The LookOut is a monthly digest of climate issues and
recent developments in our neighborhood.
The Gateway Area Plan
made some progress at the last Arcata City Council meeting when council members killed once and for all (we hope) the K and L
couplet proposal. Currently L street is closed to cars, and most
Arcatans want to keep it that way. Safe transportation advocates
were also pleased by the council’s direction to staff to make a
plan that improves safety for bikes and pedestrians on K and 11th
streets.
At the same meeting,
however, housing density was thrown into doubt. The issue involved
building height. Proposed maximum heights for various sections of the
Gateway Area range from four stories to seven. Critics of this
standard include the Arcata Fire District, which currently
lacks the expertise and equipment to deal with a fire that high.
Shading already existing buildings is a concern for many, especially
the residents of those already existing buildings. Recessing top
stories back from the ground floor would help, but promised 3D
solar shading models have yet to be delivered.
Only three members of the
city council are qualified to vote on the GAP, and all three of them
must agree. So Council member Kimberly White’s stated preference
for a range of three to five stories dismayed density advocates.
White proposed another Open House meeting to consider “strategic”
housing. As she explained to the Mad River Union, “Being
strategic means evaluating different blocks and neighborhoods and
adjusting the upper-floor step-backs so there’s more daylight
coming to the street. Being strategic means not putting a seven-story
building right next to the L Street pathway.”
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The
relationship between Humboldt and two giant wind power
developers deepened when a Memorandum of Agreement was signed.
RWI and Vineyard Offshore have sworn that their interests are
inextricably linked to our interests, and mutual cooperation
throughout the long process ahead will be the golden rule. The goal
is to avoid and minimize impacts to our community and environment
from offshore wind development.
The MOA
also kicks off the beginning of collaborative workforce planning in
Humboldt. The extensive preparations needed to fill skilled jobs with
Humboldt residents is the purview of Humboldt Economic Development
director Scott Adair and the Workforce Development Board.
Announcing the MOA at the last Supervisors meeting, a jubilant
Adair said it promoted “sustainable economic and workforce growth
for Humboldt County residents and businesses.”
In
response to a question from Supervisor Bohn, Adair said it would be
five to seven years from now before building even begins. So 2030 to
2032 is likely the soonest the turbines would produce electricity.
For
the meantime, County Administrative Officer Elishia Hayes suggested
creating an immersive learning center that would show videos and use
other aids to familiarize children and adults with the process of
building wind turbines and how they work.

screenshot from Supervisors meeting
Those busy grant-hunters
at Humboldt Transit Authority
are at it again. This time they’ve applied for funding from
EnergIIZE Commercial Vehicles. (The acronym stands for Energy
Infrastructure Incentives for Zero-Emission.) Funded by the
California Energy Commission, the program was approved in April of 2021, and in February of this year opened with $10.4
million available for applicants.
What
HTA wants is two DC fast chargers at its facility, which is located
at 133 V St. in Eureka. These chargers would support five transit
city buses and three to five micro-transit vans. Locating the
chargers in this low-income and light-industrial neighborhood qualifies HTA to receive up to 75% of equipment and software costs, though
capped at $750,000.
Displacing
diesel buses improves the local air quality and for the larger
community as well. HTA’s
goal of upgraded, high
quality transit can make
traveling without a car feasible in the main metropolitan area of
Humboldt county.
Funding
programs for ZEV infrastructure is even more essential today now that
California’s Air Resources Board has passed the Advanced Clean Fleets directive. Now its deadline has been moved up to 2036 for
sales of medium to heavy duty vehicles owned by the state and local
governments to be zero-emissions. Approximately 150 different types
of MHDV vehicles are already available today.

photo courtesy of Lost Coast Outpost
Speaking of buses, California’s
crusade to slash transportation emissions is attempting to take
another leap. Although the requirements of California’s Advanced
Clean Fleets law includes schools, most school buses were exempted.
Now Assembly member Phillip Ting has introduced a bill, AB
579, that aims to plug that loophole.
Beginning on the first day of 2035, all
new purchases or contracts for school buses will be ZEVs. This is a
much longer time frame than what other medium to heavy duty vehicles
get under California law. Extensions and exemptions based on
different circumstances are also written into the bill. However, the
California School Board Association still opposes
it.
On the other hand, The Climate Center
thinks the bill doesn’t go far enough and calls for two changes.
One would move the target date from 2035 to 2030. It notes that the
average life of a diesel school bus is twelve to fifteen years. So a
diesel bus bought in 2034 could pollute young lungs with toxic
emissions until 2049—four pears past the date when we’re supposed
to achieve overall carbon neutrality.
The Center also suggests that these new
ZEVs be required to employ bidirectional charging capacity. This
refers to the capacity to feed power to the grid when needed. School
buses are perfect for this use as they are usually quietly parked
during peak usage hours and can recharge overnight.
350
Humboldt activities
The
August bus adventurers met at Humboldt Transit Authority to
receive a tutorial on how to load bikes on the bus, opening up whole
new vistas for people who were previously scared to ask. One lesson
learned was that e-bikes currently can’t go on the bus. (That may
change sometime in the future.) Afterwards bikers rode the Eureka Bay
Trail.
The
next bus adventure will be an October 2 bus trip to Blue Lake
Rancheria for a talk and tour of its sustainability programs. The
talk begins at 2 pm. The Blue Lake bus leaves from Arcata. Contact
Cathy at [email protected] closer to the date for more
information.
An
action was held on August 14 to educate passing motorists about
impending sea level rise. See Mad River Union’s photo layout here.
Handheld signs along State Road 255 spelled out what will happen in
thirty years. The road . . . .

Listen
and Learn
The
stakes are higher than usual
for this year’s Farm Bill with money for climate solutions threatened
by villainous
Republicans.
Listen
to Cool Solutions.
PG&E’s
plan to decommission and remove dams
on Eel River may be delayed, or worse, by a vague proposal out of
left field. Listen to the Eco-News Report.
The
Writing on the Wall for Fossil Fuels
Clean
energy technologies are threatening
fossil
fuels
much faster than anyone thought.
Guess
what percentage of new energy
this year came from fossil fuels?
Finally.
Not much oil is left to wring from the planet.
Huge
offshore wind project
on the east coast is set to start upending energy economics.