May 2021 Public Policy News: Electrification, Cities Fighting Climate Change, and More
Photo by Thomas Despeyroux
Here’s the best of what we’ve read over the last month.
“Banks determine, manage and mitigate the risk of lending. Along with asset managers, they can stoke a market for risky debts or shun borrowers and projects they deem undesirable. This power has been harnessed by social movements in the past, though not often.”
— What History Can Teach Banks About Making Change (The New York Times)
“A year after an unusually contentious budget battle split the Boston City Council along ideological lines over the future of police and social services, the council is again hunkering down for fiscal combat — this time with a one-time injection of federal pandemic relief funds to fight over.”
— Boston's $3.75 Billion Budget Is A Political Battle Ground — Especially If You're Running for Mayor (GBH News)
“If you’ve lost power anytime recently, you’ve come face to face with one of the fundamental truths about energy today: There are a lot of things we once could do without electricity that now require it. You’ve also come face to face with one of the hottest, and most poorly understood, buzz phrases in energy—the “electrification of everything.” The concept, most simply put, is that more of the energy we use will come from the electric socket. Instead of having fuels like natural gas or oil or gasoline flow directly into our homes, offices, manufacturing facilities and cars, those fuels—and other sources of energy—will increasingly be converted to electricity first.”
— The Electrification of Everything: What You Need to Know (The Wall Street Journal)
“Cities currently consume two-thirds of the global energy supply and generate three-quarters of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions. Luckily for human civilization, they’re also extraordinarily motivated to minimize their cost to the climate—and quickly. Because cities are uniquely vulnerable to climate change, they’re also likely to be remade the fastest by the human need to survive and eventually thrive on a warmer planet.”
— Cities Are Our Best Hope for Surviving Climate Change (Bloomberg Green)
And while you’re at it, check out our overview of how cities are fighting climate change.