Good afternoon and welcome to the Department of Energy as we highlight the success of the President's voluntary climate change strategy, called Climate VISION.
Just under one year ago, President Bush announced his Climate Change Strategy, which built on his June 2001 commitment to the long-term stabilization of green house gas concentrations.
The President cares deeply about responsibly addressing the issue of climate change and has made it one of his top priorities. Today we are here to address this priority.
The President's strategy focuses on improvements to our scientific understanding of climate change and a host of actions to address greenhouse gas emissions in the short term, while this additional scientific information is being collected.
The short-term actions include, for example:
I want first to thank a few of the many important people and organizations that will be key contributors to this effort.
Onstage with me are EPA Administrator Christie Whitman, Secretary of Agriculture Anne Veneman, Deputy Secretary of Transportation Michael Jackson and Jim Connaughton, Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality.
Along with them are Josephine S. Cooper of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers; John Castellani of the Business Roundtable, and the Edison Electric Institute's Thomas Kuhn. You will be hearing from all of us today.
The Commerce Department is represented here today by Deputy Secretary Bodman. As you know, the President created a cabinet committee to oversee the implementation of his Climate Change Strategy. Secretary Evans led the committee last year and I am pleased, as co-chair, to be leading it this year.
Similarly, Deputy Secretary Sam Bodman is chairing the Science and Technology Working Group this year, taking over from Energy Under Secretary Bob Card, who was chair last year.
The Climate VISION program is part of the President's climate change strategy. It is a voluntary partnership that unites American businesses and the federal government in a coordinated effort to promote and share the best ideas, innovations, and technologies to reduce, avoid, and sequester greenhouse gas emissions.
Each of the Climate VISION participating industries has voluntarily set a specific goal for reducing greenhouse gas intensity or increasing energy efficiency.
The benefits that will be derived by achieving these targets, when added to the significant reductions we expect as a result of anticipated energy efficiency improvements, and to reductions from the commercial and residential sectors, will help us achieve the President's 10-year goal of reducing greenhouse gas intensity by 18 percent.
The bonus for our industry partners is that reducing emissions intensity and increasing energy efficiency will also result in significant cost savings - it's not just good policy, it's good business.
This is an important day for those of us in the Bush Administration who are charged with implementing President Bush's global climate change strategy - and for the industry sectors whose voluntary actions will help get us to our goal.
I'm pleased to see so many business and industry representatives here today. You recognize that producing energy and other products carries with it a corporate responsibility to protect the environment.
And I believe that your commitment, and the cost-effective strategies that you develop, will lead other businesses and industries to join us in this work.
Now, I'd like to take a few minutes to highlight some of the work being done by the industrial sectors with which the Department of Energy is allied in this effort. But before I do that, let me put these commitments in context.
First, they are in addition to what would have been achieved through the responsible application of improved technology.
Second, This is an unprecedented and complex undertaking. Existing methods for calculating and comparing data vary from one sector to another.
For that reason, the Department of Energy and our private-sector partners are working together to develop improved, standardized methods for calculating and reporting emission reduction progress as part of DOE's greenhouse gas registry program.
By adding precision and transparency to our efforts, we will improve information sharing between our partners and other interested parties, and eliminate the uncertainty that often surrounds greenhouse emissions data today.
Our preliminary analysis of the commitments we have in hand indicates that they will yield their sector share of the President's 18 percent goal. We will have further discussions during the implementation of the reporting program to ensure that we achieve the President's goal.
Now let me turn to our industry partners' commitments.
The electric power sector has been a leader in voluntary climate activities, and through the Electric Power Industry Climate Initiative, seven power sector groups have committed to further reductions in greenhouse gas emissions intensity.
By May of this year, the power sector and the Department of Energy will sign a formal memorandum of understanding committing the industry to several initiatives designed to reduce the power sector's carbon intensity in this decade by the equivalent of an additional three to five percentage points.
We will do this through carbon sequestration projects, promotion of coal ash utilization, and expanded investment in wind and biomass projects.
The Edison Electric Institute is also working with the Department of Energy to develop the Power Partners Resource Guide, a Web-based tool to help interested companies reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity.
The American Petroleum Institute, which represents over 60 percent of U.S. petroleum refining, is committed to increasing the aggregate energy efficiency of its members' U.S. refinery operations by 10 percent from 2002 to 2012.
This goal will be met through reduced methane venting and flaring, expanded use of cogeneration at refineries and production facilities, and increased carbon capture and geological sequestration.
API will also develop industry-wide management plans to identify opportunities to further reduce emissions.
The National Mining Association is committed, through its Allied Partnership with the Department of Energy, to achieving a 10 percent increase in the efficiency of its member companies.
This partnership will speed the adoption of more efficient mining processes, as well as technology developed through Department of Energy partnerships that will, for example, annually reduce methane emissions from coal mines by 30 percent.
Over the next ten years, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which accounts for over 90 percent of U.S. vehicle sales, has committed to at least a 10 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from its members' manufacturing facilities.
Activities to achieve this goal include installing energy efficient lighting, converting facilities' coal and oil power sources to cleaner natural gas, and upgrading ventilation systems.
The American Iron and Steel Institute's 33 member firms, representing nearly three-quarters of the nation's steel-producing capacity, have committed to achieving, by 2012, a 10 percent increase in sector-wide average energy efficiency from 1998 levels.
The industry has steadily reduced greenhouse gas emissions by reducing fuel use, and future improvements will come both in steel making efficiency, and in designing steel products that bring increased efficiency to industry customers.
The American Chemistry Council, representing 90 percent of the chemical industry, has agreed to an 18 percent overall greenhouse gas intensity reduction target by 2012.
The ACC also pledges to continue increasing production efficiencies, promoting coal gasification technology, increasing bio-based processes, and most importantly, developing energy-efficient products for use in other sectors, such as appliance manufacturing and textiles.
I think you will agree that this list of industry sectors -- and the goals they have set for themselves - is impressive testimony to the ability of the private sector to get the job done. And the same is true - as you will see - of the voluntary actions of my colleagues' private sector partners.
It is important to remember that government itself will not appreciably reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Industry - and commercial businesses and ordinary Americans living their daily lives - will.
President Bush challenged industry to sit down, free of coercive government mandates, and devise the means best suited to overcome the challenges peculiar to your industries, and you came through. Only one year after the announcement of the Climate Change initiative, plans are in place, commitments have been made, and work is underway.
We are in the early stages of a decade-long effort. There is much to be learned - and there will be more work to do beyond meeting the reduction goals set out here today.
I have no doubt that, thanks to the ingenuity and commitment of the private sector, we will succeed in meeting the President's 18 percent reduction goal.
We at the Department of Energy are proud to be leading this effort.
Page Last Modified: August 7, 2008
