A new analysis found that California will fail to meet its mandated 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 based on its current trajectory.
Emissions rose 3.4% in 2021 after falling during the pandemic, putting the state behind pace.
“The cost of getting the state back on pace would depend on what approach we take,” lead researcher Stafford Nichols said. “Some strategies are cheaper than others. We could make changes to the regulatory frameworks of California to encourage and enable the adoption of new technologies.”
The analysis says California must eliminate over 100 million metric tons of emissions annually to meet its goal, but will fall short by 258 million tons at its current rate.
While Governor Newsom’s office promotes its climate initiatives like banning new gas vehicles by 2035, the analysis does not account for all current and planned work. (Trending: New Bombshell FBI Docs Blow Trump Case Wide Open)
“However, sometimes politics gets in the way of this decision-making framework, and politicians do not always choose the most efficient strategies,” he added.
“Because what we’re doing is we’re basically delegating it to other countries that are providing all the products back to California, and they have no environmental or labor controls,” energy consultant Ronald Stein said. “We keep shutting down our gas-powered plants, and now California imports more electricity than any other state.”
He added, “We have a demand, our neighbors have a supply.”
Newsom’s office argued the state is exceeding earlier climate targets through billions invested in clean energy and zero-emission vehicles.
“Nobody thought we would achieve our climate goals, like 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles by 2025 and cutting greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 – we’re exceeding them years ahead of schedule. We’ll continue proving everybody wrong,” a Newsom spokesperson stated.
“I want to underscore the point that the study doesn’t take into account a lot of our current and future work to achieve targets,” the spokesperson added.
“That’s on top of the billions in federal spending that will accelerate the transition to clean energy,” the spokesperson said.
However, critics say California’s push for clean energy increases emissions elsewhere by offshoring manufacturing, and note residents pay much higher electricity prices to support climate policies.
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