DC lawmakers vote for 100 percent clean power by 2032

The D.C. City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted “yes” in a preliminary vote to require 100 percent of electricity in the district to come from renewable sources by 2032.

The “Clean Energy DC Omnibus Act of 2018” will have a final vote in December.

{mosads}The policy would also include electric car incentives, create new efficiency standards and expand carbon fees on natural gas and certain oils. That carbon revenue would then be used to fund a “Green Bank” for developing clean energy for those who would otherwise struggle to afford it. 

The bill would also authorize the D.C. mayor to enter regional emissions reduction agreements with Maryland and Virginia.

“This is an extraordinary bill that sets a new bar for the rest of the nation on climate action,” said Mike Tidwell, director of the CCAN Action Fund, a sister group of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “This bill was two years in the making, involved everyone from neighborhood moms to top business leaders to champions on the DC Council. We’re going to send clean energy to the White House and members of Congress whether they’re ready for it or not.”

If approved, D.C. would join California in passing legislation requiring 100 percent clean electricity.

The bill’s approval comes a few days after the Trump administration released a report confirming that climate change was the cause of dramatic temperature increases in the country and could trigger sea level rise, unlivable temperatures and economic havoc if not curbed.

The United Nations released a similar report Tuesday, calling for global action to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Current emission targets for every country developed in the Paris climate agreement would result in a global average temperature rise of 3.2 degrees Celsius according to the report.

That would be well beyond the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold that the U.N. indicated earlier this year could have dramatic effects including worsening drought, flooding, heat waves and depletion of coral reefs and glaciers.