Climate Action Alliance of the Valley weekly climate, energy news roundup: April 17
Published Saturday, Apr. 17, 2021, 9:34 pm
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The Weekly Roundup of Climate and Energy News for the week ending April 17 follows. Please forward the Roundup to anyone you think might be interested. For an archive of prior posts, visit the CAAV website.
Politics and Policy
Biden proposed $14Bn for initiatives to fight climate change in his 2022 budget. 300+ businesses and investors called on his administration to cut US greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% below 2005 levels by 2030. A new series of briefs by RMI provides insights into how to get there. An international energy company executives’ panel said the move to renewable energy is unstoppable, although investments in nuclear power, carbon capture and storage, energy storage, and transmission will be required. Environmentalists are debating how carbon offsets should fit into the goal of reaching “net-zero” emissions by 2050. The Washington Post editorial board called on Biden to seek a carbon tax. Executives from oil companies, utilities, and some of the world’s biggest companies met virtually with senators and staff to push a carbon-fee-and-dividend proposal; many environmental groups remain skeptical of the regulatory trade-offs involved. 375 state and local elected officials signed a letter calling for an outright ban on new federal permits for fracking and fossil fuel infrastructure. In an essay examining our future, Jeff Goodell wrote: “Fossil fuels are emblematic of a culture, a way of life, a political hierarchy, and an empire of wealth that will not go quietly into the night.” The Interior Department has become the first big battlefield in the brewing fight over Biden’s climate change agenda. The Washington State legislature has passed a bill setting a target for all model-year-2030 passenger vehicles to be electric.