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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><img width=119
height=100 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01C9ADF0.8D342190"></span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Woods Hole
Research Center to Host Talk on Carbon Markets and Forest Conservation<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>On
Tuesday, March 31, at 7:00 PM, Woods Hole Research Center Senior Associate
Thomas Stone will speak on carbon markets and forest conservation, focusing on
the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. The lecture, entitled <i>Carbon
Markets and Forest Conservation: A Regional Blueprint for National Policy?</i>,
will be held in the Harbourton Auditorium of the Woods Hole Research
Center’s Ordway Campus, 149 Woods Hole Road, Falmouth. The lecture
is free and open to the public, but registration is required. To RSVP, please
contact Connie Johnson, 508 540 9900, ext. 117, or <a
href="mailto:connie@whrc.org">connie@whrc.org</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The
Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a collaboration of Massachusetts and
nine other east coast states stretching from Maine to Maryland, is
demonstrating leadership in tackling one of the planet’s most complex
problems. RGGI is a landmark effort to address the buildup of greenhouse gases
in the atmosphere. The RGGI region has an economy of $2.4 trillion, or 19
percent of the entire US economy, and emits more carbon dioxide than the UK,
Canada, South Korea, or France. What we do as a region has an impact on
global emissions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>As
of January 1, carbon dioxide<sub> </sub>emitted from power plants in the RGGI
region is a commodity that comes with a price tag. The mechanism that RGGI is
using to lower CO<sub>2</sub> emissions is called “cap and trade,”
cap, meaning capping or limiting the amount of CO<sub>2</sub> emissions
regionally, and trade, because purchasers of emission allowances may buy and
sell those allowances or permits. Buying and selling allowances means that
those who have excess allowances because they emitted less CO<sub>2</sub> than anticipated,
due to, for example, milder weather, can sell allowances to those who need
them. Encouraging the buying and selling of allowances lets the market
determine which power plants can most economically reduce their CO<sub>2</sub>
emissions. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>What
does RGGI mean for Falmouth and Cape Cod? To date, Massachusetts has
raised $28 million from the sale of the allowances in the first auctions held
last September and December. As these “allowance” auctions will
continue quarterly, more money will be raised and distributed statewide.
Those funds are earmarked for energy efficiency programs, low-income
weatherization and heating assistance, and clean energy research and
development. These programs are critical to equity, to lowering demand,
to stimulating research, and to helping us reduce our dependence on foreign
oil. There are other benefits as well. As it becomes more expensive for
dirtier and less efficient power plants to operate, they will be used less and
the associated pollutants emitted such as mercury, nitrogen, and sulphur will
be reduced, allowing us all to benefit from cleaner air and water. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The
Commonwealth is in the forefront nationally of greenhouse gas (GHG) legislation
and has recently enacted three key companion bills. These include, the
“Green Jobs Act &<a name="OLE_LINK3"> Clean Energy Technology
Center” </a>bill, which allocates $50 million to the creation of new jobs
and revenue for the state's clean energy industry; the “Green Communities
Act” to create energy efficient cities and towns and streamline our
energy bureaucracy; and the “Global Warming Solutions Act,” which
sets CO<sub>2</sub> emissions targets out to the year 2050. Reducing the
amount of CO<sub>2</sub> in the atmosphere is a part of allowing the
world’s climate to function normally, which is critical to the public
interest. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Mr.
Stone’s talk will examine how, even in these challenging times, efforts
like RGGI can tackle several pressing issues simultaneously, with the goals of
halting climatic disruption and of moving the economy to one that is more
sustainable and less damaging to the planet. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In
2000, Mr. Stone led the effort to produce the Center’s well-known study, <i>Losing
Cape Cod: Land Use Changes over 40 Years</i>. He is an environmental
geologist who uses remote sensing technologies to map vegetation and to
determine rates of land use change and deforestation, both in the northeastern
US and globally. The results of this work assist in the determination of biotic
contributions to the global warming problem. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText align=center style='text-align:center'>###<o:p></o:p></p>
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