31.9 million tons in 2005. Even worse, the county had tracked and tallied reductions amounting 34 million tons. Therefore, if no reductions had been made, emissions in 2005 would be very nearly twice what they were in 1988.
What happened? Why?
The goal was entirely consistent with Clinton administration policies and mirrored others around the country. It was set, however, in those heady days when everyone thought Congress would require better gas mileage from U.S. automakers. Instead, Congress stalled for 14 years and gas-guzzling SUVs took over the roadways. The county’s population had surged by 27 percent, and mega-mansions became popular increasing electrical power demands.
Lessons learned?
“One major lesson learned was, ‘Don’t put goals in your plan that you have no control over,’” says Commissioner Katy Sorenson, “Its lasting legacy … was to solidify agreement among Miami-Dade’s leadership that we need to get serious about climate change.”
Getting Serious, Making Intentions Clear
Officials regrouped, focused on reducing fuel emissions in their own operations, and voted unanimously to join the voluntary Chicago Climate Exchange to tap the discipline of market forces. “Making it clear,” in the words of sponsoring Commissioner Natacha Seijas at the time, “that Miami-Dade is serious about reducing carbon emissions.”
While habitat doesn't usually change so abruptly and graphically as in this photo of oil on a Panhandle beach, it is happening all the time as a result of our collective choices. The Deepwater Horizon disaster is a wake-up call like none we've known. (Photo courtesy of Northwest Florida Water Management District.)
For this new effort – the one mentioned earlier that saved 3.7 million gallons of fuel – the base year became 2000, and county government operations alone were targeted. Working within the framework of the Chicago Climate Exchange, reduction goals were set at 1.5 percent annually for a total 6 percent reduction to be achieved by 2010.
In 2000, county carbon-dioxide emissions totaled 248,715 metric tons. When the county began in 2007 to ratchet down, CO2 emissions totaled 307,547 metric tons. Not much progress was made in the first year, but between 2008 and 2009 there was a dramatic 14 percent decline to 258,995 metric tons. The county missed some interim goals in 2007 and 2008, but it may well meet its 2010 goal.
The Chicago Climate Exchange, and “sisters,” the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange and European Climate Exchange, are brainchildren of Richard Sandor. As chief economist at the Chicago Board of Trade, he helped develop the successful “cap and trade” model for the congressionally authorized Environmental Protection Agency’s acid rain program, which has reduced sulfur-dioxide emissions by more than a third.
Europe Curbs Emissions, U.S. Congress Dithers
Why wouldn’t markets work as well to curb CO2 emissions? In Europe they do. Here in the United States, Congress continues to dither over climate and energy legislation and uncertainty is driving down contract prices in the voluntary market. Betting the U.S. will eventually conform to, if not support, the nascent international trading-system models, the Atlanta-based IntercontinentalExchange[cq] announced April 30 it would purchase the Chicago and European exchanges for $600 million.
The Chicago climate exchanges list some 400 trading members, including such corporations as Ford, DuPont, Motorola, the states of Illinois and New Mexico, seven state universities and Midwest farm organizations. Members make legally binding commitments to reduce emissions and the exchange provides training, methodologies for tracking and audits the numbers. When members fail to meet their goals, they must buy allowances.
Miami Dade has spent $122,000 buying allowances. Publicly, no regrets are expressed. Uniformly county’s staff praises the training, tracking systems and experience they’ve gained. And there have been offsetting cost savings.
For Miami-Dade and Mayor Alvarez, the next steps will be to implement the recently signed Regional Climate Change Compact committing the county and neighboring Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties to collaborate in establishing regional emissions standards and better map inundation areas. In addition, Miami-Dade County is rolling out its “Green Print,” a broader climate-change “action plan” intended also to involve the county’s 35 municipalities.
Commissioner Sorenson chairs the mayor’s Sustainability Task Force, charged with identifying community concerns and evaluating strategies. She has been one of the commission’s strongest growth-management advocates and says stopping urban sprawl is “first and foremost” on her agenda. “Developing ‘Smart Growth’ nodes along our transit corridors and focusing infrastructure investments in ‘urban centers’ are probably the most lasting and effective thing we can do to mitigate our contributions to climate change and adapt to expected changes,” she says.
Developing Manual for Local Action
Reducing carbon emissions is a daunting task that is not made easier by the entrenched and partisan gridlock seen in Congress. Local government has the flexibility to act quickly. Miami-Dade has better resources than most Florida counties. Effectually it has been developing a manual for local action.
The public policy principles gleaned from Miami-Dade’s experience are easy to summarize:
- Understand the ramifications of the goals being set. A goal must be big enough to be deemed “worth doing,” but small enough to be attained within the scope of local authority.
- Identify and select projects that, while directed at forestalling or adapting to climate change, also provide other benefits. Greater efficiency and costs savings are two such benefits.
- Integrate climate-change thinking throughout operational systems.
- Seek reliable allies and develop regional strategies.
The impacts of climate change don’t, and won’t, respect political boundaries. Developing successful strategies for adapting to climate change is a job for all levels of government.
