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Matt Vespa, Attorney, Clean Energy Program: “Thankfully, since 2019, cities and local air quality agencies have developed a wide variety of policy paths to move forward, from energy codes to air quality protections, to protect their residents and help us all step into a zero-emissions future. The future is clean energy, and nothing can hold…

Sasan Saadat, Senior Research and Policy Analyst, Clean Energy Program: “It feels like the shots are being called behind the scenes. What we heard from the board was pretty unambiguously, ​‘We’d like to see this tightened up.’”

Sara Gersen, Attorney, Right to Zero: “SoCalGas’ hydrogen project threatens to increase lung-searing pollution in a community already breathing some of the most polluted air in the country.”

Adrian Martinez, Attorney, Right to Zero: “We’ve got to eliminate our reliance on combustion. The program as designed will continue to provide lucrative incentives for combustible fuels well into the future. The stakes are very, very high.”

Sasan Saadat, Research & Policy Analyst, Right to Zero: “California loves to brag ‘this program, for every eight dollars we spend on it, gets us this many tons of CO2 reductions.’ What’s missing from that is the fact that these programs are triple counting those reductions.”

Liz Moran, Policy Advocate, Northeast Office: “NY Heat is a really important policy that will one, help New Yorkers save money on their energy bills, and two, help the state have a plan to stop expanding a very expensive and dangerous gas system.”

Adrian Martinez, Attorney, Earthjustice: “Sometimes we view these electric transportation issues as partisan, and they’re not. In California, our leading transit agency isn’t a bastion of liberal politics; it’s a relatively conservative community in the high desert. So I think what it shows is electric buses are quiet, they’re clean, they save money. Those are…

Sara Gersen, Attorney, Right to Zero: “Methane is not some unavoidable waste product that we need to capture and do something with. [California’s approach] creates a perverse incentive for people to not only continue emitting methane, but ramp up how much methane is getting generated at their facility.”

Adrian Martinez, Attorney, California Office, Earthjustice: “This is the start of what’s going to be an effort to get the entire food and beverage manufacturing industry to zero emissions.”

Sasan Saadat, Senior Research and Policy Analyst, Clean Energy Program: “What’s missing from that message is an honest assessment of how scant the supply of sustainable RNG is and how risky the potential is that RNG could actually increase climate impacts.”

Sasan Saadat, Research & Policy Analyst, Clean Energy Program, Earthjustice: “We’re basically carving out exemptions because of political protest from people who made bad investments. You’ll end up in this absurd situation where vehicles ready to go electric at a fast pace will be put on the slowest timetable in communities most overdue for relief.”

Liz Moran, Policy Advocate, Northeast Office, Earthjustice: “There’s going to be a role for green hydrogen; we’re going to need to look into this. But it needs to be done very carefully.”

Sasan Saadat, Senior Research & Policy Analyst, Clean Energy Program, Earthjustice: “In the future, green hydrogen may help us carry renewable energy into the toughest corners of the energy system, but it is no substitute for rapidly electrifying the bulk of our economy today.”

Matt Vespa, Attorney, Clean Energy Program: “If we want to decarbonize, we know we need gas out of the home.”

Adrian Martinez, Attorney, California Regional Office: “[The South Coast Air Quality Management District’s] failure to look at the impacts of climate change in all of their planning has meant that they’re not really hitting the mark. The consequences are that people are breathing dirty air, and the law allows it.”

Sasan Saadat, Senior Research & Policy Analyst, California Office: “It is not renewable. What they are doing does not make sense.”

Attorney Matt Vespa speaks on building electrification

Sasan Saadat, Senior Research & Policy Analyst, California Office: “You all have this opportunity on your lap to set a new precedent for the end of fossil fuels in our built environment.”