The LookOut is a monthly digest of climate issues and recent
developments in our neighborhood.
Humboldt
county is searching for money to repair roads. According to Tom
Mattson, Humboldt’s Public Works director, county roads score well below the state average on the Pavement Condition Index. They
will keep getting worse unless something is done, so the Board of
Supervisors is discussing different money-scrounging options. A tax
is most likely—either a general sales tax or a special sales tax or
possibly a parcel tax. Voters must approve any new tax either in
March or November of next year.
The
reason you’re reading about this in a climate change newsletter is
that 350 Humboldt joins the Coalition for
Responsible Transportation Priorities, Northcoast Environmental Center, and Environmental Protection Information Center in insisting that tax money collected for
roads must also support public transit in order to decarbonize
transportation.
FM3, a
polling company hired to survey community priorities, contacted 660
county residents spread out as evenly as possible between the five
districts. Lists of different issues were read out loud as
well as several questions about whether people think the county is on
the “wrong track.” The top three issues of concern were housing,
homelessness, and drug abuse. Number four was the bad condition of
roads with 90% of respondees agreeing that the problem was extremely
serious, very serious, or somewhat serious. Only 74% agreed the same
about climate change. (However, 81% cited wildfire risk as extremely
serious to somewhat serious.) 68% were seriously concerned about
insufficient transit options. FM3 concluded from all of this that voters could
feasibly vote for a tax for road repair.
So far
supervisors are split on whether support for transit should share the
ballot measure. The survey suggests that a separate tax measure for
transit is unlikely to pass, which is precisely why it should
piggyback on the roads tax. The methodology of a polling company
cannot accurately define the extreme priority of decarbonizing
transportation. People in Humboldt county highly depend on their cars
to get around. Roads in fair condition are necessary for that.
They’re also necessary for our bus system, which must transcend the
vicious cycle of low funding, low availability, and low ridership.
Let
your supervisor know that any step taken to address the status quo
must include steps towards a viable future. Climate change is
breathing down our necks, and no opportunity to do something about it
should be missed.
screenshot from BOS agenda packet
The Board of Supervisors
deferred signing a Memorandum of Agreement with Crowley Maritime
Services at their 11/7 meeting. The MOA concerns planning for
workforce and economic development. Chair Steve Madrone suggested
that county staff needed more community engagement before signing
anything with Crowley. He said he’d been receiving feedback that
various community members—especially fishers and Tribal
Nations—have not been sufficiently consulted. Many of them are
highly concerned about Crowley’s record of sexual harassment
and abuse.
The MOA does not directly
concern the community benefits agreement—including 16 steps proposed by the Yurok Tribal Court to guard against sex
trafficking–that CORE Hub Network is pursuing with the proposed port
developer. Although
Crowley has promised to meet with CORE Hub’s OSW Community Benefits
delegation, it’s the county’s responsibility to facilitate any
agreement about community benefits and come to an agreement with
Crowley.
Meanwhile,
the Harbor District’s planning process for a bay master plan for
offshore wind has accrued enough funds for the preliminary studies
and surveys. The next stage would require approximately $800 million.
A little over half of that might be forthcoming from the federal
government sometime soon. The state may provide some of the rest,
thanks to AB 209. This recently passed bill requires the California
Energy Commission to develop an Offshore Wind Waterfront Facility
Improvement program that will disburse grants for that purpose.
Construction
on the heavy lift marine terminal could start in less than three
years and be completed by 2029.
>>><<<
Redwood
Coast Energy Authority may increase the amount of carbon-emitting
electricity in its Repower mix now that California’s BioMAT program is available to Community Choice Aggregates. The BioMAT
program is California’s attempt to displace fossil fuels by
utilizing bio-energy sourced from unavoidable globalwarming
activities—such as wastewater treatment, or organic waste
codigestion, or dairy gas, or woody biomass that is “sourced from
byproducts of sustainable forest management.”
The
“unavoidable” criteria is certainly true of wastewater treatment
and organic waste. Dairy gas gets more complicated, according to Professor Fingerman of Cal Poly Humboldt, because
lucrative state subsidies incentivize increases in herd size in order
to produce more waste for the digester. The concentration of cows and
their waste creates many other toxic emissions that cannot be
captured. The neighbors of Concentrated Animal Feedlot Operations
bear huge impacts.
Forest
biomass can also pose a conundrum. Salvaging and using woody debris
resulting from fuel reductions and thinnings from restoration
projects is an excellent idea only if opportunistic logging doesn’t
provide some of the feedstock, which optimally should keep growing
and sequestering carbon. However, source projects participating in
BioMAT must be small—5MW or less—which may help limit
opportunistic industry growth.
Making
biofuels from small-scale projects is an expensive process, so
California must subsidize these industries because they can’t
compete. Consumers also subsidize the electricity through fees paid
to participating utilities.
The
BioMAT program makes sense if done with proper safeguards and if
unavoidable woody waste is gasified instead of incinerated.
These are big IFs. Considering that forty percent of RCEA’s
Renewable Portfolio is already generated from incinerating mill
waste, increasing the amount of electricity from incinerated wood
waste would mean more air pollution and less dollars for wind and
solar, the real solutions to our climate crisis.
350
Humboldt Activities
Our
general meeting has gone back to Zoom and also changed to the
first Wednesday of each month at 6 o’clock. Please join us.https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82415260158?pwd=SHY0dENuZ3o5MXFSRExLd3kxeE9iQT09
The
letter writers meet every Sunday at 7 PM (except for holidays).https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86943045708?pwd=clVqWVJZNEFQSVl0QWd6VCtOZGtWZz09
The
book club discussion in December has been postponed to January 4
at 7 PM. Everyone is welcome at the book discussions even if you
haven’t read the book, which is California Against the Sea:
Visions for Our Vanishing Coastline by Rosanna Xia.https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85016940150?pwd=Yk1td1ppeE1DcVBsWCtySUhtNXhKdz09
The
next book club meeting after that will be held on January 22 at 7 PM
to discuss Weather by Jenny Offill.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87104876080?pwd=Q1Z2Z0d3K3V0UE9EN2Z0TlFweTZndz09
Our
third and most recent roadside signage event was on October 26 on
Highway 101 south of Eureka. Clad in life jackets and other aquatic
gear, we informed passing motorists about the fate of that particular
stretch of road. Turnout was high, so we may organize a fourth event.
If you’re interested in participating or have suggestions, please
contact Nancy Ihara at [email protected]
Dezmond Remington
Were
hopes ever lower as COP 28 begins? It’s not just the
dispiriting failure of the first 27 to extract meaningful commitments
from nations with anything to lose in the short term. It’s Sultan
Al- Jaber, CEO of the United Arab Emirates’ national oil company,
presiding over the conference. Yet we show up like children on
Christmas morning year after year even though we have never received
anything in our stocking but a lump of coal.
The sultan not only heads the national oil company,
but he’s also chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company
[Adnoc]. A busy man, Al-Jaber is also head of Masdar, the UAE’s
global renewables company. On November 27, documents were leaked to the BBC that reveal plans to make business deals at
the climate summit with thirteen countries. Some of these deals
pertain to fossil fuels, and some pertain to Masdar. Recent headlines
also reveal that Adnoc has been able to read emails to and
from the Cop28 climate summit office because the sultan used its
servers in his capacity as COP president.
Although Al-Jaber has
repeatedly stated that the oil industry must crack down on methane
leaks, his own company’s plan to invest billions of dollars in expanding production capacity to five millions barrels a day
by 2030 would certainly undermine any reductions.
Nevertheless, try
to save a little room in your head for two
potentially promising developments. A United Nations rule requires all attendees for the first
time to register their corporate affiliation. Last year it was
estimated that about 600 fossil fuel lobbyists participated in the
conference, outnumbering delegates from any country. However, the
exact number is unknown because oil delegates weren’t required to
declare themselves, letting some of them claiming to represent
Mauritania or environmental groups. Though participants won’t be
required to state the exact nature of their relationship to their
organization that avoidance will be published by the UN.
Also,
this year is supposed to be the first-ever “global stocktake.”
According to the official COP 28 website, this prime piece of new jargon refers to a “process for
countries and stakeholders to see where they’re collectively making
progress towards meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Change
Agreement – and where they’re not.” So no one has done that
yet? Though it’s hard to imagine anything other than bad news, it’s
good to know exactly how bad.
Click here for daily updates of the
conference.
The bonus news is a mix.
Another
carbon removal technique that actually seems promising.
Kelp
is champion sequesterer but don’t celebrate quite yet.
California
has more solar and wind power than it can handle? Something is missing.
A new opportunity to help the Standing Rock tribe defeat the Dakota
Access Pipeline is here.
A
great writer and naturalist tells us how to live and love through
climate grief.