Climate Change Mitigation Strategies for Kentucky: Policy Options for Controlling Greenhouse Gas Emissions through the Year 2020 AD.

摘要

Emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in Kentucky are projected to increase significantly unless several policy changes are implemented. A broadly-based technical advisory committee was formed to develop a range of policy options that could reduce GHG emissions without imposing undue economic burdens on Kentucky residents and businesses. Policy options to reduce the emission of GHGs in Kentucky have been designed to meet two criteria: (1) The policies proposed for consideration must not be too costly. Indeed, wherever possible, they should be designed to generate net benefits for the Commonwealth's economy. (2) The policies proposed for consideration must be flexible. It should be possible to implement them on a small scale at first, to expand or intensify them over time, and to adapt them as conditions change or as practical experience is gained. Many of the policies presented in this report are enhancements or intensified versions of existing programs that are now being carried out by public and private sector organizations. Others represent new initiatives. The report presents the policy options first in a relatively modest form that could be implemented without large changes in budgets or investment patterns. Application of these modest proposals would achieve a reduction in the rate of GHG emissions equivalent to 13 million tons of CO2 per year by 2020. These reductions, when coupled with a baseline reduction for carbon sequestration of 38.2 million tons, give a net emissions figure of 205 million tons per year for 2020. If larger reductions in GHGs are found to be necessary the policies can be maximized or adapted in ways that are described in Chapters 6 and 7. These maximum effort policies would result in reductions in emission rates of up to 52 million tons per year. Subtraction of these reductions along with baseline levels for carbon sequestration from gross 2020 emission projections give a net emissions figure of 167 million tons for 2020. This would be equivalent to the net emissions figure found for the Commonwealth of Kentucky for the year 1990.