Blog: State Action on Carbon Reduction Laudable—but Not Enough
WASHINGTON, DC—Resources for the Future (RFF) Fellow Marc Hafstead today posted a short blog with a pertinent observation: “Climate action at state and local levels gives reason to be optimistic but, ultimately, federal action will be required to reduce US carbon emissions in a meaningful way,” he says.
Dr. Hafstead is a leading expert who models the impacts of carbon-reduction policies. He points out in his new blog that former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made headlines recently about American efforts to reduce carbon emissions when he said, “…if you look a little bit beyond Washington…you will see all the extraordinary work that is going on [at the] state and city level….”
Dr. Hafstead notes about Gov. Schwarzenegger’s statement: “He’s not wrong—we should be encouraged by action at the subnational level….Still, for all this optimism and support from the state and local levels, significantly reducing US emissions will require federal action.”
The author, based on his previous research, bluntly concludes: “State action can only achieve so much…; federal action is necessary to achieve cost-effective emissions reductions on par with the Paris Agreement.”
Read the blog post here: How State-Level Action on Carbon Emissions Stacks Up
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