Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2
Energy Sprawl or Energy Efficiency: Climate Policy
Impacts on Natural Habitat
Robert I. McDonald, Joseph Fargione, Joe Kiesecker, William M. Miller,
and Jimmie Powell
INTRODUCTION
Concern over climate change has led the US to consider a cap-and-trade system to
regulate emissions. Here we illustrate the land-use impact to US habitat types of new
energy development resulting from different US energy policies. We estimated the
total new land area needed by 2030 to produce energy, under current law and under
various cap-and-trade policies, and then partitioned the area impacted among habitat
types with geospatial data on the feasibility of production. The land-use intensity of
different energy production techniques varies over three orders of magnitude, from
1.9-2.8 km 2 /TW hr/yr for nuclear power to 788-1,000 km 2 /TW hr/yr for biodiesel
from soy. In all scenarios, temperate deciduous forests and temperate grasslands will
be most impacted by future energy development, although the magnitude of impact
by wind, biomass, and coal to different habitat types is policy-specific. Regardless of
the existence or structure of a cap-and-trade bill, at least 206,000 km 2 will be impacted
without substantial increases in energy efficiency, which saves at least 7.6 km 2 /TW hr
of electricity conserved annually and 27.5 km 2 /TW hr of liquid fuels conserved an-
nually. Climate policy that reduces carbon dioxide emissions may increase the areal
impact of energy, although the magnitude of this potential side effect may be substan-
tially mitigated by increases in energy efficiency. The possibility of widespread energy
sprawl increases the need for energy conservation, appropriate siting, sustainable pro-
duction practices, and compensatory mitigation offsets.
Climate change is now acknowledged as a potential threat to biodiversity and hu-
man well-being, and many countries are seeking to reduce their emissions by shifting
from fossil fuels to other energy sources. One potential side effect with this switch is
the increase in area required by some renewable energy production techniques [1-5].
Energy production techniques vary in the spatial extent in which production activities
occur, which we refer to as their energy sprawl [2, 3], defi ned as the product of the
total quantity of energy produced annually (e.g., TW hr/yr) and the land-use intensity
of production (e.g. km 2 of habitat per TW hr/yr). While many studies have quantifi ed
the likely effect of climate change on the Earth's biodiversity due to climate-driven
habitat loss, concluding that a large proportion of species could be driven extinct [6-
8], relatively few studies have evaluated the habitat impact of future energy sprawl. It
is important to understand the potential habitat effects of energy sprawl, especially in
reference to the loss of specifi c habitat types, since habitats vary markedly in the spe-
cies and ecosystem processes they support.
 
 
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