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Hartley-Nagle On Climate Change and Energy

The water is rising, in every sense. We have broken the usual trend of affecting individual areas like rivers, rainforests or coastlines, and are now damaging the entire planet. The greenhouse effect we're exacerbating is causing not only the melting of glacial ice and the polar ice caps, but is causing weather fluctuations that threaten to destroy a plethora of populations across the globe.

Our environment is notably delicate, and we all have a lot to lose if we don't take action; low-lying coastal states like Delaware will be largely submerged; Americans will see very severe damage to the economy as volatile weather weakens industries like agriculture and rising fuel prices continue to increase the cost of living; and the global population will be hit with the wrath of famine, natural disasters and displacement.

We are capable of stopping the downward trend we've started, but it will require an almost certainly unprecedented commitment from everybody. Unfortunately, the simple fact of the matter is that Delaware and the United States have not been carrying their fair share of the load.

What the issue boils down to is a need for substantial change. While every citizen of this planet has a responsibility to be mindful of their energy consumption, the government has to pursue regulations that quell our consumption of fossil fuels. James Hansen, one of the most prominent climate scientists in the United States, has said that a safe level of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is, at the most, 350 ppm. Currently, we stand at 385 ppm.

Immediate action must be taken to readjust our greenhouse emissions to a manageable level: Hansen warns that if the current overshoot lasts too long, there is a risk of “seeding irreversible catastrophic effects”. An adequate reduction of CO2 can be achieved through eliminating the burning of coal except for when its emissions are captured, along with reforming agricultural and forestry practices so that they sequester carbon; however, special interests from K Street to Detroit are preventing this from happening.

It’s worth noting that we have been making a degree of progress:

• recently,  Delaware rejected the construction of a new coal-burning power plant.
• about 90% of the state population stands in favor of building an offshore collection of wind turbines which can support 7% of the electrical grid, carbon-free.
• Delaware participated in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a group of ten states in the Northeast that, in the absence of federal action, established a cap program on power plant emissions.
• Attorney General Beau Biden has joined several states and a medley of non-governmental organizations in suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for defying a Supreme Court order mandating greenhouse gas regulation
• the state of Delaware has enacted cost-sharing programs for installing solar electric/heating systems in their homes, along with tax rebates for installing energy-efficient appliances (a more comprehensive list can be found at www.delaware-energy.com).

Sadly, our energy consumption rates run through the roof, even by American standards.

"Delaware has the highest residential sector electricity intensity among [New York, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, Pennsylvania and Delaware]. New York, California, Massachusetts and New Jersey households use one-half or less of the electricity used by Delaware homes"

That problem is only compounded by the fact that Delaware has yet to tackle tough challenges like encouraging vehicle efficiency and reforming building codes. Furthermore, efforts on the part of groups like Bluewater Wind to reduce supply-side carbon emissions have been severely hindered by the involvement of special interests in the General Assembly.

As important as it is that Delaware reforms its energy policy, we are a small state, and our potential influence is limited. We need concurrent federal action if America is ever going to stop being part of the problem and start being part of the solution. Part of the reason that change has been so slow to occur is that the voice of special interests (e.g., the automotive, oil and coal industries) are closer to the ear of Congress than the voice of the public interest. This explains federal energy bills that give subsidies not only to energy sources like coal, oil and nuclear power, but also to blatantly crude sources like garbage incineration and wood burning. Moreover, Congress has failed to renew a tax credit which has been vital to the propagation of wind power.

There is no room in our energy policy for oil, natural gas, “clean coal” or garbage incineration. It makes absolutely no sense to continue burning fossil fuels, nor does it make sense to use energy sources that pose a problem after their use, like nuclear energy. Rather, our energy future must be centered around:

• wind, both onshore and offshore
• solar, both “rooftop” units and full-scale utility plants.
• energy storage technology to address the intermittent nature of the two aforementioned sources
• near-total elimination of fossil fuel usage
• smart grid technologies and distributed generation
• wider use of electricity and hydrogen for vehicle fuel
• other renewable sources, like tide and geothermal power
• resource conservation through utilization of waste (“zero waste”)
• wider use of mass transit, including electric trains and rail
• designing more energy-efficient communities by making them more pedestrian-friendly and providing easier access to transit.

Additionally, the cleanest, cheapest energy is that which we never use.

The entrenched ways of old have been hindering progress for far too long. Very little that has been established here is especially new; Delaware and the United States have the resources to put ourselves on the path to energy sustainability and keep us above sea levels. The challenge is to free ourselves from the shackles of special interest and to exhibit the initiative to solve the problem.

At this point, all we need is leadership, and as Delaware’s first Congresswoman, I will carry the torch to a more efficient tomorrow.

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