The LookOut is a monthly
digest of climate issues and recent developments in our neighborhood.

 

Redwood
Coast Energy Authority makes a list
every two years of acceptable
electricity sources that it may call upon to supply its customers’
needs. This list, the Integrated Resource Plan, is submitted to the
California Public Utilities Commission for approval. It must meet
state standards according to different criteria. Other standards are
determined by economic survival, its own goals, and public
satisfaction.

The
next IRP deadline will be in 2024. RCEA is preparing well in advance
and invites public input before making its decisions. To make this
process less technical and more user-friendly, two public workshops
on the topic of Humboldt’s Electric Future have been scheduled for
June 5 and June 8. The first one is in person at the Jefferson
Community Center and the second one is a zoom meeting. You can
register for either here.

The
task RCEA has set for itself has extremely important climate
ramifications, of course. This readable Humboldt Electric Future report portrays the complexity of the electricity biz. Reading
it and attending one of the workshops could help the public learn
more and give RCEA important feedback. 350 Humboldt supports clean, renewable and carbon-free
electricity.

One
of RCEA’s goals is to provide Humboldt with 100% clean and
renewable energy by 2025. According to 350 Humboldt’s position on
biomass electricity, RCEA’s longstanding contract with Humboldt
Sawmill Company does not fit into its stated ambition. Because of its
high carbon intensity, biomass electricity has been a controversial
part of RCEA’s power mix since its inception.

 

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Overlooking Humboldt Bay, a
big party was held on May 17th to celebrate
breaking ground for the long-awaited southern segment of the Humboldt
Bay Trail. Present were county supervisors, city managers, mayors,
and many more–a who’s who of people who have worked over the years
for this day. Instead of the traditional cutting of a ribbon at the
start of a project, two ribbons were tied together to signify the connection of the Eureka Waterfront Trail to the deadend
northern segment of the trail that was built several years ago from
Arcata. Local contractor McCullough Construction landed the contract
to do most of the work. The overall cost will be around $20 million.

The trail will run between the old
railroad tracks and the highway except for the area of the Brainard
Mill site. That part of the trail will be built on the levee between
the mill and the bay, thanks to an easement from Green Diamond
Resource Company.

According to Steve Madrone, the Fifth
District Supervisor for Humboldt, a consortium of public agencies
made the first report on possible trail options around Humboldt Bay
in 1997. Madrone is also the vice-chair for the Great Redwood Trail Agency, and one of these days the Humboldt Bay Trail will
keep going south all the way to the San Francisco Bay. When the last
gap is connected, there will probably be another party.

 

courtesy of Lost Coast Outpost

 

 

Before the wind turbines come to Humboldt, the wind industry
will arrive, bringing big changes. One impact may be population
growth due to hundreds of new jobs. People already here may
want to take advantage of the local training programs that our educational institutes are preparing.

Calling for a “green port,” a coalition of local
environmentalists—Humboldt Baykeeper, Northcoast Environmental
Center, Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities, and
Environmental Protection Information Center–have pointed to the
potentially adverse impacts of the heavy-lift terminal planned for
the Samoan Peninsula. The components for the colossal wind turbines
will be assembled there and then towed out to sea. An ironic
consequence of 1.6 gigawattts of clean wind energy would be to engulf
our little slice of paradise with diesel fumes and off-the-chart
emissions from all the heavy equipment, ships and tugboats.

Our commitment to a future free of fossil fuel pollution must begin
here and now as the terminal is in its design stage. We can look to
other ports in California that are making a lot of progress towards
cleaning up their act with zero-emissions equipment. Read the
coalition’s statement for more details on how to achieve a green
port.

Electrifying everything before the wind turbines are operational
seems a little like putting the cart in front of the horse, but that
is the situation we’re in. For a while we’ll be more dependent
than ever on the Humboldt Bay Station, but once those wind turbines
are spinning, we’ll all use the abundant wind energy—we hope! Transmission deficiency is on the list of problems to be
solved.

The path to a fossil-free future is strewn with uncertainties, but
the highway leading straight to the cliff edge of climate catastrophe
is smooth and straight.

 

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The painstakingly slow evolution of Arcata’s Gateway Plan
continues. It’s not easy to prepare for a future shaped by both a
growing population and climate change. Already scarce housing and
worsening living conditions for many require coming up with more
places to live. Unless the city sprawls into surrounding ag lands and
forest, infill development is the answer. The Arcata Planning
Commission reaffirmed their commitment to protecting ag land
in late April when they refused to rezone two agricultural parcels at
17th and Q Streets to accommodate housing.

With many difficult decisions to make, the Planning Commission and
city council repeatedly invite public input, yet the most involved
sector of the public complains about insufficient transparency and
communication. City planners hope not to repeat the fate of the Village—a proposed housing development in Arcata that
collapsed after going through years of public review. Then Cal-Poly
snapped up the land which it is currently developing outside of city
purview and for a higher population density than the neighbors
wanted.

Form-Based Code permitting promises a way forward once there
is agreement about what basic standards will define the new
development’s mode of fitting into Arcata. The Planning Commission
will recommend to the Arcata City Council in July its recommendations
for these standards that both enjoy broad public support and fulfill
state mandates for housing. Once those recommendations are solid,
many of the individual projects may require only ministerial review
before approval. Depending on the details—such as proposed building
height–each project may fall into one of three different tiers of
procedure with varying public involvement.

Opening the Gateway area to tall buildings and high density housing
is supposed to win benefits for the neighborhood from developers such
as open space, solar panels, and bicycle infrastructure. The planning
commission wants to codify these benefits in a Community Benefits
program.

The biggest hoped-for and much-needed community benefit is affordable
housing. Critics of the Gateway Plan say they haven’t heard
anything yet that would deliver affordable housing. The greater
number of living units available in a dense development doesn’t
necessarily mean that they will be affordable. How can the city
achieve that while also leaving it to market forces?

 

Dana Utman

 

Humboldt Transit Authority raked in $17.5 million this year
from the California State Transportation Agency to expand and
decarbonize its services. Last year’s grant weighed in at $38.7
million, but who’s complaining?

The money will go towards several
projects, including ten new battery buses and building a new
transit center in Crescent City in partnership with the Yurok Tribe,
which was a co-applicant for the grant with HTA and Redwood Coast
Transit. The three entities are working on bettering transportation
between Humboldt and Del Norte counties, including tribal lands. The
route between Orleans and Willow Creek will operate again. Here is an excellent LOCO write-up for more details of the extensive
transit improvements planned for our area.

A hydrogen fuel cell electric coach that isn’t quite invented yet
is another grant-funded HTA project in the works. In collaboration
with a bus manufacturer, HTA is designing a prototype suitable for
steep hills and long distances between charging facilities.

Speaking of buses, the county’s Transit Development Plan brought
HTA, Humboldt County Association of Governments, LSC Consultants,
climate activists and other members of the public together at a
brainstorming workshop on May 23 about increasing ridership
and decreasing transportation emissions. Buses every fifteen minutes
on a main stem between McKinleyville and College of the Redwoods
seems to be an idea that is gaining traction.

 

LISTEN AND LEARN

The smart, cool and efficient way to get the most carbon
reductions out of electrifying buildings, according to Cool Solutions.

When it comes to community benefits from offshore wind,
Martha’s Vineyard can help us figure it out on the Eco-News Report.

 

BONUS NEWS (It’s not all good.)

PG&E
once again

earns its reputation for calloussed and incompetent capitalism.

The
we-must-get-this-right department:

recyclers are trying to gear up for mountains of dead solar panels.

Capturing
carbon from the ocean:

just another desperate geo-engineering hack or could this help?

Pillaging
the forest

for carbon-spewing biomass electricity might not be profitable either.