CO₂ & Global Warming    

Global Warming:
CO ₂ emission is a major cause of climate change. In 2005 industries in the USA generated 5,893.6 million tons/yr of CO₂for none transportation needs of which Cement, Steel and Iron manufacturing accounted for 91.1 Mt/yr. Source: 2008 Sector Performance Report (US EPA).

With the advent of global warming, radically new (some say draconian) strategies are being put in place to save the earth from a global warming melt-down.

Regulations are set to come online that will restrain emitters by putting an economic cost on those that release CO₂into the atmosphere.  This is expected to be done via a Cap & Trade scheme.   This system involves giving each emitter a maximum CO ₂allowance emission level (Cap) and above which level they face a penalty. To avoid this penalty allowance is sold by those who emitted less than their allotment to those needing extra allowances.

In support of their obligation under the Kyoto protocol, the European Union has had such a system in place since 2005. In 2009 they will decrease the cap and increase the price of emission allowance distributed via the ETS auction sale system.

In North America there are 3 main CO ₂ regulating networks in place.

There is the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative “RGGI”(Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey. New York, Rhode Island, Vermont),

Western Climate Initiative “WCI” (Arizona, British Columbia, California, Manitoba, Montana, New Mexico, Ontario, Oregon, Quebec, Utah, Washington) and

Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord (Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Manitoba, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin).  RGGI being the first to implement a CAP and trade program regulates power plant that burns fossil fuels and have a nameplate capacity of at least 25MW – this covers approximately 255 regulated plants.

To address global warming CO ₂emission at its source needs to be address and while industry especially those who would be most adversely affected have been successful in delaying regulations, this is expected to change.

In April 2008 the US Supreme Court said the Clean Air Act gave the EPA authority to regulate CO ₂ emissions and the incoming Obama administration has express their intent to use this act to regulate CO ₂in the absence of aggressive action by the US Congress.

Current solutions involve various devices to capture CO ₂ and store or sequester it in underground geological formations this is referred to as Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) .

According to NETL Near-term applications of CO ₂ capture from pre-combustion systems will likely involve physical or chemical absorption processes, with the current state of the art being a glycol-based solvent called Selexol. Analysis conducted at NETL shows that CO ₂ capture and compression using Selexol raises the cost of electricity from a newly built IGCC power plant by 30 percent, from an average of 7.8 cents per kilowatt-hour to 10.2 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Retrofitting existing pulverize coal plants are not economically feasible with today's CCS technology without huge government subsidies.

Background (ENERGY INDEPENDENCE):
According to advocates for energy independence, the US alone imports more than $500 billion dollars worth of gasoline each year contributing to a worsening balance of trade deficit and an erosion of the US standard of living.

According to the coalitionSET AMERICA FREE ,  the USA is addicted toforeignoil. The text which follows was taken directly from there website:

"More than two thirds of the oil we use is for transportation. There are 220 million cars and trucks on the roads in the United States alone. With 97 percent of U.S. transportation energy based on petroleum, oil is the lifeblood of America’s economy.

• The U.S. consumes a quarter of the world’s oil supply while holding a mere 3% of global oil reserves. We cannot drill our way out of our energy problem.
• Currently, the U.S. imports over 60% of its oil, more than twice the proportion of imported oil before the 1973–74 Arab oil embargo.
• In 1972, the U.S. spent $4 billion on oil imports, an amount that equaled 1.2% of our defense budget. In 2006, it paid $260 billion, which equals half of our defense budget. In 2008, it is likely to cost over $600 billion—which is more than our entire defense budget. We are paying foreign governments—including unfriendly ones—more than we pay for our own defense."

In 2008 the US CONGRESS introduced a bill designed to "reduce the monopoly of petroleum" as transportation fuel for the USA.  This bill the  OPEN FUELS STANDARD ACT is expected to be reintroduced in 2009 and is expected to become the law of the land.

The regulation directs all manufacturers and importers of light-duty vehicles for the US market to make sure that 50% of all such vehicles are GEM capable by 2012.  This means that they must be able to operate on any combination of gasoline, ethanol or methanol. The proportion of such flexible fuels capable vehicles would then be increase to 85% by 2015.