EcoHearth: Come Home to the Earth

What does it mean when California—the most populous state (and world’s eighth-largest economy, save for the fact that the government is beyond broke)—switches to renewable power generation? It means substantial pollution reductions and major investment and profit opportunities in renewable energy.

It’s happening. As of January 1, 2010, California utilities are required to use renewables for 20% of their energy production. By 2020, renewables must comprise at least one-third.

Several environmental laws take effect January 1, creating opportunities for businesses to cash in on sustainability. The new California mandate has power companies scrambling to pick up renewable projects. This month, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) announced a $900 million investment in a 246-megawatt wind-power project. For better or worse, the money largely goes to a Spanish turbine manufacturer.

PG&E also announced that it entered a utility contract for the nation’s first space-based solar power plant. The huge California utility announced the planned development of a total of 500 MW of solar generation earlier in the year. Why? Because the company gets a 30% tax credit for renewable investments, and huge fines for ignoring the new mandates.

The biggest federal environmental law taking effect on the first of the year is the new EPA reporting requirement for greenhouse gases. The new rules are fully listed (albeit in legalese) here. They mainly apply to companies in specific industries that generate more than 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. The EPA estimates that the reporting regulations will cover 85% of greenhouse-gas emissions in the United States.

These federal rules will just get more stringent, so it’s time for companies to clean up their acts to avoid fines and flack. Furthermore, the state of Washington quickly followed the new federal rule with a set of stricter greenhouse-gas reporting requirements, which will also take effect on New Year’s Day.

The state law includes food processors, industrial landfills and natural-gas businesses that are excluded from the federal rule. Washington also lowers the baseline for reporting from 25,000 to 10,000 metric tons.

Other environmental laws around the country taking effect January 1, 2010, include:

• The Maine Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2009. It expands electronic recycling requirements to printers and video consoles, and requires electronics manufacturers to pay an annual state registration fee to help cover recycling costs. The state will also start determining the recycling responsibility of manufacturers. (Sounds like Sony needs to get cracking on recycling programs for its printers and Playstations.)
• Also in Maine, companies that make compact fluorescent lightbulbs and other lighting that includes mercury must adopt recycling programs.
• California also has a handful of new regulations regarding recycling requirements for all kinds of products.

You can judge these laws as unfair restrictions on business, but you can’t fight city hall (or the state capitol), so it’s probably more productive to consider them nudges toward profits through sustainability. And, in any case, they are good for the environment—a place where business people live, too.

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