The LookOut is a monthly
digest of climate issues and recent developments in our neighborhood.
Anyone
who suspected that Humboldt county would not reap any of the future
wind energy off its shore will be glad to hear about the most recent draft Transmission Plan from California Independent
System Operator (CAISO). It provides for a new 500 kV substation
onshore in Humboldt to receive the electricity and two new
transmission lines—one to the Bay area and one towards Red Bluff.
Redwood Coast Energy Authority at a special meeting on April 22
hailed this development as a “regional grid resilience investment.”
Three
powerhouses of innovative technology on the West Coast, are joining forces
to get ready for offshore wind: Schatz Energy Center of Cal Poly
Humboldt, which has been working on clean energy technologies for 35
years, the Center for Coastal Marine Sciences of Cal Poly San Luis
Obispo, and the Pacific Marine Energy Center of Oregon State
University. This formidable trio calls itself the Pacific Offshore
Wind Consortium (POWC, aptly pronounced POW Sea). Its focus will be
research and innovation, workforce education and professional
development, and community and Tribal engagement and knowledge
sharing, monitoring protected species, and mitigation planning.
The
consortium’s advisory committee will mine input from representatives
from Tribal Nations, including Blue Lake Rancheria and the Yurok
Tribe and Hoopa Valley Public Utility District, state agencies,
federal labs and agencies, philanthropic organizations and the
offshore wind industry.
There
is a lot to be learned in the five to eight years before construction
of the wind turbines begins. However, the onshore support facilities
need to be built first, including the heavy-lift marine terminal on
the Samoa Peninsula. To finance these port developments, the
California legislature has proposed a one billion dollar bond measure
(AB 2208). Without a bond measure, state funds would need to be
earmarked,
but those are getting scarce as an estimated $38 billion deficit
looms, according to Gov. Newsom.
Click here for a podcast from the Reimagine Rural about the trepidation and
hopes many of us Himboldters feel as we try to gauge the changes that
the offshore wind industry will have on our county. [Note: the recent
CAISO draft Transmission Plan had not yet been issued when these
interviews with civic and tribal leaders were done.]
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Since
last October when the Planning Department determined that the
county draft Climate Action Plan would likely not deliver the
necessary emissions reductions, Rincon Consultants has been rewriting
it. 350 Humboldt had hoped that the county and the consultants, based
in Ventura, would consult with knowledgeable local environmentalists;
instead, the county sent out an email in May to interested parties
that listed possible reduction measures and the amount of CO2 each
would save. Respondents were instructed to express their preferences
by May 29. The purpose of this popularity contest is a little
unclear, considering the draft CAP’s June deadline. However, public
comment should ensue as usual once the Scoping period for a draft
Environmental Review has begun. Stay tuned.
If you would like to familiarize yourself with the possible measures
in the draft plan, 350 Humboldt plans to use the community survey as
a basis for discussion at its General Meeting on June 5 at 6 PM.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82415260158?pwd=SHY0dENuZ3o5MXFSRExLd3kxeE9iQT09
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Despite
acknowledgment of a considerable adverse impact on marine life in
Humboldt Bay, the Coastal Commission granted a permit
on May 8 for the seawater intake system of the Nordic Aquafarm
project. Twelve million gallons of bay water per day passing through
small-mesh screens will entrap fish eggs, larvae, and many other
organisms. Screen design improvements may reduce entrainment. The CC determined, however, that the proposed
environmental
mitigations—including removal of numerous creosote-soaked timbers
from defunct docks, eradication of invasive species, and tidal marsh
restoration—will
outweigh
the adverse impacts.
Nordic
has now obtained all three necessary permits from the Coastal
Commission and many other important ones from various agencies. An
Incidental Take Permit from California Department of Fish and
Wildlife may be necessary because of the entrainment issue. To read
comments submitted to the Coastal Commission from Humboldt
Waterkeeper and other local organizations, click here.
350
Humboldt’s opposition to the project is based on its tremendous
energy usage and the uncounted CO2 emissions of feeding the fish.
Simulation of proposed Nordic facility
After
two and a half years of hammering, Arcata’s Gateway Area Plan [GAP]
is nearing completion. The
process has been lively, to put it mildly, but it should be. At a
special public hearing on May 29, the council listened to
extensive public comment before discussing the overlapping documents
of the GAP, Gateway Area Code, and the Program Environmental Impact
Report. Many commenters lauded the plan’s virtues of providing more
housing without sprawling over ag and forest lands. The infill
project will support a much denser population, making walking,
biking, and public transit much more feasible as means of getting
around. Other commenters expressed fairly nuanced criticisms and
concerns about building heights, fire protection, and densification.
The
current inability of the Arcata Fire Department to respond to burning
buildings that are higher than three stories understandably provoked
the most public concern. However, council member Sarah Schaefer
pointed out that the fire marshal signs off on every building before
it is built. Simply zoning for higher buildings does not mean rubber
stamping disaster. Arcata, the Arcata Fire District, and Cal Poly
Humboldt are jointly funding an analysis of Standards of Coverage.
Exactly what comes after that isn’t known at this time, but it will
doubtlessly involve increasing much needed funding for the AFD. In
the event of that not happening, the GAP will be amended.
The
popular concept of the linear park along L St. between Samoa and 7th,
plus a woonerf (a wide street that accommodates slow limited
vehicular traffic in addition to bicycling and other activities) from
7th to 11th –made its way into the Code. New
buildings along the corridor will incorporate enhanced setbacks of
upper stories to minimize shading, and implementations for these
goals will be developed within two years.
Another
public hearing will be held on June 4, and the final version of the
Gateway Plan, Code, and PEIR will be up for the vote on July 17th.
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The Great Redwood Trail, once a
gleam in the eyes of dreamers, has now issued a draft Master Plan.
The Great Redwood Trail Agency was
established by the California legislature in early 2022 with
Humboldt Supervisor Steve Madrone as vice-chair of the board. The
sixty day public comment period on the Plan ends on June 3. You can
make a comment via the link for the Master Plan above. To read the
comment from EPIC and the Coalition for Responsible Transportation
Priorities, click here.
For much of its length between
San Francisco and Blue Lake, the route follows the abandoned North
Coast Rail line and the Eel River Canyon despite collapsed tunnels,
frequent landslides, old railroad debris, and another set of dreamers
who wanted to restore the old railroad. It will traverse five
counties, fourteen cities and the ancestral territory of numerous
tribes, not all of whom are in favor. And the hefty price tag
keeps growing—$5 billion for construction and environmental
impacts, according to the most recent study. Some taxpayers
aren’t all that thrilled, especially since California estimates a
$38 billion deficit next year.
Sections of the future 307-mile
trail—amounting to about 13%–are already complete and have
expanded opportunity for bicycle commuters as well as for recreation
that doesn’t add to high transportation emissions. The Bay Trail,
linking Arcata to Eureka, will be part of it. Click here for a
great article detailing changes proposed by the Master Plan that
would affect various parts of Humboldt county. Here is another
great article that furnishes an overview of the Plan’s challenges
and benefits.
simulation from the draft Master Plan via Lost Coast Outpost
Redwood Coast Energy Authority
will not make a decision this year about whether biomass electricity
belongs in its Integrated Resource Plan for 2030-2035. The deadline
for the decision had originally been sometime this year, setting off
an intensive round of campaigning that resulted in the formation of
the Humboldt Coalition for Clean Energy. Consisting of
eighteen local environmental, health, and political organizations,
HCCE participated in a biomass hearing at the March meeting of RCEA’s
Citizens’ Advisory Committee. We were hoping to persuade the CAC to
recommend ending the contract with the biomass plant in Scotia, which
currently extends to 2031, once clean renewable energy would be
procured as a replacement. The effort won broad public support and split the CAC almost evenly with HCCE on the losing end.
HCCE contends that the air
pollution violations at the biomass plant are ample grounds
for legally ending the contract. Also, its investigation turned up
considerable doubt that the plant has a valid permit from the state
to operate. The Environmental Protection Agency is currently
investigating.
Though
the IRP decision has been put off, RCEA may still be pursuing new biomass electricity sources under the auspices of BioMat. This state
program subsidizes bioenergy from a variety of sources such as
organic waste, wastewater treatment, agricultural byproducts, or
forestry and fuel load reductions. The last source is most likely
RCEA’s choice since it prefers projects within Humboldt county, and
the other sources are unlikely here. Perhaps the small project size
eligible under BioMAT may help the program in general accomplish its
goal of turning unavoidable GHG emissions into a useful product. But
the prospect of RCEA adding even more uncounted CO2 emissions to its
power mix isn’t particularly appealing and takes dollars away from
wind and solar energy.
Meanwhile, Humboldt county is
lending its support through Supervisor Rex Bohn, a former RCEA board
member, to a proposal that would target forests in Lassen and
Tuolomne counties to ship a million tons of wood pellets every year
to biomass boilers overseas.
On a state level, 350
Humboldt has allied with the Center for Biological Diversity and
other organizations to contest California’s illusion that burning
wood for electricity does not emit CO2. On a federal level, Senator
Cory Booker of New Jersey, has introduced the Forest Biomass Act of
2024. It would “require the Environmental Protection Agency to
assess the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions associated with forest
biomass combustion for electricity when developing relevant rules and
regulations and to carry out a study on the impacts of the forest
biomass industry, and for other purposes.” This is a petition you can sign and send to your senators asking for their support.
Biomass plant in Scotia – courtesy of Andrew Goff
A little progress towards more
frequent buses was made at the HCAOG (Humboldt County Association of
Governments) board meeting on May 16. The board voted unanimously
that bus service at thirty minute intervals between McKinleyville and
Arcata during peak hours is “an unmet transit need that would be
reasonable to meet.” Currently, Redwood Transit buses run every
thirty minutes between Arcata and Eureka during peak hours but only
once an hour between McKinleyville and Arcata. This blatant
anti-North prejudice may finally end.
HCAOG, a joint powers agency,
allocates transportation funds that are raised through a quarter
percent of a statewide sales tax. Now that increasing
Arcata/McKinleyville service has been declared a reasonable unmet
transit need, HCAOG cannot finance any new non-transit projects with
that money until that need has been met. This is state law. State law
also defines “reasonable” as “operationally feasible” and
“financially sustainable,” meaning there must be enough money to
finance the service continuously for a minimum of three years.
State law also mandates that at
least 10% of operating costs must come from passenger fares. Based on
an average of 183 passengers per day who currently ride between
McKinleyville and Arcata, fare revenue would pay for an estimated 21%
of the costs of running the extra buses. No decision has been made
yet about whether the added service will be express.
So when might we expect the new
improved service? According to Jerome Qirazi of Humboldt Transit
Authority, it’s way too soon to say. Much planning goes into
figuring out where to find the additional funding needed, not to
mention the drivers.