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Did CU cause a 4% increase in local CO2 emissions?

Way to go, Camera! The front page of today’s Boulder Daily Camera features a story by Ryan Morgan: Boulder spews more CO2.

Apparently a new CO2 emission inventory for the city of Boulder is, or is about to be, released. I haven’t seen this document yet, but I have requested it from the city’s department of environmental affairs. I am trying to obtain not just the city’s summary, but the complete inventory.

(UPDATE: I did just get some summary data, but am pushing for more.) 

The Camera noted an interesting aspect of the latest inventory: “Emissions across the city rose by 4 percent last year — the first time emissions have risen since city officials started counting carbon. Part of the increase comes from a decision by University of Colorado officials to stop burning natural gas to make electricity, and to instead buy it all from Xcel Energy’s coal plants.”

Emission inventories are crucial documents in understanding local greenhouse gas issues. In my work as an energy and environment reporter I’ve seen them before, and I know they often have many stories to tell. The Camera definitely found a good story here, but I’m sure it’s not the only one.

How can we dig deeper on this? The key is getting the inventory. Colorado’s open records law requires, among other things, that local governments produce upon request public records…

That law defines public records as:

(6) (a) (I) “Public records” means and includes all writings made, maintained, or kept by the state, any agency, institution, a nonprofit corporation incorporated pursuant to section 23-5-121 (2), C.R.S., or political subdivision of the state, or that are described in section 29-1-902, C.R.S., and held by any local government-financed entity for use in the exercise of functions required or authorized by law or administrative rule or involving the receipt or expenditure of public funds.

Well, that would seem to include the complete emissions inventory. I’ll keep readers updated on the process of acquiring it.

What would you like to know about patterns of carbon dioxide emissions in Boulder? Please comment below. When we get the inventory, we’ll see what answers it yields.

The comment thread below today’s Camera story included a some predictable back-and forth posturing between people with entrenched opinions about global warming, but it also yielded some potentially interesting questions and food for thought. For instance:

“Doktorbombay” commented: “Story says the increase was 4% from 2005 to 2006. However, CU admits they switched in 2005, but didn’t tell the city until 2006. So how much did it really change year over year? Seems the city should go back and recalc 2005 to determine the real yr/yr change. The city admits they’re still working out the kinks on collection of data, and that they don’t fully understand the data.”

And “trappist99” commented: “The town needs to be restricting growth to a sustainable level not today but in 20 and 50 years, and planning for a more arid climate. The water supply needs to be secured and controlled.”

…Granted, much of the discussion there wasn’t constructive, it was mainly opinionated posturing — although some commenters did attempt to cite sources for their facts.

It’s our hope that this project will raise the level of constructive, fact-based public discussion on this controversial public issue. If you’d like to be part of this, please volunteer today for Boulder Carbon Tax Tracker. Here are our contributor guidelines.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 at 5:41 pm and is filed under Emission sources, Measuring emissions, Public records, mainstream media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.