County climate committee created

Just a few months old, Sonoma County’s Regional Climate
Protection Authority has begun moving toward its goal of helping to
drastically reduce the area’s greenhouse emissions.
“The regional office came into being January 1,” said Dave
Brennan, the authority’s project manager, “and already we are
moving forward.”
The RCPA was created in 2009 to improve coordination on climate
change issues and establish a clearinghouse for efforts to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. The RCPA is made up of the same board of
directors as the Sonoma County Transportation Authority and
includes representatives from each of the nine cities in Sonoma
County and the Board of Supervisors.
“Doing it that way gives the climate protection authority the
same broad representation you find on the regional board and we
didn’t have to form a new agency,” said Brennan.
“Right now it’s pretty much a one-man operation with the
additional advantage that our work is also ultimately connected
with transportation and efforts to cut carbon fuel use,” he
said.
Some of the authority’s first work will be familiarizing and
promoting the county’s energy efficiency retrofitting program for
home owners in which the county advances energy efficiency
retrofitting of private residences using county loans paid back
over the long term through payments on county property tax
bills.
“Beginning in June,” Brennan said, “we are going to actively
work to educate people as how to retrofit their residences for
energy efficiency. Particularly helping them by becoming a one-stop
shop for information.”
For example, Brennan said, homeowners will be encouraged to do
energy audits on their property before investing in, say solar
panels, in order to find the most efficient ways of using green
technology to fit their actual energy retrofit needs.
He said a lengthy list of goals and objectives were presented to
the authority board during a meeting Monday to further move down
the road toward greenhouse gas reduction goals.
The goals are to reduce county greenhouse emission levels by 25
percent below 1990 levels by 2015 and reduce them by some 40
percent below the 1990 levels by 2035.
It’s an effort members of the authority’s board of directors,
including Healdsburg City Councilman Mike McGuire, deem to be of
vital importance.
“While we have built a solid foundation in the county, climate
change is not going away,” McGuire said. “The RCPA is taking the
lead on a regional level by coordinating county-wide policies,
infrastructure and programs to combat climate change.”
“In just four short months,” he added, “the authority is
beginning to advance a list of priority projects and initiatives
that could be implemented on a county-wide level. Looking forward,
if the RCPA is to be successful, we must develop broad partnerships
that allow residents, local business, agriculture and our
environmental partners to take ownership in the process.”
“Climate change affects us all,” McGuire added, “and we must
make the tent as big as possible to ensure a successful regional
plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Brennan, meanwhile, said the authority’s to-do list creates a
plateful of challenges.
“We have a long list of 13 objectives to coordinate countywide
efforts to implement a broad range of programs and projects to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. “In addition the
authority is also seeking to develop a tracking system that will
compile greenhouse gas data and thus make it able to assess any
real progress in its efforts.”
Among the long range objectives are projects and programs to
reduce greenhouse emissions by dealing with transportation and land
use planning to reduce vehicles miles by supporting expanding
transit options; encouraging EV charging stations around the
county; reducing dependency on cars, and promoting telecommuting
and other changes.
The RCPA also intends to promote non-car use, such as cluster
housing and pedestrian safety and energy efficiency and creating
renewable power with a goal of retrofitting 80 percent of the
county’s buildings with a goal of reducing energy use by some 30
percent and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the county’s
built environment by 168,000 tons a year.
Other objectives are to develop green jobs through training
programs such as in area colleges, in collaboration with the
Workforce Investment Board, PG&E and other organizations;
working with the business community through the county’s Economic
Development Board, and the real estate industry on energy audits
and a to develop a voluntary residential energy rating system;
minimize solid waste greenhouse gas emission; work with the Sonoma
County Agricultural Preservation & Open Space District to
enhance carbon sequestration and forestry management protocols to
capture carbon emission and work with the county’s agricultural
industry to try and reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting from
age production.
Ann Hancock, executive director and a co-founder of the Climate
Protection Campaign, which was instrumental in getting county
officials on the green track, had good things to say about the RCPA
program.
“The Climate Protection Campaign views the Regional Climate
Protection Authority as a positive emerging force to enhance Sonoma
County’s leadership,” Hancock said.
“It’s even better than what we envisioned when we started the
Campaign in Sonoma County in 2001. We know of no other community in
the nation that has an authority like the RCPA, so we’re probably
the first in the nation. RCPA staff and board leadership are highly
dedicated and skilled,” she added.
“As a result, Sonoma County is already experiencing acceleration
in climate protection activity and coordination,” she said.