Local Clean Energy Alliance 9-10-09 Meeting Notes

Submitted by admin on Fri, 09/11/2009 - 16:12

Guest Speaker: Bruce Riordan, Consultant, Elmwood Consulting

Consultant to Joint Policy Committee: ABAG, BAAQMD, MTC, BCDC

  • Jane Brunner, Tom Bates, Scott Haggerty are the Alameda County electeds on the JPC
  • 20 commissioners on the JPC board.
  • JPC had been focused on FOCUS areas (TOD-related development)
  • Now also focused on climate action planning.
  • Six joint actions of JPC:
  1. Successfully implement SB 375 (MTC and ABAG) – Sustainable Communities Strategy due 2013. State is going to give each region a GHG reduction target as part of AB 32 implementation.
  2. Develop indirect source rule (BAAQMD) to regulate new development, mitigating mobile emissions (zeroing them out or paying into a fund to offset them)
  3. Climate friendly parking policies (MTC) – studying approaches that cities can take to cut emissions
  4. Make the Bay Area the EV capitol of the universe (MTC and BAAQMD). Sonoma’s doing partnership with Nissan to get 1,000 EVs on the road through government agencies.
  5. Energy efficiency/solar financing district (ABAG) – hired Brian Gitt of Bki to move regional strategy ahead. Looking at the business case for a regional financing model. Jerry Lahr is the key staffer on this. Sonoma Energy Independence financing program has already paid out $6 million in EE retrofits. Looking at a whole set of policies and aspects to the program. Exploring an ABAG power authority.
  6. Planning for climate adaptation (BCDC) – conducted a design contest for dealing with rising sea levels. Close to getting a $300 million deal with climate scientists to summarize regional impacts. Could be a foundational document to get more attention paid to adaptation and planning for climate change, particularly for vulnerable communities. Also, more buy-in on mitigation work. Need to get a campaign going to build more resilient communities, jumpstart regional planning.

    * Climate Bay Area

  • Why: there are 100s of climate projects, plans, programs, and initiatives in the region. But we’re not moving forward at the speed and scale needed to address the problem. (1.) Too many groups are working in isolation, lots of duplication going on that could benefit from coordination; (2.) agency roles are poorly defined at the state, regional, and local level; (3.) lack of understanding about what strategies will make the greatest impact; and (4.) not enough agreement (especially among electeds) about how much we need to do, or how fast we need to go.
  • What: a meeting and coordinating place for government and other stakeholders.
  • Doing a scan of each county for key projects and initiatives that are already underway.
  • Getting the information out there about what’s working, what’s replicable.
  • What are the top barriers and opportunities. How would a regional approach help?
  • Identifying three key projects among a stakeholders group (of nonprofits, businesses, other groups) to focus energies around. Bay Area Council Economic Institute and Joint Policy Council will co-convene Climate Bay Area. Priorities likely to be around funding and financing to help implement city and county climate plans. Another likely priority is sorting out the rules. Won’t be setting policy among stakeholders. Will take the various policy recommendations back to JPC, stakeholders will take them back to their constituencies. Will see what rises to the top.
  • Will work through key public sector contacts in each county.
  • Regional agencies have little enforcement authority. BAAQMD has regulatory authority over industrial and stationary sources.
  • Will try to have quarterly open meetings. Will set agendas in advance.
  • We have a lot of work to do to build the political will to implement them.
  • Sonoma water agency has a carbon-free by 2015 goal. They have a number of proposals into the CEC, including an EE retrofit and on-bill water conservation financing program.
  • Our scenario planning to meet different goals could help us meet or exceed AB 32 goals.

Guest Speaker: Daniel Dunigan: Town Green, architecture and design firm

  • Partnered with others to do Hayward and Martinez climate action plans.
  • Set fairly conservative GHG reduction goals.
  • Small grants to do these plans didn’t allow for a very detailed analysis. Only addressed transportation, some land use, energy conservation, water.
  • Developed Emerald Cities program (collaborative between Dept. of Conservation, Town Green, National Charrette Institute, and Navigant) using federal, state, and local funding to comprehensively assess the prospective benefits. Especially interested in developing an economic analysis of climate planning. Approached Dept. of Conservation about funding the program. Working with Tracy as the first pilot. http://www.emeraldtracy.org Scope: assess where Tracy is, get public feedback on measures, and create a climate action plan for the city to implement. Looking for other cities to implement the program. Looking in particular at Central Valley.
  • Submitted $65 million CEC grant for funding pool that could be used by cities throughout California.