Nevada is not on pace to meet its 2030 greenhouse gas reduction goals, and a state report released before the new year projects the state will fall well short when lawmakers’ targets rise, according to the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection. The analysis projects Nevada will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20.7% by 2030, which the report describes as 24.3 percentage points short of the legislative target, with net-zero by 2050 also out of reach. The department’s outlook also says the emissions reductions Nevada achieved earlier are largely leveling off, even as electricity and transportation remain the biggest sources of emissions.
The goals at the center of the shortfall date to 2019, when lawmakers passed SB254. Under the law, Nevada targeted a 28% reduction by 2025 over 2005 levels, followed by a 45% reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050. The law did not set consequences for missing the targets, and the report’s projections indicate Nevada has been unable to translate the early progress into sustained cuts as the timeline approaches 2030.
Nevada’s emissions report projects that carbon emissions will stay nearly the same over the next five years, reaching less than half of what lawmakers had hoped for by 2030. The department said it expects the state to lower emissions by just half a percentage point between 2025 and 2030, which would amount to nearly 25% less than lawmakers expected under SB254. The report also says reductions have been largely flat since SB254’s passage, pointing to a plateau effect as state and federal policymakers deprioritize climate action.
The report attributes the state’s earlier reductions to factors that began before the current policy environment fully took shape. It notes that economic downturns from 2007 to 2009 and the COVID-19 pandemic reduced emissions, and it also cites the retirement of the Mohave and Reid Gardner coal-powered generating stations as contributing to reductions since 2005. But it says those reductions have not been matched by a continued acceleration of new cuts, and that future reductions under current policies are expected to stagnate.
Nevada’s pollution profile is dominated by electricity generation and transportation, which together accounted for 91% of the state’s emissions in 2025, according to the report. The department says electricity generation accounted for 45% of emissions in 2005, but fell to 26% by 2023 after the Reid Gardner and Mohave generating stations were retired. Nevada also ended coal use: at the beginning of the year, the utility NV Energy stopped burning coal at the North Valmy Generating Station, its last coal plant, and said the site is being converted to burn natural gas. NV Energy spokesperson Meghin Delaney said the company is “proud of our work in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the state,” and that it has been “transitioning to a less carbon-intensive future.”
The report projects that policy changes and investment choices have not yet produced continuing emissions reductions in the power sector, and that electricity emissions will eventually become static without additional measures. Former state Sen. Chris Brooks, a Democrat, said that continuing to encourage energy efficiency and adopting renewables would help the power sector, where “we’ve seen our biggest gains.” Brooks also said he has concerns about the pace of decarbonization in transportation, which the report says has grown as a share of the state’s emissions over time.
Transportation became the largest source of statewide emissions in 2010, the report says. It says transportation produced 33% of emissions in 2005, rising to 38% last year, and projects that transportation emissions will not decrease without more aggressive state and federal policies. The department said the 2025 report reflected year-over-year increases in transportation emissions because of changes in how certain emissions, including jet fuel, were recalculated using a federal methodology, and it said the change represented “a change in methodology, not an actual increase in real-world emissions.” The report also says that excluding that methodological effect, the gap between the state’s reduction goals and projected emissions has been fairly flat since lawmakers established the targets in 2019.
A spokesperson for Nevada’s governor’s office and other agencies declined interviews or directed requests to the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection. The report’s discussion of policy changes also points to a political and regulatory shift following Gov. Joe Lombardo’s election in 2022. The analysis says Lombardo pivoted away from the climate policies of his Democratic predecessor, Gov. Steve Sisolak: Sisolak signed SB254, joined Nevada to a multi-state coalition focused on reducing emissions, issued an executive order directing state agencies to implement measures in SB254, and drafted a statewide climate plan. Under Lombardo, the state issued an executive order emphasizing a continued use of natural gas and pulled the earlier climate plan offline, with a replacement plan later issued.
The report says critics viewed Lombardo’s “Nevada’s Climate Innovation Plan,” a 33-page document that replaced the former plan, as lacking data, goals, and proposals and as focusing on past work rather than charting a path forward. It also says Lombardo withdrew Nevada from the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of more than two dozen governors committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions consistent with climate goals in the Paris Agreement. Lombardo’s letter withdrawing Nevada said the goals of the alliance “conflict with Nevada’s energy policy objectives,” and it states Nevada had joined the alliance in 2019 under Sisolak.
It also lays out policy developments that were expected to reduce emissions from vehicles but notes that some rules are in flux. The report says Clean Cars Nevada, which adopted California’s low-emission vehicle standards beginning with model year 2025 vehicles, is limited to those 2025 model-year vehicles because California approved new regulations starting with model year 2026 that Nevada has not adopted. It also says EPA emission standards set under former President Joe Biden for light-, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles are being considered for repeal, including that the EPA is expected to rescind a determination environmentalists have called the “endangerment finding.” The report further says updated federal fuel economy standards that took effect in 2024 were effectively eliminated through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Trump and congressional Republicans, which the report described as reducing expected gains in fuel economy.
Former state Sen. Pat Spearman, who sponsored SB254, said she is disappointed by the lack of state efforts even if the shortfall is not surprising to her. In remarks to The Nevada Independent, Spearman said, “It doesn’t matter if you’re in a red state, blue state, purple state or no state. You’re talking about people’s lives,” and she added that “It’s disappointing that the current administration at the state level has decided to go along with the decisions at the national level. It’s about science. It’s not politics. It’s about science and public policy.” Olivia Tanager, executive director of the Sierra Club’s Toiyabe Chapter, said the numbers are concerning and that Nevada is on a “horrible trajectory,” describing the broader issue as a lack of political will.
The emissions outlook, the report says, indicates Nevada’s path to net-zero by 2050 “will require major changes to the State’s transportation system,” including “shifts in travel patterns and personal transportation choices” and “a more-strategic approach to Nevada’s investment in infrastructure” that includes consideration of climate impacts. In its written response, NDEP said it does not advocate for specific actions and instead provides “objective information to help decision-makers and the public understand Nevada’s emissions outlook.”