Unlocking Opportunity With Policy

• Author: Rachel Fakhry
• Position: Senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council
• Pages: 56-56

56 | THE ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, September/October 2021.

Copyright © 2021, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.

THE DEBATE

already been enacted in some form.

In fact, a pile of rigorous analyses con-

ducted ahead of the NDC announce-

ment converged on this conclusion.

To achieve the pace of transforma-

tion, we need to pursue bold regulato-

ry and legislative pathways that include

both standards and incentives.

e Biden administration can de-

liver strong ambition with maximal

implementation of existing administra-

tive authority. For instance, the Envi-

ronmental Protection Agency should

pursue an ambitious multi-pollutant

power-sector strategy under the Clean

Air Act. is bears emphasis consider-

ing the overwhelming consensus that

the power sector is the engine of the

decarbonization of the economy in this

decade and beyond as we increasingly

electrify our homes and vehicles. In the

transportation sector — the highest-

emitting sector — EPA is expected

to re-grant the waiver repealed by the

Trump administration to allow states

to adopt their own clean car stan-

dards. e agency should also move

to quickly restore and strengthen the

Obama-era clean car standards, and

rapidly adopt new car and truck GHG

emission standards to catalyze the tran-

sition to zero-emission vehicles. e

Department of Energy has sizeable

authority in accelerating the adoption

of electric appliances in our homes and

businesses in lieu of health-damaging

gas appliances. e department must

pursue appliance eciency standards,

to shift investment decisions toward

high-eciency electric options.

New, far-reaching climate and

energy legislation is also critical to cut

GHG emissions. Complex congressio-

nal political dynamics may complicate

the passage of bold legislation. How-

ever, a series of independent studies

have demonstrated that ambitious

climate action would not hinge on

Herculean congressional solutions, a la

Obama-era Waxman-Markey legisla-

tion, but would instead be unlocked

by sector-specic policy interven-

tions, many of which already exist.

In particular, a clean energy standard

in the electricity sector would be

game-changing and is a popular, cost-

eective means of catalyzing the sec-

tor’s transition away from fossil fuels.

A stable and long-term tax incentive

platform for the range of clean energy

technologies, such as electric vehicles

and high-eciency heat pumps and

batteries, would be transformational

in rapidly shifting consumer choices

toward clean options. Achieving the

transformation envisioned by the

NDC is preconditioned on the large-

scale buildout of interstate electric

transmission lines and ubiquitous

electric vehicle charging networks; leg-

islation must confer robust nancial

incentives for the buildout of this job-

creating infrastructure.

Critically, social commitment to

the transition to clean energy can

only be achieved if the federal gov-

ernment makes it as much about

improving Americans’ lives as it is

about averting a climate catastrophe.

“Just transition” policies must be

prioritized to meaningfully support

communities adversely impacted

by the decline of fossil fuel-related

industries. e federal government

should enact incentives for the do-

mestic manufacturing of clean en-

ergy technology parts, and prioritize

both emissions mitigation and new

economic opportunities in pollu-

tion-overburdened communities and

communities historically shunned

from economic growth. Congress

should pass President Biden’s Ameri-

can Jobs Plan, which delivers a bold

climate vision tying together the

host of critical policy interventions.

Solving the climate crisis may be the

challenge of our time, but it also pres-

ents an unprecedented opportunity to

consciously reimagine a U.S. economy

that is more prosperous, sustainable,

equitable, doesn’t choke its citizens in

the name of progress, and does its part

in avoiding a climate catastrophe.

It is high time to bring the iconic

American ingenuity and leadership to

bear and rise to these historic times.

Rachel Fakhry is a senior policy analyst at

the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Unlocking

Opportunity

With Policy

By Rachel Fakhry

The new U.S. Nationally

Determined Contribution

for 2030 under the Paris

Agreement puts America

rmly back into the global climate

Olympics. An ambitious target com-

mensurate with the urgency of the

climate crisis, it is set to trigger seismic

shifts away from our dependency on

health and climate-damaging fossil

fuels toward a more resilient, prosper-

ous, and equitable U.S. economy.

In fact, an ambitious NDC is

aligned with what improves Ameri-

cans’ lives. It weds economic growth

and the creation of millions of good

paying jobs with markedly improved

public health, a healthy natural

world for our enjoyment, and the

avoidance of more destructive ex-

treme weather events. And several

rigorous studies, one of which I led

for the Natural Resources Defense

Council, have demonstrated that it

can be met at a modest fraction of

our GDP: clean energy technolo-

gies are now aordable and reliable

enough to replace many of our fossil

fuel-reliant assets – oil-guzzling cars,

coal-red power plants, and so forth

— for either a modest cost premium

or substantial savings.

We therefore stand at a pivotal mo-

ment where we can condently assert

that unlocking this opportunity hinges

on policy. e primary challenge in

cutting our greenhouse gas emissions

in half by the end of this decade rests

in building the societal and political

commitment to the transition. It will

require a whole-of-government ap-

proach to drive decisive progress at the

necessary nonstop pace. One bright

beacon is that the federal government

has all the necessary tools to deliver the

pace of transformation, and many of

the policy tools are familiar and have