Use this email sample (feel free to copy and paste this to http://www.freedomspeaks.com/login If you sign up there with a password, then sign in again, this site will enable you to send mass emails of a letter to all your reps. up to the President of the U.S. if you want) to write your own email to your congressperson about the 2009 Climate Change Bill's Black Carbon Reduction Act.

 

 
Referring to Black Carbon Emissions Reduction Act of 2009 (HR 1760 1H)
 
Referring to (e)Domestic Black Carbon Mitigation:
Please explicitly add, as in (f)
(e)(1)decrease wood residential home and hot water heating device particulate emissions levels by over 50 percent
 
(e) Domestic Black Carbon Mitigation- Not later than one year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator, taking into consideration the public health and environmental impacts of black carbon emissions, including the effects on global warming, the Arctic, and other snow and ice-covered surfaces, shall propose regulations under the existing authorities of the Clean Air Act to reduce emissions of black carbon or propose a finding that existing regulations promulgated pursuant to such Act adequately regulate black carbon emissions. Not later than two years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall promulgate final regulations under the existing authorities of the Clean Air Act or finalize the proposed finding.
 
This Section 2.(f)(2)(A)(ii)(I)increase stove efficiency by over 50 percent (or such other goal as determined by the Administrator); is under Internationally.  I hope this is not confined to overseas wood stove use.  There have been several articles in the New York Times in the past few weeks on effort to replace wood cookstoves in Africa, Asia and India with solar cookers, and wood stoves in the Artic & Himilayas with portable efficient non-wood stoves for cooking.  I would like this part explicity to state that reducing wood stove pollution of U.S. wood stoves for heating homes and hot water to have emission levels reduced 50% at least and these regulations be ENFORCED across the U.S.  This is not just a 3rd world problem!  This would agree with the EPA revisions of NSPS standards for wood heating devices which will be released for public comment this fall.  Wood stove, outdoor wood boiler, and other devices yet to be invented by the residential wood burning industry (unless this is discouraged) are a problem in Wisconsin and across the U.S., Canada and Australia.   Residential wood burning device emissions are not uniformly regulated in the United States, and in most cases not regulated at all, unlike industrial wood burning and wood gasification.  Residential wood burning is a health problem causing lung cancer, asthma and heart disease.  It is localized in most visible effects, but also contributes to particulate production and global warming.  See the American and WI Lung Association.  Connecticut introduced a wood burning device nuisance emissions law statewide in January 2009, but it was defeated in April 2009.  Particulates are the 2nd leading cause of global warming, and 50% of the warming of the Artic.   The PM2.5 particulates from wood burning are the perfect size to infiltrate the human lung, unlike some larger particles from auto emissions.  In the State of Maine, particulates from wood exceeded particulates from auto emissions for the first time in 2008, because so many people in Maine heat with wood.  There is a Maine member of RAWSEP who can attest to the misery from wood smoke there.  Poverty is not overiding in the use of wood as fuel, as neighbors of OWB owners can attest.  In winter, during Particulate Air Quality Alerts in Wisconsin, no neighbors of RAWSEP members who used OWBs "minimized wood burning" as advised by the State of WI, because the alert precautions are voluntary.  Wood smoke enters doors of neighbors and seeps in closed windows and through attic vents.  Temperature air inversions in winter hold the smoke low to the ground.  People are trapped in their homes, afraid to venture out in the cold and feeling like they are suffering from the smoke inhalation of a house fire.  I developed meningitis in February 2009, which my doctor said could be attributable to the wood smoke.  That is one of the diseases mentioned as a side effect of wood burning for cooking in 3rd world countries in the recent New York Times articles.  The OWB owners are more affluent on the whole than their neighbors, and often have local political connections which they exploit.  The price of natural gas has gone done 75% in the last 2 months.  Natural gas home heating  and hot water heating is a bridge to the better alternatives of wind, solar and geothermal, so home owners in America can abandon wood burning for heat.  See http://woodgasification.spaces.live.com; http://woodsmokenuisance.spaces.live.com; http://woodsmokeworld.spaces.live.com; and http://rawsep.spaces.live.com
 
Thank you,
Linda Karr
4205 Elinor St.
Madison, WI  53716
(608)554-2122
lindakarr@live.com
 
 
 
Black Carbon Emissions Reduction Act of 2009 (Introduced in House)

HR 1760 IH 111th CONGRESS 1st Session

H. R. 1760

To mitigate the effects of black carbon emissions in the United States and throughout the world.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

March 26, 2009

Mr. INSLEE (for himself, Mr. WELCH, and Mr. HONDA) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Foreign Affairs and Science and Technology, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

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A BILL

To mitigate the effects of black carbon emissions in the United States and throughout the world.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Black Carbon Emissions Reduction Act of 2009'.

SEC. 2. BLACK CARBON.

(a) Findings- The Congress finds the following:

(1) Black carbon is a particulate pollutant that contributes significantly to warming of the Earth's climate system by absorbing radiation, converting it into heat, and releasing heat energy into the atmosphere. The atmospheric residence of black carbon is usually less than 2 weeks, making this pollutant an important candidate for policy action to immediately mitigate global warming, including the threat of abrupt climate change.

(2) Black carbon has a particularly detrimental impact on snow and ice-covered surfaces, such as the Arctic and the Tibetan Plateau, by reducing surface reflectivity and accelerating melting.

(3) Black carbon is a component of particulate matter regulated under the Clean Air Act, however it is not explicitly regulated as a global warming agent under United States law or by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change or other international instruments.

(4) Through existing clean air programs, the United States has substantially reduced black carbon emissions, but more can be done.

(5) Internationally, governments should help spur technological innovation and energy technology deployment in countries where major black carbon emissions still occur through industrial activities, vehicle emissions, agriculture and forestry practices, and residential cooking and heating.

(6) Human exposure to black carbon is a serious threat to public health in both developed and developing countries. Actions to reduce exposure to black carbon will produce immediate and significant public health benefits.

(7) Taking immediate cost-effective and technologically feasible action to significantly reduce black carbon emissions will help protect the Arctic and other areas that are imminently threatened by warming.

(b) Purposes- The purposes of this Act are--

(1) to immediately take action to reduce black carbon emissions;

(2) to identify cost-effective ways to achieve additional reductions of domestic and international black carbon emissions;

(3) to achieve the public health and environmental benefits of reduced black carbon emissions, including contributing to a reduction in the rate of global warming; and

(4) to take action to protect areas particularly affected by black carbon emissions, such as the Arctic.

(c) Definitions- As used in this Act:

(1) The term `Administrator' means the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

(2) The term `black carbon' means the light-absorbing component of carbonaceous aerosols.

(d) Black Carbon Abatement Report- Not later than one year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall, in consultation with other appropriate Federal agencies, submit to Congress a report regarding black carbon emissions. The report shall include the following:

(1) A summary of the current research that identifies--

(A) an inventory of the major sources of black carbon emissions in the United States and throughout the world, including--

(i) an estimate of the quantity of current and projected future emissions; and

(ii) the net climate forcing of the emissions from such sources, including consideration of co-emissions of other pollutants;

(B) effective and cost-effective control technologies, operations, and strategies for additional domestic and international black carbon emissions reductions, such as diesel retrofit technologies on existing on-road and off-road engines and programs to address residential cookstoves, forest burning, and other agriculture-based burning;

(C) potential metrics quantifying the climatic effects of black carbon emissions, including its radiative forcing and warming effects, that may be used to compare the climate benefits of different mitigation strategies, including an assessment of the uncertainty in such metrics; and

(D) the public health and environmental benefits associated with additional controls for black carbon emissions.

(2) Recommendations regarding--

(A) development of additional emissions monitoring techniques and capabilities, modeling, and other black carbon-related areas of study;

(B) areas of focus for additional study of technologies, operations, and strategies with the greatest potential to reduce emissions of black carbon; and

(C) actions, in addition to those identified by the Administrator pursuant to subsections (e) and (f), the Federal Government may take to encourage or require reductions in black carbon emissions.

(e) Domestic Black Carbon Mitigation- Not later than one year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator, taking into consideration the public health and environmental impacts of black carbon emissions, including the effects on global warming, the Arctic, and other snow and ice-covered surfaces, shall propose regulations under the existing authorities of the Clean Air Act to reduce emissions of black carbon or propose a finding that existing regulations promulgated pursuant to such Act adequately regulate black carbon emissions. Not later than two years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall promulgate final regulations under the existing authorities of the Clean Air Act or finalize the proposed finding.

(f) International Black Carbon Mitigation-

(1) REPORT- Not later than one year after the date of enactment of this section, the Administrator, in coordination with the Secretary of State and other appropriate Federal agencies, shall transmit a report to Congress on the amount, type, and direction of all present United States financial, technical, and related assistance to foreign countries to reduce, mitigate, and otherwise abate black carbon emissions.

(2) OTHER OPPORTUNITIES- The report required under paragraph (1) shall also identify opportunities and recommendations, including action under existing authorities, to achieve significant black carbon emission reductions in foreign countries through technical assistance or other approaches to--

(A) promote sustainable solutions to bring clean, efficient, safe, and affordable stoves, fuels, or both stoves and fuels to residents of developing countries that are reliant on solid fuels such as wood, dung, charcoal, coal, or crop residues for home cooking and heating, so as to help reduce the public health, environmental, and economic impacts of black carbon emissions from these sources by--

(i) identifying key regions for large-scale demonstration efforts, and key partners in each such region; and

(ii) developing for each such region a large-scale implementation strategy with a goal of collectively reaching 20,000,000 homes over 5 years with interventions that will--

(I) increase stove efficiency by over 50 percent (or such other goal as determined by the Administrator);

(II) reduce emissions of black carbon by over 60 percent (or such other goal as determined by the Administrator); and

(III) reduce the incidence of severe pneumonia in children under 5 years old by over 30 percent (or such other goal as determined by the Administrator);

(B) make technological improvements to diesel engines and provide greater access to fuels that emit less or no black carbon;

(C) reduce unnecessary agricultural or other biomass burning where feasible alternatives exist;

(D) reduce unnecessary fossil fuel burning that produces black carbon where feasible alternatives exist;

(E) reduce other sources of black carbon emissions; and

(F) improve capacity to achieve greater compliance with existing laws to address black carbon emissions.

(g) Authorization of Appropriations- There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as are necessary to carry out this Act.