Independence Day
On July 2nd, communications systems worldwide are disrupted by a strange atmospheric interference. Soon, we realize that Earth is on a collision course, first believed to be with meteors from outer space that will devastate everyone on the planet. But it turns out, these are not meteors: they are gigantic spacecraft, piloted by a mysterious alien species. On July 3rd, this alien species all but obliterates New York, Paris, and countless other metropolises across the globe. But on July 4th, humanity comes together, united in a fight for our freedoms and survival.
This, of course, is the plot to 1996’s ‘Independence Day’ film, showing that despite this existential threat, humanity’s best weapon is our will to come together, invent solutions, and fight back to survive.
While there are no alien motherships on the horizon today, we are all facing a genuine threat to our way of life from a real existential threat: the climate crisis. In New York, people are bracing for back-to-back days of record hot weather through the Fourth of July holiday weekend, including possible citywide heat indices ranging from 105 to 110 degrees. In Paris, a third record-setting heat wave is being predicted, after 4,000 people died from heat-related causes during two earlier episodes this month.
As the planet warms from greenhouse gas emissions, a negative feedback loop means that climate-related weather disasters like these heatwaves—as well as hurricanes, droughts, floods, and tornadoes—become more intense, more frequent, and less predictable.
But unlike invading alien motherships, we already have the solutions to transition away from the carbon-intensive fuels that are the cause of the growing climate crisis—we can declare our independence from the petroleum in the transportation sector, the leading source of CO2 emissions after the power sector (for which solar and wind are now outpacing gas and coal usage), by adopting clean fuel standards more widely and without delay.
Nothing makes the danger of our overdependence on gasoline and diesel clearer, than the recent pump price spikes that resulted directly from the launch of a war against Iran and subsequent strangling of oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz. In fact, this is not the first time that global conflicts, or the predilections of oil-producers has caused transportation fuel price spikes: OPEC in the 1970s, the first and second Gulf Wars, etc.
In the absence of Federal climate action, more state legislatures should lead on win-win economic and environmental policies. Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania can use their own authority to set measurable, achievable goals to reduce the carbon-intensity of their fuels, while leveraging the power of markets to allow lower-carbon, cleaner, renewable transportation fuels to compete for their residents’ fuel dollars. In state after state where clean fuel standards have already been adopted—giving ethanol, biodiesel, renewable diesel, electricity and other renewable fuels a chance to compete—transportation-related CO2 emissions have dropped (faster than expected) without any disruption to drivers, and at program costs far lower than forecasted—never even nearing the doomsday predictions of vocal opponents.
This Independence Day, we don’t need a revolution to break the stranglehold of a century-old status quo, we simply need to evolve to a better fuel policy.