Op-Ed: DC Can — and Should —Lead on Clean Energy
It seems like every other headline these days is about climate and weather disasters. We know DC summers are already oppressively hot. In fact, the number of days at or above 80℉ is likely to break all-time records, according to our local weather experts at Capital Weather Gang. The EPA warns that the District has warmed more than 2℉ in the last century.
In addition to hotter summers, climate change is bringing more serious storms and heavy rainfall. The Anacostia is flooding more often, as are our basements and businesses. Sadly, our seniors and other vulnerable neighbors will be hard pressed to adapt to increasingly severe summers and extreme weather events. Projections show that if we don’t act, many areas of DC will be underwater. We need to act locally on climate before it is too late.
Local action — all around our country — is one key to meeting climate goals. Mayor Bowser told the world “We’re Still In” after Trump announced his intent to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement. She has also signed the District onto other climate pledges, including the recent Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco. Now is the time to back up those pledges by having the DC Council pass legislation on climate — with teeth.
As someone who has been involved in national and international climate policy over the years, I was so encouraged to see the Clean Energy DC Act introduced in July especially since, here in the District, we often feel unrepresented.
In the Clean Energy DC Act, the DC Council can make a real difference on moving toward sustainable energy with all its benefits — cleaner air, climate mitigation, and local jobs. The Clean Energy DC Act contains new building energy standards, so large commercial building owners will need to start retrofitting their buildings to enhance energy efficiency standards — these retrofits mean good local jobs. The bill would also provide funding for DC’s new green bank; financing is critical to achieving a clean energy transition. By passing the Clean Energy DC Act, we will work toward making the District powered by 100% clean energy by 2032.
My Councilmember, Kenyan McDuffie, is key to this legislation. The Clean Energy DC Act is going to the Committee on Business and Economic Development, which he chairs, this month. But he has yet to make a public demonstration of support, despite the Clean Energy Act’s potential for his Ward 5 constituents. Councilmember McDuffie has said he doesn’t want Ward 5 to be a “dumping ground” for “dirty” industrial uses such as bus barns and trash transfer stations. Instead, since Ward 5 has about half of the District’s land zoned for light-industrial uses, the Clean Energy DC Act could position Ward 5 as a hotbed for high-wage jobs like solar installing, home energy retrofits, and other fast-growing clean energy sectors.
Councilmember McDuffie must move forward on this bill so important to the District’s future. I don’t know what is holding him back from committing to support the Clean Energy DC Act; he supported an important renewables bill that became law in 2015. Sitting on this bill would be a disaster for DC and for the country. We have already seen so many extreme weather events — with our extremely soggy September in DC and the even more horrifying Hurricane Florence in North Carolina.
Scientists have said that weird and extreme weather is a sign of climate impacts that are already upon us, making it ever more urgent to decrease emissions as quickly as possible. If McDuffie lets this bill die in his committee, it would be a disaster for DC and the country.
I think we all want Councilmember McDuffie to do the right thing: move this bill out of committee, so the Council can pass Clean Energy DC this year. In doing so, Councilmember McDuffie will have a chance to show his leadership for a sustainable — really a livable — future.
