We Basically
Already Know How to Meet Biden’s Climate Targets
Yes, it will require an
economic transformation, but that doesn’t mean it’ll transform your
life.
By Leslie
Kaufman
May 3, 2021, 3:00 AM PDT
![](images/images_04_29_2021/biden.jpg)
President Joe Biden during the virtual Leaders Summit on Climate. Photographer:
Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times.
At his Earth Day climate summit, President Joe Biden made official
what had been expected for weeks: The U.S. would pledge to cut its
greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% from 2005 levels by 2030.
Up until then,
the White House’s strategy of linking climate change mitigation to job
growth—a theme Biden repeated in his first address to Congress last
week—had generated minimal drama. But as soon as the number became
public, suddenly it was the end of American life as we know it.People
went berserk in predictable ways. The claims about the pledge ranged
from the outrageous—a Daily
Mail article
asserting that Americans could be forced to spend $55,000 on electric
vehicles and only be allowed one hamburger per month, which was then
picked up by Fox News, leading to a public correction—to the merely
inaccurate.
More From
Global Warming Forecast Improves Slightly After Biden’s Pledge
Impact Investing Might Help Save the World But Can Get Messy Along the
Way
Chile Wants to Fuel a Green Hydrogen Boom With $300 Million Fund
Carbon Hits Record 50 Euros on Tighter Pollution Rules
While no one
should underplay how much change needs to occur to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions by 50% in the next decade, it’s also important not to
overplay the difficulty of getting there. “These reductions can be met
with technologies that are tried and true,” said Dan Lashof, the U.S.
director of the World Resources Institute, who has also been pushing
back against naysayers on Twitter. “It is ambitious, but it’s not
something that will turn people’s world upside down.”
For starters, a
lot of the work has already been done. “We basically have spent the
last decade bringing forth the technologies to decarbonize power,
vehicles and light trucking,” explained Jesse Jenkins, a Princeton
University engineering professor who studies energy systems. “Those
can deliver the bulk of the emission reductions over the next decade.”
Just retiring the remainder of U.S. coal plants, he said, would
account for nearly 1 billion annual tons of carbon emissions, or
almost 17% of total 2019 U.S. greenhouse emissions. Most of these
plants are nearing the end of their lives and will have to be replaced
regardless.
Other important
transformations most Americans won’t even notice. For instance, the
Environmental Protection Agency is set to issue a new proposed rule in
September setting stricter limits on methane emissions, Administrator
Michael Regan told a House committee last week, just one day after the
Senate voted to reinstate methane rules dumped by the Trump
administration. Methane—the primary component of natural gas—is a
juicy target for the administration because it’s both extremely potent
and shorter-lasting than carbon dioxide, meaning that the effects of
cutting emissions will be felt more immediately. New satellite
technology is making it easier to spot methane leaks from gas
pipelines, which is fine with gas companies, which would rather make
money off it than release it into the air for free.
What about EVs,
you ask? It’s true that ideally half of all cars sold in the U.S. will
be electric by 2030. Still, this emphatically does not mean that the
government will start forcing people to buy luxury Teslas. For one,
there are now several EVs on the market for less than $40,000, which
by many life-cycle assessments means they’re already cheaper than your
average new car since EV owners don’t pay for gas. Tax rebates make
them cheaper still. Meanwhile, the costs of EV batteries has declined
90% in the last decade and is still going down, which means that
electric cars could soon be on par with or cheaper than traditional
engines just based on the sticker price.
OK, but now the
real question: Will we have to give up hamburgers? Nothing in Biden’s
plan mentions curtailing beef consumption. Yes, there will be changes
to agriculture policy, but in the short term, these will likely look
more like incentives for farmers to plant trees at the edges of their
properties—kind of a win-win for everyone.
I myself have dramatically reduced my beef consumption for climate
reasons. Feel free to join me—it’ll make hitting our emissions goals
easier—but to be clear, you don’t have to. “Some people may choose to
do that, but is a 100% voluntary consumer choice,” said Lashof. “We
can meet the target without it.”
Green Play Ammonia™, Yielder® NFuel Energy.
Spokane, Washington. 99212
www.exactrix.com
509 995 1879 cell, Pacific.
exactrix@exactrix.com
|