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Ask a Scientist: The US Has to Do More to Meet Its Carbon Emissions Reduction Goals

Union of Concerned Scientists

The legislation committed nearly $400 billion to support, among other things, wind and solar power, battery storage, electric vehicles, and other clean energy technologies that will make a significant dent in US heat-trapping emissions. It also will save US consumers money because they will spend less on fossil fuels.

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Minnesota: Will This Be the Year for a 100-Percent Carbon-Free Electricity Policy?

Union of Concerned Scientists

Now it’s on to the state Senate, where the question is: Will this be the year Minnesota sets a path toward 100-percent carbon-free electricity? Those scenarios showed that the IRA would accelerate solar and wind deployment and reduce carbon emissions to 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

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Building a Better Power Grid for Minnesota

Union of Concerned Scientists

Minnesotans are facing concurrent crises of climate change, high energy prices and inflation, and the inequitable public health impacts of fossil fuel air pollution. Most Minnesotans are familiar with their local electricity utility, since that’s who bills them for electricity they provide.

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Why Energy Bills Will Be Even Higher This Winter

Union of Concerned Scientists

US ratepayers very likely will pay even more for electricity and heating this winter compared to the already-expensive winter of 2021-2022. Consequently, residential gas prices are expected to be 22 percent higher this winter compared to last year’s, and residential electricity prices are expected to be 6 percent higher on average.

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Is It Possible to Phase Out Petroleum and Transform our Transportation System?

Union of Concerned Scientists

Replacing petroleum with renewable electricity as the primary source of transportation energy will leave us all much better off. Tailpipes from our cars, trucks and buses are also a major source of toxic local air pollution that disproportionately harms overburdened and underserved communities.

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Why is Congress’s Climate Breakthrough Such a Big Deal? Because Without It, We’d Be Irreparably Off Course.

Union of Concerned Scientists

Over the past year, precisely as our ability to identify the specific magnitude of action required to hit 2030 climate targets of 50-52 percent below 2005 levels has resolved into ever clearer view, the range of viable pathways for meeting those targets has consistently and considerably narrowed. No pivoting, just pivotal.

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Will New Litigation Pressure Energy & Industrial Infrastructure to Prepare for Climate Change?

Law Columbia

In 2018, a host of lawsuits wound their way through the courts seeking an answer, including several from localities and states alleging the responsibility of fossil fuel companies. These leaks are only a fraction of the 90,000 barrels spilled in Louisiana in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. mile radius.