Delaware Climate Legislation:2024 Edition
By: Dr. David R. Legates, Guest Contributor
In August 2023, the General Assembly passed, and the Governor signed Delaware’s Climate Change Solutions Act of 2023, or HB99. It calls for the state to establish targets “to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions on the State.” Moreover, it also establishes “Climate Change Officers in certain Key Cabinet-Level Departments who will assist DNREC in the ongoing implementation of the Climate Action Plan.” Note that the bill charges the DNREC Secretary and other entities within the Executive Branch with making climate change an integral part of decision-making, rulemaking, and procurement—the legislature abdicated their responsibility to oversee its implementation to the Executive Branch.
This year, the General Assembly passed five more bills, supposedly to save the State from the ravages of climate change. As before, climate change is only the stated goal; it is not the real focus of the legislation.
The Delaware Energy Solutions Act of 2024, also known as Senate Bill 265, supports the net zero goals of HB99 by facilitating “offshore wind to be a significant element of Delaware’s energy future.” Through this legislation, the General Assembly has passed the authority of making decisions regarding offshore wind to the State Energy Office and the Public Service Commission.
House Bill 9 requires that all state-owned passenger and light duty vehicles be zero emission vehicles by 2040, although exemptions are made for law enforcement vehicles and “vessels of State agency law-enforcement personnel,” vehicles owned by the Department of Education, school districts, and charter schools, and designated take home vehicles for certain state employees. Similarly, House Substitute 2 for House Bill 13 authorizes a program, headed by the Director of the Sustainable Energy Utility, to assist low-income residents to purchase and install electric vehicles and their recharging systems.
Two additional bills focus on longer-range planning. House Bill 402 requires that all new state buildings, including schools, to provide a designated space on the roof reserved for future solar panel installation. And Senate Bill 237 ensures future plans focus on community resiliency and sustainability as it relates to impacts of climate change.
These bills serve to move Delaware toward an economy free of fossil fuel-based energy sources. Offshore wind and rooftop solar will necessarily make energy more expensive, as will proliferation of plans to protect our communities and prepare public buildings from the non-issue of dangerous climate change. By every metric available, our very existence is NOT being threatened by increasing storms, floods, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes, and sea level rise.
In 2021, Delaware’s energy use was only 0.264% of the total energy use in the United States. Requiring the United States to become Net Zero by 2050 will save the planet from a rise of only 0.06°F by 2050. Thus, Delaware’s legislation to force the State into Net Zero compliance will lead to a decrease of only 0.00016°F—a number that is unmeasurable with any environmental thermometer in use. It will have no effect whatsoever on the impact of storms, floods, droughts, sea level rise, and other weather variables that impact people’s lives and affect their possessions. What will happen is that energy and all goods that use energy for production, transportation, or refrigeration will become much more expensive.
One only has to consider the question of why these legislative bills make exceptions for law enforcement, state-owned school buses, and selective state agencies and why subsidies are needed for low-income residents of the state. As before, these legislations are not about the science—it’s about making energy so expensive few will be able to afford it.
Dr. David R. Legates is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Delaware and is the Director of Research and Education at the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation. He also is an Advisory Board Member of A Better Delaware.