13 Montana conservation groups tell state agency that climate change recommendations severely lacking

STATEWIDE GROUPS SAY EQC RECOMMENDATIONS TOO NARROW

Thirteen Montana conservation groups have expressed their disappointment with the legislative Environmental Quality Council’s 11 draft recommendations on climate change. In a letter to EQC Chairman David Wanzenried, the groups say the EQC recommendations fall short in addressing the problem and ignore the most urgent of the 54 recommendations made by the Governor’s Climate Change Advisory Committee.

EQC has set a Friday, August 22, deadline for public comments on its 11 recommendations that it will propose for legislative action in January. This past winter, EQC offered the public a chance to complete a survey on the Advisory Committee’s 54 recommendations. In subsequent deliberation, legislators on the EQC whittled the list down to 11 recommendations and draft legislation to implement them.

 “The EQC’s response  to one of the most compelling issues ever faced by the State of Montana falls far short of what is needed,” the letter states. “We urge the EQC to reconsider its underpowered package of draft bills and to construct a legislative agenda that truly measures up to the scope of the climate change problem.”

 The letter is signed by representatives of the Alternative Energy Resources Organization, the Clark Fork Coalition, Good Works Ventures, Montana Audubon, Montana Conservation Voters, Montana Environmental Information Center, regional office of the National Wildlife Federation, National Center for Appropriate Technology, Northern Plains Resource Council, the Sierra Club’s Great Plains office, Sustainable Obtainable Solutions, The Policy Institute, and the Western Organization of Resource Councils.

The EQC draft recommendations would reduce carbon pollution by 10 million metric tons in the next 12 years, which amounts to less than 16 percent of the reduction outlined in the Advisory Committee’s package of 54 recommendations.

“We question why industry and major energy producers have been given no role or obligation in addressing the climate change problem,” the letter states, letting some of the biggest producers of greenhouse gases completely off the hook and relying instead on voluntary changes in reducing greenhouse gases.

The letter cites the limited nature of the EQC recommendations, and questions why the EQC chose not to pursue the full package of Advisory Committee recommendations that provide a net economic benefit to the state as well as reducing the output of greenhouse gases. The 54 recommendations of the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Climate Change were aimed at achieving specific pollution-reduction goals and, if fully implemented, would reduce greenhouse gases by over 63 million metric tons while achieving a net economic benefit to Montana of $65.9 million.

The EQC’s legislative proposals fail to address recommendations that are quite simple to achieve and would save consumers money in the long run, such as supporting higher federal mileage requirements for vehicles, energy-efficient appliances, and better building codes, among others.

The groups signing the letter urge the EQC to quantify all of its proposals, as well as its selection rationale, in terms of carbon reduction and net economic costs and benefits.

The EQC will act on its draft recommendations at its Sept. 8-9 meeting in Helena.