Earth Matters – Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, air quality

The Island Now

On July 18, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act into law.

The act, which was in part inspired by the federal Green New Deal, establishes aggressive legally binding targets to move New York’s economy off fossil fuels by increasing the use of renewable energy thereby significantly reducing pollution that harms our health, environment, and economy.

As Assemblymember Steve Englebright notes, “People across the state, from Buffalo to Long Island, have urged New York to act on climate change. … This act sets New York on a course for a sustainable future by transitioning our state to clean renewable energy, unleashing the genius of American industry, and ensuring good-paying jobs that work for all New Yorkers.”

The act commits New York to source 70% of its electricity from renewable resources by 2030, 100% by 2040, and calls for a net emission-free state economy by 2050. It also includes new air quality monitoring requirements as it recognizes the positive impact of renewable energy sources on our air quality.

Leading the charge in implementing the CLCPA is the New York State Climate Action Council, a 22-member body created to develop a scoping plan and suite of policy and program recommendations to reach the targets set out in the legislation. The Council is led by the DEC and NYSERDA.

Swedish central bank economist Conny Olovsson used an economic model to show that losses to economic growth from imposing a carbon tax would be dwarfed by the economic losses projected if carbon dioxide remains largely untaxed and global warming continues unchecked.

Our state understands the need to utilize all the instruments to reach the set goals and is currently working on getting the cost of carbon into the wholesale prices of fuels. This means that the price for gas will most likely go up significantly which in turn will create a competitive disadvantage for those businesses that keep relying on carbon-intensive fuels like natural gas (yes, natural gas is also a carbon-intensive fossil fuel) to run their businesses.

So why are some of our elected officials still considering to support the (re)proposed and already twice rejected Williams fracked gas pipeline?

A project that would run 23 miles across the New York harbor and most likely wouldn’t be operational before 2023 while it’s construction will cause considerable damage to the already fragile ecosystem of the harbor only to proliferate the extraction, and usage of dirty fossil fuel?

Another example for actions that don’t fit into the CLCPA framework is the hesitation of our local elected officials to restrict the use of gas-powered leaf blowers, even so cleaner alternatives are available.

If you are in the suburbs and reading this during the day, chances are very high that you’re hearing them somewhere close by. And when I hear the blowers I often wish for a bit of ignorance. Then I wouldn’t know that operating a gas-powered leaf blower for only one hour puts out more emissions than an average car traveling 4,000 miles.

And especially during the fall gas-powered leaf blowers are used for many hours six days a week in our neighborhoods, it sometimes feels as if we were all living right next to a major highway with all the negative health implications on our hearts, lungs, and nervous systems and the ever-increasing cancer and asthma rates.

According to the National Weather Service, poor air quality is responsible for an estimated 60,000 premature deaths in the United States each year. Costs from air pollution-related illness are estimated at $150 billion per year.

The goal of the U.S. air quality program is to provide ozone, particulate matter and other pollutant forecasts to the public so we can use this information to limit the harmful health effects of poor air quality and ultimately save and improve lives by reducing the number of air quality-related asthma attacks, eye, nose, and throat irritations, heart attacks and other respiratory and cardiovascular problems.

Better than having access to this information is not having to worry about it. So although I am impatient about progress, I am still very excited about the passing of the CLCPA and the expected benefits it will have on all of us.

Let me close for today with a quote from San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly: “Climate change is an issue we can’t afford to ignore. This is not a hypothetical risk of the future…the risks are here, we have to deal with them.”

 

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