Alternative Energy Draft EA - NASA Visitor Center at Wallops Flight ...

3.1.4 Climate Change
Table 8: Calendar Year 2008 Air Emissions at WFF
Affected Environment
Pollutant Emissions (metric tonnes per year/tons per year)
CO 0.46 / 0.51
NOX
1.93 / 2.13
SO2
2.98 / 3.28
VOC 0.05 / 0.06
PM10
0.20 / 0.22
PM 0.18 / 0.20
There is scientific evidence that the chemical composition of the Earth’s atmosphere is being
changed by human activities, such as fossil fuel combustion, deforestation, and other land use
changes, resulting in the accumulation of trace GHGs in the atmosphere (NASA, 2010a). By
absorbing the radiative energy from the sun and earth, GHGs trap heat in the atmosphere and
such accumulation in the atmosphere may be contributing to an increase in the Earth’s average
surface temperature, which in turn is expected to affect weather patterns and severity of
storms/droughts, average sea levels, and increased intrusion of seawater into estuaries. Other
effects are changes in precipitation rates, an increase in O3 levels due in part to changes in
atmospheric photochemistry, and decreased water availability and quality (Jones & Stokes,
2007).
GHGs include water vapor, CO2, methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), O3, and several hydroand
chlorofluorocarbons. These emissions occur from both natural processes and human
activities. Water vapor occurs naturally and accounts for the largest percentage of GHGs, and
CO2 is the second-most abundant GHG. Some GHGs are directly emitted from human processes
(CO2, chlorofluorocarbons, and water vapor), while other gases (e.g., NOX and VOCs) emitted
from these processes contribute indirectly by forming tropospheric (ground-level) O3 and other
reactive species. Those compounds then react with GHGs and control the amount of radiation
penetrating through the troposphere.
As GHGs are relatively stable in the atmosphere and are essentially uniformly mixed throughout
the troposphere and stratosphere, the impact of GHG emissions on the climate does not depend
upon the source location. Therefore, regional climate impacts are likely a function of global
emissions.
Each GHG is assigned a global warming potential (GWP), which is the ability to trap heat, and is
standardized to CO2, which has a GWP value of one. For example, N2O has a GWP of 310,
meaning it has a global warming effect 310 times greater than CO2 on an equal-mass basis. For
simplification, total GHG emissions are often expressed as a CO2 equivalent (CO2e). The CO2e is
calculated by multiplying each GHG emission by its GWP and adding the results to produce a
combined rate to represent all GHGs.
There are a multitude of State and regional regulatory programs requiring GHG emissions
reductions. Although Virginia has no current GHG legislation, the Governor issued Executive
Order 59 in 2007, which established the “Governor’s Commission on Climate Change” (Bryant,
2008). Since then, VDEQ created a Climate Change Steering Committee and GHG Emissions
Workgroup who have focused on possible regional reduction targets, among other items. In
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