Here it is exactly as I received it from Bob Greenlee:
Sender: Cowles, Macon
A couple of councillors and several others have asked for a copy of my remarks to the Council at the April 7 meeting on the Climate Action Plan. Here they are:
Macon Cowles Comments-Climate Action Plan-City Council Meeting April 7, 2009
Here is the clearest way forward. As a general matter, we need to move beyond early adopters. We need to focus on the largest sectors, and reduce the carbon in those sectors. We need to adopt programs in which everyone participates-not 30 businesses, but all 6,000 businesses. Not just 150 homeowners, but all homeowners. Not zero landlords, but all landlords. The first cut is to divide this problem in two: production on the one hand, and consumption on the other. An essential principle, widely shared in the community, is that we debarbonize our energy.
Production Side-the Franchise Agreement
1. The franchise agreement, if it is to go to the voters and have a chance for approval, a new franchise agreement must contain a blueprint for decarbonizing our energy supply. Some of our citizens have suggested that 30% of our energy come from renewables in 2010, and that it increase by 10% per year thereafter. That is a reasonable goal.
2. The City must have access to meter specific information. Otherwise, we cannot regulate carbon emissions adequately. Speed limits are unenforceable-unless you can measure the speed of the driver. You cannot issue a speeding ticket unless you know how fast a car is traveling. Likewise, it will be impossible for the City to regulate carbon, or introduce the concept of an energy budget (similar to water budgets now) unless the City has access to meter specific information.
3. We must have the right for community choice aggregation-so that if Xcel does not deliver the increasing percentage of renewable energy that is required under the franchise agreement, consumers within the franchise area can pool their power needs and purchase power elsewhere, paying Xcel a fair amount for use of the distribution lines to deliver power to consumers.
4. Failing these, or any of them, we should not renew the franchise for 20 years. Xcel has a duty to supply Boulder with gas and electric under the old franchise until it is cancelled, or until a new agreement is in place.
The Consupmtion side-Reducing Carbon emissions: the general principle is that fewer programs are better than the two dozen programs suggested in the 2009 Community Guide. Many programs will keep the staff very busy; fewer programs that are effective will achieve the goal of substantial carbon reduction.
1. Commercial Conservation Code: we should adopt an ordinance that requires all buildings to be 50% more energy efficient than code compliant buildings, with an effective date of December 31, 2012. Staff should then be deployed to connect commercial property owners with the Xcel DSM rebates, which pay for 2/3 of Energy Conservation Measures (ECM's) in commercial buildings during 2009 and 2010.
2. Residential Conservation Code: we should adopt an ordinance that requires all buildings to be 50% more energy efficient than code compliant buildings, with an effective date of December 31, 2015. Staff should then be deployed to connect property owners to the DSM programs and rebates that are available in the interim, including the County's ClimateSmart Loan Program.
a. As a tactic to implement this strategy, highly visible programs such as two workers in a truck moving through neighborhoods to do insulation and weather sealing, can be considered.
b. This is where direct funding from the carbon tax, and large carbon reductions, can be brought to the homes of low-income people.
3. Transportation: the most intractable of all carbon emissions, because it implicates a deeply engrained constitutional right to travel. Shake the box in Go Boulder-the part of the Transportation Department devoted to reducing VMT. Here is where new programs may bear fruit.
4. Localization of agriculture. Study localizing the food supply. Staff can foster cooperation between Growing Gardens and The Farmer's Market to test the feasibility of increasing local land under tillage in order to reduce the phenomenon of the 2,000 mile salad.
5. Lead in the development of software that can model emissions based on different transportation and land use scenarios. Work with other cities. Get our Colaboratory working on it. As the software is scaled up, DRCOG can be used to test it. There are at least two institutions that have this software in early stages of development.
Structural Changes
1. Reconstitute the CAP AG into a group of 7 specialists with broad knowledge of responses to climate change.
a. Put out an announcement and a questionnaire, receive applications, do interviews as we do for Boards & Commissions. Let's plan to have the new CAP AG in place by May 15. EAB members would be eligible for the CAP AG.
b. Let the CAP AG function rapidly, setting its own agenda and meeting times. Their task is to come up with the best ideas of how to reduce emissions, much as Boulder CAN has done in the last few weeks.
c. The CAP AG can also answer questions within their areas of expertise that are posed by staff or Council.
2. Form other groups of special advisers as needed to provide experience and expertise on the big projects rolled out to cut emissions.
3. Use RFP's as a way of putting the ingenuity of our people to work on carbon reduction. Starting with the $1 million that the City will get in a block grant for weatherization, issue an RFP for the most effective ways of deploying that money.
