The New York Times: “For Brian Beffort, the sustainability manager of Washoe County, Nev., the federal government’s commitment to fighting climate change has been basically a bonanza”
A new report shows that while President Biden’s administration is “[pushing] to fight climate change,” Joe Lombardo “decided his state would pull out of a multistate coalition of governors committed to policies aligned with the Paris climate accord.” In sharp contrast, President Biden and Democrats are taking the most significant action on climate in U.S. history. The Biden-Harris administration is not only following through on its historic plan to help cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, but is taking on Big Oil to lower costs for Nevadans. As President Biden and Vice President Harris work every day to solve the climate crisis, Lombardo is falling in line with Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax” and continues to make dangerous promises to his wealthy Big Oil and Gas donors.
In an interview with The Nevada Independent, when asked about the status of the state climate plan his administration removed, Lombardo could only reply, “that’s a great question.” When pressed for a timeline on a new state climate plan, Lombardo admitted, “I don’t know what the answer is. I can’t put it on the website if it isn’t written.” After being the only governor elected or re-elected in 2022 to withdraw their state from the bipartisan U.S. Climate Alliance and ultimately selling out to Big Oil companies, Lombardo doubled down and deleted the state’s climate action plan without offering a replacement plan of his own.
Reno, NV is 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.
Read more about President Joe Biden’s action on climate change and Joe Lombardo’s inaction below:
The New York Times: This City Is Tapping a Climate Cash Bonanza While It Can
Key points:
- The Biden administration’s push to fight climate change has sprinkled billions of dollars across America for major projects, such as building new transmission lines for electric power, and for smaller ones, like planting trees. The centerpiece of the president’s effort, the Inflation Reduction Act, is injecting more than $370 billion into programs aimed at helping the United States cut greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 40 percent below 2005 levels by the end of this decade.
- Last year Nevada’s governor, Joe Lombardo, decided his state would pull out of a multistate coalition of governors committed to policies aligned with the Paris climate accord, the global agreement to reduce emissions. Governor Lombardo, a Republican, said Nevada’s energy policies required a balance of both fossil fuels and renewable energy; previously, the state’s policy had been to move away from fossil fuels.
- “Under the current administration, we will continue to seek potential funding opportunities that benefit not only Washoe County, but the entire state,” said Dwayne McClinton, the director of the Nevada Governor’s Office of Energy, in an emailed statement. “The Governor’s Office of Energy remains focused on delivering sustainable, reliable, and affordable energy sources and advocating for the maintenance of a diverse energy portfolio.”
- The money is welcome to Reno officials. Recently, Climate Central, an independent research group, named Reno the fastest warming city in America, saying its annual average temperature rose 7 degrees between 1970 and 2023. The second-fastest-warming city is also in Nevada: Las Vegas.
- But among many local officials, fear is rising that money to help relieve what could be a deadly trend of rising temperatures may be fleeting, depending on what happens in November’s presidential election.
- When Mr. Trump was in office, he weakened climate and conservation rules (which Mr. Biden then restored). Mr. Trump has railed against Mr. Biden’s energy and environmental agenda and has promised to eliminate rules aimed at accelerating the nation’s transition to electric vehicles.
- The former president has also been courting oil executives for campaign donations, promising that, if elected, he would roll back environmental rules that he has said hurt their industry. Other Republicans have criticized Mr. Biden’s spending on climate-related issues as wasteful, unchecked and ripe for fraud.
- “It sure seems that if Biden does not win this, the money could dry up quickly,” said Mr. Beffort, whose position is nonpartisan and emphasized that his bosses on the county commission are both Republicans and Democrats.
- Rising temperatures and extreme heat are becoming an urgent problem nationwide, both in cities struggling to find money to keep cooling centers open 24 hours and in rural communities where spread-out populations make it difficult to offer uniform relief. Some cities, as well as the state of Arizona, have appointed chief heat officers. In Congress, Representative Sylvia Garcia, a Texas Democrat, is circulating a proposal to fund a dedicated heat officer in every state.
- Reno is one of the nation’s many cities that suffer from an urban heat-island effect. Its miles of heat-absorbing asphalt, buildings and homes make it warmer than surrounding rural areas.
- “The science is clear: We’re experiencing warming,” said Thomas P. Albright, Nevada’s interim state climatologist, who has been part of groups that have received federal grants aimed at measuring heat in Nevada.
- Reno also faces air quality issues both from nearby wildfires and from more traffic in the growing area that has lured new residents to work at Tesla’s Gigafactory and elsewhere. The region had rainy, snowy weather at the start of the year, yet faces risks from climate-change-driven extreme weather of all kinds.
###
