![]() ![]() ![]() Governors Kate Brown of Oregon and Jay Inslee of Washington both have newly tightened emissions goals and detailed road maps to reach them. A pair of natural gas developments under construction in northern BC would produce two-thirds of the greenhouse gases allowable under BC law in 2050. Karen Tam Wu of the Calgary-based Pembina Institute calls a recent government report “sobering” because it reveals that British Columbia is further off track from meeting its 2030 goals for greenhouse gas reductions. The question now is: Will Cascadia’s governments actually follow through? No one says King Coal anymore, and oil Is faltering,” said KC Golden, one of the founders of regional nonprofit Climate Solutions and a board member with international activist group 350.org. “In 2007 we used to talk about Big Oil and King Coal. And fossil fuels’ purveyors have less grip on markets - and perhaps even legislatures - as demand for coal, oil and gas weakens and global protests erode their social standing. Suddenly solar installers and other “clean energy” firms provide more than half of Washington’s energy-related jobs. Solar power’s cost has plummeted more than fivefold since 2010. These days equipment such as electric vehicles and heat pumps cost less - with fuel included - than their fossil-fueled forerunners. Cleaner technologies that play the starring role in Washington’s new energy plan keep getting cheaper. (Dan Delong/InvestigateWest)Įnergy economics also are changing. In this photo, Jerrod Bishop of Wenatchee, Washington, plugs his electric car into a public charging station in Seattle. The plan also pledges state assistance for low-income and marginalized communities to, for example, purchase electric cars. ![]() To produce that electricity, the plan requires cooperation with neighboring governments including British Columbia and Oregon to accelerate construction of new solar and wind energy plants. The Washington State Energy Strategy, released earlier this month, calls for a shift from gasoline- and diesel-fueled vehicles to electric cars and trucks charged up with zero-carbon electricity. For the first time in four years, federal leaders in the United States and Canada both support climate action. They are some of the most ambitious climate-protection goals on the planet. The 428-page 2021 remake released earlier this month by the Washington Department of Commerce maps out how to eliminate all but a sliver of fossil fuel emissions through a massive shift to renewable energy. Working early on from a converted garage with a balky heater, Quigley toiled for years in her policy shop, the nonprofit Clean Energy Transition Institute, to provide technical assistance in support of Washington state’s energy strategy. Quigley claims to be more hopeful than ever.Įxactly 10 years after that Republican majority retook the House, Quigley and her colleagues can point to a new and officially endorsed blueprint for how Cascadia can successfully kick the fossil-fuel habit. The result: A region billed as “ecotopia” last century came up way short on the biggest environmental challenge of this century.īut 2021 opened with some good news. “There was a lot of anger and definitely frustration and disappointment.” “It was bleak,” Quigley recalled in a recent interview. Despite an ascendant Democratic president and a Democratic majority in Congress, a sweeping climate bill died in the Senate and Republicans opposed to climate action took control of the House.Īnd in BC, after a bruising provincial election in 2009, a pathbreaking tax on atmospheric pollution and other climate protections were barely hanging on. Shut down in Salem and Olympia, the Seattle-based environmentalist and her allies saw their hopes dashed again in Washington, D.C., in 2010. Washington, Oregon and British Columbia had set ambitious plans to control climate-warming greenhouse gases, but misinformation campaigns by fossil fuel lobbies and a global financial meltdown unnerved legislators, blocking measures to drive the states’ climate plans. But ongoing fossil fuel development in BC could undercut Cascadia’s progress.Ī decade ago climate activist Eileen V. Washington state’s redoubled climate goals and fresh action plan revive hope to cut emissions. ![]()
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