1999 Annual Report Released with New Format

The 1999 annual report of the Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program summarizing 1998 data submissions is now available on the Internet, and will be available in printed form very soon. All reporters to the Program and interested persons who have previously requested an annual report will be mailed a printed copy of the report. Otherwise, if you would like to receive a copy, please contact the Communications Center at 1-800-803-5182 or by email at infoghg@ eia.doe.gov.

This year we have condensed and reorganized the annual report, using reporter type as the organizing theme. For this analysis we have have grouped reporters into five sectors (alternative energy, agriculture & forestry, electric power, industry, and other).

The charts below provide a glimpse of the results of the new analytical approach. Although emission reductions for 1998 were dominated by the electric power sector, there has been a sharp increase in participation by other sectors.

Another important change to the annual report is the revision of previous data. During this reporting cycle, we received six 1997 data year submissions that were received after the database was closed, and so did not make it into last year's report. As a result, you will notice that 1997 data have been revised throughout the report. We also have a stack of late arrivals for the 1998 data year that will be included in next year's database and annual report. Please submit your report by June 1, 2000 to be sure of being included in next year's annual report and Public Use Database.

After 10 years with the Energy Information Administration (EIA), Arthur Rypinski moved over to the Department of Energy's Office of Policy on November 22, 1999. As Program Manager, Mr. Rypinski was instrumental in the development of the Voluntary Reporting Program from its inception in 1993 and oversaw the Program's first five reporting cycles. He was also responsible for preparing EIA's annual estimate of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The staff of the Voluntary Reporting Program would like to thank Arthur for his considerable contributions and leadership over the last six years. We wish him success in his new position at the Office of Policy's Division of Electricity, Economic Analysis, and Natural Gas, where he will continue to be involved in greenhouse gas and climate change issues.

1999 Forms and Software We are currently updating the reporting forms, software, and instructions. We expect to release the 1999 forms and kick off the next reporting cycle in March of 2000. The basic format of the reporting forms will not change. If you are eager to get started on your 1999 data reports, you can use the old paper forms or a printout of last year's electronic report as a worksheet as you work through your reduction calculations. Reporting Landfill Gas Recovery and Combustion Several reporters have asked us whether they should include estimates of increased carbon dioxide emissions resulting from landfill gas combustion, either in a flare or for energy production. The EIA recommends that carbon dioxide generated via combustion be estimated and reported as a negative reduction (in Schedule II, Section 5, Part III of Form EIA-1605). This recommendation concerns many of our stakeholders because it appears to conflict with earlier statements on this matter by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The EPA and the IPCC consider the carbon dioxide generated from combusting landfill gas to be biogenic and part of the natural carbon cycle and therefore exclude this emissions source from national inventories, as does the EIA's annual report Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States. However, because future uses of data submitted under the Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program are uncertain, EIA is concerned with preserving data that characterize project and entity reductions submitted. Also, because each piece of data that facilitates internal consistency checks increases the persuasiveness of reported reduction claims, we still recommend that data on carbon dioxide emissions from combusting landfill gas be included. That said, EIA wishes to emphasize that it is not a policymaking or regulatory body and our recommendation does not in any manner reflect a comment on current convention for accounting of emissions from landfill gas combustion. The Voluntary Reporting Program is designed only for recording emission reductions claims, and our guidance with respect to reporting should not be construed as casting an opinion, either positive or negative, on the validity of any reported reduction claim. Reporting Trades We have received several enquiries about whether trades of greenhouse gas reductions can be reported on Form EIA-1605. We have posted instructions on our web site for recording trades with the existing reporting forms (see http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/trade.html).

Legislative Update II Bills similar to the late Sen. Chafee's Credit for Voluntary Reductions Act (S. 547) and Sen. Murkowski's Energy and Climate Policy Act of 1999 (S. 882), discussed in the May 1999 edition of the Volunteer, were introduced in the House of Representatives later in the year. The Credit for Voluntary Reduction Act (H.R. 2520) introduced by Rep. Lazio (R-NY) in July 1999 differs from S. 547 by (1) requiring third party certification of reductions; (2) specifying procedures for calculating credits for certain types of projects; and (3) including provisions for calculating credits for domestic forestry initiatives. In November, Rep. Barton (R-TX) introduced the Energy and Climate Policy Act of 1999 (H.R. 3384) and amendments to the Federal Nonnuclear Energy Research and Development Act of 1974 (H.R. 3385), which split the voluntary reporting and climate change research components of the Murkowski bill (S. 882) into two separate bills with little modification. The Climate Change Energy Response Act (S. 1776), introduced by Sen. Craig (R-ID) in October 1999, appears to be an elaboration of the Murkowski bill (S. 882) in directing the Secretary of Energy to revise the Voluntary Reporting Program guidelines, with specific requirements to address issues of verification, use of reference cases, and avoidance of duplicate reporting. The bill differs from S. 882 in that it directs the Secretary to develop best practices for estimation of emission reductions and to review previously reported reductions to determine whether they are in conformance with these practices. The bill also includes provisions for a public awareness campaign to encourage participation of all appropriate persons (especially farmers and small businesses). To obtain the full text or more information on the status of these bills, visit http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas2.html. ZAPCO Trades Reductions Ontario Power Generation has announced the purchase of greenhouse gas reductions from one of our reporters, Zahren Alternative Power Corporation (ZAPCO). ZAPCO, which develops, finances, and operates landfill gas projects, has reported reductions resulting from the recovery of methane at 29 landfills throughout the country to the Voluntary Reporting Program. Ontario Power purchased methane reductions for 1998, 1999, and 2000 equivalent to 2.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from ZAPCO in order to meet its voluntary commitment to stabilize its greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels. ZAPCO is a partner in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Landfill Methane Outreach Program.

For More Information About Voluntary Reporting... Voice: 1-800-803-5182 or 202-586-0688 Fax: (202) 586-3045 E-mail: infoghg@eia.doe.gov Internet: fttp://ftp.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/frntend.html FTP: http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oiaf/1605/cdrom Mailing Address: Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program, U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, EI-81, 1000 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20585.