It's all too easy to feel hopeless about curbing carbon emissions. The Supreme Court seems to be suggesting it won't let the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) do its job of reducing the amount of carbon we're pushing into the atmosphere. But even if the feds can't do much, states and cities can do a lot.
And Nevada is no slouch at adopting measures to mitigate climate change. Here's an argument from The Nevada Independent by Frank Fritz, a professor at the law school at UNLV, for local sustainability measures.
Clark County [Las Vegas] — and Nevada’s other urban areas — can take a big step forward by adopting a new and extremely promising kind of local law, called building performance standards. Clark County and other urban areas should start developing these laws now and adopt them as soon as possible. We should urge our local representatives (county commissioners, city council) to do so.
Buildings produce the most greenhouse gas in Clark County (42 percent of the total) and Reno (66 percent of the total). State and local laws usually govern buildings; federal laws usually don’t.
Building performance standards can help us save water, energy and money; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; avoid the worst consequences of climate change; and help businesses thrive. Reno adopted an early version of building performance standards in 2019....The idea behind these standards fits well with Nevada's libertarian streak. In this model, cities establish standards and timelines -- it's up to builders and owners to figure out how to meet them.
And building performance standards needn't only be about reducing carbon emissions; such plans can also save water, the state's pressing emergency.
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