Climate 411

Pennsylvania has cost-effective opportunities to reduce carbon pollution – new report

By Rama Zakaria / Published: May 29, 2019

Six states could see significant opportunity and low costs if they put in place protections against carbon pollution from the electricity sector, according to a new report.

The report, by Resources for the Future, looked at Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan.

It found that taking two steps – setting a binding, declining limit on power sector carbon pollution, and creating a flexible, market-based mechanism to achieve that limit – could reduce cumulative carbon pollution by 25 percent in the next decade at low cost. The findings also suggest that even greater ambition is feasible for the six states.

Thirteen states not covered by the report already have – or are about to have – regulations that limit carbon pollution from their electricity sector. Other states, including Pennsylvania, are actively seeking opportunities to reduce emissions and deploy clean energy.

The new report has three key takeaways for Pennsylvania:

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Also posted in Carbon Markets, Cities and states, Economics, Energy / Comments are closed

Oregon’s cap-and-invest program clears first legislative hurdle

By Pam Kiely / Published: May 17, 2019

By Pam Kiely, Sr. Director of Regulatory Strategy for U.S. Climate, and Katelyn Roedner Sutter, Manager for U.S. Climate

Mount Hood, Oregon. Image by David Mark from Pixabay.com

Oregon today advanced nationally-leading policy that would catapult Oregon into the top-tier of U.S. states taking ambitious climate action.

The cap-and-invest bill (HB 2020), which passed 8-5 out of its first committee late Friday afternoon, places a firm limit on the state’s climate pollution while ensuring continued investments in resilient communities, green jobs and clean energy.

Oregon’s cap-and-invest program sets the bar for what true climate leadership demands: putting in place policies that actually will achieve pollution reductions consistent with what scientists say is necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change. Read More »

Also posted in Carbon Markets, Cities and states, News / Read 1 Response

Four reasons why Wheeler’s Clean Power Plan “replacement” will lead to more pollution

By Rama Zakaria / Published: May 14, 2019

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has sent a draft rule that would roll back the Clean Power Plan to the White House for review – a step that suggests the rule is close to being finalized and released.

If this final rule looks anything like the hopelessly flawed and inadequate proposal that was released last August, it will scrap the Clean Power Plan – our nation’s only national limit on carbon pollution from the power sector – in favor of a “do-nothing” program that could actually increase pollution from inefficient, highly-polluting coal-fired power plants.

Even as the nation reels from wildfires, flooding, and hurricanes exacerbated by climate change, Wheeler’s proposal would place no meaningful limits on one of our nation’s largest contributors to climate-destabilizing pollution.

If our experience with the proposal is any guide, we can also expect the release of the final rule to be accompanied by a bevy of misleading assertions that Wheeler’s “replacement” for the Clean Power Plan is just as effective in protecting climate and public health.

Wheeler has already been making such claims. For instance, in testimony before the House of Representatives last month, Wheeler said that EPA’s proposed replacement for the Clean Power Plan would reduce carbon pollution from the power sector by 34 percent once fully implemented, and would go a long way towards meeting our carbon reduction goals for the country. These comments build on Wheeler’s claims during his Senate confirmation process that equated his replacement to the Clean Power Plan.

Here are four reasons why his claims are false: Read More »

Also posted in Clean Air Act, Clean Power Plan, EPA litgation, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Health, News / Comments are closed

Colorado charges forward with Zero Emission Vehicle proposal

By EDF Blogs / Published: May 10, 2019

This post was written by EDF attorney Laura Shields 

Colorado moved farther down the road toward a cleaner, less-polluting transportation sector today.

The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission unanimously voted to move forward with a formal hearing to consider adoption of state Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) standards.

The ZEV standards would provide for manufacturers to sell a certain number of clean zero-emitting vehicles in Colorado. That would deliver vital reductions in climate pollution, smog, and other harmful air pollution. At the same time, it would help save Coloradans hard-earned money through major fuel cost savings.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Air Division’s initial economic impact analysis projects Colorado ZEV standards would reduce the state’s greenhouse gas pollution by roughly 2.2 million metric tons between 2023 and 2030.

The analysis also projects that a ZEV program would decrease the contaminants that contribute to ground-level ozone (otherwise known as smog) in the state. Colorado has struggled to meet both the 2008 and 2015 health-based National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ground-level ozone, and the American Lung Association’s 2019 State of the Air report ranked Denver the 12th most ozone-polluted city in the nation.

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Also posted in Cars and Pollution, Cities and states, Climate Change Legislation, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Health, News, Smog / Comments are closed

The Trump Administration’s Budget Would Make our Climate Crisis Even Worse

By Keith Zukowski / Published: April 30, 2019

Scientists around the world are telling us, in no uncertain terms, that we – as in humankind — have little time left to avert the worst impacts of climate change. Those include: widespread coastal and riverine inundation, stronger storms and wildfires; new disease vectors; agricultural and other economic disruption. That is the reality and scope of the challenge we face.

There are, of course, things we can do — things we must do – to respond to the climate crisis, both to learn more about its causes and consequences and to activate solutions to prevent as much damage as possible.

Those solutions, for the most part, fit into four areas: investment, innovation and technology; science and research; mitigation, adaptation and relief; and policy. An intransigent and shortsighted White House has made the achievement of any significant policy gains difficult in the short term. Now, the latest federal budget proposed by the Trump Administration has sought to undercut those other three potential progress areas, exacerbating America’s susceptibility to climate disaster and running down the clock on desperately needed action.

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Also posted in Health, Jobs, Science / Read 1 Response

Four takeaways from the first hearing of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis

By Grace Tucker / Published: April 12, 2019

Hearing witnesses with Chairwoman Castor

The first hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives new Select Committee on the Climate Crisis marked a positive move toward a meaningful and constructive conversation about climate action.

The Select Committee was created in early 2019 to compile innovative policy solutions to take action on climate change, which will be released next year.

The witness panel for the hearing last week, entitled “Generation Climate: Young Leaders Urge Climate Action Now,” was a notable departure from the norm. Rather than inviting climate science experts with decades of experience in their fields, the four witnesses were climate change leaders and activists all under the age of 24 because, as Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA) noted these issues “adversely and disproportionately affect young folks.”

The witnesses drove home four points during the hearing.

  1. Policy solutions should be based on sound science

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Also posted in Climate Change Legislation, Greenhouse Gas Emissions / Read 2 Responses