Episode 118: NEIGHboring States
2/12/20-- The day we've been talking about for months has come and gone: The New Hampshire Primary. It presented few surprises if you've been paying attention for the past couple of weeks. Pete Buttigieg won the Iowa Caucus, and Bernie Sanders has enjoyed first-place polling status in the state. Sanders came out on top with 25.7% of the vote with Buttigieg right behind at 24.4%. Amy Klobuchar pulled out a startling third-place finish with 19.8% and six delegates. Neither Elizabeth Warren (finishing fourth) nor Joe Biden (fifth) who've previously enjoyed instances of high popularity this campaign won a single New Hampshire delegate.
Last week, after the release of new data from The MassINC Polling Group on Massachusetts residents' opinions on climate change , we talked a lot about net-zero carbon emissions. The goal of net-zero by 2050 is one shared by the Massachusetts Senate, House, and Executive Office. And during MPG's poll release event, Secretary Katie Theoharides of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs emphasized the importance of this science-based target. But we didn't delve into what exactly net-zero emissions by 2050 means nor what steps we can expect will be taken to get us there. For that, Steve spoke with Eugenia Gibbons, Policy Director for the Green Energy Consumers Alliance.
"We have to reduce those emissions as quickly as possible," Gibbons said. "The first way you do that is to try to eliminate the amount of emissions you're putting into the air through your human activity, but then net-zero is achieved when you allow for other strategies to absorb the remaining carbon from the atmosphere so you can get to a place where there's zero."
Steve brought up the debate swirling about whether to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, we should rely on existing sources of energy like natural gas as an interim step to ultimately get us to completely clean renewable energy.
"The science tells us where we need to be. and we don't have anymore time to waste," Gibbons responded. "We do need to stop investing in fossil fuel infrastructure, and we do need to be looking at ways to accelerate adoption of clean alternatives. And the longer we take to do that, the harder it's going to be to get to where we need to be."