Hawaii Becomes the Ninth U.S. State to Ditch Coal

     September 1st, 2022, will go down as a glorious day in history for the planet. Three weeks ago, Hawaii's last coal plant, the AES Hawaii Power Plant in Oahu, closed for good. This is just the first step in a decades-long vision Hawaii is implementing to transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2045, bringing down the high cost of energy in the islands by combating climate change in a state that is suffering its ill effects much more severely than most others.

     Hawaii, however, is far from the first state to ditch coal: Rhode Island, New York, Maine, Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Oregon have previously done the same, which makes Hawaii the ninth state in the nation to be completely free from coal. Six other conservative states have just one coal plant remaining apiece and numerous others with liberal governments have pledged to phase out coal.

     Within the next year, it is almost certain that a minimum of 10 states will be completely free of coal. Once we surpass this landmark, the next goal needs to be to see 25 states not tainted even slightly by coal, and then all 50. President Biden wants the United States to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and the ratification of the Kigali Amendment combined with a slew of executive actions have moved the United States within striking distance of achieving these goals.

     The goal of the Manchin Project is to make more progress by ensuring the United States phases out coal nationwide by 2035 at the latest. This year, we have seen tremendous progress; now, we need to commit to making more.