Gov. John Carney and Delaware lawmakers introduced a series of climate change bills Tuesday that aim to aggressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades.
This announcement comes after last week’s introduction of the Climate Solutions Act, the marquee bill in this package. It seeks to reduce greenhouse gas net emissions by 50% by 2030 and reach a 100% net reduction by 2050.
Lawmakers say this plan is one of the most ambitious reduction targets in the country.
The Climate Solutions Act would require the state to write a climate action plan in order to meet these goals, with the intent that it would be updated every five years.
“Talk is cheap unless we put it into action,” Carney said during a press conference Tuesday.
Lawmakers introduced a series of bills that they say will help Delaware meet these goals. Advocates called it the most consequential package of environmental bills the General Assembly has ever introduced.
Here’s what the series of climate-focused bills include:
- Requiring all state-owned passenger and light duty vehicles to be zero emission by 2040. It includes targets in which 15% of these vehicles must be zero emission by 2026, then 25% by 2029, and 50% by 2032. Law enforcement and school district vehicles would not be included.
- Requiring state agencies to implement “clean construction preferences” that allow “sustainability and carbon impact data to be incorporated and considered in awarding public works contracts,” according to a news release. This would begin July 2025.
- Starting in 2025, new commercial buildings with a foundation footprint of 50,000 square feet or greater would need to have a roof that supports solar infrastructure.
- The Department of Education would be required to have 5% of buses that are replaced in fiscal year 2025 be electric. This percentage would then increase each year until it reaches 30% in 2030.
- The codifying of the Clean Vehicle Rebate program the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control has offered since 2014. It incentivizes the purchase of electric and hybrid vehicles, allowing up to a $2,500 rebate for electric vehicles and a maximum of $1,000 for hybrid vehicles that retail up to $60,000.
- DNREC and DelDOT would be required to assess the availability of residential charging stations for electric vehicles and create strategies on how to add charging stations to “high-need areas.” DNREC would also develop a residential incentive program to improve EV charging infrastructure in Delaware.
- Newly constructed single-family and multi-family residential dwellings would be required to include electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
Sen. Stephanie Hansen, a longtime environmental advocate, noted how at one time the number of Delaware lawmakers who cared about environmental issues could fit into a phone booth.
MORE TO READ:Delaware’s Inland Bays get a ‘D’ rating. Pollution, development, climate change to blame.
“This is huge,” she said as lawmakers flanked her. “This means that we can tackle so many more issues at one time.”
“We don’t need one champion of environmental issues,” she added. “We need a chamber full of champions.”
