Since another college town has been in the headlines as having endorsed a carbon tax, let’s get it straight that what Ithaca, N.Y., did not do was approve a municipal carbon tax in the Boulder mould.

But what Ithaca’s City Council did do had a significance of its own. It voted 9-0 approving a resolution urging state and federal officials to pursue a federal carbon tax. Here’s coverage from the Ithaca Journal and the Cornell Sun. Like a number of initiatives related to global climate change, perhaps this one will come from the ground up at the local and state level as well.

The Ithaca initiative was propelled forward by a local resident named Sylvester Johnson, a member of the Climate Change Action Group of Central New York who holds a doctorate in applied physics, and who believes the Clinton, Obama and McCain campaigns are wrong to for cap-and-trade emissions programs over what he considers a more equitable tax. Here’s his web site and a sample of the resolution that he hopes to see passed by other localities.

How far can this approach take the carbon tax concept? Share your thoughts below, or follow the discussion at our online forums.

The Colorado Carbon Fund, brainchild of the Governor’s Energy Office, seemed to become a more tangible, richer thing at the University of Colorado last week when CU pledged to spend about $50,000 on carbon offsets from the Fund. Colorado Governor Bill Ritter was even on hand to talk about it.

But what is it? Well, it’s an idea.

The Colorado Carbon Fund was started by the Governor’s Energy Office as a localized alternative to Renewable Energy Credits that would help Colorado make strides toward more voluntary environmentally-sound practices on a large scale.

Credits, which can be bought from middlemen like Community Energy, CU’s dealer over the past, function kind of like retroactive investments in renewable energy. For example, the credits that CU had been buying helped alleviate, in part, the startup costs of a wind farm in southeastern Colorado, according to Susan Innis, program manager of the Colorado Carbon Fund.

The new Carbon Fund functions differently. It’s designed to enable local entities like CU to help pay for local carbon offset projects. Innis gave the example of improving insulation in homes in Colorado to help preserve energy that would heat them.

“We obtain those carbon offsets from those projects and we would sell them to you,” Innis said. The functions of Renewable Energy Credits and the carbon offsets offered by the Colorado Carbon Fund are quite similar, in that they both provide money and encouragement for carbon-cutting measures, but the Colorado Carbon Fund would focus its efforts on local projects.

The CU Environmental Center learned about the Carbon Fund’s plans and opted not to renew their contract with Community Energy.

“We’re looking at a number of different certification standards and protocols for measuring,” Innis said. “There are some widely accepted methodologies for calculating greenhouse gas emissions.”

An advisory board that the Governor’s Energy Office will soon assemble will decide which standards to use, but three well-known programs they’re already looking at include the Gold Standard, the Voluntary Carbon Standard and the Green E Climate, she said.

More soon, as we talk to Dave Newport, director of the Environmental Center at CU.

Colorado.gov

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter.

Last Thursday, the University of Colorado, Boulder, was one of more than 1,000 colleges, universities, high schools and other educational institutions around the U.S. to participate in Focus the Nation’s national teach-in day.

Despite morning transit hassles caused by very icy roads after the mini-blizzard of the night before, I was able to make it over to the campus to check out a couple of CU’s events. (Here’s the full lineup of CU events.) I was a little late getting to Governor Bill Ritter’s kick-off talk, but I did catch most of his remarks.

As expected, Ritter touted the state’s Climate Action Plan, blue ribbon panel on transportation, his 2007 executive orders on greening state government, and (of course) the CU student government’s recent decision to shift $50,000 from wind energy credits to as-yet-unspecified carbon offset projects to be funded by the newly unveiled Colorado Carbon Fund.

The Governor’s Q&A was a bit more revealing…
(more…)

In a National Public Radio report that led with Boulder’s carbon tax initiative, “All Things Considered” on July 31 examined how mayors across the nation aren’t waiting for federal action to combat climate change, but are taking the task on themselves (link).

Boulder Mayor Mark Ruzzin is quoted as explaining the targeting of electricity usage: “Electricity is the major contributor to the community’s greenhouse gas emissions, so it is the elephant in the living room, so to speak, and taxing that consumption makes a lot of sense.”

The report goes on to cite similar activity in other cities, from smaller towns like Fort Wayne, Ind., and Austin, Texas, to megacities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

But adding some leavening to the enthusiasm over these efforts is David Morris of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Says Morris: “This is going to be very challenging.”

Yesterday I discussed how it might be useful for the Boulder Carbon Tax Tracker project to acquire the dataset from the city’s new municipal emissions inventory. This morning, Boulder’s environmental affairs director, Sarah Van Pelt, clarified her earlier statement. It does appear, after all, that this project will have access to that data — but through the city, not directly.

Van Pelt wrote:

“The data are not proprietary but the inventory maintenance system is proprietary. I am happy to share any data that you want. Because we have a lot of data I would prefer to provide information that responds to specific questions rather than provide the entire data set that may not really get at the questions you have. In short, I’m trying to make it easier for you and others to understand the data rather than provide all of the data with no analysis or interpretation.”

As a journalist, my preference is to have the dataset so I can see for myself its patterns, organization, and intricacies. Also, I’d like to be able to offer it to independent experts for analysis.

But, for the time being, this offer from the city is a good start. So we’ll start here.

I’m looking over the data summaries Van Pelt provided yesterday, and considering what questions we might like to get answered from the latest emissions inventory.

In the meantime: What would you like to know about Boulder’s greenhouse gas emissions? Please suggest your questions in the comments below.