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Council on Environmental Quality Blog

  • Our Forests and Climate Change

    Posted by Robert Bonnie and Anne Castle on September 12, 2013 at 10:13 AM EDT

    Americans know the importance of forests to our communities and our economy.  They provide jobs and recreational opportunities, filter our air and water, and make up essential habitat for wildlife and natural resources.  But increasingly, we’re also recognizing that forests play an important role in mitigating climate change.

    Recently, President Obama announced a Climate Action Plan to reduce carbon pollution, prepare for the impacts of climate change on our communities and economy, and lead international efforts to combat global climate change. This plan recognizes that America’s forests play a critical role in addressing carbon pollution, absorbing as much as 14 percent of our country’s greenhouse gas emissions each year.  Over the last several decades, forest regrowth on former farm lands, reforestation, and maturing forests have kept our forest growth rates high, helping us absorb even more carbon. 

    At the same time, development of forest lands is reducing the amount of carbon we can absorb now and in the future.  Carbon pollution is also taking a toll on our forests – heat waves, wildfires, pests and drought are all worsened by climate change, reducing our forests’ ability to sequester carbon.   

    It is difficult to predict precisely how much these impacts will reduce the potential of our forests to combat climate change – but we do know that we must start now to find new ways to enhance forests’ ability to absorb carbon and become more resilient. As part of the President’s Climate Action Plan, the Administration is bringing Federal agencies together to tackle this challenge.  An interagency Task Force is working to provide more accurate and consistent annual updates of carbon fluxes from forests and other lands.  This will help us ensure that we have up-to-date information on how major disturbances like wildfires, as well as land development trends, impact the capacity of the nation’s forests to absorb carbon. It will also provide the tools we need to make more effective policy decisions, ensuring land managers are able to take into account the carbon sequestration value of our forests.   The Task Force is also developing new approaches to retain and restore our forests and other important landscapes like grasslands and wetlands.

    America's Forests

    Photo Credit: U.S. Bureau of Land Management

    This initiative will build on the significant work the Administration already has underway to ensure healthy, thriving forests. For example, the Department of Agriculture announced this year the creation of seven new regional hubs to provide research and timely information to farmers and forest landowners as we work together to combat climate change. This work will complement research by DOI Climate Science Centers, in areas such as evaluating management options, projecting forest conditions and carbon storage under climate change, evaluating the effects of changing rainfall and snow conditions, and studying the effects of changing forests on particular species and ecosystem services. This information is helping to inform restoration efforts undertaken by the Forest Service and its partners to make our forests more resilient. And DOI and USDA are working together with other Federal agencies, states, tribes, and private landowners to engage in historic, landscape scale conservation projects that will put critical ecosystems on a stronger footing for the future.

    Climate change poses a tough new challenge for the forest ecosystems that provide so much for all Americans. Following President Obama’s lead, we’re getting ahead of the game – focusing on new partnerships, strengthening interagency collaboration, and ensuring that the best science is available as we take on climate change in the years to come.

    Robert Bonnie is Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and the Environment

    Anne Castle is Assistant Secretary for Water & Science at the Department of the Interior

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  • Nominate a White House Champion of Change: Veterans on the Front Lines of Advancing Clean Energy and Climate Security

    Posted by Rohan Patel on August 22, 2013 at 5:35 PM EDT

    Ed. Note: This blog is cross-posted from the White House Champions of Change blog

    In answering our nation’s call to service, America’s veterans understand the challenges of energy availability and the threats of a changing climate on the safety and effectiveness of our troops and our national security. From the dangers and logistical challenges of transporting vital energy supplies to concerns of natural resource scarcity, these heroes have been on the front lines dealing with the security implications of a changing climate.

    Upon returning home from service, many veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have continued to serve, using their specialized skills and experiences to advance energy efficiency and renewable energy, make communities more resilient to the effects of climate change, and improve our nation’s energy security. In his Climate Action Plan, the President emphasized that failing to address climate change will threaten millions of people around the world and increase security risks. Improving preparedness and promoting energy independence helps strengthen national security and makes our troops and communities safer.

    In early October, which the President designated “Energy Action Month”, the White House will recognize “Champions of Change” – Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who are leading communities to prepare for the impacts of climate change and transition to a clean energy economy. We need your help to identify these veterans and recognize their extraordinary efforts. Champions may be veterans who are:

    • Entrepreneurs working to implement technologies or techniques for clean energy, energy efficiency, or other new approaches to combat climate change
    • Professionals working to make military bases, cities, or other communities resilient to extreme weather or sea level rise
    • Businesspeople finding solutions that make communities energy independent and create jobs in clean energy

    Help us recognize veterans who are leading and educating their communities on solutions to combat climate change. Click here to nominate a Champion of Change today! After following the link, select "Veterans in Clean Energy and Climate Security" as your nomination category. Please submit nominations by 5:00 PM on Wednesday, September 4th. We look forward to hearing from you!

    Rohan Patel is the Associate Director for Public Engagement at the Council on Environmental Quality

     

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  • Reducing Wildfire Risk and Protecting Our Drinking Water in a Changing Climate

    Posted by Tom Tidwell and Mike Connor on July 19, 2013 at 11:44 AM EDT

    Americans are all too familiar with the devastation catastrophic wildland fires can wreak on the landscape. Fire takes lives, destroys homes, impacts wildlife, and devastates millions of acres of valuable forests and grasslands every year. But what is lesser known is that these fires also severely damage watersheds—the very lands that provide clean and abundant drinking water for millions of Americans every day.

    To address this problem, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell this week announced an historic agreement between the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service and the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation to focus on proactively restoring forest lands around important watersheds and preventing costly, destructive wildfires in these areas. 

    The partnership is included in President Obama’s Climate Action Plan as a means to reduce wildfire risk, protect critical infrastructure, and lessen the impacts of climate change, which include higher risks of large and destructive wildfires. The damage caused to rivers, dams, and irrigation systems after a wildfire can be tremendous. Clearing out the sediment and ash left behind is costing the nation millions of dollars every year, and the impacts of climate change are expected to continue to intensify.  Climate change also exacerbates dry conditions, which can slow the natural recovery time after a wildfire. 

    Wildfire Sediment Deposit

    Heavy rains after a wildfire caused this heavy sediment deposit (Photo Credit: R. H. Meade, U.S. Geological Survey)

     

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  • Cutting Costs and Modernizing Buildings through Performance-Based Contracting

    Posted by Brodi Fontenot on June 19, 2013 at 10:45 AM EDT

    Editor’s Note: On June 19th, the White House Council on Environmental Quality brought together leaders from government, private industry, non-profits, and academia at a White House event to highlight President Obama’s $2 billion commitment to improve the energy efficiency of Federal buildings through performance contracting.  Below, U.S. Department of Transportation Assistant Secretary Brodi Fontenot shares some of the innovative ways his agency is using performance-based contracting to conserve energy, cut waste, and save taxpayer dollars.

    The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) operations encompass more than 10,000 buildings in all 50 states, from air traffic control centers and research facilities to our regional offices and headquarters. That kind of range complicates our efforts to green our internal operations and infrastructure, yet over the last two years, DOT has improved its sustainability performance across all seven measures of the OMB Sustainability and Energy Scorecard.

    To achieve those results and continue to move forward on sustainability, we are trying to use every tool available.  One tool that has served us well is Performance-Based Contracts (PBCs). A PBC is a tool where a company makes improvements at little to no upfront capital cost and is paid through the savings from the project over many years. It is a win-win-win for government, industry, and the environment.

    These contracts are an important vehicle for meeting our energy and water goals. PBCs are attractive because they are a low-cost tool with limited upfront capital investment that emphasizes performance. DOT has dedicated sources of funding for some building improvements, but PBCs present a vital tool to stretch the value of taxpayer dollars.

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  • Happy National Bike to Work Day

    Posted by Jon Powers on May 17, 2013 at 3:50 PM EDT

    As the spring weather is upon us, more and more people are taking to their bicycles to get to work. Bike commuting reduces pollution and promotes health and well-being by incorporating active outdoor time into the workday.  In the Obama Administration, that’s something we encourage.

    Last year, some innovative Federal employees in Portland and Seattle decided to challenge each other during the month of May to increase the number of riders in their community.  As part of the White House’s GreenGov Spotlight Community Initiative, we worked with those innovative leaders and challenged the rest of the Federal government to the Federal Bike to Work Challenge for May 2013. All across the nation, Federal employees are straddling their bikes and achieving some exceedingly impressive results.

    There are currently 148 Federal teams and 1,097 riders, of which 260 are new bike commuters. We’re only halfway through May and already these riders have logged 66,000 miles, and more than 5,000 rides commuting to and from work. The Executive Office of the President, with 9 teams made up of 72 riders, has already commuted over 2,644 miles by bike.

    As the Federal Environmental Executive, I am proud of these teams that are reducing pollution and becoming healthier in the process as we burn not gasoline but calories instead.  We hope to continue the growing momentum. Happy National Bike to Work Day!

    Learn More about the GreenGov Spotlight Communities: http://www.epa.gov/fgc/spotlight/index.html

    Jon Powers is the Federal Environmental Executive.

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  • Building Infrastructure and Healthy Communities

    Posted by Nancy Sutley on May 17, 2013 at 1:54 PM EDT

    When President Obama signed an Executive Order last year to improve Federal review and permitting of infrastructure projects, he did so based on the belief that the Federal Government can work smarter and faster on projects that grow middle class jobs and maintain strong environmental protections for our communities.  We can already see the results of this initiative.  A progress report released today shows how Federal agencies have cut red tape to speed the review and permitting of dozens of major bridge, transit, railway, waterway, road and renewable energy projects, promoting jobs and strengthening our competiveness – and without compromising the important health and environmental protections Americans expect and deserve. 

    Today, the President signed a Presidential Memorandum that takes the next step by institutionalizing the time- and cost-saving tactics the agencies have identified over the past year. These best practices range from expanding use of information technology to cut paperwork and provide agencies with better information faster, to making time-saving collaboration the norm. For example, by having multiple agencies review a project at the same time, instead of one after the other.  The Administration is also working to expand innovative tools to improve environmental outcomes; develop more targeted and relevant environmental reviews; provide more opportunities for public input; and improve collaboration with State, local, and Tribal governments.

    This modernization effort reaches across the Federal Government and will shave months or even years off of project review and permitting decisions, allowing States, local governments and private developers to get started sooner on projects that grow jobs, fix our Nation’s infrastructure, and are good for communities.  It will also protect the health of our communities and give Americans a greater voice in Federal decisions on projects that impact them.  Moving forward, you can track the results of specific projects on the Administration’s Infrastructure Permitting Dashboard, which provides an unprecedented level of transparency into the Federal permitting and review process.

    This work is all part of the Administration’s effort to make America a magnet for jobs by building a 21st Century infrastructure. At a time when we must do more with less, we must operate more nimbly to continue to deliver on jobs and resilient infrastructure for our communities.  Ultimately, we can meet the President’s goal of cutting the timeline in half for major infrastructure projects and create better outcomes for communities and the environment. 

    Nancy Sutley is Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality

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