Eco-purists and eco-pragmatists are at war over the best path to a CES. Biden's climate agenda may be the big loser.
Demanding a solar, wind, and geothermal-only electricity standard is a foolish diversion.
Welcome to EarthWatch, the environmental news and opinion newsletter for people who think you should never turn your back on Mother Earth—written by me, Jerry Bowles, an ancient scribbler who has been around the Sun a few times and doesn’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
Ideas, tips, and feedback: jerry.bowles@gmail.com
Just when you think that one side of the American political divide has cornered the market on cray-cray, something happens that reminds you that self-destructive behavior is an equal opportunity compulsion.
Last week, the long-simmering feud between environmentalists who believe that solar, wind, and geothermal are the only truly clean and renewable energy sources and those of us who believe that we can’t meet our 2050 emissions target without embracing the full range of carbon-lowering solutions spilled over into the public eye.
A coalition of 697 climate, environmental and energy justice, democracy, faith, Indigenous, and racial justice groups sent a letter to Congress urging it to tank the Biden administration’s proposal for a Clean Energy Standard (CES) that already has the support of many major environmental groups and instead pass a Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) and “reject gas and other false climate solutions to address the climate emergency.”
Here’s a sample:
Renewable energy sources are sources that naturally replenish and are most often defined as solar, wind, and geothermal power. In contrast, so-called “clean” energy standards generally encompass these renewable sources but also include which are significant sources of pollution and carry a host of health and safety risks. In order to avoid perpetuating the deep racial, social, and ecological injustices of our current fossil-fueled energy system, Congress should ensure that any federal energy standard does not include these dirty energy sources.
And:
The inclusion of gas and carbon capture and storage as qualifying energies in any CES undermines efforts to end the fossil fuel era and halt the devastating pollution disproportionately experienced by Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other communities of color in this country. Even a partial credit for fossil fuel resources that attempts to factor in lifecycle emissions runs the risk of subsidizing environmental harm for years to come. Allowing dirty energy to be bundled with clean energy under a federal energy standard would prolong the existence of sacrifice zones around dirty energy investments and delay the transition to a system of 100 percent truly clean, renewable energy
With a 50-50 Senate and a narrowly-divided House, there is zero chance that Congress is going to follow this advice, and more likely it will divide support for a national Clean Energy Standard (CES) that the Biden administration has made central to what is already the most ambitious climate plan ever proposed by an American president.
The Biden CES plan already has the backing of several different coalitions of mainstream environmental groups. In a letter dated April 26, one such group wrote to the President:
Across the country, a historic 81 million people voted for President Biden and his transformative commitment to clean energy. Over 30 states and territories have passed clean or renewable electricity standards, and 16 are now committed to 100% clean power. Today, more than one out of every three Americans already live in a jurisdiction that has committed to 100% clean energy. And two-thirds of Americans support 100% clean electricity by 2035. We must rapidly clean up our electricity system to reduce pollution and protect public health, including by using a CES as well as Clean Air Act standards and major new investments in renewable energy.
Still, the eco-purists have no intention of backing down. Said Jean Su, Energy Justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity:
“An electricity standard that allows methane gas, biomass and carbon capture and storage only perpetuates the racism and energy violence already baked into the system. We can’t just build back better. Justice requires we build back fossil-free. Proven solutions like distributed solar and storage protect our air, boost climate resilience and safeguard our communities and wildlife. There’s no reason to prop up the ailing fossil fuel and nuclear industries when opportunities for cheaper and safer renewable energies abound.”
All this internal bickering comes at a particularly bad time for the larger environmental movement because the prospects for real, substantive change have not been this positive in a very long time. It is not really certain that the goals the eco-purists are pushing are achievable in such a compressed timeframe even if they were prioritized nor is it certain whether they are technically feasible.
If our objective is to reduce the amount of carbon and other GHGs we release into the atmosphere in order to combat global warming, it doesn’t seem useful to ban any technologies that will safely and equitably help us to do that. Except for coal which can’t be saved, we need an “all of the above” approach to clean energy sources.
The big oil companies are prepared to spend billions on carbon capture and storage and other mitigating technologies in order to retain a chunk of the energy market for their core products. We should let them do that at their own expense and prove that it works. Nuclear is a proven carbon-free energy source that has a remarkably good safety record despite a handful of avoidable high-profile accidents over the 60 years.
Getting to carbon-neutral over the next two decades will require an enormous transformation in the ways we produce and use energy and demand collaboration between governments, industries, NGOs, and ordinary citizens on a scale we’ve never seen. Cleaning up the electric grid is a giant step in the right direction. The concept has support from Democrats and Republicans, with nearly 40 U.S. states already adopting renewable or clean energy goals or standards, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. The notion that fossil fuels are going to simply disappear or can be made to disappear in the short term is an eco-purist fantasy that only distracts attention from the important work that needs to be done.
A lot of very smart and well-informed people read this newsletter. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please leave a comment below.
Dig Deeper
Renewable Electricity Standard Group Letter
Letter Supporting 100% Clean Electricity Standard by 2035
Policy Design Features for a National Clean Energy Standard
State Renewable Portfolio Standards and Goals
The big push for a clean power mandate (Axios)
The green schism threatening Biden’s climate plan (Politico)
A journey is made up of a thousand steps rather than one mighty leap and not everyone is ready, willing and able to take the mighty leap anyway. So, lets make a start and give some wiggle room to those who need to see they can have some wiggle, then the train can leave the station with a majority of passengers on board. We also need to accept that whatever is done, we will never please all the people all of the time so let's aim to please most of the people most of the time.