After nearly two years, Joe Lombardo released a nothing-novel to replace the state climate plan that leans on the work that Democrats have already done, without offering real, measurable steps to protect Nevada moving forward – even lazily copying and pasting entire sections from other state agency websites.
Lombardo was the only governor elected or re-elected in 2022 to withdraw their state from the bipartisan U.S. Climate Alliance, ultimately selling out to Big Oil companies and their CEOs and then doubled down by deleting Nevada’s climate action plan without offering a legitimate replacement plan of his own as Reno, NV broke records as the fastest warming city in America.
Despite Nevada being home to two of the fastest-warming cities in the country and Nevadans experiencing some of the worst effects of rampant wildfires, Lombardo continues to be unserious about the issue of climate change.
“After the record-breaking heatwave in Las Vegas and Reno being named the fastest-warming city in America, Joe Lombardo couldn’t even find the time to produce a climate plan that takes serious action to address the climate crisis,” said Nevada State Democratic Party spokesperson Nicholas Simões Machado. “Lombardo’s climate plan is like a schoolkid forgetting about a homework assignment just to cobble something together at the last minute. This nothing-novel underscores how Lombardo and the GOP are once again ignoring Nevadans and abandoning their responsibility to tackle climate change and protect our communities.”
Read more about Joe Lombardo’s nothing-novel below:
Las Vegas Review-Journal: After scrapping Sisolak’s climate plan, Lombardo releases his own
Alan Halaly
Key points:
- Nearly two years after Gov. Joe Lombardo scrapped his Democratic predecessor’s statewide plan to address climate change, he released a shorter version this week that emphasizes Nevada’s mining industry and promotes clean energy.
- The 33-page “Climate Innovation Plan” focuses on Nevada’s production of minerals needed to transition away from fossil fuels and the removal of federal red tape for clean energy projects. It’s much different from former Gov. Steve Sisolak’s 255-page plan, no longer available on the internet, that set clearer carbon emission reduction goals.
- The plan has drawn the ire of Nevada Democrats and some environmentalists who say it lacks a clear vision for combating climate change in what climate scientists say is the nation’s driest state with the two fastest-warming cities.
- Lombardo also pulled Nevada from the multi-state U.S. Climate Alliance last July. Nevada’s state climatologist, Tom Albright, said he wasn’t consulted in the planning process.
- The governor’s spokeswoman declined to make him available for an interview but said in a statement that the plan focused on “reducing carbon emissions without providing an unrealistic timeline for reduction.” Environmental stewardship isn’t a partisan issue, she added.
- Gemma Smith, an Arizona State University public policy professor, said Nevada having a climate change mitigation plan at all is a positive. While cities and counties can put forth goals at the local level — like the All-In Clark County Plan — some issues require a statewide lens, such as policy encouraging the use of electric vehicles, she said.
- But including no distinct data is to the new plan’s detriment, Smith said, especially when compared with Sisolak’s more comprehensive plan.
- Some Democratic legislators like Assemblywoman Selena La Rue Hatch and Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager took to social media to express their disappointment in the plan, which they think takes credit for some of the work put in motion under the Sisolak administration.
- “If one of my students submitted an essay like this ‘climate plan,’ I would give it back to be rewritten,” wrote La Rue Hatch, a public schoolteacher in Washoe County who serves on the Legislature’s Joint Interim Natural Resources Committee. “Even my students know that taking credit for the work of others and offering vague statements with zero evidence to support them is not good enough.”
- Attempts to reach the three Republican members of the committee Thursday were unsuccessful.
- “We’re gutted to see Governor Lombardo publish his alleged ‘Climate Innovation Plan’ without consultation or collaboration from the everyday people he represents, community organizations and conservation leaders in Nevada,” said Christi Cabrera-Georgeson, the Nevada Conservation League’s deputy director.
See what Nevadans are saying about Lombardo’s nothing-novel below:
@danielrothberg Nevada, the driest state in the nation, is seeing the effects of extreme heat and changes in snowpack, runoff, recharge. It is also at the center of the energy transition with mining, solar, geothermal. If any state needed a comprehensive climate plan…
@danielrothberg Someone pointed this out to me: But some of the language in the revised climate plan is copy-and-paste from agency websites. Did not even delete the “see the table below.” Plan on the left vs. PUCN site on the right.
@La_Rue_Hatch If one of my students submitted an essay like this “climate plan,” I would give it back to be rewritten. Even my students know that taking credit for the work of others and offering vague statements with zero evidence to support them is not good enough.
@SteveYeagerNV Hey ChatGPT, write a state climate plan? 🤷🏻♂️ #NVLeg
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