Author: Neil Brown
Berkeley, California is arguably the most liberal city in the United States. The city is overwhelmingly white and affluent, with a large Asian and small black minority population, a median household income of more than $100,000, and a median home value of nearly $1.3 million. When we think of liberal elites, we think of Berkeley. So green activists across the country were surprised when residents voted down new fossil fuel taxes last week.
A local initiative on the ballot in Berkeley this November would impose a heavy tax on large buildings that use natural gas for heating, cooking and other purposes. Supporters argue the measure will help transition us away from fossil fuels and follows a national trend of climate activists looking to shut down natural gas at every opportunity.
Berkeley voters rejected the ballot measure 68% to 32%, sending a message that they had no intention of sacrificing natural gas use for any climate benefits they believed it would bring. To appease their lingering climate conscience, Berkeley will surely donate to environmentalists. Being able to avoid making any sacrifices in the name of climate change, yet requiring those sacrifices from other, less affluent communities, is a prerogative of environmentalists, and one that working-class Americans will not ignore.
With Trump’s victory and the rise of an unfriendly bureaucracy, effective federally focused environmental activity may wane. These groups will spend hundreds of millions of dollars, directing funding and organizers to state and local governments to try to get rid of their natural gas infrastructure.
This strategy is wrong. Americans living in big cities are burdened by high energy costs and unreliable power grids, and often live in neighborhoods with inadequate infrastructure and inefficient, aging homes. The problem is most acute in parts of these cities with a history of segregation and redlining, and these distressed neighborhoods, where black residents are disproportionately represented, are those least able to bear the additional energy burdens of tight energy supplies. While cities are some of the most carbon-efficient places to live, they also face significant energy burdens that fall primarily on communities that cannot afford price fluctuations and the reduced reliability of dismantling critical energy infrastructure. The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) will release a report on urban energy burdens this year.
In addition to the important benefits, there are costs involved in modernizing outdated energy systems and moving toward a greener, lower-carbon future. PPI works to inform decision makers about these costs, who is required to bear them and how to minimize their impact. The United States needs a climate policy that reduces carbon emissions, encourages innovation in clean energy generation and transmission, meets the energy needs of homes and businesses, and most importantly, does not impose the costs of the transition on those least able to afford it. For these working-class communities, continuing on the path of left-wing environmentalism is a political dead end. Instead, we need to politically push deep blue states to enact effective, pragmatic state and local energy policies that show we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower household costs that burden disadvantaged communities.
City leaders should take heed of the dead-end environmental activists in their towns, who just held a fundraiser in Berkeley, California, demanding that their own communities make sacrifices in cost, reliability, and convenience that Berkeley won't be known for. Sacrifice justice in the name of climate. Pay close attention to what funders of environmental activists are doing in their own communities as they make demands on others.
During the recent election, Berkeley's wealthy elite told environmental activists: “We're going to keep our natural gas. Here's some money. Go tell the poor to get rid of theirs.”
Is this just?
Neil Brown is executive director of the Progressive Policy Institute. Find Neil's profile here.
This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and provided via RealClearWire.
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