The LookOut is a monthly digest of climate issues and recent
developments in our neighborhood.
The most recent draft Regional Climate Action Plan emerged on August 13. Interested parties are invited to read it and send written comments to the Planning Department by
September 13. A hybrid public meeting about the RCAP will take place
on September 10 at 6 PM at the Wharfinger in Eureka. Click here for how to attend remotely via Microsoft Teams. The RCAP is a roadmap
for how the county will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions in line
with state mandates.
Because
it seems unlikely that any modifications of the draft plan would be
made before the Environmental Impact Report process begins, the
purpose of this first round of public discussion is a little unclear.
However, it does give us more time to prepare our comments. The
Planning Department plans to file a Notice of Preparation for the EIR
any day now. Next comes the public Scoping meeting on September 17
from 3:30 PM to 5 PM at the Agricultural Center in Eureka (5630 South
Broadway). It’s not known yet if that meeting will also be hybrid.
The
Scoping meeting and subsequent thirty-day comment period provide the
general public with an opportunity to comment on the potential
environmental impacts of the measures in the draft and to propose
alternatives before the county finishes preparing the draft EIR. Once
the DEIR is made public, a 45-day comment period begins. The county
hopes that the final report [FEIR], which contains answers to the
questions raised about the DEIR, will be completed and adopted
sometime in June of 2025.
This
timeline leaves only four and a half years before 2030, which is the
first deadline for emissions reductions—40% below 1990 levels by
2030. The second deadline is 2045 for full carbon neutrality. The
more we fall short of the 2030 target, the more we’ll have to
achieve by 2045. The process of writing a regional Climate Action
Plan began in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic can be blamed for at least
part of the delay, and the other reasons are probably familiar to
many around the world as greenhouse gases accumulate in the
atmosphere. A first draft RCAP finally came out last year.
Rincon
Consultants, which was originally hired to write a DEIR for that
first draft, advised the county that its measures were too ambitious
and unlikely to deliver the emissions target. The consultants
proceeded to write the current draft and will also write the DEIR for
their own work, stirring concerns in some quarters about how
objective the results will be. The extensive public review process
may settle that question.
If
its measures are found to be realistically attached to the targeted
reductions, it will be considered a qualified RCAP, allowing the
county to streamline CEQA for new projects.
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Humboldt Sawmill
Company proposes to install equipment upgrades
at its biomass plant that could allow its
boilers operate 24/7 every day of the year. Currently, tar
buildup in the three boilers causes frequent, prolonged shutdowns.
According to a table in its application for this Significant
Modification, particulate pollution and CO2 emissions could
quintuple. Toxic chemical emissions would also greatly
increase.
The vice-president
of operations at the Mendocino Redwoods Family of Companies recently
revealed to RCEA’s Biomass Technical Advisory Group that the plant
has been importing woody residues from other sources in addition to
burning its own waste. The sawmill company has always made the case
that burning its waste with some pollution controls and using the
energy released is the most feasibly environmental way of dealing
with the byproduct of making lumber. Now we realize that HSC isn’t
just trying to dispose of its own waste but is making the dirtiest
electricity possible as a profitable sideline to making lumber. With
the equipment upgrade it expects its neighbors, including a school
three blocks away, to deal with the drastically increased pollution
of using its 38-year-old boilers to their maximum capacity without
installing more pollution controls.
The North Coast
Unified Air Quality Management District held a hearing on August 26
to hear comments from the public about this proposed Significant
Modification. Two members of 350 Humboldt were the only commenters.
We reminded the air district that the Significant Modification is
proposed for a permit which doesn’t seem to exist. The EPA has no
record of it being filed in 2018, and if the air district does, it
has ignored public information requests. Even if the old permit was
legally filed in 2018, HSC failed to renew it in time,
according to the stated requirements. 350’s comments may be used as
the basis of an appeal to the EPA.
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Climate and
utility justice activists, organized by 350.org, unleashed a series of protests in seventeen states from the
east coast to the west during the third week of August. More than
two dozen separate gatherings plus at least thirty published
editorials all hammered on the same message: Make way for an energy
system that benefits us all. That means clean, affordable energy for
all.
At least one of
these protests bore immediate fruit. PSC utility company suspended its electricity rate hike until May in West Virginia. On Long Island,
people protested a dire situation with gas bills set to rise an average of $33 per
month. You can watch four minutes of footage
from the protest in San Diego.
Three newspapers
published 350 Humboldt’s open letter to Senator
McGuire about the California Public Utility Commision and PG&E
teaming up to place utility profits above the clean energy
conversion. The legislature can do a lot to change the role utilities
play in our lives. The campaign continues.
Week of Action protest
The
American Rescue Plan Act delivered
$500,000 to the
city of Arcata
this year.
President
Biden signed the legislation
in 2021 to help with economic recovery from the pandemic. The
city
has
dedicated the
ARPA
funds
to
climate-related projects. If you have seen Arcata police zipping
around on e-bikes, you’ve seen the fruit of one of those projects.
Facility
upgrades to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions will take
the lion’s share of funding, plus some extra from an
ECAA (Energy Conservation Assistance Act) 1% interest loan. The
improvements will include lighting at Redwood Park, bike lockers at
City Hall, and a water heater for the Community Center.
Unfortunately, a grant program to support low-income households
upgrade to electric, energy-efficient appliances has been put on hold
because of court challenges to All Electric Initiatives in other
California cities. Some of that money has been reallocated to RCEA’s
E-bike incentive program.
Arcata
city manager Karen Diemer, who shared the list of ARPA-funded,
climate-related projects with us, also let us know about other
projects that will be financed from other sources. Those include the
free bus services during June and July this summer, more
energy-efficient lighting, working on the regional CAP, electrifying
the municipal fleet and equipment, and the Complete Streets treatment
for Old Arcata Rd.
350
Humboldt calendar
September’s
general meeting will be on Wednesday the 4th at 6 PM.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84370554552?pwd=V2phMDBOUlNiS3hLL1BQSHNIVDFTQT09
For
September 7, No on F campaign organizers invite the
public to a meeting at the House of Nice from 2 PM to 6 PM at 712 5th
Street. There will be an
orientation for canvassers, who will work
in pairs. Others can work on art that is relevant to the No
on F campaign, and yet others will get tips to help with writing
letters to the editor. Snacks and camaraderie are promised! If
you can’t make it but want to financially support the campaign,
donate at https://www.realhousing4eureka.com/donate
or
send a check to No on F at PO Box7284 Eureka CA 95502
The book
club meets on September 23 at 7 PM. The book
is Climate Capitalism: Winning the Race to Zero Emissions and
Solving the Crisis of Our Age by Akshat Rathi. (October’s book
is Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to
Build a Sustainable Planet by Hannah Ritchie.) Everyone welcome
even if you haven’t read the book.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87104876080?pwd=Q1Z2Z0d3K3V0UE9EN2Z0TlFweTZndz09
Our
next Speaker Series event is
scheduled for
September 30 at 7 PM.
Ciara Emery of RWE and Erik Peckar of Vineyard
Wind will talk about how they got interested in
offshore
wind, what messages they’re getting from affected communities, and
how this is all going to work out.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82720663914?pwd=swGBZck85JNF0p8erefm3RmYbdtVvD.1
Join us for
letter writing every Sunday night at 7 PM on Zoom.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84789051501?pwd=L3pJL0t1am5EblJRVWZhUWFIenpIdz09
Members of 350 Humboldt’s Outreach Committee tabling at the Co-Op
Kate Hitt
More News
The river be undammed! On
August 28 the last barriers to the free flow of the Klamath
fell as river lovers celebrated. The victory brought particular joy to local tribes who fought many years for a restoration of salmon
runs so important to their traditions. A final gush of sediment
clouded the river and lowered its oxygen level for many miles, but soon flushed out. Things are looking good for Chinook this autumn.
Five major tributaries are also
being restored so they will run free and cold again and provide
salmon with cold-water refuges like they used to over a hundred years
ago. Overall, the river is cooling down as the three reservoirs no
longer store the summer heat. That influence lasted into the autumn,
which delayed the fall run of Chinook by up to three weeks.
A massive effort involving
tribal crews and RES is re-vegetating the land where the reservoirs
once drowned everything. The first stage involved 65,000 pounds of
native seeds, plus 78,000 shrubs and trees. This work is ongoing for
many years.
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Almost a year ago California authorized its Department of Water
Resources [DWR] to procure large chunks of offshore
wind energy and resell them to utilities and other
load-serving entities such as CCAs. This insertion of the
government into the energy business reassures private developers who
risk huge investments in infrastructure for certain types of energy
such as offshore wind and geothermal. Utilities and LSEs don’t
have as much buying clout as the state.
The Public Utilities Commission took
the next step last week by setting a “need determination”
for 7.6 GW of offshore wind by 2035. This isn’t exactly an ironclad
guarantee that the DWR will buy that amount, no matter the price. The
PUC stipulates certain conditions that reduce cost and will be
incorporated into future bids. It also took care to designate a
smaller amount than the capacity of full build-out, so there will
still be room for competition and further cost reductions as wind
operations gain experience and iron out the wrinkles.
Like any new technology, offshore wind
costs will decrease as the industry learns and scales up. The same
thing happened with solar energy, which is today cheaper than any
other electricity. Offshore wind has the potential to generate large
amounts of energy while the sun is down and can be used to make green
hydrogen during the night when everyone is sleeping.