Air quality agency aids global efforts.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Merlyn Hough For The Register-Guard

AJuly 11 Register-Guard article, "Global warming not an issue at air quality agency,' may have left the mistaken impression that the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency is not concerned or involved with climate change issues.

LRAPA has been very effective in reducing greenhouse gases - not with stand-alone climate change programs, but as a by-product of air pollution control efforts directly related to our mission of ensuring clean air for all Lane County residents.

For example, the national-award-winning LRAPA Everybody Wins program to install auxiliary power units on long-haul diesel trucks was designed to significantly reduce idling emissions that contribute to summer ozone pollution. The APUs also significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions, a major greenhouse gas related to global warming concerns, while reducing diesel fuel use and energy costs. This combination of environmental, energy and economic benefits was the inspiration for naming this program.

Everybody Wins was recently expanded to become a separate nonprofit organization, Cascade Sierra Solutions in Coburg, that is helping truckers along the entire Interstate 5 corridor to reduce emissions and fuel use with a wide range of energy-efficient and pollution-controlling products and services.

Other LRAPA programs have also improved energy efficiency and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. LRAPA worked with the Oregon Legislature and Department of Environmental Quality to establish the first wood stove certification program in the country.

Wood stoves sold after 1986 were cleaner and more efficient, reducing particulate emissions of local concern as well as carbon dioxide emissions of more global concern. Special programs to replace existing wood stoves in Oakridge with cleaner, more efficient units have reduced particulate and carbon dioxide emissions. Similarly, industrial pollution control actions on wood-fired boilers and other sources have resulted in more efficient energy use with both local and global benefits.

LRAPA has been a leader in the promotion of cleaner and more sustainable fuels. The Lane Clean Diesel Project, sponsored by LRAPA through an Environmental Protection Agency grant and designated by Gov. Ted Kulongoski as an Oregon Solutions project, was born out of the need to establish a stable, reasonably priced supply of ultra-low-sulfur diesel and biodiesel in Lane County.

More recently LRAPA sponsored, through a Department of Energy grant, an ethanol distribution network for Lane County and beyond, with a wholesale facility here and with retail facilities along I-5 in Oregon and Washington. These biofuels have reduced emissions of both local and global concern. In addition, LRAPA has been actively involved in the climate change and sustainability committees sponsored by the city of Eugene over this past year.

As the Register-Guard article pointed out, many people have strong opinions on climate change. Most agree that the Earth is warming, although some make a case that we are in the midst of normal fluctuations.

Some believe that not only is the Earth warming, but that such warming is heavily human-induced and will destroy civilization.

Others have called the science uncertain and warn against radical action that might devastate national economies. I expect that the opinions of Lane County residents and LRAPA board members cover this entire spectrum.

The American Association of State Climatologists approved a policy statement in 2001 recognizing that climate prediction is complex with many uncertainties, and recommended that policy responses to climate variability should be flexible and sensible. The association recommended focusing on policy alternatives that make sense for a wide variety of plausible climatic conditions regardless of future climate. It concluded that the ongoing political debate should not stand in the way of common sense action to reduce social and environmental vulnerabilities to climate variability and change.

I believe that climate change initiatives can be most successful if integrated into mainstream programs. Many are relatively cost-effective and promote more energy-efficient homes, cars and businesses. Just as LRAPA has been very effective in reducing greenhouse gases as a by-product of our mainstream air pollution control efforts, I believe that city and county climate change initiatives will be most effective if integrated into the existing land use, transportation, energy and sustainability programs rather than as stand-alone climate change programs.

Merlyn Hough is director of the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency.