We have change
our name from
Global Green
Indigenous
Film Festival

to
Indigenous Earth
Film Festival


Our next
film festival
will be held in
Albuquerque, NM
on
July 24-26, 2009

Full information
will be provided
SOON!

EPA Regional Offices Moving Forward on GHG Plans with Inclusion of Tribes

As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awaits comments on its Advanced
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for greenhouse gases (GHGs), some regional offices are
moving forward in developing internal GHG plans to be implemented during the next
Presidential administration. For at least three such plans, Indian tribes are also accounted
for in future regional office actions concerning GHGs.

Five EPA regional offices (e.g., Regions 1, 5, 6, 8 and 9) are currently drafting plans
focused on making GHG reductions, with such reductions fitting well with a future
regulatory scheme either implemented legislatively or under the Clean Air Act. There is
some irony in that these regional offices are pursuing a future governed by a national
GHG regime while the EPA as a whole has been accused by a number of individuals and
organizations for dragging its feet in responding to last year’s Massachusetts v. EPA
decision, a decision that essentially requires the Agency to regulate GHGs (unless the
EPA can provide a substantive reason for not doing so).

Only Regions 5 and 8 have made their GHG plans publicly available whereas the Region
6 plan was obtained by InsideEPA.com for which the NTAA acquired access. While each
of these plans mentions Indian tribes, the Region 6 and 8 plans are the most inclusive.
With respect to Region 6, the plan prioritizes across such action-oriented activities as
reducing GHGs, conserving energy and resources, adapting to climate change impacts,
and promoting clean and renewable energy sources, with these activities encapsulated
under one of the plan’s following six goals:

• Maximize the utility of EPA efforts to address clean energy and climate change
including voluntary programs;
• Demonstrate exemplary environmental stewardship by capitalizing on
opportunities to reduce the Region’s carbon footprint in the Agency’s day-to-day
operations;
• Use EPA’s unique status as a convener to build relationships among state/tribe/
local agencies, regulated community, non-profit interest groups and associations to
raise awareness and induce action;
• Support GHG mitigation efforts through sequestration actions wherever possible;
• Adapt to the effects of climate change by promoting landscape-scale coastal
• protection; and
• Promote the use of previously contaminated lands for alternative and renewable
energy production.

As the third bullet indicates, Region 6 has made some effort to include Indian tribes in its
draft GHG plan, specifically under the plan’s objectives which are to implement internal
changes in the Agency (e.g., lead by example); enhance programs and policies, and
expand partnerships; conduct aggressive outreach and education to stakeholders; and
assess new technologies and more effective ways of employing them with partners. From
these objectives, the NTAA has extracted the following bullet points that mention tribes:

• Develop and conduct a comprehensive, culturally sensitive training for States,
Locals and Tribes to ensure [the EPA] understand[s] the connection between [its]
day-to-day work activities, and clean energy and climate change;
• Work with external parties (state/tribe/local and other Federal agencies) and
participate in their initiatives to encourage use of alternative fuels and renewable
energy by individuals and companies;
• Media programs will seek opportunities for cross media marketing of clean energy
and climate change initiatives such as Energy Star, WaterSense, Climate Leaders,
WasteWise, etc., and State/Local/Tribal initiatives;
• Actively promote sustainable, new (post-event) development projects. Work with
federal partners, Tribes, local and state governments, builders;
• Partner with States, Tribes, NGOs, local, etc. to promote CO2 sequestration via
trees, soils or other organic materials (e.g., Chino Mine);
• Assess new technologies and developments and look for Private/Federal/State/
Local/Tribal collaborations;
• Disseminate materials and briefings produced by EPA headquarters on climate
change response actions periodically to a wide party of EPA advisory groups,
State and Tribal organizations, and stakeholder organizations; and
• Hold Region 6/States/Cities/Tribes Clean Energy/Climate Change conferences.

With respect to Region 8, the plan organizes its goal and activities into one of five
categories: assessment, mitigation, adaptation, partnerships, and accomplishments. In
addition to certain similarities with the Region 6 plan as to how the EPA will work with
Indian tribes on GHG issues, the Region 8 plan includes a specific goal, namely Goal D.4,
which states that the EPA will “[p]rovide outreach to Region 8 Tribes to share knowledge
of climate change and opportunities to address it.” Also, unlike Region 6, the Region 8
EPA office is actively soliciting public comment on its draft GHG plan.

The draft regional GHG plans are far from being in their final forms, and in fact, the
regions expect their plans to evolve over time. As such, Indian tribes and their
representatives should contact their respective regional offices to discern if and how they
can become engaged in the development of regional EPA GHG plans, if only to insure
that they are adequately represented in their region’s future plans to address climate
change.

To read the Region 8 plan in full and to learn how to make comments, please go to
http://www.epa.gov/region8/climatechange/.
To read the Region 5 plan in full, please go to
http://www.epa.gov/region5/aboutr5/climatechange.pdf.

National Tribal Environmental Council
2501 Rio Grande Blvd. NW, Suite A
Albuquerque, NM 87104
(505) 242-2175 Ofc (505) 242-2654 Fax
www.ntec.org
Contact Us At: info@ntec.org