As a member of Sacramento County’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) Stakeholder Group, 350 Sacramento recently reviewed a technical memo describing the proposed CAP’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emission targets and preliminary mitigation measures. 350 Sacramento commented to the County orally and in a November 18 letter, expressing our concerns that the technical memo:
- … assumes that SMUD will achieve carbon-neutrality by 2030, as proposed in SMUD’s recent Climate Emergency Declaration.
- … based on the above, asserts that the County will meet it’s own State-mandated 2030 GHG-reduction target without taking any action.
- … presents only two enforceable, quantified measures, asserting that is adequate to show progress towards the State’s 2045 carbon-neutrality goal.
- … presents a large number of aspirational, voluntary measures in a confusingly organized list.
We urged a more ambitious program to include consideration of policy alternatives, and provided a number of detailed comments. Our transmittal email also asked for clarification of the CAP’s CEQA strategy and of when a long-overdue update to the County’s 2015 GHG Inventory will occur. We also reiterated a concern that the public review draft not be released over the holidays as previously scheduled.
Subsequently the County advised that they will not rely on SMUD achieving its unenforceable 2030 goal, and will delay release of the public review draft until January.
We expect to see an in-house draft of the CAP in the near future; to be followed by public release in January. 350 Sacramento will keep our members and friends updated on CAP issues and may suggest advocacy positions as needed during the January public review period.
