How Far Can Existing Regulations & Authority Reduce GHGs?

A new WRI report looks at what greenhouse gas emmisions reductions could be achieved through federal and state regulations that are already in place.

WRI has spent the last six months conducting an analysis of what emissions reductions could be achieved using existing federal regulations and state actions.

Why did you undertake this analysis?

Congress has been discussing various climate and energy proposals for the past several years. We have a good sense through our analysis what the legislative proposals would accomplish, but we thought, “what if we don’t get the legislative action soon? What can be done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions using existing tools?” We wanted to know what federal agencies across the spectrum can do under existing law, and what reductions states can achieve based on the actions that they’ve already announced.

Based on the reductions you found federal agencies and state programs could achieve, what are the key findings of the analysis?

We found that the federal and state tools we currently have at our disposal can get us significant reductions, but without legislation and a cap on emissions we cannot reach our ultimate goals, especially in the long term.