Monthly Archives: December 2020

Measuring the true impact of Colorado’s climate delay: Total pollution in the next decade (Part 1)

After Colorado legislators passed landmark climate legislation in 2019, which included a statutory mandate directing the Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) to adopt rules and regulations to reduce statewide emissions, the state has yet to adopt a policy framework capable of getting the job done. This three-part series explores the impact of Colorado’s delay, analyzing the impact on total emissions and the state’s ability to meet its own climate targets.

Editor’s note: This post was last updated Feb. 15, 2021 to correct Colorado’s target emissions from gross to net emissions, consistent with data used throughout this analysis. It was also updated Feb. 2, 2021 to reflect Xcel Energy’s announcement to retire two units of the Hayden coal-burning power plant in 2027 and 2028.  Comanche coal power plant in Pueblo, Colorado.

When it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Colorado—like many other states with leading science-based climate commitments—has a disconnect between rhetoric and reality. Colorado is far from where it needs to be to meet its climate goals, and state regulators just recently slammed on the brakes on a small but important step forward.

After initially voting to accelerate three coal plant retirements as part of a Regional Haze rulemaking in November, state Air Quality Control Commissioners reversed their decision under pressure from the Polis administration to revert back to the later coal plant retirement dates volunteered by industry.

Yet new analyses from EDF, and those released by both the state and other researchers, underscore that Colorado can’t afford a cavalier approach to curbing climate-warming pollution. The state is still far from having a policy framework in place capable of cutting greenhouse gas emissions at the pace and scale required—and Colorado’s first emissions target is right around the corner in 2025.

EDF’s analysis on the impact that these delays will have on total emissions this decade—which will translate into long-term climate damages—underscores why Colorado urgently needs a policy framework that will deliver the ambitious emission reductions that science—and state law—demand.

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Posted in Cities and states, Greenhouse Gas Emissions / Comments are closed

It’s time to unite behind next-generation clean car standards

The broad coalition defending America’s clean car standards is gaining key allies as Americans unite to build a pollution-free transportation future.

Led by Ford, automakers representing nearly half of the U.S. market have committed to working with California and the incoming Biden-Harris administration to enact ambitious policies that will create high-quality domestic jobs, protect our health, and confront the climate crisis. This is a good start, but we need all automakers to ditch the Trump administration’s clean cars rollback and advocate for next-generation standards that will make new light duty vehicles 100% pollution-free by 2035.

America’s clean car standards are among our most effective policies for reducing pollution exposure, cutting climate emissions, and creating good jobs. By driving innovation and cutting fuel costs, the model year 2017-to-2025 Clean Car Standards were projected to add hundreds of thousands of jobs and save Americans tens of billions of dollars at the gas pump each year. But the Trump administration rolled back the national standards and undermined longstanding state authority to set more protective standards. The Trump administration’s rollback would cost jobs and have devastating public health and environmental impacts, including an additional 18,500 premature deaths, 250,000 asthma attacks, and 1.5 billion tons of climate pollution — as much as running 68 coal plants for five years — by mid-century.

This is not what Americans want. A recent Pew Research Center poll showed that 71% of Americans support strengthening vehicle standards, not rolling them back.

EDF has joined a broad coalition of businesses, states, cities, experts, and environmental and public health groups in defending our clean car standards in court. We filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s attack on state authority and a second suit challenging its rollback of the national standards. (You can find all the legal briefs in the clean cars cases on our website.)  Leading transportation companies such as Lyft, Tesla, and Rivian have formed a key part of our coalition. But some automakers, including Toyota, Fiat Chrysler, GM, and Nissan, entered the litigation on the Trump administration’s side.

GM and Nissan have recently withdrawn their support of the administration’s attack on state authority, and GM has expressed its support for President-elect Biden’s vision of a zero emission transportation future. This is a welcome development, but it’s just a start. We need the entire industry to embrace ambitious policies, such as next-generation clean car standards that will create a million jobs and equitably transition the U.S. to 100% pollution-free new cars by 2035. These policies must prioritize eliminating pollution in environmental justice communities, and ensure that pollution-free vehicles and charging infrastructure are available to people of all colors and income levels.

And the automakers who are still backing Trump’s attack on state authority — looking at you, Toyota and Fiat Chrysler — need to follow their peers’ lead, for the sake of the climate, their customers, their employees, and their bottom line. Customer opinions of Toyota have dropped sharply in response to its stance on the clean car standards. This could have a big impact on sales if the company doesn’t shift out of reverse soon. Over 200 state and local officials from 26 states, and over 285,000 petitioners, have called on Toyota and Fiat Chrysler to do just that by investing in clean transport innovation, not litigation trying to prop up the Trump administration’s rollback.

If automakers need an example to follow, they should look no further than Ford, Honda, Volkswagen, BMW, and Volvo, who have been out in front supporting strong clean car standards and states’ authority to adopt them. In August, these five manufacturers entered bilateral agreements with California that recognize the state’s clean car authority and will prevent hundreds of millions of tons of climate pollution. The agreements earned the highest possible rating in EDF’s new Climate Authenticity Meter. One company that has taken its commitment a step further is Ford, which recently supported California’s bold commitment to make all new cars sold in the state zero-emitting by 2035.

As the growing support for transformative clean car standards shows, we face an incredible opportunity. Together, we can put a million Americans to work building the pollution-free cars that will make our air safer to breathe and steer us away from the climate cliff. We hope that all automakers will join us in pursuit of these shared goals.

Posted in California, Cars and Pollution, Cities and states, Economics, EPA litgation, Green Jobs, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Health, Jobs, Partners for Change, Policy / Read 1 Response

How the Biden-Harris administration can restore and strengthen U.S. climate leadership

After winning on the strongest climate platform of any major party presidential nominee in history, the Biden-Harris administration has a mandate to confront the existential crisis of climate change. This blog series will explore what it will take to restore and strengthen climate leadership both across the country and on the global stage.

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI

The leaders that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have selected for key positions send a clear, encouraging and necessary signal that climate action will be an embedded priority across the administration. This is promising news, as the mandate to address the climate crisis demands a “whole-of-government” approach that can improve public health and create jobs in communities from coast-to-coast, and launch a new era of consequential climate diplomacy with partners around the world.

A recent UN report underscores there is not a moment to lose: The world is on a dangerous path, heading toward a temperature rise in excess of 3°C this century. This projection comes as Americans have increasingly experienced the rising costs of climate change this year — from a record hurricane season in the Atlantic to wildfires that ravaged the West at an unprecedented scale.

This historic election made it clear that Americans want leadership that can tackle the biggest challenges of our time: the COVID-19 pandemic, economic recovery, racial justice and climate change. The new administration can achieve the most transformative progress by championing solutions that address the interconnectedness of these urgent priorities. Ambitious climate solutions are particularly well-suited to also help deliver on critical promises to jumpstart the economy and advance equity and justice. But how exactly should the new administration and new Congress get started? Action in three key areas will be critical to restoring and strengthening climate leadership.

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Posted in Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Jobs, Policy / Read 3 Responses

Analysis: North Carolina is off course for achieving a key emissions goal

As flooding, extreme heat and stronger hurricanes increasingly strain North Carolina’s communities and economy, new analysis from EDF shows that the state’s current policies are not enough to curb the worst climate impacts to come. Despite Governor Cooper’s commitments to slash climate-warming pollution, the analysis finds that the state is off course for bringing emissions down consistent with a key, science-based target for 2030. However, the state can still close its “emission gap” and get on track with a strong policy toolkit that includes placing enforceable limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

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Posted in Cities and states, Greenhouse Gas Emissions / Comments are closed

What the next 5 years hold for the Paris Agreement

Eiffel Tower at sunset. (Source: Pixy)

Last Saturday, December 12, was the fifth anniversary of the Paris climate agreement, and countries around the world gave it a proper (virtual) fête, filled with announcements on how countries planned to step up their action to curb climate change. Although some of the announcements represented modest steps forward, the overall effect of the event was to capture the growing climate momentum of recent months rather than break new ground.

The event also got many observers thinking back to that other Saturday in Paris, five years ago, when the agreement was approved – and, inevitably, weighing what the future will bring for the accord.

As we head into 2021 and draw closer to the annual international climate negotiations in Glasgow next November (known as COP26), three issues will increasingly dominate the discussion: the need for greater ambition in setting the next round of targets; a shift from negotiations to implementation, not only at national level but also among key global sectors like aviation and shipping; and the enduring importance of the rules for monitoring and reporting emissions, known as the “enhanced transparency framework.” Read More »

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Washington state can make good on its climate promises and close the emissions gap

Editor’s note: This post was last updated Jan 12, 2021.

After a harrowing year, which included a record-breaking wildfire season in Washington that burned over 700,000 acres, Washington state lawmakers now have the opportunity to make meaningful climate progress in the new 2021 legislative session. Governor Inslee recently unveiled a comprehensive legislative framework for the upcoming session, which focuses on securing reductions in climate pollution consistent with the state’s science-based reduction targets. The package proposes a Clean Fuel Standard, doubles-down on curbing pollution from buildings and investing in clean energy, and critically, includes a firm, declining limit on greenhouse gas emissions that can guarantee pollution is slashed in line with Washington’s climate goals. The proposal also centers environmental justice by ensuring that frontline communities have a prominent role in designing policy and climate investments. Governor Inslee’s leadership is welcome news following the release of a report by Environmental Defense Fund which shows that states with climate commitments, including Washington, are off course for bringing their emissions down consistent with science-based trajectories for 2030.

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