The Trump administration has argued that regulations on greenhouse gases aren’t necessary because emissions have been falling in recent years even as the economy grew and Americans used more energy.
But that argument has now been obliterated.
A report last week showed that after years of gradual declines, CO2 emissions spiked last year in the U.S.
Released by Rhodium Group, a private research company, the report showed that emissions increased by 3.4 percent over 2017 — the biggest jump in more than 20 years.
What drove the increase? One factor was a surge in Americans’ electricity consumption, which increased the burn of coal and natural gas, both of which produce greenhouse gases. Truck and car emissions also were up, and there was an increased burn of jet fuel as the improving economy prompted Americans to take more airline flights.
Another major contributor was manufacturing plants, the source of a 6 percent increase in emissions amid a jump in demand for consumer goods.
So clearly, although some sectors have adopted cleaner technology — think the increased reliance on natural gas over coal by the energy industry — stringent regulations are still needed to keep carbon emissions in check. Let’s also not get the impression that relieving air quality rules is necessary for manufacturing to flourish. It’s not, and indeed it’s all the more reason to keep regulations in place as plants boost their output.
The consequences of not reining in greenhouse gases are cataclysmic. Already, climate change is yielding devastating effects — massive wildfires, a drought in the Southwest that seems practically unbreakable, unprecedented strings of powerful hurricanes and much, much more. As seas rise, parts of Miami are experiencing flooding at high tide and cities like San Francisco are building higher sea walls to prevent communities from being inundated.
Meanwhile, as global warming continues, long stretches of coastal areas will become uninhabitable as sea levels rise, food supplies will be disrupted and millions of people will be displaced due to drought, storms and rising ocean waters.
These aren’t far-off scenarios, either. A United Nations panel sounded a warning last October that unless “unprecedented” actions are taken in the next 10 years, the world will stand on the brink of failure.
“It’s like a deafening, piercing smoke alarm going off in the kitchen. We have to put out the fire,” said Erik Solheim, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program.
As the alarm sounds, it’s vital for American states to step into the void of responsibility created by the Trump administration’s rollbacks of regulations on carbon emissions, vehicle fuel mileage standards and more.
Thank goodness for voters in Nevada, who in November elected a group of state leaders committed to fighting global warming by supporting renewable energy.
Gov. Steve Sisolak, in his State of the State speech last week, hit exactly the right notes on this front, saying he would “not spend a single second debating the reality of climate change” and would work to curb it.
At a minimum, he said, he would sign legislation to require Nevada energy providers to use renewable sources in producing at least 50 percent of the power they supply to consumers by 2030. That’s right in line with the will of state voters, who supported a ballot question last November that set the 50-by-’30 standard.
With Democrats controlling both chambers of the Legislature and with some of them pursuing a 100 percent goal on renewables, it’s possible Sisolak and lawmakers will go even further than the ballot question.
So Nevada is headed in the right direction on climate change.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has the nation on a suicidal path.