By Dustyn Thompson
In response to the overwhelming amount of pollution in the U.S. in the late 1960s and the growth of the environmental movement following the publication of “Silent Spring,” Sen. Gaylord Nelson, D-Wis., launched the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970.
It has been widely considered one of the largest demonstrations in United States history, with an estimated 20 million people participating across the nation.
From that movement, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Clean Air Act, the National Environmental Education Act and several other groundbreaking national environmental laws were passed in the following years.
Delaware also took significant environmental action. For example, in 1971, the state passed the Coastal Zone Act (CZA), one of the farthest-reaching environmental laws our state has passed. Unfortunately, in 2017, the CZA was heavily amended to reallow industries, including several banned in the original law, to come back into the coastal zone.
While there have been some hiccups along the road, Delaware has continued to move forward on climate.
In 2009, Delaware joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) to combat pollution and greenhouse gas emissions on a regional basis through a cap-and-trade program. Money from RGGI has been used to help fund programs for low- and moderate-income households to multiply the impact of that effort. Periodically, participating states conduct a program review of RGGI. In the past, the states have focused on technical issues. In 2021, environmental advocates and environmental-justice groups are looking at how we can go even further to help combat environmental injustice and climate change in our region.
In another important accomplishment and after a multiyear campaign, Delaware updated its Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) this year. The RPS sets a schedule for utilities in Delaware regarding how much renewable energy they must purchase in a given year. That law would have expired in 2025 at 25% renewable energy, but with the new bill becoming law, we will be moving to 40% by 2035. This is still lower than some of our neighboring states’ rates, but advocates are continuing to work with legislators to increase the RPS to 50% or higher in the coming months.
As a follow-up to the successful RPS increase, we are working with state legislators to provide access to solar for all residents regardless of income, whether their roof is suitable for solar or whether they own their homes. Other states have done this by creating community solar programs. By doing the same in Delaware, we can help low- to moderate-income residents reduce their dependence on dirty fossil fuels, while saving money on their energy bills.
While we have made a lot of progress over the years, there is still a lot of work to be done in Delaware to ensure that everyone has clean air and safe drinking water.
First, it is critical that Delaware increase fines for polluters to better address industry’s impact on air and water pollution. Many of these fines were set in the late 1980s and ’90s and are severely outdated. This has led to polluters treating fines as a line item in their budgets, rather than an incentive not to pollute and update their systems. This needs to change.
Second, Delaware has no protections in our constitution that residents have a right to clean air and water. Pennsylvania added a so-called “Green Amendment” to its constitution in 1971, one year after the first Earth Day celebration, and it has been used to combat issues around water pollution and fracking. We need to advocate for a Green Amendment in Delaware.
We are also plagued in Delaware with numerous issues around environmental justice, mostly centered around heavy industry and industrial agriculture being in close proximity to residential communities. New Castle County is currently undergoing a comprehensive plan rewrite, and there have been discussions about changing buffer requirements on the state level. Both of these conversations present opportunities to ensure communities are not overburdened with industry right on their doorstep.
Delaware has moved forward since Earth Day started in 1970, but we have a long way to go. With the current makeup of the state legislature being the most diverse in our state’s history, we have the opportunity to make significant changes to our environmental laws.
Dustyn Thompson, volunteer and community outreach coordinator for the Sierra Club’s Delaware chapter, resides in Wilmington.
