By David Wojick
Eighteen of the 23 Climate Alliance Governorships are up for grabs in November so the Alliance’s anti-affordability platform is especially important. There are also thousands of State Legislator races. Nor does it end with this election.
Energy affordability is a central issue nationwide and the Democrats say they are all for it, but the Alliance platform says otherwise. The Democrats need to be called out on their hypocrisy so here is a quick overview of what they have signed up for in joining the Alliance.
Listed below are the Alliance’s ten State-level “Policy Priorities” with some of the more anti-affordability features pointed out, to be used for questioning candidates.
Here is how the Alliance puts it: “Together, Alliance members are advancing a series of bold, high-impact actions across 10 key policy areas.”
Unfortunately the high-impact is often a hard hit on energy affordability. This anti-affordability needs to be called out, candidate by candidate.
The Climate Alliance’s ten policy priorities:
GHG Targets & Governance
Here the worst anti-affordability case is net-zero which is impossibly expensive. The Alliance says 16 of its member states already have “net-zero GHG goals” and more are wanted. In addition 20 members have “economy-wide GHG goals” and all have “State climate action plans.”
Buildings
They have a specific and incredibly expensive net-zero goal for buildings:
“Alliance members are committed to decarbonizing the buildings sector, including collectively achieving zero-emission new construction as soon as practicable, accelerating efforts to eliminate emissions from existing buildings, and collectively quadrupling heat pump installations across the coalition by 2030.”
Climate Finance
It is all about net-zero which is incredibly expensive:
“Alliance members are deploying a wide range of financial policies and programs, leveraging diverse funding sources, and partnering across the public and private sectors to finance the net-zero transition.”
The adverse impact on affordability is simply ignored.
Electricity
The policy is single minded — decarbonize the grid:
“Alliance members are developing policy pathways and programs to decarbonize the electricity grid, including establishing interim targets and identifying opportunities to better align planning and procurement processes for generation, distribution, and transmission resources with our collective climate goals.”
They say that 19 member states already have “100% clean electricity goals” with more needed. That this dramatically drives up the cost of electricity is not considered.
Industry
Net-zero for all GHGs from the entire supply chain, not just industry:
“Alliance members are establishing innovative policy frameworks for eliminating GHG emissions from the industrial sector and its supply chains while fostering the growth of a strong, domestic clean manufacturing economy.”
This is impossibly expensive.
Just Transition & Equity
Complex and costly social policies:
“Alliance members are partnering with frontline communities to develop climate and clean energy solutions, directing significant expenditures to create environmental and economic benefits for vulnerable and overburdened populations, and accelerating the development of a climate-ready workforce, including by collectively supporting 1 million new workers in completing Registered Apprenticeship programs across the coalition by 2035.”
Natural & Working Lands
Vague but potentially disruptive and expensive sequestration:
“Alliance members are scaling best practices for land management, restoration, and conservation to contribute to emission reductions and carbon sequestration at the scale needed for deep decarbonization and, where appropriate, integrating natural and working lands into state mitigation and resilience plans with ambitious goals that center equity and prioritize actions that deliver multiple benefits.”
Pricing Carbon & Valuing Damages
Carbon taxes and rationing plus the bogus social cost of carbon:
“Alliance members are incentivizing cost-effective emissions reductions by setting prices or caps on carbon pollution while also considering societal and environmental impacts of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, including the social cost of greenhouse gases, across relevant policy-making and decision-making processes.”
Resilience
Nonsensical climate change impacts:
“Alliance members are integrating physical climate risk and prioritizing climate adaptation and equity in state planning and decision making to help communities prevent, reduce, withstand, and recover from climate-related impacts and disasters. States, which have varying needs and capacity, will utilize and share best practices to bolster resilience and tailor effective solutions.”
Transportation
The policy is “….to decarbonize the transportation sector by reducing vehicle miles traveled and significantly increasing access to and the affordability of zero-emission vehicles, clean fuels, and multi-modal options.”
So in addition to pushing expensive EVs, which drives up the need for costly new electricity supply, they want to curtail travel.
Every candidate who says they want affordability should be questioned hard on these outrageously anti-affordability policies.
