This evening the Boulder City Council will hold a study session on the city’s climate action plan, transportation and renewable energy strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I’ll be attending.

A study session is a meeting of city council members and staff to go over current and upcoming issues, discuss topics, and give staff/consultants direction. The public is welcome to observe, but no public comments, questions, or statements are taken. However, the public may be asked questions. No formal voting takes place.

According to the 65-page memorandum from the Boulder Dept. of Environmental Affairs to the City Council, this session will provide an update on initiatives undertaken as part of Boulder’s Climate Action Plan (CAP, see backgrounder), and the Transportation Master Plan’s FasTracks Local Optimization (FLO) initiative (a planned transportation system in Boulder that will integrate regional rail and bus rapid transit, expected to be implemented around 2014-16).

Also tonight, Environmental Affairs will introduce its draft renewable energy strategy for the city.

Apparently, council has been pushing the city’s Climate Smart program to pursue emissions cuts more aggressively….

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Boulder’s one thing. Boulder’s small. Boulder’s landlocked.

But affixing a carbon tax-like program to a heavily-populated port city like San Francisco is a whole different animal. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District wants to charge businesses a fee of 4.2 cents per metric ton of carbon dioxide. The draft regulation imposing the new fees would go into effect on July 1, 2008.

According to a fact sheet put out by the BAAQMD (PDF here), it would take stock of how much emitted greenhouse gases were reported over a year, and charge the fee before allowing a facility to re-apply for a permit to own and operate equipment that emits pollutants.

One example provided in the initial coverage of the proposal by the San Jose Mercury-News gives is that a Shell oil refinery in the affected area would be charged $186,475 a year for its carbon dioxide emissions.

That’s a lot of money, and even a huge corporation like Shell will take notice of it. But they’ll likely fight it, too. And they won’t be alone. (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.”

The name New Jersey may conjure visions of smokestack-lined highways, but the state just became another big player on the global warming stage. The New Jersey state legislature on Thursday passed by a wide margin a measure that would require serious cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. While other states, like California, have passed similar measures, New Jersey appears to be one of the most aggressive, targeting an 80 percent cut in emissions by 2050.

Here’s news coverage from the Newark Star-Ledger’s NJ.com news site (link), from the Cherry Hill Courier Post (link), from NorthJersey.com (link) and from Associated Press (link)

A quick glance at the measure reveals no sign of a carbon tax, but the PoliticsNJ.com web site notes that “the bill previously was modified to eliminate a schedule of fees and assessments” (link) A little more investigation is required. Take a look at the measure itself here and let us know if you learn anything more.