The Deluge

by Stephen Markley

Much of Pietrus’s radical wish list is unremarkable, well-trod territory of the climate vanguard. What differentiates One Last Chance is that last part, the “carefully excised pieces.” It’s also what should send a chill down the spine of every American. First, however, his stunning grab bag of policies deserves comment, if only to deracinate it: the purchase and stranding of all US coal supplies and shuttering of all coal plants within five years; the nationalization of the thirty largest fossil-fuel-producing companies in order to “unwind” their operations; limits to production on virgin aluminum, cement, iron, plastics, and forest products; a buyback program to replace the entire US vehicle fleet with electric vehicles within ten years; achieving a 50 percent reduction in air travel by levying heavy taxes on each ticket; a rapid buildout of nuclear power plants; and massive public works projects ranging from the construction of a smart grid to carbon capture systems that would draw CO2 from the air and sequester it in the ground and offshore. The nation’s farmers will not escape either. Pietrus also insists on draconian taxes to lower dairy and beef consumption and advocates a price collar system on agricultural emissions with auctioned credits, which would “quickly and effectively shift the economy toward zero-carbon energy and food production.”