Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Governor Jerry Brown Leads The U.S. With Ambitious Calls For 100% Renewable By 2045 -- Wow!!!





President Trump vowed to pull the United States out the the Paris Climate Agreement as then 'candidate Trump' - then followed his with the words 6 months into his presidency.  The only problem as I have noted in a previous blog is that there is no way (technically) to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement.  As the Paris Climate Agreement stands of right now, every few years, each country (nation) will evaluate the goals which are self imposed and self-regulated to serve as a check point to see where their respective nation is headed into the next few years.



With the shocking news of President Trump's attempt to convince the United States of his intention to withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, came news (in the form of tweets and press releases - written about here) from various states that they would remain committed to sticking with the Paris Climate Agreement.  Specifically, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a 'Memorandum of Understanding' with China stating that California would remain committed to the Paris Climate Agreement.  Furthermore, Governor Brown committed to hosting a 'Climate Convention' in California less than two years later.  That date has arrived and the convention is convening in San Francisco (California, United States of America).



Great News From California Early!




Right before -- as of Monday -- the conference (summit) was to begin, Governor Brown announced and signed into law SB100 -- to transition California to 100% renewable energy by 2045 as shown below:







With the following excerpts regarding SB100 and Governor Brown's intentions for sustainable energy and California provided by authors of 'Politico California Playbook' via e-mail as shown below:



Via POLITICO'S Jeremy B. White in Sacramento: "California's Brown signs renewable energy bill in another rebuke to Trump" -- "California will aim to derive all its retail electricity from renewable sources by 2045 under a bill Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law on Monday, with backers framing the measure as the state’s latest rebuke to environmental backsliding by the Trump administration.
-- "The bill 'is sending a message to California and the world that we are going to meet the Paris agreement and we are going to continue down that path to transition our economy,' Brown said, referencing the climate accord from which President Donald Trump withdrew the United States last year."
-- "Trump has made himself an outlaw on the matter of climate change," Brown said in a follow-up interview with POLITICO’s David Siders on Monday. "And since climate change is [an] existential threat, I would say that doing what he’s doing to undermine efforts that will save lives and prevent catastrophe for California, for America and the world, is about as reprehensible as any act that any American president has ever been guilty of.”
MORE BROWN: “The clash has intensified because Trump, more than anybody else in the whole world in terms of national leaders, is going in the opposite direction. He’s trying to subsidize coal, undermine vehicle emission standards, sabotage clean electricity, make it harder to buy electric vehicles and on and on. So, yes, we’re going on a certain course.”



More celebratory tweets such as those shown below are contagious with wonderful news from Governor Brown on the eve of the Climate Summit in San Francisco.  And as one observer notes in a tweet video that every place around the world should have California politicians who are super ambitious for a change toward renewable energy to better the environment:












Source: Brendan Pierpont










The news on Monday was a good start to the beginning of the Climate Summit in San Francisco with a warm welcome to Mayors by Mayor London Breed of San Francisco as shown below:







In her tweet, a thread is shown with a few exciting statistics which display the reality that a city (or region) can invest in renewable energy (i.e. implement environmental policy) and have a thriving economy:







Which Mayor London Breed closed the thread with the following message on behalf of all Mayors present in San Francisco for the Climate Summit shown below:






Signaling that there is a large amount of support for the Climate Summit.  Further, that there is a large support for the United States to stay with the Paris Climate Agreement.  This should be no surprise to those who follow this blog and read newspapers regularly.  The world is shifting continuously and dynamically (reshaping the investment landscape) to move away from fossil fuels and invest in renewable (sustainable) energy.  Remember the list of corporations along with the tremendous amount of capital (money) available for renewable energy last year?  Read here.



For those readers interested in the full press release, I have provided the release below from Governor Brown's web site:



Governor Brown Signs 100 Percent Clean Electricity Bill, Issues Order Setting New Carbon Neutrality Goal
Published: Sep 10, 2018
SACRAMENTO – Reaffirming California’s global climate leadership, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today signed Senate Bill 100, authored by Senate President pro Tempore Emeritus Kevin de León, setting a 100 percent clean electricity goal for the state, and issued an executive order establishing a new target to achieve carbon neutrality – both by 2045.
“This bill and the executive order put California on a path to meet the goals of Paris and beyond. It will not be easy. It will not be immediate. But it must be done,” said Governor Brown.
“In California, Democrats and Republicans know climate change is real, it’s affecting our lives right now, and unless we take action immediately – it may become irreversible,” said Senator de León. “Today, with Governor Brown’s support, California sent a message to the rest of the world that we are taking the future into our own hands; refusing to be the victims of its uncertainty. Transitioning to an entirely carbon-free energy grid will create good-paying jobs, ensure our children breathe cleaner air and mitigate the devastating impacts of climate change on our communities and economy.”
SB 100 advances the state’s existing Renewables Portfolio Standard, which establishes how much of the electricity system should be powered from renewable energy resources, to 50 percent by 2025 and 60 percent by 2030. It also puts California on the bold path to implement a zero-carbon electricity grid by 2045.
“California is committed to doing whatever is necessary to meet the existential threat of climate change,” said Governor Brown in his SB 100 signing message. “This bill, and others I will sign this week, help us go in that direction. But have no illusions, California and the rest of the world have miles to go before we achieve zero-carbon emissions.”
To further ensure California is combatting global warming beyond the electric sector, which represents 16 percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, the Governor issued an executive order directing the state to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 and net negative greenhouse gas emissions after that. This will ensure California removes as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it emits – the first step to reversing the potentially disastrous impacts of climate change.
The state will reach its goals with continued significant reductions of carbon pollution and increased carbon sequestration in forests, soils and other natural landscapes and programs focused on improving air quality and public health, especially in California’s most impacted communities.
With Governor Brown’s order, California establishes the most ambitious carbon neutrality commitment of any major economic jurisdiction in the world – of more than 20 countries and at least 40 cities, states and provinces planning to go carbon neutral by mid-century or sooner.
This action comes days before grassroots activists, mayors, governors, heads of industry and international leaders convene in San Francisco for the express purpose of mobilizing climate action at the Global Climate Action Summit. Late last week, Governor Brown also signed legislation to block new federal offshore oil drilling along California’s coast and announced the state’s opposition to the federal government’s plan to expand oil drilling on public lands in California. The entirety of the state’s coast has been off-limits to new oil and gas leases for more than 30 years, and the state has not issued a lease for offshore oil or gas production since 1968.
The Governor’s signing message for SB 100 can be found here.
The text of the executive order can be found here.
California’s Leadership on Climate Change
California continues to lead the world in adopting innovative policies to fight climate change. Last week, the Governor issued an executive order to safeguard California’s unique plants, animals and ecosystems that are threatened by climate change. Last month, the state also issued its Fourth Climate Change Assessment, which details new science on the devastating impacts of irreversible climate change in California and provides planning tools to support the state’s response.
Earlier this year Governor Brown issued executive orders to improve the health of the state’s forests and help mitigate the threat and impacts of deadly and destructive wildfires, and get 5 million zero-emission vehicles onto California’s roads by 2030. Last year, the Governor signed landmark legislation to extend and strengthen the state’s cap-and-trade program and create a groundbreaking program to measure and combat air pollution at the neighborhood level.
Under Governor Brown, California has established the most ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in North America; set the nation’s toughest restrictions on destructive super pollutants; and will reduce fossil fuel consumption up to 50 percent  and double the rate of energy efficiency savings in buildings by 2030.
The state has met its 2020 target four years early, reducing emissions 13 percent while growing the economy 26 percent. From 2015 to 2016 alone, emissions reductions were roughly equal to taking 2.4 million cars off the road, saving 1.5 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel.
In addition, Governor Brown has helped establish and expand coalitions of partners across the nation and globe committed to curbing carbon pollution. The Under2 Coalition, which originated from a partnership between California and the German state of Baden-Württemberg, now includes 206 jurisdictions on 6 continents that collectively represent 1.3 billion people and $30 trillion in GDP – equivalent to 17 percent of the global population and 40 percent of the global economy. Members of the coalition make a number of key commitments, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 80 to 95 percent below 1990 levels or to less than 2 annual metric tons per capita by 2050.
Last year, California joined Washington and New York to form the U.S. Climate Alliance, which now includes 17 U.S. states – led by both Democrats and Republicans representing 40 percent of the U.S. population – committed to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement and meeting or exceeding the targets of the federal Clean Power Plan. Governor Brown also partnered with Michael Bloomberg to launch America’s Pledge on climate change, an initiative to compile and quantify the actions of U.S. states, cities and businesses to drive down their greenhouse gas emissions consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Earlier this year, California and 17 other states collectively representing more than 40 percent of the U.S. car market sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to preserve the nation’s uniform vehicle emission standards that save drivers money at the pump, cut oil consumption, reduce air pollution and curb greenhouse gases.




Who can argue with the need for cleaner air (i.e. less air pollution)?  How about environmental justice?  How about jobs?  Who does not want to create more jobs?  The renewable energy sector has been growing tremendously over the last two years.  Just ask Google about the growth of renewable energy jobs and see if I am wrong.  The investment into a sustainable future makes sense on multiple fronts.  As a nation, we will not be traveling back in time.  Governor Brown correctly points out that President Trump is an isolationist and stands alone in regards to bringing back the coal industry to power the nation.  Whether we (as a nation) like the change or not, the transition is becoming a reality to keep in line with other developing nations towards a cleaner future.  A more prosperous future.



Skeptics Weigh In...




All is not sunny with the emerging news of ambitious targets set for California.  One major reason is that skeptics are concerned that California will not be able to meet the targets even with all other sources reduced dramatically.  According to an article in the Los Angeles Times titled "Until California curbs its oil refineries, it won't meet its climate goals" - the state has obstacles (refineries) which are paramount:



Concentrated in Los Angeles’ South Bay and the San Francisco Bay Area, the state’s 17 refineries comprise the largest oil processing center in western North America. Unless emissions from those refineries are curbed, the state has no chance of meeting its long-range climate change goals.



The cumulative greenhouse gas output from these 17 refineries will overshadow the tremendous progress made over the next 27 years. I will disagree with this notion.  Tell anyone that refineries will be going out of business in the new few years and undoubtedly, the response will involve the word "cars" and "California" and "dependent" and "Oil and Gas".  Although, to mitigate the continuous use of oil and gas, the transition toward cleaner energy will lead naturally to less demand for oil.



Conclusion...




Therefore, skeptics may weigh in and laugh at the thought of refineries shutting down over the next few decades.  But the reality is that as demand for oil and gas continues to decline over the next few decades with a corresponding rise in use of renewable energy, the refineries will be looking to close their doors.  Of course, large refineries are owned by gigantic corporations such as Shell Oil Company.  Which has already started transitioning (and investing) in renewable energy.  That path puts them at an advantage rather than an expected disadvantage.  I expect others will follow -- that is, if their respective corporations have not already entertained the transition (in discussion) already.



Regardless, the news that has been breaking regarding emission reduction along with increase investments in renewable energy is very exciting.  I am excited to hear about more exciting news coming out of the Climate Summit this week in San Francisco.  I will write more as more develops.



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