Environmental Entrepreneurs Update
May 26, 2004

This May 2004 Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) newsletter is sent to all E2 members, people interested in joining E2 and friends of E2. This newsletter includes brief updates on E2 and NRDC activities. In addition, each month we feature one topic in depth. This month we feature a report on the E2 delegation's trip to Washington D.C.

1. E2 Delegation Visits Washington, D.C.
2. E2 Supports Massachusetts Climate Action Plan
3. Creating More Efficient PC Power Supply
4. E2 Member Meg Caldwell Appointed to California Coastal Commission
5. E2 Approaches Its Fourth Birthday
6. Nuclear "Semantic Detoxification" Now in Congress
7. NRDC Executive Director's Report
8. EPA's "Nonroad Diesel Rule" Will Make the Air Cleaner
9. Calendar of Events

E2 Delegation Visits Washington, D.C.

Caption: E2 delegation in the lobby of the Hart Office Building. From left to right: Gordon Davidson, Doug Ogden, Christine Koronides, Peter Liu, Nicole Lederer, Joel Sachs, Berl Hartman, Ethan Podell, Peter Fortenbaugh, Jeff Lawrence, John Cusack, Maureen Blanc, Daniel Goldman, Bob Epstein, Ben Cantlon, Matt Klein, David Schwarzbach. Not pictured: Wendy Abrams, Steve Silberstein and Roger Ullman

A delegation of 19 E2 members traveled to Washington, D.C., on May 12 & 13 to meet with 57 members of Congress or their staffs. We focused on five issues: (1) Climate Stewardship Act, (2) Oceans Policy, (3) Economic Advantages of Environmental Policies, (4) Nuclear Waste Cleanup and (5) California Water Policy. In this report, we will briefly discuss with whom we met and what we learned.

E2 met directly with 18 senators and 9 representatives. We also met with staff members representing an additional 9 senators and 21 House members. Over a two-day period, we presented our views to 11 percent of Congress! The majority of our meetings were 30 minutes long and held in Congressional offices. We also held two group presentations with multiple members present and hosted a dinner featuring House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as well as Representatives George Miller (D-CA), Sam Farr (D-CA), and Brian Baird (D-WA).

Climate Change

Senators McCain and Lieberman plan to bring their Climate Stewardship Act (CSA), which reduces greenhouse gas pollution, back for another vote as soon as June (see E2 CSA campaign for background). In the previous vote in the Senate which took place last October, there was a surprisingly strong demonstration of support for the CSA, with 44 senator in support out of a necessary 51. While the bill failed to pass by seven votes, it was clear that having more information on the economics of implementation could make senators more likely to vote for the bill. To prepare for our trip, E2 members worked with NRDC and Redefining Progress to develop an economic outlook for seven target states: Arkansas, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon and Tennessee. After meeting with senators and seeing the positive impact these reports had, we developed analyses for five additional states: Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Our goal for the coming year is to continue building momentum. We believe that 51 senate votes for the CSA will send a very strong message to industry, the House of Representatives and to the Administration that it is time to start reducing our global warming pollution now - and that the US will have a stronger economy as a result.

Oceans Policy

The US has more oceans under its jurisdiction than land and has more ocean territory than any other country. Here in the US, forty-one percent of all assessed federally managed ocean fish stocks are either overfished, experiencing overfishing, or both. As business people, we see that through proper management, we can both restore fish populations and increase the total economic value of the fisheries.

The recent releases of two high level national commissions - the independent Pew Oceans Commission and the congressionally established U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy - have undertaken comprehensive reviews of U.S. ocean conditions and policy approaches, creating an historic opportunity to significantly advance ocean conservation. As these reports both suggest, our top three priorities are (1) to create a national ocean protection policy; (2) to reform fisheries governance by separating allocation and conservation decisions, broadening representation on management councils and reducing conflict of interest; and (3) to establish a network of protected areas for the ocean similar to our land-based system of national parks.

Our goal in Washington was to make sure members had information on the ocean reports and to identify which legislators were interested in providing leadership in implementing the recommendations made in the reports. For background on this issue, please refer to our September newsletter.

Economic Advantages of Environmental Policies

As part of our presentation, we highlighted the California "GreenWave" Initiative, in which CalPERS and CalSTRS (the first and third largest pension funds in the U.S.) will invest in environmental technologies. Our emphasis was on the combined effect of making money for the pension funds while stimulating growth of environmental technologies.

Nuclear Waste Cleanup

The House bill, HR 2828, sponsored by Representative Calvert (R-CA), includes few protections for environmental restoration projects. Representative Calvert's bill would allow the Department of Interior, rather than Congress, to authorize construction of billion-dollar dam projects in California. It would also change CalFed to allow federal tax dollars to be used to pay federal water contractors to comply with the Clean Water Act. Lastly, it would impede federal restoration efforts. E2 discussed these severe problems with House members. We hope to work with representatives to improve the bill.

Finally, as we covered in our March newsletter, the Bureau of Reclamation is in final process renewing the Central Valley Project water contracts. We met with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to encourage their oversight on these contracts. While OMB was not specific with us, they felt the national press coverage on the ineffectiveness of the current contracts and subsidies was helpful. They encouraged us to have members of Congress give OMB their opinions on the contracts.

We also reviewed the contract status with Senators Boxer and Feinstein. Our objections to these contracts are (1) they contract for more water than the farmers need (and possibly more water than exists), (2) they do not require adequate prices for water -- in many cases the contract price for water is zero and in no case is the fee charged enough to cover the costs of repaying for dam construction (as required by law) nor the operating cost of delivering the water, and (3) some of the existing contracts violate state and/or federal environmental laws.

Summary

E2 members Berl Hartman and Jay Baldwin talking with Governor Romney

On Thursday, May 6th, several E2 members were on hand as Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney unveiled a comprehensive agenda on climate change. The plan will make Massachusetts the first state to consider the impact of greenhouse gases when state regulators evaluate highway projects and other public construction plans. E2 members had previously met and discussed the plan with Sonia Hamel, one of the architects of the policy.

Massachusetts, which was the first state to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, would go further by basing its transportation planning and funding decisions in part on the greenhouse gases that projects would produce. The plan also suggests giving the owners of hybrid cars tax breaks and the right to use high-occupancy vehicle lanes even without passengers.

Creating More Efficient PC Power Supply: E2 Briefings with Noah Horowitz

Energy efficiency was the focus of E2 briefings in Boston and New York last week with NRDC Senior Scientist, Noah Horowitz. Noah cited NRDC's commitment to energy efficiency as a major step in reducing our nation's dependence on oil and fighting global warming. As part of this effort, NRDC will seek to collaborate with businesses through market-based efforts, and where appropriate, to establish mandatory performance standards at the state and federal levels. From time to time legal action to enforce compliance of standards is necessary, such as NRDC's recent successful litigation in the Second Circuit in defense of stringent efficiency standards for air-conditioners.

Noah emphasized the effectiveness of engaging business and industry. His work with Intel Corp. to revise their PC Design Guide and to upgrade to a more energy efficient power supply specification could revolutionize PC efficiency. Typically, a PC's internal power supply uses about half of the electricity that comes in from the wall socket. The rest of the energy is wasted as heat. The new specification from Intel raises the efficiency of power supplies from roughly 50 to 60% to 75 to 80%. NRDC estimates that the U.S. could cut its annual electricity consumption by 1%-2% and eliminate ten million tons of CO2 pollution from the air by focusing on the efficiency of consumer and office electronics products. A number of PC manufacturers as well as the government's Energy Star program are considering adopting the new specification. In the coming months, Noah hopes to target cell phones and other consumer products that have external power supplies. With 500 million cell phones sold each year alone, the savings potential could be quite significant.

In addition to power supplies, Noah also spoke about his work with refrigerated beverage vending machines. There are 3 million vending machines in the U.S. and each uses ten times more energy than a home refrigerator. By partnering with Coca Cola, Pepsi, vending machine manufacturers and institutions that have machines on their properties, Noah was able to develop a specification and label that was eventually adopted by Energy Star. As a result, all new vending machines as of 2004 will use 30%-50% less energy.

E2 member Meg Caldwell "inspecting" the East Bay shoreline

On May 25, California's Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, announced the appointment of Meg Caldwell, Steven Kram and Bonnie Neely to the California Coastal Commission. E2 is particularly proud to hear this, as Meg Caldwell is a long-time E2 member and environmental champion. In January, 181 of E2's California members signed a letter to Governor Schwarzenegger supporting Meg's appointment. We also discussed Meg's appointment during our March delegation trip to Sacramento. The mission of the Coastal Commission is to protect, conserve, restore, and enhance the environmental and human-based resources of the California coast and ocean for environmentally sustainable and prudent use by current and future generations. We're confident that Meg's expertise in land use and environmental law combined with her commitment to resource protection will be an asset to all Californians in efforts to protect and restore our coast.

For the full text of the announcement please see the Governor's press release.

E2 Approaches Its Fourth Birthday

June 2004 marks the completion of E2's fourth year of operations. As we tell anyone who will listen, our members understand business. They have started more than 800 companies; created more than 400,000 jobs and our venture capital members manage more than $20 billion in capital flowing into new companies. Our growth in membership has been very rewarding:

E2 members have contributed over $4,600,000 over the last four years to support the work of NRDC.

NRDC News

Nuclear "Semantic Detoxification" Now in Congress

The DOE is responsible for cleaning up 253 underground tanks containing approximately 100 million gallons of high-level nuclear waste currently stored in facilities in Washington (Hanford), Idaho (INEEL), South Carolina, Georgia (Savannah River) and New York. The agency has repeatedly attempted to have the waste "reclassified" in order to avoid legal requirements to remove and treat the radioactive material. Last year, in a case brought by NRDC, an Idaho court ruled that the agency's reclassification violated the law. For further information about the case, please see: NRDC Background and E2 April newsletter.

As we mentioned above, Senator Graham (R-SC) added an amendment to the FY05 Department of Defense (DOD) authorization bill that in effect gives the Department of Energy (DOE) authority to reclassify any type or any amount of high-level radioactive waste. Changing the law to allow DOE to leave behind highly radioactive waste at these sites, which DOE claims will expedite cleanup and reduce short-term costs, (please see: Five Misconceptions Fostered by the DOE) will ultimately have significant long-term costs that outweigh short-term savings. Abandoning these millions of gallons highly radioactive waste will result in a potentially catastrophic dispersal of radioactivity into surrounding water tables and, at a minimum, require significant land-use restrictions, maintenance, and monitoring for thousands of years.

NRDC Executive Director's Report

Frances Beinecke, NRDC's Executive Director provides a comprehensive report each quarter on all NRDC programs. This report is available to E2 members and NRDC staff at Executive Director's Report.

EPA's "Non-road Diesel Rule" Will Make the Air Cleaner

On May 12, NRDC joined environmental and public health organizations, state and local air pollution officials, and key industry stakeholders to publicly support EPA's "Non-road Diesel Rule." (see NRDC statement of support) The non-road diesel rule covers more than 6,000 different types of engines that power the nation's tractors, bulldozers and other farm, construction, industrial, and mining equipment. These engines range from 3 to more than 3,000 horsepower and collectively emit more particulate soot emissions than the nation's cars, trucks and buses combined. The ruling begins the process of cleaning up locomotive and marine diesel engines. Achieving a strong non-road diesel rule is the latest in a decade-long string of important NRDC diesel victories in California, New York, Washington, D.C., and at the national level that, taken together in years to come, should make the black plume of diesel smoke a thing of the past. Although the rule runs to hundreds of pages and is extremely complex, the basic premise is quite simple, and is based on EPA's 2001 Highway Diesel Rule, another major NRDC diesel victory:

(1) Sulfur levels in most non-road diesel fuel will be reduced from today's unregulated levels, averaging more than 3,400 parts-per-million (ppm), to 500 ppm in 2007, and then to 15 ppm in 2010. The 15 ppm sulfur cap for locomotive and marine diesel fuel will take effect in 2012.

(2) More stringent emission standards will follow each sulfur reduction, relying on advanced pollution control equipment that cannot be used with today's high-sulfur diesel fuel. These standards, which will reduce particulate soot and nitrogen oxide emissions by 90-95 percent in most cases, will be phased in from 2008 to 2015. EPA also committed itself to promulgating new emission standards for locomotive and marine diesel engines that could be implemented as early as 2011.

When fully implemented, according to EPA estimates, the non-road diesel rule will result in more than $80 billion in annual health benefits by eliminating more than 12,000 premature deaths, 200,000 cases of asthma exacerbations among children, 280,000 cases of respiratory symptoms in children, 15,000 non-fatal heart attacks, and more than one million lost work days each year.

In NRDC's statement supporting the rule, they contrasted this victory with the total lack of progress by EPA on power plants, mercury and global warming. In particular, NRDC cited two reasons for their support: the progress in reducing diesel pollution and EPA's open, collaborative process in developing this rule. For the past three years, EPA staff actively engaged NRDC and other key stakeholders in an ongoing dialogue to produce a final rule that all of the key stakeholders could support. EPA worked closely with stakeholders to set the environmental and public health goals for the rule, challenged industry to meet their shared goals, and then worked closely with them to fine-tune the details of the proposal to ensure that it met our policy objectives.

Thursday, June 10, 2004 (12:30 PM - 1:45 PM EDT) SpecialEvent

New York: E2 Lunch with Terry Tamminen

Please join Terry Tamminen, head of California's Environmental Protection Agency, for a lunch roundtable on Thursday, June 10th. Appointed by newly elected Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Secretary Tamminen has close to 30 year of experience in environmental advocacy and action. The secretary will speak on the challenges and opportunities in leading one of the largest state environmental protection agencies in the country. Contact Ying Li at yli@nrdc.org for more information.

Friday, October 1, 2004 (7:00 PM - 10:00 PM PDT) Benefit

NRDC's San Francisco Benefit 2004: A Night with Larry David

On Friday October 1, 2004 NRDC will be hosting their 2004 San Francisco Benefit: A Night with Larry David. Larry David, Creator and Star of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Co-Creator of Seinfeld, will be interviewed live onstage by KQED-FM's Michael Krasny as part of the City Arts and Lecture Series at Herbst Theatre. Reception and Dinner with Larry will follow the interview.

Please contact NRDC for more information at (415) 777-0220.

E2 Membership

We hope you'll tell your friends about E2 and NRDC. To learn about E2 and our programs please go to www.e2.org. Information about NRDC can be found at www.nrdc.org.

Thanks for your support. Comments, questions and introductions to possible new members are always welcome! Learn how to join E2 at how to join. To learn more about the leaders of E2 please read about the E2 co-founders.

Bob Epstein and Nicole Lederer, Editors
bob@bobepstein.to nicole@nicolelederer.com