Our Childrens' Trust

suing federal government for a plan to fix climate change without changing the way we live

update: January 17, 2020 - 9th Circuit throws out OCT suit.
Did OCT develop this suit anticipating that Democrats would stay in control of the White House and make enough appointments to the Supreme Court to enable a legal victory?

OCT's plan calls for new nukes

From: The Team at Our Children's Trust <info@ourchildrenstrust.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 9, 2019, 6:34:48 AM PDT
Subject: Groundbreaking report shows the US can lead the way toward climate recovery.

Friend,

We have big news: today a team of energy experts released a groundbreaking report that details multiple technically and economically feasible pathways to transition the United States off of fossil fuels.

This is huge.

We've known that the U.S. government needs to take bold action on climate to avoid irreversible catastrophic impacts. Now we have even more evidence that there are economically and technically achievable pathways to decarbonization.

This new report shows that it is feasible to stop using deadly fossil fuels and still fully power the U.S. economy. It provides detailed scenarios to place all sectors of the U.S. energy system on an emissions path consistent with returning global atmospheric CO2 to 350 ppm by 2100, which means global heating of 1 degree Celsius, not 2 degrees.

Read the full report and summary of findings here.

Evolved Energy Research and Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project energy experts Ben Haley, Ryan Jones, and Jim Williams co-authored the report. Williams is one of the nearly two-dozen pro bono experts supporting the 21 young Americans who brought the landmark constitutional climate lawsuit Juliana v. United States.

The Juliana plaintiffs are asking the Court to order the federal government to develop and implement a science-based national plan that will place the U.S. on an emissions cutting pathway consistent with a 1 degree Celsius and 350 ppm CO2 target. The report illustrates that the remedy sought by the Juliana plaintiffs is undeniably feasible and that the scale and speed of emissions reductions being sought is entirely possible. The report also provides crucial analysis and insights for advocates of a Green New Deal.

The adults in charge are out of excuses. The time for the great energy transition is now. It's up to us to hold our leaders accountable. Join us in sharing this groundbreaking news on Twitter and Facebook.

Together,

The Our Children's Trust team

 

350 PPM Pathways for the United States U.S. Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project
Prepared by
Ben Haley, Ryan Jones, Gabe Kwok, Jeremy Hargreaves & Jamil Farbes
Evolved Energy Research
James H. Williams
University of San Francisco
Sustainable Development Solutions Network
May 8, 2019

This study identifies key actions that are required in each decade from now to mid-century in order to achieve net negative CO2 emissions by mid-century, at least cost, while delivering the energy services projected in the Annual Energy Outlook. ....

 

2020s

  • Begin large-scale electrification in transportation and buildings

  • Switch from coal to gas in electricity system dispatch

  • Ramp up construction of renewable generation and reinforce transmission

  • Allow new natural gas power plants to be built to replace retiring plants

  • Start electricity market reforms to prepare for a changing load and resource mix

  • Maintain existing nuclear fleet

  • Pilot new technologies that will need to be deployed at scale after 2030

  • Stop developing new infrastructure to transport fossil fuels

  • Begin building carbon capture for large industrial facilities

     

2030s

  • Maximum build-out of renewable generation

  • Attain near 100% sales share for key electrified technologies (e.g. EVs)

  • Begin large-scale production of bio-diesel and bio-jet fuel

  • Large scale carbon capture on industrial facilities

  • Build out of electrical energy storage

  • Deploy fossil power plants capable of 100% carbon capture if they exist
  • Maintain existing nuclear fleet

2040s

  • Complete electrification process for key technologies, achieve 100% stock penetration

  • Deploy circular carbon economy using DAC and hydrogen to produce synthetic fuels

  • Use synthetic fuel production to balance and expand renewable generation

  • Replace nuclear at the end of existing plant lifetime with new generation technologies

  • Fully deploy biofuel production with carbon capture

 

 

Hansen

 

no need to change the American Way of Life (AWOL)

 

These scenarios don't necessitate significant lifestyle changes, so your life won't be significantly different. Many of the changes occur "under the hood" of the energy system, or well before a consumer interacts with it. For example, operations of the electricity system will need to change drastically, but the (LED) lights will still come on when you turn on a switch and you will still be able to drive your (electric) car.

350 PPM Pathways for the United States
Frequently Asked Questions with Answers from the Research Team

 

 

 

OCT claims computers and cars can be carbon neutral

 

The globalized computer factory requires fossil fuels and mineral ores. Charging a laptop computer with solar panels does not make it "carbon neutral" if the inputs to make the machines are considered. It takes a lot of energy to purify silicon to make computer chips.

 

 

Electric cars are efficient ways to use up fossil fuels and minerals.

 

 

Fossil fuels are subsidized with federal funds, but perhaps more important, fossil fuels themselves subsidize the entire economy. It was the concentrated qualities of oil, coal and unnatural gas that enabled the exponential growth economy of the past century and a half. Now that we have reached peak everything, we are chasing after lower quality, more expensive, difficult to extract resources (tar sands, fracking, deep water offshore). Living on our solar budget could power a smaller, steady state economy, not one based on exponential growth on a round, abundant, finite planet.

 

 

It is nice that Our Children's Trust uses its legal expertise to craft new paradigms for preventing climate chaos. But it is not fundamentally a legal or political problem. There certainly have been countless toxic decisions made by governments, corporations, everyone, but ultimately climate is a symptom, not the sole cause of ecological collapse.

As for a "science based" approach, climatology is a science, but so is geology. Depletion is real. Limits to growth exist. Overpopulation and Overconsumption are core causes of the crisis.

 

The nation will be "powered by clean energy by mid century," regardless of policies, because most of the dirty energy sources will be depleted by then. The youth plaintiffs will inherit a world without the concentrated resources that built the industrial age. It was one of humanity's worst decisions to treat finite fossil fuels as a means to expand societies, not a one time gift of nature that needed to be used sparingly.

 

limits to growth

clearcuts

highway expansions

UO new stadiums - tourism 8% -

 

practical logistics - agriculture relocalization - food distribution -