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Hawaii Passes Law To Make State Carbon Neutral By 2045 (fastcompany.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fast Company: In a little less than three decades, Hawaii plans to be carbon neutral -- he most ambitious climate goal in the United States. Governor David Ige signed a bill today committing to make the state fully carbon neutral by 2045, along with a second bill that will use carbon offsets to help fund planting trees throughout Hawaii. A third bill requires new building projects to consider how high sea levels will rise in their engineering decisions. The state is especially vulnerable to climate change -- sea level rise, for example, threatens to cause $19 billion in economic losses -- and that's one of the reasons that the new laws had support.
Transportation is a challenge -- while the state is planning for a future where cars run on renewable electricity, it also relies heavily on planes and ships, which will take longer to move to electric charging, and which Hawaii can't directly control. "Those are global transportation networks that don't have easy substitutes right now," Glenn says. "That's one of the reasons why we really want to pursue the carbon offset program, because we know we're going to continue to be dependent on shipping and aviation, and if they continue to burn carbon to bring us our tourists and our goods and our supplies and our food, then we want to try to have a way to sequester the impact we're causing by importing all this stuff to our islands." The government plans to sell carbon offsets to pay to plant native trees, which can help absorb CO2 from the atmosphere as they grow. The state is also working to become more self-sufficient. The governor aims to double local food production by 2030; right now, around 90% of what residents and tourists eat in Hawaii -- 6 million pounds of food a day -- comes from somewhere else, on planes or ships.
Transportation is a challenge -- while the state is planning for a future where cars run on renewable electricity, it also relies heavily on planes and ships, which will take longer to move to electric charging, and which Hawaii can't directly control. "Those are global transportation networks that don't have easy substitutes right now," Glenn says. "That's one of the reasons why we really want to pursue the carbon offset program, because we know we're going to continue to be dependent on shipping and aviation, and if they continue to burn carbon to bring us our tourists and our goods and our supplies and our food, then we want to try to have a way to sequester the impact we're causing by importing all this stuff to our islands." The government plans to sell carbon offsets to pay to plant native trees, which can help absorb CO2 from the atmosphere as they grow. The state is also working to become more self-sufficient. The governor aims to double local food production by 2030; right now, around 90% of what residents and tourists eat in Hawaii -- 6 million pounds of food a day -- comes from somewhere else, on planes or ships.
So just how are they going to offset that???
Given the volcanic activity on Hawaii I can't imagine it ever being carbon neutral.
This is going to be a difficult, uphill battle for Hawaii given their recent growth in production of locally sourced, volcanic S(O2)...
So far it seems to work better then Carbon Neutral by Free Market.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
No one who passed it will be in office in 2045. As such, they don't own ultimate accountability for actually making it happen, but they can pat themselves on the back for 'driving it to happen'.
Reminds me of when IBM CEO declared a certain crazy fiscal target for 5 years out, and immediately retired so it would be someone else's fault the target was not feasible.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Any law which has a deadline so far in advance that no one who votes on it will be around to see it come to fruition is, pretty much by definition, "feel good legislation". ie: horseshit.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
a second bill that will use carbon offsets to help fund planting trees throughout Hawaii
I bet the recipients of the funds will be reading like a who's who of Hawaii's political donors.
It won't ever work!
Quite the contrary, it will work. To support my statement I have historical example of dealing with the ozone whole. People holding decision power were clever enough to listen to scientists fortunately and now the whole is shrinking.
It is tough, but people in general are clever if only an issue is not politicized so people have access to the facts. Event (!) in the US, polls shows 64% population concerned about this issue. Global warming is not a problem of our kids, it is happening now, and the predicted anomalies are happening now - people are affected by them, so once it will hit hard the wallets people will start to put attention.
It is almost 30 years in future.
Hodja Nasreddin once offered Persian Shakh to teach his donkey speak and read in 30 years. Then he explained that either Shakh or donkey or Hodja himself would definitely die in 30 years, so he wouldn't be punished for breaking this promise.
It seems that Hawaian lawmakers expect that either they will be dead or state would be submerged by 2045.
This is Hawaii. They are an island with no coal, oil, or natural gas reserved. Everything comes in by boat. Barrier to entry is really the only reason renewables aren't preferred.
All the energy providers in the state need is a nudge or subtle threat against their future to move a little faster in diversifying.
Hurting an economy is better then killing civilization.
Not everything is about economy, some problems are worth hurting the economy for in order to fix a foundation.
Now I couldn't find any reference about $9.00/L Canada prices, so I am going to place that under fake news to scare us Hard Working Americans about those dangerous LiBeRaLs. Or it was a passing phrase in a brain storming idea taken out of context.
Also to note, when Gas prices rise, people change their habits. We saw this back in during the 2008 great recession, where peoples earnings went down but gas prices shot up. People began to sell their Trucks and SUV that they only use for normal commuting, and switched to smaller more fuel efficient cars, or even motorcycles. When prices dropped again, people started buying big Trucks and SUVs. So a carbon tax, will not cause people to leave the US in droves (Because where will they go, the US is behind most other countries in terms of environmental regulation, other countries will be worse) but will change their habits, towards better usage of the expensive fuel, or switch to a less expensive fuel source.
Now if we can actually weather threw a self proposed recession in order to get our foundations fixed, we may be able to grow a much stronger economy on top of it.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
The government of the Netherlands decided a few weeks ago that we have to get off the natural gas we pump out of the ground in 12 years, because of the earthquakes that occur due to the pumping. Our government has been trying to uphold the reputation of being even less interested in the environment than the US, so this was a big thing for us. But now it's a few weeks later, and people are asking how they can make their houses gas-free and who is paying for that. The government looks at its feet. Our prime minister said last week that we are not going off the gas, we are going off the gas from our own country. But that means we have to get gas from mr. Putin. That's the guy we proved responsible for shooting down the MH17; a civilian plane full of mainly Dutch and Australian people on vacation. So our government is in a bit of a sticky situation now. The only feasible way to get the Russions to feel that we don't like them killing our citizens is by not buying their gas. But that means people will get cold in winter.
-- Cheers!
Great example, except it's hole, not whole. And I'm also convinced that we can pull it off. It will take sacrifices though, like not being able to fly to the other side of the planet for absurdly low prices. Wind turbines everywhere. But when the revolution is over we will look back and think: "How could we be so stupid?"
-- Cheers!
Just think of 30m people fleeing to the US once that happens
They are already all lined up at Costco in Bellingham with gas cans.
Have gnu, will travel.
It's meaningless.
Any future law automatically supersedes existing law. So they're making themselves look good, without actually imposing any immediate changes.
When the time for real change comes along, if it turns out to be too expensive, the then legislators will be on the hook for changing things (including taxes) that the current legislators carefully skipped in the process of writing a bill to make themselves look good without actually doing anything.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
No, lack of acreage is really the only reason renewables aren't preferred. Admittedly, they're getting some free new acreage right now, but that probably isn't going to continue long enough....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Carbon taxes don't have to harm the economy as a whole, and especially not individuals. If they are used to fund development of cheaper, clean forms of energy and consumption they can be a net benefit.
Don't forget to factor in the reduced cost of dealing with the emissions and associated pollution either, e.g. healthcare, environmental disasters and cleaning.
Norway is an interesting example. Most new cars are electric. Charging infrastructure is extensive. Yet it didn't bankrupt them or make cars massively more expensive or anything like that. In fact Norway is consistently rated as one of the best places in the world to live in terms of quality of life.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
You will tell Hawaii is serious about lowering carbon emissions when they ban tourist flights.
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
Carbon neutral by free market works. Carbon neutral by free market + lawsuits against constructing nuclear plants doesn't work.