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Writer's pictureAlex Kawa

Clean Energy Plan Includes a Lot of Fossil Fuels. Did the Oil and Gas Industry Say Anything for It?

Updated: Feb 2, 2020

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee, recently proposed the CLEAN Future Act, which sets a goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. However, research on the bill from Friends of the Earth and the Partnership for Policy Integrity indicates that it's provisions are not as clean as Pallone would let on. The analysis outlines five specific areas where the bill fails to promote true climate action:


"1. The Pallone standard sets a target rate for carbon intensity at 1,807 CO2e lbs/MWh, nearly twice as dirty as the current national average. This is a significant failure of ambition at a time of climate crisis.


2. Beginning from this dangerously lax definition of clean energy, the plan leaves the door wide open for fracked gas and potentially even some coal to qualify as 'clean.'


3. The proposed target for emissions intensity is significantly less ambitious than the 2030 targets in the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration’s signature regulations under the Clean Air Act.


4. The proposed Pallone target is barely more stringent than emission standards recently proposed by the Trump administration for supercritical coal plants.


5. If the Pallone proposal is similar to existing emissions trading systems, it will likely include a loophole for woody biomass, effectively allowing massive emissions from burning wood to be treated as carbon neutral."


So, if Pallone is promoting this bill as a clean energy blueprint, why is it filled with a lot of fossil fuels. Well, as it turns out, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, the oil and gas industry has given Pallone $31,000 in PAC money this election cycle. In addition, Pallone, as well as his associated PAC, Shore PAC, has also accepted $8,250 from ExxonMobil lobbyists -- namely Michael Goodman, Arshi Siddiqui, Amy Tejral, and Lyndon K. Boozer -- and $4,000 from Chevron lobbyists Lauren Aronson, David Castagnetti, and David R. Thomas.


Given his fundraising records, it should be no surprise that Pallone is only pushing a half-measure as a solution to the climate crisis. The existential threat of climate change is arguably the great threat facing America today, but as long as people in power, such as Pallone, are taking the dirty money, solutions like this will be the best they fight for.


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