Re: Not enough or too far? California climate plan pleases few Democrat goofballs.

[Nutless Buzz Lightyear]

In article <stcm1q$t42i$1...@news.freedyn.de>
<governo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Democrats are stupid criminals.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Heat waves and drought gripping
California highlight the urgency to slash fossil fuel use and
remove planet-warming emissions from the air, a top state
official said Thursday during discussions of a new plan for the
state to reach its climate goals.

“I think every single Californian today knows that we’re living
through a climate emergency,” said Jared Blumenfeld, secretary
of the California Environmental Protection Agency.

He spoke as the California Air Resources Board opened a hearing
on a plan for the nation’s most populous state to achieve carbon
neutrality by 2045. That means the state would remove as much
carbon from the air as it emits. The timeline is among the most
ambitious in the nation and in the world, but few who offered
public comment were happy with the state’s plan for reaching
that milestone.

Environmental groups, academics, and people who live in heavily
polluted neighborhoods said the plan doesn’t do enough to reduce
the production or use of fossil fuels. Some business, industry
and labor groups, meanwhile, said the transition could raise
prices and hurt workers.

“How we achieve our climate goals matters as much as when we
achieve them, and we need a plan for real zero, not net zero,”
said Catherine Garoupa White, a member of the plan’s
Environmental Justice Advisory Committee and executive director
of the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition.

The air board members will hold their own discussion of the plan
on Friday. The 14-member board is made up of political
appointees with backgrounds on local air boards, the
transportation sector, environmental justice communities and
agriculture.

California is often touted as a leader on U.S. climate policy
and it has set some of the most aggressive rules for regulating
vehicle emissions. The size of the California’s economy — it’s
bigger than those of most nations — means the state’s climate
policies can often drive major business changes. It’s 2045
carbon neutrality goal is matched only by Hawaii among states,
and tracks with goals set by other major economies like Germany.

The state would reach its goal through combination of lowering
fossil fuel use and using technology to remove any remaining
emissions from the air. Board staff estimates it would reduce
petroleum demand across the economy and the use of fossil
natural gas in buildings by 91% by 2045.

Doing so would require 30 times as many electric vehicles on the
road compared to today, six times more electric appliances in
homes, four times more wind and solar generation and 60 times
more hydrogen.

Such a sweeping transition would lower the state’s emissions
about 78% come 2045. Some observers note that Washington and New
York, both Democratic-led states, have more ambitious targets
for direct emissions reductions, 95% and 85% respectively,
though the proposals don’t offer perfect comparisons.

Critics from environmental groups say California’s plan doesn’t
call for deep enough emissions cuts and relies too heavily on
unproven and energy intensive carbon capture and removal. The
concerns about such technology track with global concerns about
the best way to tackle emissions goals.

The meeting grew tense in the mid-afternoon as environmental
justice advocates who had been rallying outside walked into the
hearing room and began singing and chanting over a speaker
representing business interests. The air board briefly paused
the meeting as chants protesting the use of fossil fuels
continued.

The environmental advocates said they felt business and fossil
fuel representatives were given more favorable speaking slots.

“There are not two sides to this issue,” said Ari Eisenstadt,
campaign manager for Regenerate California, an effort to
transition away from fossil fuels.

George Peppas, president of a chamber of commerce group south of
Los Angeles, criticized the board for allowing the interruption.
He said the plan’s shift away from gas-powered cars will lower
gas tax revenue that’s critical to maintaining roads and that
electric cars will be too expensive for many people to afford.

The plan expects electricity demand to shoot up by 68% as more
people drive electric cars and get rid of gas-powered stoves and
other home appliances.

Some environmental justice advocates said electric cars may be
out of reach for many people, but the answer should be a greater
investment in public transit instead. Disadvantaged
neighborhoods often bear the brunt of fossil fuel pollution.

“We need clean air and dependable mass transit,” said Karla
Monsivais, a resident of San Diego’s Barrio Logan neighborhood.

California’s proposal relies on removing 80 million metric tons
of carbon dioxide from the air in 2045. That amount of removal
represents the “highest risk scenario” for meeting the state’s
climate goals, according to an October 2020 analysis by
Environmental + Energy Economics, an outside consulting firm
hired by the air board to model various proposals.

Right now, carbon capture is not in widespread use, though the
Biden administration is spending billions to ramp it up. Some
speakers were supportive of the plan’s reliance on the
technology.

“Deep decarbonization depends on a lot of options,” said Alex
Kizer, senior vice president of research and analysis at Energy
Futures Initiative, a group led by former U.S. Energy Secretary
Ernest Moniz. “We see (carbon capture and sequestration) as one
of the most valuable decarbonization solutions for the country
and especially for the state.”

https://apnews.com/article/climate-technology-pollution-carbon-
neutrality-california-air-resources-board-
b48aab405c161597e622962beebf9f09