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Shooting ourselves in the foot: a closer look at Poseidon’s proposed carbon offset proposal

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 22, 2008 at 9:14 pm

From the Voice of San Diego:

San Diego’s water policy — or lack thereof — has a tremendous impact on our environment. According to the California Energy Commission, transporting water throughout the state and to customers requires 19 percent of California’s electricity, consumes 32 percent of the state’s natural gas supplies, and uses 88 million gallons of diesel, contributing significantly to global warming. Transporting surface water supplies from the northern half of the state to Southern California requires 60 times more energy than what is needed to convey water in Northern California, making the development of local supplies an imperative.

However, open-ocean desalination, the technology proposed for the 50 million-gallon-per-day (MGD) Carlsbad Desalination Plant, is the single most energy-intensive water supply option in the region. It requires 47 percent more energy than transporting water from the San Joaquin Delta through the State Water Project, which is currently the most energy-intensive way we get water. Put another way, according to our experts, the CDP will add between 100,000-154,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, to our fragile atmosphere every year, thus exacerbating the impact of our water policy on global warming.

In conditionally approving the CDP, the State Lands Commission and California Coastal Commission required Poseidon Resources to develop a Carbon Action Plan (CAP) to ensure the facility is �carbon neutral’ and does not contribute to global warming. Poseidon agreed to embrace this requirement and achieve carbon neutrality. Unfortunately, Poseidon’s CAP veers significantly away from true carbon neutrality. First, the Plan ignores direct impacts from the facility, including construction and truck traffic generated by the CDP. Even with these oversights, Poseidon acknowledges that the facility will discharge 97,165 metric tons of CO2 annually. While less than our estimates, this is still an alarming number.

The vast majority (over two-thirds) of Poseidon’s proposed carbon offsets come from the 67,506 metric tons of CO2 that the company contends will be avoided by the 50 million gallons of water a day that will not have to be transported from the San Joaquin Delta if the CDP is built. There is only open problem with this calculation — nobody actually claims or believes the CDP will reduce the amount of water we get from the Delta.

Read more from the Voice of San Diego by clicking here.

July 22, 2008 · Filed Under Climate change & water supply, Poseidon's Carlsbad Plant