It is not an exaggeration to say that climate change is one
of the greatest challenges facing humanity today. While there are many who still think that
climate change is a hoax, we need only to look at melting polar ice caps,
extreme storms with significantly heavier precipitation and flooding, rising
global atmospheric temperatures, more frequent and intense heat waves not only
in the U.S. but across the globe, and the devastating wildfires in the western
U.S. that have increased in both frequency and scope. This phenomenon will continue to create
heavier and heavier economic and social impacts moving forward. We have to ask
ourselves what we can do to combat this phenomenon; and to do that we have to
consider the cause.
Indeed, there are many who will reluctantly acknowledge that
climate change is happening, but attribute it to natural cycles rather than to
human influence. This uninformed view
ignores the fact that today's atmospheric CO2 level of 400 parts per million is
now 1.3 times higher than the average peak concentrations of about 300 ppm over
the last 400,000 years as measured by ice cores. This data is known as the
Keeling Curve and is recorded and maintained by the Scripps Oceanographic
Institute of the University of California San Diego and can be seen online.
This breakout from the historical trend has occurred during the last century as
the human race extracted and burned unprecedented amounts of fossil fuels which
contain the energy of the sun stored over millions of years.
So, the answer has to be to reduce our dependence on fossil
fuels. Renewable energy development since the turn of the century has provided
an alternative to traditional sources of energy such as coal, oil and gas. The
costs of solar and wind technology, still in their relative infancy, are
already on par with oil and coal. In 2011 Vermont set a goal of becoming 90%
renewable over all types of energy use by 2050 and to reduce its greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions to 1990 levels by 2025. Two years ago 189 countries, including
the U.S., adopted the Paris Climate Agreement to reduce GHG emissions.
Unfortunately, President Trump pulled the U.S. out of that agreement and
instead has been encouraging more fossil fuel extraction. Vermont, along with
hundreds of state and local governments, has resolved to continue working to
achieve our own goals and those of the Paris agreement. So, how are we doing?
Sad to say, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources recently
released the 2015 Greenhouse Gas Inventory and the numbers are disheartening.
Instead of seeing a reduction of GHG emissions since 2011, the state has
exceeded the 1990 baseline by 16%. The full report can be found at the Vermont
Department of Environmental Conservation website. While progress has been made in electrical
energy generation, the largest GHG increases came in the transportation and
heating fuel use components. The latter two components are where we need to
concentrate our efforts going forward.
Renewable electricity is now the cleanest source of energy
in Vermont. Moreover, since no fossil fuel is sourced in Vermont, 80% of the
cost of fossil fuels leaves the state.
It makes sense to transition as much of our energy used in
transportation and heating to cleaner electric energy as we continue to develop
in-state renewable electricity generation. This can be encouraged by factoring
into the price of fossil fuels the social and economic costs of climate change.
By putting a price on carbon pollution in a revenue-neutral way, Vermonters can
actually benefit economically by driving and heating more cleanly. This is not
a new idea and has been proposed by conservative leaders like George Schultz,
Henry Paulson, and James Baker. In a June 20th op-ed in the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/opinion/climate-change-fee-carbon-dioxide.html),
former Senators Trent Lott (Republican) and John Breaux (Democrat) made the
case for a climate change fee on carbon-based fuels. And Vermont would not be
alone in adopting such a strategy. In
June, the Massachusetts Senate passed a bill requiring the state to implement a
carbon-pricing strategy by 2020. In Vermont legislators introduced a
carbon-pricing proposal called the Economy Strengthening Strategic Energy EXchange
(ESSEX) Plan that would channel revenues raised from the carbon fee to offset
electricity costs. To reduce the impact
of the fees for low income and rural Vermonters, those consumers would get a
greater share of the revenues.
It is well past the time to
tackle this world-changing problem. It
is important to understand that we are not doing it alone and that we need to
do our part.
