Eduardo Porter asks if there is a more environmentally conscious state than California? It has been at the forefront of climate policy for decades, from demanding stringent fuel economy and emissions standards to wholeheartedly embracing renewable energy from the sun and wind.
It has fighting words for the incoming Trump administration. We will not deviate from our leadership because of one election, the State Senate leader, Kevin de Leon, told The New York Times. Last fall, the state legislature committed to cutting its greenhouse gas emissions 40% below their 1990 level by 2030. California is doing something that no other state has done, proclaimed Gov. Jerry Brown.
State policies were always bound to play a central role in the decarbonization of the American economy. But with a president-elect who has asserted that climate change is a Chinese hoax, promised a bright future for fossil fuels and vowed to undo President Obama climate strategy, their choices have become more important than ever.
And yet for all the pluck of the Golden State politicians, California is far from providing the leadership needed in the battle against climate change. Distracted by the competing objective of shuttering nuclear plants that still produce over a 20% of its zero-carbon power, the state risks failing the main environmental challenge of our time.
Mark Muro, director of policy at the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, has compiled a ranking of progress toward decarbonization within the U.S. In 2014, he found that California had the third-lowest carbon dioxide emissions per person, behind only the DC and New York.
Its progress of late, however, has been less than stellar. Despite its aggressive deployment of wind turbines and solar panels, the carbon intensity of California economy, measured by the CO2 emissions per unit of economic product, declined by only 26.6% between 2000 and 2014. That put it in 28th place.
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