First, I want to thank and congratulate you on
the big improvements you made in the draft scoping plan in response
to input from the public and the Environmental Justice Advisory
Committee. This
process illustrates the essential role of the EJAC in developing
policy that best protects all Californians and our future –
the importance of making the EJAC permanent!
Second, it’s great that you have
committed to a phasedown of fossil fuel production in California
– both extraction and refining—in relation to the
decline in California’s demand for fossil fuel. But to make
this commitment effective, we need some specifics:
·
An ambitious schedule to make the phaseout as
fast as possible
·
A commitment to phasing out production for
export to everywhere outside the state, to all other states and
other countries.
·
An economically and environmentally just
transition for workers and communities involved with the fossil
fuel industry
·
A transparent public planning and
implementation process that includes meaningful representation of
those workers and communities, including the stipends and technical
assistance that are necessary for communities to participate as
full partners.
Third, a climate plan cannot rely on
industrial carbon capture and sequestration projects. In addition
to prolonging the deadly fossil fuel industry AND increasing
environmental injustice in frontline communities, they don’t
work! The record of CCS is a mix of underperformance and complete
failure. An article
in the journal Biophysical Economics and Sustainability
reviewed the literature on CCS and concluded that, taken together,
the projects so far implemented have led to a slight net increase
in carbon in the atmosphere. Relying on a technology that has so
far failed doesn’t make sense. In addition, the federal money
that is about to be poured into this harmful strategy could instead
be used to make investments that would be truly effective in
reducing greenhouse gases – like a greatly expanded,
convenient, accessible public transportation system powered by
renewable energy.