Reprinted from GreenBuzz, a free weekly e-newsletter. Subscribe right here.
You most likely don’t want each palms to rely the variety of columns I’ve written about politics and coverage. It’s not that I don’t care about both; certainly, I’m a little bit of a political junkie. However professionally — and editorially — it’s not my jam.
I a lot desire to focus my gaze on the world of enterprise. After greater than 30 years, it continues to be an always-fascinating fount of motion, and inaction, in addressing the local weather disaster and different essential environmental and social points. That’s what I get up most days fascinated about.
Alongside the way in which, I’ve discovered myself diverting my gaze from Washington, D.C., regardless of having lived there for greater than 20 years, up till the late Nineteen Nineties. For all of the potential energy our elected representatives might train over local weather and different points, they’ve been unable and unwilling to view these points as something aside from partisan. As a substitute of systemic options, we’ve gotten systemic breakdown.
The end result, as all too properly, has been an unconscionable waste of time and sources addressing pressing, existential points.
The most recent spherical of congressional dithering feels just like the final straw.
Certainly, the newest spherical of congressional dithering feels just like the final straw. It’s merely unfathomable why 51 United States senators would need to keep the established order in gentle of the freight practice of local weather chaos bearing down on us.
So, I used to be intrigued final week when the chattering class started to debate the potential of President Joe Biden’s declaring a “local weather emergency” — an act that may unlock a sequence of government and regulatory actions that may be taken in lieu of congressional motion.
To date, Biden hasn’t finished that. What he supplied final week had been a couple of small-ball fixes: funding for cooling facilities throughout heatwaves, opening up new leases for offshore wind. Nothing that even remotely suggests “emergency.”
So, what might an precise local weather emergency declaration appear like? The reply to that query got here within the type of a tweet stream — a sequence of Twitter posts — from Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, most likely probably the most climate-forward legislator in D.C. So, I’m going to show the remainder of this column over to him.
I’ve taken the freedom of reprinting the tweet stream verbatim, with some very gentle modifying to spell out some acronyms or in any other case improve readability. (The boldfacing is mine.) Whitehouse’s tweet stream offers a playbook for what Biden might, and will, be doing. (For these looking for a deeper dive, the Heart for Organic Variety has revealed an in-depth information to the president’s emergency powers on local weather.)
Now, over to Sen. Whitehouse:
With reconciliation foreclosed as a path for bold local weather motion, Congress should pivot to probably bipartisan local weather options comparable to a border carbon adjustment. In the meantime, the chief department has plenty of instruments at its disposal. Let’s evaluate one after the other what government department “Local weather Beast Mode” would possibly appear like:
- The Workplace of Administration and Funds should promulgate a strong social value of carbon (north of $100/ton) and require broad use throughout authorities decision-making — procurement, rules, grants, leasing, allowing, royalty charges, funding choices, international support, commerce agreements and extra.
- The Supreme Courtroom’s WV v. EPA resolution did not finish EPA’s means to control carbon air pollution from energy vegetation. EPA choices embrace requiring all coal- and gas-fired energy vegetation to put in carbon seize know-how, as EPA did in 2015 for brand spanking new coal-fired vegetation.
- However energy vegetation aren’t simply sources of carbon air pollution — additionally they pollute our air and water with soot, heavy metals and different poisonous pollution. EPA should tighten controls on PM 2.5 (soot), coal ash, mercury, nitrogen oxides and extra.
- Vehicles and light-weight vans are the only largest supply of carbon air pollution. EPA and DOT restored Obama-era requirements, however now they should go a lot additional and push the business in the direction of manufacturing 100% zero-emission autos by 2035.
- Heavy-duty vans are additionally an enormous supply of carbon air pollution. EPA doesn’t but deal with this, and that should change. California’s superior clear truck rule would improve zero-emission vans, and EPA should comply with go well with.
- Inexperienced procurement can use the federal government’s immense buying energy (greater than $600 billion in contracts per 12 months!) to decarbonize metal, cement, asphalt, buildings, autos and a lot extra.
- EPA should promulgate a rigorous rule limiting methane emissions from oil and fuel amenities. The rule should apply throughout the provision chain, together with low-producing (however high-leaking) wells, and crack down on venting and flaring, not simply leaks.
- Satellite tv for pc measurements can find methane leaks to focus on strict enforcement towards corporations that aren’t in compliance.
- It’s previous time for the Justice Division to examine the fossil-fuel business for its a long time of lies. DOJ introduced a civil RICO investigation towards the tobacco business for the same historical past of dissembling and received massive.
- The Inside Dept. should by rule sharply restrict methane emissions from oil/fuel produced on federal lands/waters, use social value of carbon to lift royalty charges, and reform bonding guidelines so corporations can’t abandon wells to leak methane and depart taxpayers on the hook.
- The Division of Power has many energy-efficiency guidelines it should strengthen. Collectively, these guidelines considerably cut back carbon air pollution and so they save households cash. Win–win!
- The president ought to use his bully pulpit to remind Individuals of the hazard, name out fossil-fuel obstruction in Congress, and get the remainder of company America to lastly lean in on local weather motion, creating area in Congress for bipartisan local weather successes.
- (No commerce affiliation is of any damned use on local weather. Large lobbies such because the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are hostile and the complete huge equipment of company political affect finally ends up towards us. Cease it.)
- The administration ought to sit down with G7 companions, design carbon border tariffs, and create a carbon membership of countries devoted to decarbonizing. Good for the atmosphere and a giant win for American competitiveness!
As I stated, it’s a considerate and, presumably, impactful playbook for a way America can regain its footing on addressing the local weather disaster. Can Biden discover the braveness to enact these? Will he stand as much as the highly effective pursuits hellbent on sustaining the established order? It might be the president’s largest check but.
Thanks for studying. You will discover my previous articles right here. Additionally, I invite you to comply with me on Twitter and LinkedIn, subscribe to my Monday morning e-newsletter, GreenBuzz, from which this was reprinted, and take heed to GreenBiz 350, my weekly podcast, co-hosted with Heather Clancy.
