As we wait patiently for the final version of the DoE grid study and pour over the leaked draft (.pdf download) that debunks the administration’s anti-renewables stance, let’s take a look at an emerging talking point coming out of the the agency.
Recently, Rick Perry has been referencing acid rain as a success story. He points to the smokestack scrubbing technology developed in Department of Energy labs as a major accomplishment, and more broadly uses it to defend “innovation” as a governing philosophy. Translation: we shouldn’t worry about carbon pollution from coal plants because innovation will somehow solve the problem. This techno-optimist approach implicitly justifies the administration's praise for (failed) clean coal efforts, even as it guts funding for further clean coal research.
The latest example of this talking point was on display at a press conference yesterday, where Perry was quoted by the Houston Chronicle saying, “All too often we want to take a snapshot in times, like we did 15 years ago with peak oil, and say this is where we are. Back in the 70s acid rain was a major issue on the east coast of this country, and now we never even hear about it."
Perry may be disappointed to find out that 1990 Clean Air Act amendments created a cap-and-trade program that spurred the installation of the acid rain-reducing scrubbers on coal plants. Despite apocalyptic rhetoric from the usual voices, this policy didn’t crater the economy or send energy prices sky-high. Instead, it successfully addressed the acid rain problem.
So if Perry wants to use acid rain as a teachable moment to guide energy policy, he will be advocating for a cap-and-trade policy to reduce emissions. This is probably not going to stop him from continuing to use it as a convenient talking point to pivot away from the climate issues billowing out of coal plants, but it would be great if someone brought it to his attention.
With Cs, Ds and Fs in chemistry classes, even this simple play on words might go over Perry’s head, but it was cap-and-trade, not basic talking points, that neutralized acid rain.
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