Francisco "A.J." Camacho
The Daily Times
February 1st, 2022
When House Speaker Tip O’Neill authored a book titled, “All Politics is Local,” he clearly didn’t foresee America in 2021. Someone’s stance on abortion could determine their odds of winning a school board seat — but then, even education has become a great national debate. In few places is this more pronounced than the climate crisis, where attention seems to have always been focused on national governments.
I want to shift that focus now. What can local governments do about Climate Change and why should they care? I had the chance while attending COP26 in Glasgow to speak with the US House of Representatives delegation. Here’s what they told me.
Local tools to address the Climate Crisis range from electrifying public transportation to building flood barriers. One area seems to be particularly relevant to Tennesseans, though: the power grid. The Tennessee Valley Authority is responsible for roughly 90% of Tennessee’s power, distributed to homes and businesses through local power companies like the Fort Loudon Electric co-op and the cities of Alcoa and Maryville. These are all public entities, meaning that at every level the power grid is owned by you and your neighbors.
Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) noted two concerns with electricity: the grid’s level of greenhouse gas emissions and resilience to climate impacts.
On girding the grid, Castor mentioned the February cold wave that left millions of Texans without power and at least 210 dead. As the energy grid wasn’t winterized, mechanical failures in wind turbines and natural gas plants worsened the calamity.
Castor also urged a switch to clean energy to reduce emissions and lessen the effects of climate change. The representative contends the transition would be economical too, saying green energy is “a lot cheaper, and you don’t have the impacts of pollution.” In a statement, our Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) contests this, saying that wind and solar “are costly, unreliable, and incapable of generating enough power to meet our basic needs.”
Who’s right? Burchett is correct on reliability. Wind and solar are the least dependable sources of power while nuclear and geothermal lead the field (“Nuclear Power is the Most Reliable Energy Source and It’s Not Even Close,” Department of Energy, Mar. 2021). It’s also true that existing wind and solar infrastructure don’t have the capacity to support Tennessee’s energy needs, but building new solar farms and turbines could fix that.
Castor is certainly right regarding pollution. Coal emissions in particular are well known to cause asthma while wind, solar, hydro and nuclear power do not affect local air pollution or respiratory problems. As to the cost, wind and solar are the cheapest energy sources worldwide — by a large margin too (“World Energy Outlook 2020,” International Energy Agency).
Burchett prefers expanding nuclear power to wind or solar. While considerably expensive relative to alternatives, nuclear power does not emit greenhouse gases and, again, is far more reliable than true renewables.
As to why cities and counties should step up, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) connected the crisis with our state, saying “Central Tennessee saw it vividly in terms of unprecedented storms, people dying,” in reference to August floods that killed 22.
While no individual disaster can be attributed solely to climate change, scientific consensus is that fires, floods and hurricanes are happening with greater intensity and frequency as a result of greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed the Atlantic Ocean saw a record 30 hurricanes in 2020. One-hundred years ago, it saw only 5.
This adds up for local governments who are typically the first responders to disaster and the initial source of money. Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX), a former county commissioner, told me, “Local governments across America are the ones dealing with limited resources and catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis.” While the state and federal governments usually offer support, it can often be delayed. President Biden didn’t approve federal relief for the Tennessee floods until 2 days after they passed.
The impacts of inaction are localized to us as well. Blount County is at significant risk of fatally high temperatures and extreme rainfall in the coming decades as a result of climate change (“Mapping Climate Risks by County and Community,” Ari Pinkus, Feb. 2021). In the face of these threats and as we debate the best means to ameliorate them, I hope we can at least agree with the sentiments expressed by Speaker Pelosi: “The narrative across America is one about saving the planet for the good health of our children: clean air, clean water.” Hopefully from that shared aspiration and the public dialogue it produces, our local authorities will reform our energy grid on the best middle ground between emissions reductions, resilience, affordability and the quality of life of Blountians and Tennesseans at large.
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