Home Delaware

Delaware

Return to state-by-state climate policy map
 

This summary is part of Beyond the Beltway: A Report on State Energy and Climate Policies produced by the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at Berkeley Law

 

Delaware gets 85% of its power from natural gas. There is a bit of coal and a smidgen of solar and biomass use as well, but the state has a renewable portfolio standard of 25% by 2025.[1] The big news is that the use of coal has dropped by a factor of ten in the past decade. The state imports a great deal of electricity, so its overall contribution to carbon emissions is harder to calculate.

In an unusual move for a state government, Delaware commissioned its own climate modeling effort to examine future impacts.[2] The 2013 report used nine climate models to study a high-emissions scenario and a low-emissions one, downscaling the global results to Delaware. Among the results were projected average temperature increases of 1.5-2.5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2020-2039, 2.5-4.5 degrees by 2040-2059, and 3.5-9.5 degrees by 2080-2099.

When President Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, Governor John Carney announced that the state was joining the U.S. climate alliance. He highlighted climate impacts on Delaware:

“Delaware is the country’s lowest-lying state and with 381 miles of coastline, climate change is a very real threat to our future . . . . As sea levels rise, more than 17,000 Delaware homes, nearly 500 miles of roadway and thousands of acres of wildlife habitat including our critical wetlands are at risk of permanent inundation. Rising average temperatures and an increase in extreme weather events also pose health risks to Delawareans, and threaten our economy. The U.S. should lead in the global fight against climate change. Delaware is proud to join this coalition of states providing that necessary leadership.”[3]

Like many other coastal, blue states, Delaware’s politics and its long coastline are providing strong incentives to take climate change seriously.

 

  1. Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, “Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards,” http://dnrec.alpha.delaware.gov/energy-climate/renewable/portfolio-standards/.
  2. Katharine Hayhoe et al., “Climate Change Projections and Indicators for Delaware,” ATMOS Research & Consulting (Dec. 2013), http://www.dnrec.delaware.gov/energy/Documents/Climate%20Change%202013-2014/ARC_Final_Climate_Report_Dec2013.pdf.
  3. “Delaware Joins U.S. Climate Alliance to Uphold Goals of Paris Agreement,” State of Delaware News (June 5, 2017), https://news.delaware.gov/2017/06/05/delaware-joins-u-s-climate-alliance-to-uphold-goals-of-paris-agreement/.