The LookOut is a monthly digest of climate issues and recent
developments in our neighborhood.
The LookOut’s last update
in March on Humboldt’s draft Climate Action Plan stated that the
scoping phase of the Environmental Impact Report was supposed to
begin mid-June. The lack of updates since then doesn’t mean this
reporter has been asleep behind the wheel. An inquiry from the
LookOut to the Planning Department in July about the whereabouts of
the CAP netted no useful information.
Colin Fiske of the
Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities had more luck
this month when the head of the Planning Department, John Ford,
responded to his inquiry about the missing CAP. He said that the CAP,
as written, cannot proceed any further because Rincon Consultants,
hired by the county, has determined that the Plan’s measures will
not deliver the targeted reductions. That means it cannot be
considered a “qualified” plan that can stand in the stead of a
full CEQA process for new projects. As Ford put it in his email, “An
unqualified CAP is a policy document without teeth. That is not good
for anybody.”
This news is not a complete
surprise. Some activists have expressed skepticism that the
prescribed measures for reducing our emissions haven’t nearly
enough time to hit their targets by 2030. Others have said the
measures aren’t ambitious enough. And of course, there are those
who say the CAP’s measures go too far.
According to an anonymous
source, county planners are considering rewriting the draft CAP to
count point source emissions. Large stationary sources of greenhouse
gas emissions—such as power plants and large industries–were not
included for two reasons. One is that the county lacks authority for
the most part to regulate them. The other is that several
high-carbon-emitting businesses—think pulp mills–moved away from
Humboldt county in the early nineties. Because California has
mandated a 40% carbon reduction below 1990 levels by 2030, Humboldt
could take credit for those long-ago reductions even though they had
nothing to do with the urgent mandate to curb climate change by
modifying business as usual. So rewriting the CAP along those lines
would mean that Humboldt could do nothing or very little before 2030
and still claim to have achieved its climate goals.
Alarmed by this
possibility, the Environmental Protection Information Center released
a joint statement from several environmental groups, including 350
Humboldt, protesting “fuzzy” emissions accounting instead of real
action. Replying via the Lost Coast Outpost, John Ford at
first seemed to deny that the county is interested in taking the easy
way out. He said everyone working on the plan “share the exact same
goals being advanced by the environmental groups — namely,
protecting the environment from catastrophic climate change by doing
as much as possible to reduce GHG emissions.” Unfortunately, he
then admitted that taking credit for those reductions of the early
nineties was nowhere near off the table.
The county’s process to
create a Climate Action Plan began in 2019, using GHG inventory data
from 2015. No doubt, the Planning Department is overworked. It has no
staff dedicated to dealing with the climate crisis. The Board of
Supervisors promised to create a Climate Advisory Committee
four years ago, but nobody has been appointed yet. Business as usual
continues.
Dan Chandler
350
Humboldt sponsored another roadside educational event on
September 29. North-bound motorists on Hwy 101 got the message about
sea level rise claiming that stretch of road in the not so distant
future.
You too
can vie for public attention with a sign and high-water gear next
month. Contact Nancy Ihara [[email protected]] for details about
next month’s high water exhibit.
Being
a climate activist can be tough work as most of us know. It can
be difficult to keep our heads above water as we realize the scale of
the danger facing civilization. How to stay aware, keep working, and
take care of ourselves at the same time?
Julie
Doerner, LCSW, has offered 350 Humboldt members a way to face this
problem in a workshop.
“Staying
Engaged in the Midst of Climate Chaos” is a one and a half hour
workshop, using guided visualization and simple artistic creativity
in a contemplative space to help find a sustainable path forward for
ourselves and our work in these challenging times.
Julie
is offering this workshop for free on October 20 at 1 – 2:30 at the
McKinleyville Family Resource Center. Contact Jenifer Pacce
[[email protected]]
to sign up and for more information. Space is limited
to the first 10 people who sign up.
All
aboard for bus adventurers! This is the last call for people
interested in joining the bus party on October 2 to Blue Lake for a
talk and tour of the Blue Lake Rancheria’s sustainability programs.
You can catch a Blue Lake Rancheria bus at 1:30 at the Arcata Transit
Center. Email Cathy [cathyck@sbcglobalnet]
or text her at 707 845-0143 to let her know you’re coming. She can
also help connect riders coming in from Eureka. Or you can just show
up at 2 PM in the casino lobby for an informative tour.
Dan Chandler
A
little over a million dollars is coming Humboldt’s way,
earmarked for reducing transportation emissions. This Carbon
Reduction Program is part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs
Act, one of the Biden administration’s sweeping spending bills
passed in 2021.
Humboldt
County Association of Governments, who is in charge of the purse
strings, will use the money to create a regional zero-emissions fleet transition plan. Considering that Humboldt Transit Authority plans
for a future fleet of both battery electric and fuel cell electric
buses, thorough planning is particularly useful. It will be necessary
to accommodate two different charging techniques and coordinate
between agencies to permit and build two types of fueling facilities.
A Medium and Heavy-Duty ZEV Readiness Plan from Redwood Coast Energy
Authority will also help the planning process.
Planning
will include other government agencies, such as CalFire, BLM, and the
Forest Service, that will also need to transform their fleets to zero
emissions technology. Consolidating infrastructure planning now could
save money by eliminating unnecessary duplicating. Consolidating
purchasing power also saves money.
Designing
the plan may cost as little as $300 thousand, which would leave $800
thousand for another emissions-reducing project sometime in the
future. The IIJA Act gives agencies plenty of time to figure out what
to do with their grants.
Dan Chandler
Nationwide,
the offshore wind industry is getting pounded
with rising costs, rising interest rates, and supply chain delays.
Orsted, one of the biggest wind developers in the world, is talking
about withdrawing from three different projects on the east coast of
the United States. Yet wind power is still slated to play a crucial
role in converting the grid to clean energy. On the east coast off of
Martha’s Vineyard, the turbines being installed right now are so large that a single rotation of each turbine suffices to power
an average household for an entire day.
The
most likely outcome is that the pace of development will slow
as developers re-negotiate
their deals with governments in order to deal with the rising costs
of construction, and this increased cost will
ultimately be passed to consumers.
Copenhagen
Infrastructure Partners and RWE Offshore Wind, the two developers who
have purchased leases in the Humboldt Wind Area, haven’t sounded
any alarms yet about their financial outlook. The electricity from
the planned offshore wind farm already promises to be more expensive
than most wind energy because the floating platform technology is
such a new technology. For that reason Redwood Coast Energy Authority
may buy only 40 MW, which is less than a third of peak usage here in
Humboldt. However, the biggest hurdle is our deficient transmission lines, which would cost an estimated hundred million
dollars to upgrade, and the worst scenario would be wind power
bypassing us on its way to somewhere more developed. [See next
article for hopeful news.]
Also,
the Harbor district’s partnership with Crowley Wind Services, the
company tapped to build the heavy-lift marine terminal on Samoa
Peninsula, has come under question. Crowley is facing serious charges
of sex trafficking stemming from the alleged sexual assault on two
female employees by a supervisor, aided by complicit executives.
Another more recent case involved Crowley’s vice-president, Jeff
Andreini, sexually harassing an employee. Matthew Marshall of
Redwood Coast Energy Authority, who witnessed the behavior,
personally intervened and then lodged an official complaint against
him. Andreini is no longer employed by Crowley.
The
revelations have alarmed many Humboldt residents, including local
tribes. Pointing out the disproportionate number of missing and
murdered indigenous women and girls [MMIWG], Joe James, chairman of
the Yurok Tribe, called upon the Harbor District to reconsider
its partnership with Crowley. The Yurok Tribe has also published a memorandum listing sixteen steps that any business sending a
work force into Humboldt should take to prevent predation. 350
Humboldt has sent a letter to the Harbor District supporting these
steps. Measures to prevent cases of MMIWG are part of the community
benefit agreements that Core-HUB is negotiating with developers.
Dan Chandler
If Humboldt vaults over
the hurdles between it and a nice, ample supply of local offshore
wind power, our success may be due to AB 1373, which Governor
Newsom just signed. With this law, California takes a hugely
ambitious and controversial step into the energy biz. The Department
of Water Resources [DWR] is now authorized to buy clean energy on a
large scale and sell it to utilities and other load-serving entities.
This is not the way things are normally done.
Offshore wind
energy–especially the floating type that seems destined for our
shores—is the energy sector that stands to benefit the most from
this step. Due to the sheer scale of investment required to build floating offshore wind
farms and the onshore support facilities, plus in many cases make
hugely expensive upgrades to transmission capabilities—sound
familiar?– private developers need an ironclad guarantee that
someone will buy that electricity. Geothermal is another type of
clean energy that needs this guarantee because of its high start-up
costs.
The proliferation of
CCAs—community choice aggregators like our Redwood Coast Energy
Authority–in recent years has fragmented the buying power of what
used to be four major utilities in the state. A central buyer can
help compensate for that drawback but may also erode the autonomy of CCAs by making sure they buy the kind of power the state needs to
meet its ambitious clean energy goals. An amendment to the bill seems
to have eased worries on that score. Access to the DWR fund makes
sure that CCAs have enough renewable energy on hand to meet state
requirements. The new law also updates and aligns several different
procurement requirements and incentives.
1373
also streamlines Public Utilities Commission reviews in order to make
building new transmission lines faster.