As Pennsylvania turns a new page into 2023 with new leaders at the helm, Gov. Josh Shapiro and the legislature have an immense opportunity and responsibility to usher Pennsylvania into its future — winning the clean energy jobs the state needs, protecting consumers from fossil fuel-driven price shocks on their electric bills, and dramatically cutting the climate and air pollution that harms Pennsylvanians.
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This blog was co-authored by Jolette Westbrook, Director and Senior Attorney, Equitable Regulatory Solutions.
“What will it take to decarbonize the gas distribution system?” That was the key question that a group of stakeholders from the non-profit and utility sectors across the United States tried to answer over the last year. There are many changes required to decarbonize a system that is currently designed around the transport and distribution of a fossil fuel. So how do we do it?
In the first convening of its kind at a national scale, these stakeholders produced a new report setting out guiding principles and strategies to inform decarbonization of the gas utility and corresponding end uses. Despite uncertainties about particular technologies, fuels, and customer adoption, all of the roundtable stakeholders share the belief that urgent action is necessary. The report provides key considerations for policymakers and regulators on how to navigate this transition that will guide future utility investment and decision-making toward economy-wide decarbonization.
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On December 7, the Virginia Air Board voted to proceed with a proposed regulation ending Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a proven program in 12 states that cuts pollution and raises investments for communities.
Governor Youngkin initiated this harmful and unlawful rollback earlier this year, claiming that RGGI was a “bad deal” for Virginians. However, when the Youngkin administration asked Virginians what they thought about the program in a public comment period this fall, the overwhelming majority – 95% of respondents – said they want to stay in RGGI.
Despite a clear message from Virginians to keep RGGI, the Youngkin administration is barreling ahead with the repeal anyway.
In the nearly 750 comments expressing support for RGGI, people across the Commonwealth – including mayors, doctors, parents, faith leaders, young people and many more – shared a diversity of reasons for why RGGI is a good deal for their communities.
Those reasons deserve to be heard and amplified.
Here are 6 key reasons why Virginians support RGGI – in their words.
A year ago, President Biden signed the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law, the largest investment in infrastructure since the New Deal.
Among the many key climate investments included, the infrastructure law put a long-awaited down payment on several new and promising climate solutions including carbon dioxide removal, hydrogen, long-term energy storage and technologies to support clean industry.
We spoke with Natasha Vidangos, Senior Director for Climate Innovation and Technology at Environmental Defense Fund, about what’s next for these investments and how they can help us tackle the climate crisis.
Co-authored by Angela Churie Kallhauge, Executive Vice President, Impact; Maggie Ferrato, Manager, Global Climate; and Julia Ilhardt, High Meadows Fellow
The COP27 logo seen on a flag in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Source: Alamy
It’s been a year since countries and companies announced new climate pledges in Glasgow.
Since then, war and economic disruption, on top of a still-raging pandemic and increasingly destructive natural disasters, have complicated those commitments – and arguably made them even more urgent. The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change underscores that we have very little time left to meet even the upper limit of the Paris Agreement’s temperature goals.
COP27 is expected to be a “working COP,” meaning we’re likely to see incremental progress on key issues rather than major announcements. But that doesn’t make it any less important. This COP is a chance for countries to take meaningful steps toward tackling the climate crisis.
Here are the three issues to watch in Egypt – both in the negotiations and on the sidelines – to ensure we implement our existing commitments while raising our ambition. Read More
This blog was co-authored with William Barber III, Founder and CEO at Rural Beacon Initiative.
Photo credit: Pexels.
With the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act elevating the importance of state implementation of climate action, North Carolina is well-positioned to make critical progress to reduce climate-warming pollution from the electric power sector. Last year, the state took two steps to move towards a cleaner energy future. In July 2021, North Carolina initiated a rulemaking process to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) — a regional market that caps emissions from the electricity sector across 11 participating states, reinvesting revenues from the sale of allowances into programs that reduce electricity costs and boost the amount of energy generated from clean sources like solar and wind. Then, in October 2021, Governor Roy Cooper signed House Bill 951 (HB 951) into law, calling for a 70% reduction in carbon emissions from the electricity sector by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.
Reaching these important goals demands that North Carolina move further and faster with new programs and intentional policies to drive energy sector transformation and catalyze investment in clean technologies necessary to cut emissions. It also demands that policies better prioritize benefits for environmental justice communities, ensuring that disparate pollutant burden is reduced and that RGGI revenues help advance energy justice by investing in historically disadvantaged communities. Executive Order 246, signed by Governor Cooper earlier this year, acknowledges that “responsible solutions to climate change must equitably reduce GHG emissions, increase community resilience, advance sustainable economic recovery and infrastructure investment efforts, promote public health and health equity, and ensure fair treatment and meaningful engagement in decision-making and implementation.” RGGI, with proper protections, offers a way to do this.
In July, EDF and Rural Beacon Initiative (RBI) released a report evaluating the interplay between the two policies: RGGI and HB 951. The analysis showed that by joining RGGI, paired with a robust rulemaking process that directly prioritizes equitable benefit and adoption of a strong Carbon Plan as required by HB 951, North Carolina can reap the benefits of a multi-pronged approach to decarbonizing the electric sector while ensuring climate benefits are maximized in the near-term, when they are most impactful.
HB 951 lays the regulatory framework to make this combination of beneficial policies a reality, and RGGI is an important tool that can be leveraged to achieve emissions reductions in a way that is durable, cost-effective and environmentally just.
Here are three key takeaways from the report:
