Energy Tough Love Blog

The Wall Street Journal

Addiction Treatment

Bush’s Latest Energy Solution,

Like its Forebears, Faces Hurdles

February 2, 2006; Page A1

With oil prices stuck at more than $60 a barrel, President Bush is touting “cellulosic ethanol” as a 21st-century

panacea for the U.S.’s addiction to oil. In his State of the Union address Tuesday, Mr. Bush said energy made from

“wood chips, stalks or switch grass” could be available at gas pumps in six years and could supply nearly a third of

the fuel needed to keep Americans on the road.

The plan is the latest in a long line of promises from Washington to back new forms of alternative energy, going

back to President Carter’s promotion of synthetic fuels. It offers some intriguing new technology and the possibility

of widespread support from environmentalists, farmers and auto makers.

Like earlier promises, most of which failed, Mr. Bush’s surprise promotion of cellulosic ethanol also faces huge

hurdles. For one, the budget-constrained White House is offering little money to back up its rhetoric: just $150

million next year, hardly enough to revolutionize a multibillion dollar energy market.

The fuel also faces distribution problems and a lack of properly equipped vehicles. And an unpopular gas tax might

well be needed to make ethanol a competitively priced product at the pump.

The proposal marks a switch in emphasis for a politically weakened president. The administration previously has

said the route to energy independence lay in encouraging domestic oil and gas drilling, including opening the Arctic

National Wildlife Refuge. Such proposals, which have repeatedly died in

Congress amid bitter political wrangles, were notably absent in this year’s

speech.

By contrast, cellulosic ethanol can draw support from a surprisingly diverse

political coalition. Scientists, investors and policy makers say it is increasingly

viable to make fuel from farm waste, also known as “biomass.” For one, it is

cheaper than corn-based ethanol, the fuel that has been a heavily subsidized

favorite in Washington. Private-sector investors — from Virgin mogul Richard

Branson to Canada’s Iogen Corp. — are putting money into the concept in hopes

of seeing an ethanol boom in the U.S. similar to one in Brazil.

Environmentalists like the idea because burning the fuel doesn’t pollute as much

as conventional gasoline. Defense hawks, notably Reagan Secretary of State

George P. Shultz and Clinton Central Intelligence Agency Director James

Woolsey, promote it as a way to boost national security. Struggling U.S. auto

companies like it because they have a competitive advantage over the Japanese

on so-called flexible-fuel vehicles that can switch between gasoline and

alternatives.

And because the fuel can be made from a wide range of agricultural products, it draws backing from a

geographically diverse range of politicians, from New York Republican Gov. George Pataki to a bipartisan group

of elected officials in California. The fuel is even popular in farm states such as Iowa that tout conventional cornbased

ethanol, since it can make heavy use of corn stalks.

Many experts say conservation or a gas tax is the best way to dent import demand. Mr. Bush has rejected these

approaches as conflicting with his free-market bent and has preferred throughout his term to focus on new drilling

and new technologies. The White House estimates the president has provided $10 billion in spending on new

energy technologies since taking office in 2001.

Beyond ethanol, Mr. Bush’s new “Advanced Energy Initiative” includes spending for research on hydrogen cars and

hybrid-car batteries that can be recharged overnight, as well as money for solar and wind energy. His grand goal, as

he stated in his national address, is “to replace more than 75% of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025.”  

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ultimate objective in full accordance with its principles and commitments,

priorities,

Panel on Climate Change that warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and that delay in

reducing emissions significantly constrains opportunities to achieve lower stabilization levels

and increases the risk of more severe climate change impacts,

implementation of the Convention through long-term cooperative action, now, up to and beyond 2012, in

order to reach an agreed outcome and adopt a decision at its fifteenth session, by addressing, inter alia:

(a) A shared vision for long-term cooperative action, including a long-term global goal for

emission reductions, to achieve the ultimate objective of the Convention, in accordance

with the provisions and principles of the Convention, in particular the principle of

common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, and taking into

account social and economic conditions and other relevant factors;

(b) Enhanced national/international action on mitigation of climate change, including,

inter alia, consideration of:

(i) Measurable, reportable and verifiable nationally appropriate mitigation

commitments or actions, including quantified emission limitation and reduction

objectives, by all developed country Parties, while ensuring the comparability of

efforts among them, taking into account differences in their national

circumstances;

(ii) Nationally appropriate mitigation actions by developing country Parties in the

context of sustainable development, supported and enabled by technology,

financing and capacity-building, in a measurable, reportable and verifiable

manner;

(iii) Policy approaches and positive incentives on issues relating to reducing

emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries; and

Change, Technical Summary, pages 39 and 90, and Chapter 13, page 776.

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the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of

forest carbon stocks in developing countries;

(iv) Cooperative sectoral approaches and sector-specific actions, in order to enhance

implementation of Article 4, paragraph 1(c), of the Convention;

(v) Various approaches, including opportunities for using markets, to enhance the

cost-effectiveness of, and to promote, mitigation actions, bearing in mind

different circumstances of developed and developing countries;

(vi) Economic and social consequences of response measures;

(vii) Ways to strengthen the catalytic role of the Convention in encouraging

multilateral bodies, the public and private sectors and civil society, building on

synergies among activities and processes, as a means to support mitigation in a

coherent and integrated manner;

(c) Enhanced action on adaptation, including, inter alia, consideration of:

(i) International cooperation to support urgent implementation of adaptation actions,

including through vulnerability assessments, prioritization of actions, financial

needs assessments, capacity-building and response strategies, integration of

adaptation actions into sectoral and national planning, specific projects and

programmes, means to incentivize the implementation of adaptation actions, and

other ways to enable climate-resilient development and reduce vulnerability of all

Parties, taking into account the urgent and immediate needs of developing

countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change,

especially the least developed countries and small island developing States, and

further taking into account the needs of countries in Africa affected by drought,

desertification and floods;

(ii) Risk management and risk reduction strategies, including risk sharing and

transfer mechanisms such as insurance;

(iii) Disaster reduction strategies and means to address loss and damage associated

with climate change impacts in developing countries that are particularly

vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change;

(iv) Economic diversification to build resilience;

(v) Ways to strengthen the catalytic role of the Convention in encouraging

multilateral bodies, the public and private sectors and civil society, building on

synergies among activities and processes, as a means to support adaptation in a

coherent and integrated manner;

(d) Enhanced action on technology development and transfer to support action on mitigation

and adaptation, including, inter alia, consideration of:

(i) Effective mechanisms and enhanced means for the removal of obstacles to, and

provision of financial and other incentives for, scaling up of the development and

transfer of technology to developing country Parties in order to promote access to

affordable environmentally sound technologies;

(ii) Ways to accelerate deployment, diffusion and transfer of affordable

environmentally sound technologies;

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(iii) Cooperation on research and development of current, new and innovative

technology, including win-win solutions;

(iv) The effectiveness of mechanisms and tools for technology cooperation in specific

sectors;

(e) Enhanced action on the provision of financial resources and investment to support action

on mitigation and adaptation and technology cooperation, including, inter alia,

consideration of:

(i) Improved access to adequate, predictable and sustainable financial resources and

financial and technical support, and the provision of new and additional

resources, including official and concessional funding for developing country

Parties;

(ii) Positive incentives for developing country Parties for the enhanced

implementation of national mitigation strategies and adaptation action;

(iii) Innovative means of funding to assist developing country Parties that are

particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change in meeting the

cost of adaptation;

(iv) Means to incentivize the implementation of adaptation actions on the basis of

sustainable development policies;

(v) Mobilization of public- and private-sector funding and investment, including

facilitation of carbon-friendly investment choices;

(vi) Financial and technical support for capacity-building in the assessment of the

costs of adaptation in developing countries, in particular the most vulnerable

ones, to aid in determining their financial needs;

Convention, hereby established and known as the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative

Action under the Convention, that shall complete its work in 2009 and present the outcome of its work to

the Conference of the Parties for adoption at its fifteenth session;

scheduled as often as is feasible and necessary to complete the work of the group, where possible in

conjunction with sessions of other bodies established under the Convention, and that its sessions may be

complemented by workshops and other activities, as required;

than April 2008;

in Annex I to the Convention (Annex I Party) and the other being from a Party not included in Annex I to

the Convention (non-Annex I Party), shall alternate annually between an Annex I Party and a non-

Annex I Party;

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work programme, taking into account the elements referred to in paragraph 1 above, to be compiled by

the secretariat for consideration by the group at its first meeting;

progress made;

report by the group;

information, experience in implementation of the Convention and its Kyoto Protocol, and processes

thereunder, outputs from other relevant intergovernmental processes and insights from the business and

research communities and civil society;

additional resources to provide for the participation of delegates from Parties eligible to be funded and to

provide conference services and substantive support;

to provide contributions to the Trust Fund for Participation in the UNFCCC Process and the Trust Fund

for Supplementary Activities for the purposes referred to in paragraph 12 above and to provide other

forms of in kind support such as hosting a session of the group.

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ANNEX

Session 1 March/April 2008

Session 2 June 2008, in conjunction with the twenty-eighth sessions of the subsidiary

bodies

Session 3 August/September 2008

Session 4 December 2008, in conjunction with the fourteenth session of the

Conference of the Parties

– – – – –

That is it! Yes there are 13 other COP 3 documents, 11 othe CMP documents and 1 AWG 4 documents, but the above is the heart of the agreement. It would have been nice if someone in the press would have published it and not left it up to the U.N.