WaPo Ed. Board: New York's climate plan cannot counter the damage of Trump's do-nothing approach
Source: Washington Post
New York’s climate plan cannot counter the damage of Trump’s do-nothing approach
By Editorial Board June 22
AMERICANS WERE treated this last week to a split-screen view on climate change. On one side was the Trump administration, led by an unapologetic science denier, imposing a feeble climate rule designed to do as little as possible within the bounds of federal law. On the other side was New York state agreeing on an ambitious new climate goal to phase out planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions, on net, by 2050. It is not hard to guess which vision future generations will praise — and which they will decry.
The Trump Environmental Protection Agency’s euphemistically titled Affordable Clean Energy rule would replace President Barack Obama’s centerpiece climate initiative, the now-defunct Clean Power Plan. The old way set emissions-reduction targets for states, which would have encouraged greater efficiency, led to natural gas replacing coal and boosted renewables. The Trump plan simply asks coal-fired power plants to emit fewer emissions per unit of energy they produce. But making coal plants slightly more efficient may encourage utilities to operate them longer and more frequently, muting any small emissions benefits that minor retrofits might bring. According to the EPA’s own numbers, the rule would nibble at aggregate national carbon dioxide emissions by a mere 0.17 percent of 2017’s total by 2030. That’s pathetic.
The EPA notes that cheaper natural gas and renewables have suppressed U.S. emissions in recent years. But emissions rose last year , and without strong and steadily stricter federal emissions controls, which was the promise of the Obama-era strategy, emissions might keep rising. The EPA should be using its authority as aggressively as possible to address the greatest environmental challenge of this century. But the Trump administration simply does not want to. “I’m not willing to admit that we need to decarbonize,” a senior EPA official told us.
New York is setting a timetable that treats seriously the warnings of scientists. Lawmakers agreed this week with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) on a plan to eliminate the state’s net emissions by mid-century. Emissions would have to drop 85 percent. The state could offset the last 15 percent through planting new forests or directly pulling greenhouse gases from the air. Its power sector, already about 60 percent carbon-free because of its large-scale use of hydropower and nuclear, would have to be completely emissions-free by 2040. That may be the easy part: Weaning New York’s cars off gasoline and finding ways to extract carbon dioxide from industrial processes such as cement-making will be harder. As state policymakers fill in details in coming years, they will have to avoid overspending on nice-sounding boondoggles and keep their sights on cutting the most emissions for the least cost. All the same, New York is right to act according to scientists’ warnings.
As climate policy pioneer California has shown, one or more states acting together can help, but they can’t make up for the absence of a national policy. So, good for New York. But the state’s plan cannot fully counter the damage of the Trump administration’s do-nothing approach.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/new-yorks-climate-plan-cannot-counter-the-damage-of-trumps-do-nothing-approach/2019/06/22/a0e1b604-92c7-11e9-b58a-a6a9afaa0e3e_story.html
Water surrounds displaced graves at the cemetery in Nuiqsut, Alaska, on May 30. Shorter winters and a thawing landscape contribute to shifts in the site. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)
= new reply since forum marked as read
