A Plan To Save The Planet
How to resolve climate change at lowest cost and in a way that is politically feasible.
The U.S. Decarbonization Act of 202x (proposed)
It is proposed that U.S. law require the United States to reduce CO2 emissions to zero over 30 years, at a constant rate, and at lowest cost. It does this with two main provisions:
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U.S. electricity is required to decarbonize at 6% per year, over a period of 9 years, at lowest cost. For example, 38% of electricity is made without emitting CO2 today, 44% after year #1, 50% after year #2, etc.
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A new R&D laboratory is set up to further reduce decarbonization costs.
The graph shows the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) projection of CO2 emissions from the U.S. over the next 30 years. Additionally shown is a
Green Line that indicates what it would look like to reduce to zero over 30 years at a constant rate. It is the intent of this law to implement the Green Line at the lowest cost.
The U.S. emits approximately 5 billion tons of CO2 each year. If this dropped to zero at a constant rate over the next 30 years, it would decrease by 170 million tons each year (5Gt / 30yrs). If one decarbonizes at $40-per-ton of CO2, for example, then 170M tons would cost $7B in year #1 (170Mt x $40), 340M tons would cost $14B in year #2, etc. This would cost each U.S. citizen $20 in year #1 ($7Bt / 330M population), $40 in year #2, $60 in year #3, etc. In the typical case, this would pay the mortgage on new solar farms and wind farms, minus the cost of carbon-based fuel that was not
burned due to being replaced with green electricity. Ultimately, these expenses would appear as an increase in the cost of goods and services.
Our Green Line has two parts. The first 9 years are achieved mostly with electricity decarbonization. And the following 21 years are cost-reduced with R&D during the first 9 years. At this time, electricity is the only area that is ready to decarbonize at massive scales, at low cost, and with government monitoring.
Click here to explore why this is the lowest cost approach to climate change, and click here for a TEDx summary video.