新英格兰气候倡导者计划在 2024 年大选前加速清洁能源建设
【中美创新时报2024 年 4 月 21 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）气候倡导者表示，在政府可能发生更迭之前，今年尽快拨出数十亿美元的联邦气候资金是当务之急。《波士顿环球报》记者Erin Douglas对此作了如下报道。
在俯瞰哈德逊河的熙熙攘攘的会议中心，数千名气候倡导者起立，为 76 岁的前副总统阿尔·戈尔退场欢呼。在他标志性的“气候现实项目”会议上，他结束了长达两个多小时的演讲，指出了其他国家的气候变化对民意调查产生了有意义的影响，并向他的支持者提出了挑战。
“美国东北部的气候现实领导人会对我们即将举行的选举产生类似的影响吗？” 戈尔说。 “这是一个不同于人类历史上任何其他时刻的时刻。”
上周末参加纽约会议的约 3,000 人中的许多人表示，2024 年总统选举对于美国继续走脱碳之路至关重要。他们指出，共和党总统候选人、前总统唐纳德·特朗普在上届政府期间取消了数十项气候和环境规则，如果他上任，预计他将再次这样做。
他们说，比压制乔·拜登总统更紧迫的是尽快从他的大型气候计划中部署联邦资金。
22 岁的达特茅斯学院环境研究和历史双学位学生玛雅·阮 (Maya Nguyen) 表示：“这次选举感觉对于将气候行动保留在菜单上确实至关重要。” 由于她住在摇摆州新罕布什尔州，阮在离开会议时思考如何让其他人了解联邦气候激励措施。
阮表示，11 月之前是“利用我们现有资源”的时候。
美联社和 NORC 公共事务研究中心进行的一项新民意调查显示，45% 的美国成年人表示，他们去年更加关注气候变化。
2022 年，乔·拜登总统将《减少通货膨胀法案》签署为法律，这是美国历史上对可再生能源最大的联邦投资。爱尔兰共和军有潜力拨款数千亿美元来应对气候变化——主要是通过建设基础设施来加速美国经济摆脱化石燃料的转型。戈尔称爱尔兰共和军是“世界上任何地方关于这一问题历史上最激动人心的立法”。
但新总统可能会放慢美国经济脱碳的努力：特朗普最近告诉化石燃料高管，“我讨厌风。”
萨默维尔市能源使用和气候变化委员会主席拉里·余 (Larry Yu) 表示：“有 50 比 50 的可能性……到一月份，资金仍无法到位。” “所以，有一些紧迫性。”
这笔资金在刺激美国向清洁能源转型方面的有效性取决于其实施，而其推出速度比一些气候倡导者希望的要慢。
21 岁的马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校大三学生米罗·里布 (Miro Leeb) 表示：“这绝对是一个大问题，如果我们不能尽快获得这些项目的资金，那么一旦拜登失败，资金就会立即被削减。” 他通过参加 2019 年波士顿青年气候罢工开始了气候活动。
减少温室气体排放（尤其是电力部门的温室气体排放）的积极目标，需要对新基础设施（包括输电线路、公用事业规模的太阳能发电场和风力涡轮机）进行大规模投资，并在适当的地方建造这些基础设施。
新基础设施的提案有时会因受益于爱尔兰共和军资金的能源公司打算建设的邻里斗争而放缓。 争论的范围从对美观的担忧到对环境破坏的担忧。新英格兰各地爆发了“别在我家后院”的激烈争斗，争夺海上风电场和输电线路，一些化石燃料倡导者错误地声称这些风电场导致鲸鱼死亡，一些居民称这会伤害荒野地区。
拜登承诺将从清洁能源转型中受益的一些低收入地区和有色人种社区也反对修建新变电站的计划。在马萨诸塞州，该州雄心勃勃的计划是到 2050 年实现净零排放，这基本上需要将电网规模扩大两倍，两家最大的电力公司已提议建造 40 多个新变电站。
戈尔在接受媒体采访时表示，需要立法解决方案来确保清洁能源建设能够更快进行；马萨诸塞州的一个特别委员会目前正在努力改进该州的能源许可流程。
新英格兰长期气候倡导者、普罗温斯敦市镇经理基思·伯格曼 (Keith Bergman) 表示：“我们确实需要不仅制定目标，还要落实目标。”
戈尔表示，他认为拜登通过立法“赢得”了气候投票。几位气候倡导者提到拜登在爱尔兰共和军和两党基础设施法方面取得的立法胜利，其中包括数十亿美元用于加强该国的水和交通系统； 预计将花费 87 亿美元用于加固高速公路、桥梁、道路和涵洞，以应对气候变化导致的极端天气状况。
然而，会议上的许多支持者表示，他们对总统没有进一步影响全球气候变化政策感到失望。
例如，一些青年倡导者呼吁拜登宣布气候紧急状态（在总统高级气候顾问约翰·波德斯塔讲话期间，会议上爆发了针对这一主题的小规模抗议）。许多支持者还表示，他们对总统没有履行禁止海上石油钻探的竞选承诺感到失望。
关于 11 月份进入投票站时的感受，几位气候活动人士告诉《波士顿环球报》，他们觉得击败特朗普比支持拜登更有活力。
“促使我投票的原因是不希望特朗普和他的所有政策获胜，”从事教育政策工作的哈佛神学院研究生内维亚·塞尔蒙(Nevia Selmon)说。她之前曾与气候活动组织合作，包括青年领导的日出运动。
“我只是为了更好的未来而投票，”她说。
题图：前副总统阿尔·戈尔上周末在纽约举行的标志性“气候现实项目”会议上发表讲话。 这位 76 岁的前副总统在长达两个多小时的主题演讲结束时呼吁大家投票。CLIMATE REALITY PROJECT
附原英文报道：
New England climate advocates aim to accelerate clean energy buildout ahead of 2024 election
Getting billions in federal climate money out the door as quickly as possible this year is urgent ahead of a possible change in administration, climate advocates say.
By Erin Douglas Globe Staff,Updated April 18, 2024
Former Vice President Al Gore spoke at his signature “Climate Reality Project” conference in New York last weekend. The former vice president, 76, ended a more than two-hour-long keynote speech with a call to get out the vote.CLIMATE REALITY PROJECT
NEW YORK — In a bustling conference center overlooking the Hudson River, thousands of climate advocates rose to their feet, cheering as former Vice President Al Gore, 76, exited the stage. He ended his more than two-hour long presentation at his signature “Climate Reality Project” conference by pointing to other countries where the climate moment has meaningfully moved the polls, and he challenged his supporters.
“Will Climate Reality leaders here in the northeastern part of the U.S. have a similar impact on our upcoming election?” Gore said. “This is a moment unlike any other in human history.”
Many of the roughly 3,000 people who attended the conference in New York last weekend said the 2024 presidential election is critical to keep the US on a path of decarbonization. They point to former President Donald Trump, the leading Republican candidate for president, who rolled back dozens of climate and environmental rules during his last administration and is expected to do so again, should he take office.
Even more urgent than stomping for President Joe Biden, they said, is deploying the federal money from his large climate packages as quickly as possible.
“This election feels really pivotable to keep climate action on the menu,” said Maya Nguyen, 22, an environment studies and history double major at Dartmouth College. Since she lives in New Hampshire, a swing state, Nguyen left the conference thinking about how to make others aware of federal climate incentives.
The lead-up to November, Nguyen said, is a time to “take advantage of what we have now.”
Forty-five percent of US adults said in a new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll that they’ve become more concerned about climate change in the last year.
In 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, the nation’s largest federal investment in renewable energy in history. The IRA has the potential to allocate hundreds of billions of dollars to fight climate change — largely through building infrastructure to accelerate the US economy’s transition off fossil fuels. Gore called the IRA “the most exciting legislation in the history of this issue anywhere in the world.”
But a new president could slow down efforts to decarbonize the US economy: Trump recently told fossil fuel executives, “I hate wind.”
“There’s a 50-50 chance that … come January, funding doesn’t get out the door,” said Larry Yu, who chairs the City of Somerville’s Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change. “So, there is some urgency.”
The money’s effectiveness at spurring the US transition to clean power hinges on its implementation, and that rollout has been slower than some climate advocates would like.
“That is definitely a big concern that if we don’t get funding for these things soon enough, then the funding is just going to be cut immediately if Biden loses,” said Miro Leeb, 21, a junior at University of Massachusetts Amherst, who started in climate activism by participating in Boston’s youth climate strike in 2019.
Aggressive goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions, particularly from the electricity sector, require both massive investments in new infrastructure — including transmission lines, utility-scale solar farms, and wind turbines — and somewhere to build it.
Proposals for new infrastructure have, at times, been slowed by neighborhood fights where the energy companies benefiting from IRA dollars intend to build. The fights have ranged from concerns over aesthetics to environmental damage. Heated “not in my backyard” fights have broken out across New England over offshore wind farms, which some fossil fuel advocates have falsely claimed are causing whale deaths, and transmission lines, which some residents have said will hurt wilderness areas.
Some low-income areas and communities of color, which Biden promised would benefit from the clean energy transition, have also pushed back against plans for new electric substations. In Massachusetts, the state’s ambitious plan to reach net zero emissions by 2050 will essentially require a tripling of the electric grid, and more than 40 new substations have been proposed by the two largest electric utilities.
Gore said in a media interview that legislative solutions are required to ensure the clean energy build-out can move faster; a special commission in Massachusetts is currently working to improve the state’s energy permitting process.
“We really need to be, not just making goals, but delivering on implementing,” said Keith Bergman, a long-time climate advocate in New England who was formerly a town manager in Provincetown.
Gore said he thought Biden has “earned” the climate vote with legislation. Several climate advocates mentioned Biden’s legislative wins in the IRA and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which includes billions to fortify the country’s water and transportation systems; $8.7 billion is expected to be spent on strengthening highways, bridges, roads and culverts against extreme weather made worse by climate change.
However, many advocates at the conference noted their disappointment that the president has not gone further to affect global policy on climate change.
For example, several youth advocates have called for Biden to declare a climate emergency (a small protest on that very topic broke out at the conference during the president’s senior climate advisor John Podesta’s talk). Many advocates also said they were disappointed the president did not keep his campaign promise to ban oil drilling offshore.
On how they might feel when they get into the polling booth in November, several climate activists told the Globe they’re feeling more energized by beating Trump than supporting Biden.
“What’s motivating me to vote is not wanting Trump, and all of his policies, to win,” said Nevia Selmon, a Harvard Divinity School graduate student who has worked in education policy. She previously organized with climate activist organizations, including the youth-led Sunrise Movement.
“I’m just motivated to vote for hope for a better future,” she said.
