PACE: Climate Change Editorial Offbase

A recent opinion piece in the Montgomery Advertiser by columnist Josh Moon blasted Alabama lawmakers and at least one member of the state’s Public Service Commission for not supporting a state climate change plan. PACE disagreed, writing the following response which was published by the newspaper.

While Josh Moon’s recent opinion piece on climate change starts an interesting conversation about Alabama’s role in the climate change debate, it also overlooks some glaring truths about the nature of the debate itself.

First, Moon’s implication that Alabama’s lack of a ‘climate plan’ reflects poorly on our state doesn’t account for a basic reality: not even the U.S. has a coherent plan for dealing with changing climate phenomena. There is a good reason for this. Not only is there significant scientific debate about what is happening to our planet – e.g. Is it warming or cooling? What role does carbon dioxide actually play in this? – there is certainly no clear consensus on what, if anything, we can do to alter the climate’s trajectory.

Second, the state level is clearly an illogical place to target climate issues at a public policy level. The very idea of states having climate plans, a notion cultivated by groups such as the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which Moon cites, is more a marketing tool for environmental advocates than an attempt at actually effecting climate improvements. In fact, data suggests that not even significant emission reductions by the U.S. as a whole would have measurable impacts on the global climate, particularly because nations such as China and India will outstrip any reductions we might make with even larger contributions of greenhouse gases.

The story not being told by NRDC and Moon is that major emissions are down more than two-thirds in the past twenty years, while the American economy has grown and power production is up fifty percent. Alabama should be proud of having both a growing economy and cleaner air and water. Wouldn’t most of us rather have actual environmental victories for two decades rather than a slick climate change document that gathers dust in government offices?

To their credit, leaders on Alabama’s Public Service Commission such as Commissioner Twinkle Cavanaugh and those before her have overseen vast improvements in Alabama’s environmental indicators while also ensuring that power in our state remains reliable and affordable. That is the job we elected them to do. Mr. Moon’s job, of course, is to facilitate debate. That is appreciated, though in this case more facts and less conjecture would have helped the public understanding.