By Judith Ferster, OCG Conservation Chair
Background
In 2014, President Obama directed the EPA to lead the states in a program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% below what they were in 2005 by 2030. Looking at energy production in each state, the EPA had suggestions about how to do this but each state will come up with its own plan, using these methods:
- Reducing emissions at existing coal plants
- Retiring old plants
- Running inefficient plants less
- Increasing sources of renewable energy such as solar and wind
- Increasing energy efficiency
The projected benefits of implementing such a plan include:
- Pollution cuts: 560 million tons less carbon pollution in 2020; twice the reductions associated with the clean car standards
- Health protections: up to 3,600 lives saved, and thousands of asthma attacks and other health emergencies prevented in 2020 alone
- Clean energy investments: $90 billion in energy efficiency and renewables investments between now and 2020
- Large benefits: $25-60 billion value of avoided climate change and health effects in 2020
How Climate Disruption might affect the different areas of North Carolina:
- Mountains: Increased heavy precipitation, flooding, landslides, sinkholes, infrastructure failures, decreased crop productivity
- Piedmont: More frequent drought, extreme heat, decreased crop productivity
- Coast: Rising sea level, infrastructure failure, severe flooding, saltwater intrusion, increased storm intensity, storm surges, flooding, erosion
Source: “Climate Ready North Carolina: Building a Resilient Future,” North Carolina Interagency Leadership Team, 2010 report
The current mix of electricity generating sources, in order: nuclear, gas-fired, coal-fired, hydroelectric, other renewables.
North Carolina is in an anomalous position because our Governor’s response to this mandate has been to refuse to make a plan to comply. The North Carolina Sierra Club chapter has adopted convincing Governor Pat McCrory—and anyone else who plans to run for governor in 2016—to begin planning how to meet the mandates of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan as its top conservation priority for 2015. We want him to convene the stakeholders and get the process started.
Our plan
If you want to convince elected officials and their potential opponents to adopt a policy, you need to convince the voters first. This priority demands the full resources of the Sierra Club’s staff and grassroots. It will involve educational meetings, petitions, postcards, letters to the editors, op-eds, and testimony at public hearings before relevant bodies such as the Public Utilities Commissson. Full court press.
The Orange-Chatham Group has had two meetings in which Harvey Richmond, co-chair of the North Caroloina Chapter’s Clean Power Plan Campaign, spoke; one was at Central Carolina Community College in Pittsboro and the other was at the Chapel Hill Public Library. We also participated in a local version of an international movement called "Hands Across the Sand,” which expresses opposition to fracking and offshore drilling on the North Carolina coast. On May 16, along with members of NCWARN and the League of Conservation Voters, members stood with signs on a beach at Jordan Lake.
Lobbying efforts are supporting the Renewable Portfolio Standard (REPS) and continuing subsidies for solar power, both of which are under attack in the NC legislature. For instance, when one of the Clean Power team asked Senator Robert Rucho to continue the solar subsidy and refuse to cap the REPS at 6% (as compared to the original intent of 12%), Rucho replied that solar had already been subsidized for ten years and should be able to sustain itself by now and the REPS was costing consumers money. In fact, compared to the long-term and continuing subsidies for fossil fuels, 10 years is hardly outrageous and according to North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association, the REPS saves consumers money and will continue to do so.
If you want to help, call or email Conservation Chair Judith Ferster (919-929-6648, jferster@ncsu.edu). In the meantime, take a look at http://www.cleanpowerplan.org/, where you will find a letter to the editor and a TV news report in which a coastal member explains the advantage of renewables over the risks to tourism and fishing posed by drilling on the coast of North Carolina.