A Response to Climate Change

Mandatory Reporting of GHGs

The US's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has posted to the Federal Register final details of a mandatory reporting rule (MRR) that will extend the Clean Air Act (CAA) to cover the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG's). The rule to be effective from 29 December 2009 will be codified under Section 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 98 and will require the owners or operators of plants that emit more than 25,000 metric tons per year of carbon dioxide or equivalent gases (CO2e) to record and submit annual reports to the EPA. The figure is similar to the 20 MW thermal capacity limit for industrial plants set by the European Union under its emissions trading scheme (ETS).

Some Climate Change Webcasts

As I continue to learn more about the use of social media, I thought I would prepare a post with links to some of webcasts about emissions and climate change that have caught my eye over these last few months. Here they are, courtesy of YouTube and as a belated contribution to this year's Blog Action Day (which I did not know was to be dedicated to Climate Change !)

Combustion of Coal in China

Data collated and published by organisations such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) and British Petroleum (BP) show that China is the World's largest producer of coal, amounting to 2.7 billion metric tonnes in 2008 and accounting for some 40% of total global output. Chinese coal also has a high sulphur content (between 1 and 5%) and there is limited capacity in the regions where it is mined to clean the fuel by water wash prior to transport.