A bold, science-based step towards climate change mitigation in North Carolina
Emily Liu, Arya Pontula, and Hallie Turner, Youth Petitioners
The petition will be considered by the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission’s Air Quality Committee on Tuesday, June 15.
The Southern Environmental Law Center recently petitioned the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission to begin the rulemaking necessary for North Carolina to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Initiating the rulemaking process on this petition should be the first of a wide array of actions and policies that set North Carolina on a path to fulfilling its moral and constitutional obligation to mitigate climate change. Once the Commission grants the Center’s petition and initiates the rulemaking process, it can review the proposed rule, consider input from stakeholders, and eventually release regulations to reduce North Carolina’s greenhouse gas emissions in line with the best available science.
We are three college students, born and raised in North Carolina, who have repeatedly called on the state to take action on climate change. We and other young North Carolinians are disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis and will face life-long consequences. Over the last seven years, we have submitted three petitions asking the Commission to begin comprehensive rulemaking to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. All three petitions were rejected. Despite the bold vision articulated in the Governor’s Executive Order 80 and the Clean Energy Plan, the Commission has thus far failed to take the requisite actions to promote a clean economy and clean air. We demand long-overdue action from our leaders.
This petition is an important first step in a series of bold, science-based, concrete actions that North Carolina can take to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions while creating good jobs. We know there is no “silver bullet,” no single policy that will undo past emissions or eliminate future ones. RGGI sets enforceable limits on greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector and could help spur a larger substantive conversation on how to address what the best available science shows is imperative — decarbonization of all economic and energy sectors by mid-century. Joining RGGI would represent not the conclusion of North Carolina’s story fighting climate change, but rather its first chapter.
Reducing emissions is not just about fighting climate change — it is also a smart investment in our economy. A new report commissioned by Governor Cooper’s administration found that investing RGGI auction revenues into energy efficiency could reduce residential, commercial, and industrial energy costs and create 90,000 job-years in North Carolina. The costs of joining RGGI are relatively low and could even be negative, meaning that the impacts would be net positive even without considering the co-benefits of public health improvements and a more livable climate.
We started our fight for clean air and for our constitutional rights in our early teens. As young adults, we are deeply concerned about the livability of our state and our planet and determined that we and future generations are able to not just survive, but thrive, in North Carolina. In order to achieve this goal, we believe special attention must be given to communities that have been historically overburdened by environmental degradation and underserved by our state. We seek environmental justice for these communities that continue to bear the disproportionate impacts of climate change — impacts that increase in scale and magnitude with every day of inaction.
We ask our leaders to utilize the best available science to address the ever-present and ever-growing threat to our environment, safety and security, and livelihoods. We urge the Governor to publicly encourage the Commission move the Southern Environmental Law Center petition forward and to encourage a full and robust rulemaking process.
