I'm sure it's
useless to ask, but nonetheless I urge you to strengthen and
improve the Draft 2022 Scoping Plan Update. Scientists have
increasingly raised the alarm that this decade is our very last
chance to make significant and meaningful changes in our
transportation, energy, building, and other major infrastructure to
prevent an irreversible climate catastrophe, and that is why I am
disgusted to see that the Draft Scoping Plan refuses to accelerate
the targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990
levels by 2030 or to achieve carbon neutrality no earlier than
2045. It simply is not good enough to meet the urgency of the climate
crisis and the desperate need for bold action. CARB must, but
I'm sure will refuse to, achieve a more ambitious Scoping Plan that
could lead to an accelerated pathway to carbon neutrality so that
the state’s 40 million residents and future generations of
Californians could have lived and thriven in a cleaner and
healthier environment.
I strongly, though
futilely, urge the California Air Resources Board to adopt a more
ambitious plan for how our state will combat the most catastrophic
impacts of global warming ("climate change") in the crucial years
ahead. To accomplish this, CARB must (but won't!) improve the
Draft Scoping Plan by accelerating a phase-out of oil and gas
extraction and oil refining, not making any further investment in
fossil fuel infrastructure, eliminating our reliance on unproven
and costly technologies to prolong polluting fuel sources, pursuing
more robust transportation sector targets, and decarbonizing
buildings. The rapidly escalating climate crisis demands that
CARB adopt a truly ambitious Scoping Plan, one with the vision and
conviction to provide the solutions that are needed to overcome the
crisis we face.
I would t hank you
for your consideration if I honestly believed that you would
consider this plea.
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