350 Humboldt LookOut

April, 2022

For the 52nd year, Earth Day brought
us together all around the world to protest desecration of our
home and to celebrate that we’re still here. The rally in Eureka in
front of the courthouse on Friday, April 22, displayed heartfelt
signs, speeches, music, and honking horns.

The same spirit continued on the next day in Arcata at the
Farmers’ Market. More photos of both events at the end of this post.

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Two days before
Earth Day the Climate Action
Plan re-emerged after its abortive appearance last year in
October. Senior Planner Michael Richardson said that staff members of
different Humboldt jurisdictions had decided the 2021 version wasn’t
suited to “a rural county” and needed revising.

All jurisdictions
within California must have a plan to reduce their greenhouse gases
in order to conform to the state’s target of 40% below 1990 levels.
The plan can be part of its General Plan or a separate Climate Action
Plan. Humboldt opted for the latter course, and jurisdictions within
the county decided in 2018 to band together to accomplish that
goal.

Connor McGuigan of
the Planning and Building Department held various workshops
throughout the county in 2019 to elicit suggestions from the public
about how to reduce our emissions to meet California’s standards.
2015 data, compiled by Redwood Coast Energy Authority, provided the
sector-by-sector inventory of the county’s emissions. As reported by
Daniel Mintz in the Mad River
Union, the plan was expected to be adopted in the spring of 2022. However, the pandemic hit, and the whole project went
underground. No website updates, no returned emails, no news for well
over a year until the grapevine began producing rumors
mid-2021 about the CAP’s promised debut. It finally appeared in
October, was yanked, and now here it is again six months later even
though two of the appendices are not yet completed.

If
any of this seems a little deja-vu-ish, it’s because a Climate Action
Plan was created in 2012 and was rejected by the Board of
Supervisors. The public will comment on this latest version as the
various jurisdictions consider and vote on it. After that it must
undergo an Environmental Impact Report. That process may begin as
soon as June or July, according to the website where
you can read the plan.
August of 2023 is
the scheduled deadline for adoption.

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The Coastal
Commission voted on April 7 to allow energy developers
to survey and study the federally designated 206 square mile wind
energy area off of Humboldt’s coast. The vote was unanimous but also
came with seven conditions. They included broad requirements
such as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management partnering with
commission staff to minimize environmental impacts of the surveying
activities, but also highly specific conditions–like #3, which
mandated that survey vessels not exceed ten knots. Engagement with
Native communities and commercial fishing community was also called
for.

Commission staff
acknowledged the urgent need for clean energy on the scale that the
proposed offshore wind projects could provide. They also noted that
environmental impacts were inevitable. However, they and the
commissioners emphasized their responsibility to protect the
environmental communities of California’s coastal waters.

How will this
balance be achieved? Our representative on the Commission, Mike
Wilson, third district supervisor, stated towards the end of the meeting that our community feels “a global responsibility to
be a part of this effort to address climate change” but also
that Humboldt’s feet are “firmly planted” in its
determination to protect its coastal areas.

photo courtesy of Lost Coast Outpost

California’s
crackdown
on methane began in 2016
with passing SB 1383.
(Other short-lived climate pollutants are also targeted.) Food and
other organic substances rotting under anaerobic conditions–such as
a landfill–produces 20% of California’s methane. So SB 1383 mandates
reducing landfilled garbage to 75% below 2014 levels by 2025.
Recovery of edible food for human consumption is part of this
requirement.

We
were supposed to be compliant with this law by January of this year,
but it wasn’t until November of last year that Humboldt’s seven
cities banded together with the county to hire a consulting firm,
Edgar and Associates, to investigate our most feasible options.
Fortunately, California won’t start penalizing jurisdictions until
January of 2023. With a lot to do, Humboldt Waste Management
Authority and the Solid Waste Local Task Force are on the spot.

Edgar
and Associates have helped hammer out a Compliance Road
Map, a sixty-one page
document you can read here if you scroll down. Those of us who get excited about composting want
to keep our garbage in the county and convert it to a soil amendment
that will increase fertility and sequester carbon. However, the plan
now is to ship it to a composting facility or biodigester in another
county–at least temporarily. Of course, the organic matter would
still need collection and
processing to exclude contaminants before continuing on its way.
Grants are available from
CalRecycle to help with
funding, but collection
rates will rise, of
course. Evan Edgars says
the average statewide
increase is around 18%. That’s a lot.

What
will happen if all the ducks aren’t lined up by next year?
Jurisdictions
that can show proof of “substantial effort” may win more
extra time before penalty time. The four smallest cities–Trinidad,
Rio Dell, Ferndale, and Blue Lake–have
been granted waivers that are good until
2027.

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The Line 3 Legal Defense
Fund has notified 350 Humboldt that the address sent to us last month
was incorrect. If you’d like to send a check to defray the legal
costs of defending water protectors who have been arrested, please
send it to PO Box 7410, Minneapolis, MN 55407

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Low-income neighborhoods rebelled against diesel fumes that
make their air officially unsafe to breathe for a hundred days out of
the year. And they won. Listen to their story on Cool Solutions: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/cool-solutions-wendy-ring-E_Jbr9mUnv7/

Listen to the
sound of river allies exulting as
they foresee dams tumbling
down on both the Klamath and the Eel. On the Eco-News Report: https://lostcoastoutpost.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/podcast/econews-report/3125/econews-20220416.mp3

Bet you didn’t know about all the bees in the redwoods: https://www.savetheredwoods.org/blog/pollinators-of-the-redwood-understory/?

Can it be true? The plan to permanently protect 30% of
California by 2030. https://www.californianature.ca.gov/pages/30×30

Watch out, California. Florida,
of all places, could make you look bad: https://www.theenergymix.com/2022/04/28/florida-governor-vetoes-effort-to-slash-utility-payments-for-rooftop-solar/?

Earth Day

All photos by Dana Utman

Music

Bandemonium

Speeches

Art

Puppets

“Dogs Help Us” : A Musical

Arrange for a free performance at
[email protected]