Climate Change and Tribes

Climate Change and Tribes
:
Places at the Table;
Roles in the Action Plan
2015 National Environmental Justice Conference
Dean B. Suagee
Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker LLP
dsuagee@hobbstraus.com
HOBBS STRAUS DEAN & WALKER, LLP
WASHINGTON, DC | PORTLAND, OR | OKLAHOMA CITY, OK | SACRAMENTO, CA
1
Overview of Presentation
• Tribes as Sovereign Governments
• Places at the Table –
Federal Review Processes
• The Big Picture
• Roles in the Action Plan
A Better Buildings Challenge for Indian Country
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Natural Resources & Environment
American Bar Association,
Section of Environment, Energy & Resources
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Tribal Self-Determination in a Low-Carbon Economy, 2010
Consulting with Tribes for Off-Reservation Projects, 2010
Solar Energy: Let’s Get Passive!, 2011
Tribal Climate Crisis Tax-Exempt Bonds, 2013
A Better Buildings Challenge for Indian Country, 2014
The Climate Crisis, the Renewable Energy Revolution, and
Tribal Sovereignty, Chapter 3 in TRIBES, LAND, AND THE
ENVIRONMENT (Krakoff and Rosser, eds., 2012)
– www.hobbsstraus.com/articles
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Tribes as Sovereign Governments
• Power to Make and Enforce Laws
– “Inherent” tribal sovereignty
– Delegated federal authority
• Governmental Service Programs
– Federal assistance for tribal governments
– Federal assistance for state & local gov’ts
• Power to Raise Revenue
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• Power to Make and Enforce Laws
– “Inherent” tribal sovereignty
• Like states but different
• The importance of cultural identity
– Limits imposed by federal law
• Acts of Congress
• Treaties
• Implicit Divestiture
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• Governmental Service Programs
– Federal assistance for tribal governments
• Self-Determination contracts
• Self-Governance compacts
– Federal assistance for states & local gov’ts
• Tribes are often overlooked
• In some cases, parallel programs
• Sometimes included, but awkwardly
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• Power to Raise Revenue
– Limits on ability to tax
• Legal, e.g. implicit divestiture
• Practical limits
– Limits on use of tax-exempt bonds
• Tribal Climate Crisis Tax-Exempt Bonds, 2013
HOBBS STRAUS DEAN & WALKER, LLP
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Places at the Table –
Federal Review Processes
• National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA)
– Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
regulations, 36 CFR part 800
• Can be used to bring traditional ecological knowledge into
federal agency decision-making processes
• National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
– CEQ regulations, 40 CFR parts 1500 - 1508
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NHPA 1992 Amendments
Places of religious and cultural significance for tribes
(and Native Hawaiian organizations) may be eligible
for the National Register of Historic Places
– Such places may be “traditional cultural properties” that are
(a) rooted in a community’s history and
(b) important for maintaining cultural identity
• National Register Bulletin 38 (by National Park Service)
• Significance may derive from medicine plants, wildlife habitat
– Places need not be TCPs to trigger right of tribes to be
included in the section 106 process
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National Environmental Policy Act
• Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)
Guidance Documents
– Consideration of GHG emissions and effects
of climate change in NEPA reviews
• Revised draft, Dec. 24, 2014, Federal Register
– Programmatic NEPA reviews
• Final, Dec. 23, 2014, Federal Register
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THE BIG PICTURE
National Climate Assessment
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National Climate Assessment
• Impacts on Indigenous Peoples
– Reduced access to traditional foods
– Decreasing water quality and quantity, less
predictability
– Declining sea ice – many impacts in Alaska
– Thawing permafrost – stressing traditions,
damaging infrastructure
– Relocation, in Alaska and other coastal areas
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National Climate Assessment
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National Climate Assessment
• To meet the lower emissions scenario,
global CO2 emissions need to peak at
44 billion tons per year
and decline thereafter
• On current path, the world will exceed
44 billion tons per year within 10 years
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Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change
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Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change
• A scenario that limits GHG concentrations to
450 ppm CO2 equivalent is likely to limit
warming to 2 degrees C over the 21 st
century relative to pre-industrial levels
• Requires emissions reductions of 40 to 70%
from 2010 levels by 2050, further reduction
to near zero or below by 2100
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Carbon Tracker Initiative
carbontracker.org
• Unburnable Carbon 2013: Wasted capital
and stranded costs (June 2013)
– Through 2050, only 20% of existing fossil fuel
reserves can be burned.
– Remaining carbon budget for a 2 degrees C
world in 2050 is 900 GtCO2 –
existing reserves are 2,860 GtCO2
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Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math
Bill McKibben, Rolling Stone (July 2012)
Three key numbers
• 2 degrees Celsius, 3.6 degrees F
– Target temperature rise over pre-industrial level
• 565 Gigatons of carbon dioxide
– “carbon budget” by mid century
• 2,795 Gigatons
– Proven fossil fuel reserves
About 80% of known fossil fuel reserves must be left in place
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350.org
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http://arxiv.org/abs/0804.1126
Open Atmos. Sci. J (2008), vol. 2
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CO2 reductions from energy efficiency
and renewable energy
Source: ASES, Tackling Climate Change
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Path to a Sustainable, Renewable Energy Future
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Jobs in Renewable Energy
• International Renewable Energy Agency working
paper (2011)
– Renewable Energy Jobs: Status, Prospects &
Policies; Biofuels & Grid Connected Electricity
• More labor intensive (by output & investment)
• Environmental and Energy Study Institute
– Fact Sheet: Jobs in Renewable Energy and Energy
Efficiency (2013)
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Don’t Even Think About It:
Why Our Brains Are Wired to
Ignore Climate Change
By George Marshall (2014)
climate conviction.org
• Rational brain v. emotional brain
• Information doesn’t do it
• Trustworthiness of the messenger
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Connecting Some of the Dots –
The Big Picture
U.S. GHG Emissions by Sector – 1990 - 2012
– Electricity
32%
– Transportation
28%
– Industry
20%
– Residential & Commercial 10%
– Agriculture
10%
– Source:
EPA Inventory of U.S. GHG Emissions (April 2014)
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Big Picture - C02 Emissions by End Use
Buildings
44.6%
Industry
21.1%
Transportation 34.3%
Source: Architecture 2030, from U.S. Energy Information Administration
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ROLES IN THE PLAN
President’s Climate Action Plan
• Cut Carbon Pollution in America
• Prepare the United States for the Impacts
of Climate Change
• Lead International Efforts to Address
Global Climate Change
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President’s Climate Action Plan
• Cut Carbon Pollution in America
– Deploying Clean Energy
– Building a 21st Century Transportation System
– Cutting Energy Waste in Homes, Businesses,
and Factories
– Reducing Other Greenhouse Gas Emissions
– Leading at the Federal Level
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President’s Climate Action Plan
• Cutting Energy Waste in Homes,
Businesses, and Factories
– A New Goal for Energy Efficiency Standards
– Reducing Barriers to Investment in Energy
Efficiency
• USDA RUS Energy Efficiency & Conservation
Loan Program
– Expanding the President’s Better Buildings
Challenge
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Big Picture - C02 Emissions by End Use
Buildings
44.6%
Industry
21.1%
Transportation 34.3%
Source: Architecture 2030, from U.S. Energy Information Administration
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Links to print as pdfs
Big Picture - C02 Emissions by End Use
Source: American Solar Energy Society,
Tackling Climate Change in the U.S. (2007)
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Net Zero – the Architecture 2030 Challenge
Carbon Neutral through Design (energy efficiency, passive solar)
Renewable energy (on-site, off-site)
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A Better Buildings Challenge
for Indian Country
• Include Tribes in the DOE Building Energy
Codes Program
– International Energy Conservation Code, a minimum
• Make Net Zero fossil fuels the standard
– Meeting the need for homes for Indian families can be
part of the solution
• Make sure the USDA RUS EE&C Loan Program
reaches Indian country
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Native American Resources Committee
Online Newsletter, ABA SEER
• Rural Utilities Service Creates New
Energy Efficiency and Conservation Loan
Program
(78 Fed. Reg. 73356 (December 5, 2013)
– Volume 11, No. 1 (Oct. 2014)
• A Planned Issue on Climate Change
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A Better Buildings Challenge
for Indian Country
• 200,000 net zero homes for Indian
families
Equals annual savings of about
– 17.9 trillion Btu
– Or 5.24 billion kWh
– Or 3.09 million barrels of oil
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Local Government Action Plans
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Local Government Climate Action Plans
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Energy management
Transportation
Waste reduction
Land use
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“Climate Change Blues”
tune of “Honky Tonk Women”
(second verse)
Science tells us that we are the problem
We’ve got to cut emissions of greenhouse gas
In Washington there’s another kind of problem
Politicians with their heads stuck in …
the sand
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Don’t Even Think About It:
Why Our Brains Are Wired to
Ignore Climate Change
Climate change is not just an
environmental issue,
it’s also an economic, health, justice,
national security, and human rights issue
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Climate Change and Tribes:
Places at the Table;
Roles in the Action Plan
2015 National Environmental Justice Conference
Dean B. Suagee
Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker LLP
dsuagee@hobbstraus.com
41

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