Will Federal Agency Emissions be Reduced?

Critics of government action which would force corporate attention to focus on environmental change, point to the fact that the federal government does not lead by example. The burgeoning organization is often touted as the country’s largest polluter and seems slow to accept its responsibilities and publish the size of its energy footprint.

There are many hundreds of individual departments and divisions within the government, operating largely independently. Some act with each other and interact regularly, but there is no central approach when it comes to common resource usage and agency emissions continue unabated.

It has long appeared that the US government puts corporate profits ahead of any responsibility toward the environment. The government’s published position on issues such as the Kyoto Protocol has been that each country must accept its fair share of responsibility or there is no point in any one country doing anything.

With the election of Pres. Obama, much change was promised. He swept to power on a mandate to address climate issues and realized that he had to start close to home. One of his first executive orders brought a sharp focus on agency emissions as it required each agency to calculate its carbon footprint and make plans to reduce.

While agency emissions are sure to be significant, nobody really knows the scale of this issue. Around the world, major public and private organizations have long revealed their responsibilities. The Bush administration skirted around the issue but with this latest executive order it appears that action is finally being taken.

Will the federal government be able to control its own agency emissions? The order may be quite clear, but it will be certainly difficult for them to calculate the position let alone take significant action. Within each agency, every single asset will need to be scrutinized and its performance well understood.

There is a ten year deadline, set by Pres. Obama, within which agency chiefs are required to initiate significant reductions through a process of action. Each agency will need to investigate methods of calculating their emission inventories and put in place a comprehensive analysis and reporting plan.

The general public expects action from within the public and private sector. Large organizations understand that they can develop a competitive advantage if the publicly take account of their energy use. Congress is debating whether to force legislation to cover the issue, putting additional pressure on the federal government to determine its own agency emissions.

Daniel Stouffer has a lot of information about agency emissions and how a visit to www.verisae.com can aid you.