Conservation Leaders Network

While Congress continues arguing over climate and energy legislation, Montgomery County, Md. passed the nation’s first countywide carbon tax.

The Montgomery County Council voted 8–1 on May 19 to enact a carbon tax of $5 per ton of carbon dioxide on power stations that produce more than 1 million tons in a given year. Under those terms, the tax only applies to Mirant Inc., owners of a coal-fired power plant that emits 3 million tons of carbon dioxide annually or 25 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in the county.

“It is responsible, fair, fiscally prudent and good public policy for them to pay to clean up after themselves,” Montgomery County Councilmember Roger Berliner said.

Berliner, who introduced the bill, added that the $15 million this bill will raise could help finance programs such as the Home Energy Loan Program, which was passed in FY09 to help finance residents’ energy-efficiency projects through personal property taxes so the loan is tied to the property it benefits.

Mirant says that such taxes don’t create a level playing field among the larger carbon consumers and that the company already pays for its own emissions through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a 10-state carbon-trading auction.

After failing to kill the measure, Mirant recently filed a lawsuit against Montgomery County in federal district court seeking a restraining order or injunction. The company also argues that the tax violates the so-called dormant commerce clause, a legally inferred corollary to the Constitution’s Commerce Clause that limits state actions.

“Mirant faces the choice of paying during the litigation or not and face a 20 percent penalty should the county prevail,” Berliner added. “The county will obviously defend the tax in court, and the tax liability has begun accruing.”

A wetland – whether it is called a swamp, marsh, fen or bottomland hardwood – is a unique place serving as the link between land and water.

Wetlands provide a wide range of ecological, economic, public safety and social benefits to communities. They produce harvestable products and provide recreation and education opportunities. In addition, wetlands are habitat for wildlife, birds and fish. They create a distinctive ecosystem where the flow of water, the cycling of nutrients and the energy of the sun join together and perform a vital role in a watershed. Using a watershed-based approach to wetland protection ensures that the whole system, including land, air and water resources, is protected.

The natural functions of wetlands provide economic value to communities. Wetlands provide food and nursery areas for commercial and recreational species of fish and shellfish. Wetlands also provide goods and services such as water filtration, habitat, flood control and food production. We even get cranberries, blueberries, mint, wild rice and many medicines from wetlands.

Although the tangible benefits of wetlands – such as the cranberries and medicines mentioned above – are easier to calculate in terms of a dollar value, the true economic value of wetlands is difficult to determine due to the uniqueness and variety of their functions. However, an estimated value of all economic benefits generated by a single acre of wetland is between $150,000 and $200,000. The flood control functions that wetlands provide can also prevent costly expenditures in erosion control projects like riparian and stream bank stabilization.

Early identification of wetlands in the landscape increases opportunities to maintain the functions and values they provide. Residential and commercial developments may be able to increase the value of their property and reduce negative environmental impacts by incorporating habitat areas and stormwater control into site designs. According to the EPA, maintaining natural wetlands in residential areas can increase real property values by up to 28 percent while also enhancing the quality of life.

Did you know? A study assessing the world’s natural ecosystems estimated that the global value of wetland resources was $14.9 trillion, accounting for 45% of the value of all natural ecosystems.

Lake County is a large urban county situated in northeastern Illinois, with Lake Michigan to the east, Wisconsin to the north and the City of Chicago to the south. It comprises 448 square miles and in 2000 this rapidly growing coastal county’s population was just under 650,000 people.

Lake County, Illinois is home to Prairie Crossing, a 10-year old “conservation community” of 36 condominiums and 359 single-family homes. In accordance with the county’s Watershed Development Ordinance, the natural wetlands of the Liberty Prairie Reserve were preserved to provide water filtration and manage stormwater. The ordinance process required minimal up front investment by the developer as well as lower homeowner maintenance costs. In fact, the stormwater system provided by the wetlands saved the developer over half a million dollars in comparison to installing a traditional storm sewer system.

Lake County’s Watershed Development Ordinance has proved to be largely self-sustaining, with 65% of the annual administration cost being covered through permit fees and another 35% from property tax revenues. Homeowners love having natural areas adjacent to their homes. To learn more about Lake County’s efforts see the NACo fact sheet entitled “Protecting Wetlands and Fostering Economic Growth: Lake County, Illinois’ Watershed Development Ordinance” available at www.naco.org/techassistance; click on Water Quality.

A connection between urban sprawl and the Department of Defense (DoD)? Increasingly, the answer is yes. With development drawing ever closer to many of its facilities, DoD has become increasingly concerned about the ill effects of sprawl hampering its ability to effectively carry out its military training mission.

In response, the Department has established a Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative—a groundbreaking drive to improve test and training space while protecting the surrounding habitat, agricultural land, and open space. The Initiative will focus on better engaging in local and regional planning processes, partnering with other organizations and groups with common interests, and promoting win-win compatible land use solutions. Such solutions are often smart growth solutions.

The Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative supports and enhances military-wide efforts to assist communities and other interested stakeholders with developing compatible land use approaches. Working with these communities and stakeholders, the DoD will be issuing new supportive policies and engaging a wide array of partners in the coming year. Several partners in this effort are members of the Smart Growth Network, including the International City/County Management Association, the Conservation Fund, the American Farmland Trust, and others.

Why the need for this initiative? Urban growth is an increasing impediment to the vital readiness training that takes place at military facilities. Over time, such encroachment eliminates test and training flexibility and reduces the capacity of military ranges and installations—sometimes markedly so.

DoD recognizes that it must look “beyond the fence” and work with its neighbors to promote mutually beneficial land use strategies. These problems are often regional in nature and therefore require regional solutions.

With new authorities granted by Congress in late 2002, the military now has greater flexibility to enter into agreements with private conservation organizations or with state and local governments. These agreements allow signatories to share the cost of acquiring easements to preserve high-value habitat and limit incompatible development in the vicinity of military installations.

By building on successes to date, the Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative is poised to expand the development and implementation of collaborative approaches that meet the joint needs of military installations, surrounding communities, and other partners. They look forward to strengthening their relationship with SGN and its partners as they work to expand the potential for win-win land-use solutions.

Alex Beehler is Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Environment, Safety and Occupational Health). Bruce Beard is Assistant Director for Environmental Readiness at DoD. For more information on the Initiative, please contact Jan Larkin atjanice.larkin@osd.mil. Reprinted with permission from Getting Smart! Getting Smart! is a publication of the ICMA and the Smart Growth Network, available online at www.smartgrowth.org.

The Virginia Conservation Network (VCN) is a coalition of 125 nonprofit and community organizations working together for a cleaner, healthier environment. From offshore drilling in the Atlantic to national forest management in the Appalachians, Virginia faces difficult decisions about the use and stewardship of natural resources. VCN helps policy makers to better understand these complex issues and helps citizens engage the policy-making process in effective, constructive ways.

VCN coordinates five working groups, which drive the network’s “common agenda” for pro-environment public policy. These working groups aggregate the real-world experience of citizen stakeholders across the commonwealth and tap into the legal expertise of leading nonprofits. The network’s annual Conservation Briefing Book provides succinct, science-based analysis of environmental issues facing Virginia for legislators, regulators and members of the media. It serves to guide VCN’s advocacy before the state legislature and participation in regulatory proceedings. The network’s popular e-newsletter and annual Conservation Lobby Day promote transparency and citizen involvement in the policy-making process.

Because the communities of Hampton Roads, Virginia, are among the nation’s most vulnerable to sea-level rise and because the Virginia rivers that flow into Chesapeake Bay, America’s largest estuary, still fail to meet Clean Water Act standards, climate readiness and watershed restoration are VCN’s top environmental priorities.

In partnership with the National Wildlife Federation and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, the network hosted two stakeholder workshops on climate change and implications to Virginia. The outcomes included an addendum to the state wildlife action plan focused on adaptation to climate change. As co-chair of the Virginia Teaming with Wildlife coalition, VCN is working with landowners and local governments to identify critical habitats. The Virginia Teaming with Wildlife coalition is helping find the resources to keep wildlife populations that may be impacted by warmer temperatures or rising sea levels robust and resilient.

Virginia Conservation Network also plays a critical leadership role in the five-state Choose Clean Water coalition, which has focused public attention on the need to reauthorize and improve the state-federal Chesapeake Bay Program. Despite significant progress cutting direct pollution into its rivers, Virginia, like many states, has failed to contain polluted runoff from cities and farms. Local governments are particularly concerned about regulations affecting municipal storm sewers and the lack of resources to retrofit urban areas and control runoff. Rural counties want regulators to go after agricultural “bad actors,” but worry about the costs of compliance for the family farms that remain the norm across much of Virginia. Through detailed policy analysis and an extensive public education campaign, VCN and the Choose Clean Water coalition are building consensus for a new approach that fairly distributes both responsibility and resources.

To learn more about how Virginia Conservation Network is working to solve a wide range of environmental challenges, visit www.vcnva.org.

With spring comes new hope and new life to the world around us and the Conservation Leaders Network, too.

We've been focused on clean water since the winter. I hope you've had a chance to read our "Clean Water for All: County Leaders Speak Out for Clean Water." If you haven't seen it yet, click here. We are now working with county officials from Wisconsin, California, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Oregon, Alabama, Virginia and Minnesota to form "Local Officials for Clean Water." Look for a public launch during the National Association of Counties' annual conference in Reno NV this July.

Expanding our on work in support of marine reserves in Oregon, we recently received funding to start our West Coast Marine Protection Project. We look forward to continuing to be an effective voice for marine conservation on the west coast.

Now we are generating financial support to bring our "Conservation Makes $ense" booth to the National Association of Counties' (NACo) annual conference in Reno NV this summer. We've got two booth co-sponsors this year, The Wilderness Society and the Pew Environment Group. We very much appreciate their support. Truly, we would not be able to participate at the conference without them. Booth rental space is very expensive and we never make a commitment until we have at least two booth co-sponsors. We still have a ways to go before our expenses are covered, but we have paid for the space and we are ready to go. In addition to raising additional funding, we are searching for colorful, attractive and timely materials that demonstrate that conservation of our natural resources really does make good economic sense, which we will distribute to the 4,000 county officials who will be at the conference in Reno. So please let me know if you know of anything that might be appropriate.

Right now we are in the process of replacing our great administrative assistant, Karim Shumaker, who has left after six years with the Conservation Leaders Network. Her work with this newsletter, our website and keeping the office (and me!) running smoothly will be greatly missed. But we are welcoming Jan Short to the office to replace Karim. She and staff assistant, Mary Spini, will be working with me over the next few months to get the office back on an even keel. It will take Jan many months to get completely up to speed as our work is not the same week-to-week nor month-to-month, as you can well imagine. She'll be coming in right when we are working on the NACo conference, which is always a tense time in our office. If things fall through the cracks, I hope you will forgive us and do let me know if there are any problems.

Land conservation is good for Colorado’s economy. We shouldn’t have to choose between a robust economy and conserving our natural resources. In fact, conserving our land, water and wildlife adds to our economic bottom line and creates jobs.

Tourism is a vitally important economic activity in Colorado. Many tourists visit the state to enjoy the natural environment and to participate in outdoor recreation activities that are dependent on healthy lands.

Outdoor recreation, including bicycling, camping, fishing, hunting, paddling, snow sports, hiking, climbing and wildlife viewing produces an estimated $10 billion in economic activity and supports 107,000 jobs.

There are more than 593,000 resident hunters and anglers in Colorado that generate $1.2 billion in direct spending annually. This creates an additional $2.1 billion ripple effect on the Colorado economy for a total economic impact of $3.6 billion within the state.

At the NACo Legislative Conference in March 2007, the NACo Board of Directors approved a resolution that became part of NACo’s Environment, Energy and Land Use Platform. The resolution calls upon Congress to aggressively pursue national and international programs to develop carbon-neutral energy sources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Federal funding of sensible and cost-effective technologies to reduce greenhouse gases should be continued. NACo urges Congress to address global warming, regardless of its source. NACo supports immediate and long-range efforts by the federal government to involve all levels of stakeholders to mitigate possible sources of climate change now, through a series of practical incentives and through more federal funding for all means of emissions reduction.

In July, NACo launched its County Climate Protection Program to support counties as they work to have a positive impact in their communities reducing emissions, benefiting the environment and public health, and saving taxpayer dollars.

This new program will provide counties with best practices, tools and resources to assist them in developing and implementing successful climate change programs at home. NACo is currently working to develop a searchable clearinghouse of county policies and programs on climate change. As counties work to develop their climate action plans, they will submit completed pieces to the searchable database. In addition, NACo has launched an online discussion forum on climate change at: www.naco.org/climatediscussion.

Q: How does a county become involved in NACo’s County Climate Protection Program?

The first step for a county to participate in NACo’s program is to adopt a pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a numerical target. Because one size does not fit all, NACo offers counties a pledge template allowing them to select from existing national campaigns with quantifiable targets to reduce global warming (see list below), or to establish their own appropriate goal. Counties may download the draft resolution template at www.naco.org/climateprotection.

Q: Can a county participate in both NACo’s County Climate Protection Program and another national campaign such as Cool Counties or Climate Communities?

Yes. NACo’s program is a source of information and assistance for all counties, regardless of the numerical target they select. Whether a county chooses its own target, or signs onto a national initiative (such as the ones mentioned below), the county will have access to the best practices, tools and resources from NACo to help them develop and implement their climate action plan.

In July 2007, a coalition of counties launched the U.S. Cool Counties Climate Stabilization Declaration (also known as Cool Counties).

Participating counties pledge to reduce global warming emissions 80 percent below current levels by 2050 (an average annual reduction of 2 percent). The Declaration also urges the federal government to adopt legislation requiring an 80 percent emissions reduction by 2050 and calls for fuel economy standards to be raised to 35 miles per gallon within a decade. The declaration is available online at: www.conservationleaders.org/cool.counties.declaration.htm.

Climate Communities is a national coalition of cities and counties advocating for climate change policies, resources, and funding from the federal government to help local governments meet the climate change challenge.

The coalition adopted a Federal Action Agenda with four goals: cap-and-trade credits for local actions; increased federal funding for local efforts to combat climate change (such as the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants); SAFETEA-LU Reauthorization with investments at the local level; and the expansion of federal programs that support research, demonstration and deployment activities at the local level. The action agenda is available online at: www.climatecommunities.us.

Climate Communities is managed by The Ferguson Group. For more information on the membership fee contact Andrew Seth at 202/454-3922 or aseth@tfgnet.com.

American Institute of Architects’ 2030 Challenge, www.aia.org/adv_sustainability. Sets a series of numerical targets and timeframes to eventually achieve carbon-neutral (using no fossil fuel greenhouse gas emitting energy) to operate buildings by 2030.

Chicago Climate Exchange, www.chicagoclimatex.com. Members make a voluntary but legally binding commitment to meet annual greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

Climate Communities, www.climatecommunities.com. A coalition of cities and counties advocating for federal action to help local communities combat climate change.

Cool Counties Climate Stabilization Initiative, www.conservationleaders.org/global.warming.htm. The declaration consists of three key elements, including a call to reduce regional greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below current levels by 2050.

Mayors Climate Protection Agreement (consolidated city-county governments only), www.cityofseattle.net/mayor/climate. Calls for a 7 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2012.

25x25, www.25x25.org. Goal to have 25 percent percent of energy from renewable resources like wind, solar and biofuels by the year 2025.

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