Editorial: Great America is one that’s more carbon-free
Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the Dec. 25, 2016, Las Vegas Sun.
Famously, Donald Trump doesn’t read long reports. Instead, he has staffers condense the material into summary memos.
So here’s hoping somebody on his team will crunch a new Brookings Institution report on carbon emissions and put it in front of him.
The report debunks an argument by Trump and others that the economy is being stifled by regulations and policies aimed at reducing emissions from coal-fired power plants.
The researchers found that 34 states had managed to “decouple” growth from carbon emissions — in other words, to grow their economies without a coinciding increase in emissions — from 2000 to 2014. Nevada was among the top 10 of those states, with a 42.5 percent difference between gross domestic product and emissions growth.
