The Next Step For Solving ‘Climate Change’ Is Forcing People Into EVs

I love when you have college students, who haven’t hit the real world, who don’t know what’s actually going on, dictating how things should work

Opinion: Our next step in solving climate change

When it comes to climate change, Connecticut has set ambitious goals. In 2008, we passed the Global Warming Solutions Act, which sets goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 45 percent below 2001 levels by 2030 and 80 percent below 2001 levels by 2050. The state is also a signatory of the United States Climate Alliance, which adheres to the goals set by the Paris Agreement, meaning our ultimate goal is net zero emissions by 2050.

We have already made significant progress towards that goal. As of 2018, statewide emissions were down 17.8 percent from 2001. However, one area where emissions have remained stubbornly high is the transportation sector. It has been the biggest emitter of greenhouse gasses in Connecticut every year since 1990. In 2018, the transportation sector emitted 15.8 million metric tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent, more than 50 percent of what the entire economy can emit if we are to reach our 2030 goal.

Senate Bill 4, which is currently awaiting a vote in the Connecticut State Senate, aims to address these emissions. The bill would expand funding for the Connecticut Hydrogen and Electric Automobile Purchase Rebate program, which helps people buy new and used electric vehicles. This is critically needed, because there were only just over 17,000 passenger electric vehicles on the road in June 2021, estimates say that we will need 500,000 by 2030 to achieve our emissions goals.

That’s not small feet, 17k to 500k. You don’t get there in under 8 years without forcing people to purchase EVs. Rebates and such be damned, they’re still mostly not affordable. And, where is this money for the rebates, charging stations, etc, coming from? Expect taxes to go way up.

Senate Bill 4 will not solve all the environmental challenges facing Connecticut. But it is a meaningful step in the right direction, and one that we must take now. Climate change will be the defining challenge of the 21st century. We will either rise to the occasion and meet it within the next 30 or so years, or we will be remembered for centuries as the people who failed to prevent environmental catastrophe. Having only just come of age myself, I sometimes find it daunting to look ahead to a future shrouded under the specter of climate change. It is measures like Senate Bill 4 that give me hope for the future and convince me that we are, in fact, on the right path.

Let me know when you actually have to live in the real world. Especially when someone is getting a BA in Drama and Dramatics/Theater art.

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