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Governor Jay Inslee of Washington has focused his campaign for the Democratic nomination to the presidency on a single issue, climate change. On Friday, he unveiled his first major proposal on climate policy, calling for the closure of all coal plants by a decade ago.
Inslee, who has also made climate change his main problem as governor, has released a plan to eliminate global warming emissions from power plants, vehicles and buildings over 10 years. Under the plan:
• The country's power plants should be "carbon neutral" by 2030, meaning that all carbon emissions should be offset by other efforts, although the plan does not specify how. By 2035, all electricity production is expected to be emissions free, thanks to renewable energy.
• New passenger cars, medium duty trucks and buses should be emission free by 2030 – in other words, new vehicles should be electric.
• New commercial and residential buildings would be required to meet a "zero carbon building standard" by 2030, improving efficiency and avoiding natural gas heating and appliances, for example.
Mr. Inslee's campaign stated that his proposal, "the100% clean energy for America ", aims to put the United States on track to reduce by 50%, by 2030, pollution that warms the planet and achieve net net emissions by 2045, which roughly corresponds to two of the UN climate panel targets said the world must reach.
"This is a special moment, a special mission and we are in a particular country that has never shrunk from a challenge," Inslee said. said at a press conference Friday morning at a bus depot in Los Angeles. "My plan is big, bold and ambitious, because our country is vast, bold and ambitious and we are up to it.
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Mr. Inslee is well aware of the gap between policies deemed necessary by climate scientists and those which, in practice, can be adopted by legislation. Although his campaign boasts of having passed a clean energy bill in Washington, which he plans to enact the law next week, Mr. Inslee has failed to get the vote by the state legislature a carbon tax last year, and voters in that state rejected the proposals.
These defeats may help explain why two of the components of Inslee's plan focus on setting standards for new cars and new buildings rather than imposing changes or early retirement on existing elements.
Inslee 's plan, however, does not point the way to forgiveness for coal: he calls for the removal of what he calls the "less and less economical US coal park" by 2030. This suggestion puts him in direct contrast to President Trump, who vigorously promoted coal by seeking to lift an Obama moratorium on the exploitation of coal on public lands and to relax regulations on coal. pollution of coal-fired power plants.
According to the campaign leader, Inslee's plan to eliminate coal will be based on the reinstatement of former President Barack Obama's restrictions on power plants and the adoption of new regulations. Similarly, they said, the introduction of decrees defining 100% clean energy standards in the vehicle and building sectors.
But they recognized that a clean electricity standard would need congressional support, an unlikely prospect as long as Republicans retain control of at least one chamber.
Like the Green New Deal, a radical climate proposal presented by some Democrats in Congress, Inslee's plan highlights the potential for millions of new jobs and promises to support workers and communities affected by an energy transition.
But Mandy Gunasekara, a former Trump administration Environmental Protection Agency policy adviser, dismissed Inslee's proposal as unrealistic and criticized plans to withdraw the US coal fleet.
"I do not know what the Inslee plan could actually achieve if it is to put the economy out of business and put the coal miners to work without work," he said. she declared.
Mr. Inslee presented his climate proposal four days after another Democratic nominee, former Texas representative Beto O'Rourke, issued a $ 5,000 billion plan dollars to fight climate change. Other candidates have introduced climate-friendly policies, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren's proposal to ban new leases for fossil fuel drilling on public lands.
The governor said he wants to make climate change one of the main goals of the campaign, but he is lagging behind his rivals in recent polls.
According to E.P.A., the three sectors discussed in Mr. Inslee's plan account for nearly 70% of US emissions. Emissions from the industry still represent 22%.
Jesse Jenkins, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University's Environmental Center, said the early days of Inslee's plan were good, but said he was not yet addressing some key areas.
"What the plan excludes, it's the industry, where emissions come mainly from chemicals and refiners, cement and steel," Jenkins said. He added that the plan currently lacks emissions targets from existing buildings as well as long-distance transportation, such as rail and airlines.
In a statement on Friday, Inslee's team said He announced in the coming weeks additional policies that would develop other aspects of his plan to combat climate change. They include strategies to reduce climate pollution in the transport sector and existing buildings, as well as ways to support clean manufacturing and sustainable agriculture.
"The details matter," said Jigar Shah, entrepreneur and author in the solar energy business. He noted that a number of elements of Mr. Inslee's plan stemmed from Governor's experiments in Washington State. Inslee's call for the decommissioning of the country's coal fleet by 2030, for example, stems from his negotiations with his state utilities to ban coal in 2025.
"The vast majority of politicians do not know what is possible," said Shah. He praised Mr. Inslee's goals, which he said were inspired by the real-world experience and were "not just random dates".
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