Council’s energy expert rejects ‘reactionary’ work plan

The city council’s expert on energy policy rejects the Sustainability Commission’s proposed work plan. Last year he encouraged the volunteer commission to take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Councilor Alan Zelenka (Nov. 13, 2023): I think that your number one focus should be maximizing the once-in-a-lifetime federal and state funding that’s occurring right now, once in a generation, there’s hundreds of millions of dollars flowing into the state. Where it’s going to go is still an open question. I think positioning our community for capturing that as much as we possibly can, more than our fair share, is what we should try to be doing.

[00:00:44] There was a recent article in the Register-Guard about 435,000 jobs being created by the renewable energy projects that are being done, being funded by this. That’s a lot of jobs. Having those jobs come here—and they’re well-paying family wage jobs—so having those come here, I think should be a focus.

[00:01:02] So maximizing the dollars from the federal and state programs and the jobs from these programs, I think, should be a really high focus for the Sustainability Commission because if we don’t do it now, we’re going to miss the boat. This is a once in a lifetime.

[00:01:17] I think number two priority should be from the biggest emission sector that we have, which is the transportation sector. The legislature misguidedly didn’t fund the rebate program for EVs. I think that’s something we should look at as a local thing, because I don’t. I’m not sure that’s going to happen at the state level.

[00:01:36] The two things on building decarbonization. There’s a new building performance standard that the state adopted which is a new requirement that all buildings meet a benchmark. And if they don’t, they have to show how they’re going to meet that and have a time frame to do that. There’s going to be six state staff working on that with tiers and it’s going to cover most buildings. So, getting involved in that, making sure that that’s done really well at the local level is going to be really important.

[00:02:01] The home energy scoring is a way to get at building decarbonization. People have information, they can act on it, and it basically gives you an energy score like your appliance score for your house. Many, many cities have already done this and actually, Eugene’s way behind the eight ball on that. I’d like to see us move and hopefully the Sustainability Commission can push for that and move for adoption of that.

[00:02:23] As well, there’s just been an RFP (Request for Proposal) released to look at how you apply the home energy score to rental properties, which we have 50% of, so that’s going to be a big deal as well.

[00:02:32] John Q: That was Councilor Alan Zelenka in November 2023. When the Sustainability Commission came back this year, he rejected their work plan.

[00:02:44] Councilor Alan Zelenka (Oct. 21, 2024): For the commissioners, the reason I voted ‘No’ is because, I think that this work plan isn’t focused on the things that I think are important issues for the city and it seems rather reactionary.

[00:02:56] Last year when you were here, I had comments that I thought that the Sustainability Commission and the sustainability staff should focus on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that’s presented to us in getting our fair share of the hundreds of millions of dollars that the Biden administration is putting into our state for climate change efforts and energy efficiency. And I don’t really see that reflected here in what you guys did or what you’re going to do.

[00:03:21] One of my also previous recommendations was the Sustainability Commission focus on getting some local offsets. I know we’re working with a little bit with EWEB, but I don’t see that reflected in here either. Local assets can be city of Eugene projects that actually reduce greenhouse gases. If they’re certified and verified, then that means they’re real and additional, and we’re only spending $50,000 on it, so it’s not a lot of money to work with in order to create a whole program around it, but it might be something to work at. If we could get some ideas in a memo that talks about where you’re going with all that…

[00:03:54] The other one I also wanted this Sustainability Commission to work on was the home energy scores. There are nine cities that have adopted this already. So I think we’re behind the eight ball. I’d move that up on your list.

[00:04:06] The other one I asked about was focused on transportation. It’s a third of our greenhouse gas emissions. And I only see very limited topics here with regard to transportation greenhouse gas reductions. It’s a whole third of our emissions and these don’t get at reducing hardly any of those. So, doesn’t seem like that’s a priority.

[00:04:30] And also those two committees. They seem kind of like whoever was interested in something and a little bit scattered as opposed to as focused on greenhouse gas reductions or other kinds of things.

[00:04:43] Councilor Randy Groves: Thank you very much for the presentation and the work that the Sustainability Commission is doing to move us towards our goals. Before I get into my main thing I wanted to talk about, I just want to make my comments clear on offsets, I personally don’t like offsets, I’d rather invest the money into moving our community towards our goals rather than helping somebody else. It’s just like if I put on a few extra pounds over the holidays, I’m not going to buy a gym membership for my neighbor. That gets me nowhere.

[00:05:13] So anyway, with that aside, what I really want to talk about is Bonneville Power Administration and data centers. And I had coffee with a EWEB board member about 10 days ago. And he brought up this issue, how the data centers are starting to take more and more of a percentage of our renewable energy. And I think that’s something we need to be aware of. I also learned that data centers get priority for that energy over communities like our own, which concerns me.

[00:05:45] I know that’s nothing the Sustainability Commission can deal with, but I don’t know if, Alan, you have any information on this from the Oregon Department of Energy, but it’s something that I just think we need to be aware of as we move forward and figure out, you know, what we can do to work for legislation, federal help, whatever it is, to make sure we have set supplies of electricity. Because we’re not doing ourselves any favors if we go have to have fossil fuels produce electricity. And it’s just trying to make sure what is our balance here and what can we do about it.

[00:06:23] John Q: Praising the commission’s alignment with the Climate Action Plan, or CAP 2.0:

[00:06:30] Mayor Lucy Vinis: The value of this commission is that they have identified these very pertinent issues that are pertinent to what’s happening in the landscape, what’s aligned with our CAP 2.0, educating themselves on it, speaking to the public and understanding what the public understands and doesn’t understand. And so all of our concerns about how we speak about these issues, how we distribute information, what kind of information we’re distributing, the Sustainability Commission plays this incredibly valuable role.

[00:06:58] And so I really just want to commend the commission for what you have done and what you have learned about that role in the last couple of years and where you’re going with it. I mean, we know we’re facing these problems that people have inadequate information, we don’t know where they’re getting the information, and to be building this sort of trusted source of community members who understand these issues so thoroughly is incredibly valuable.

[00:07:21] Councilor Matt Keating: Thanks, Mayor. I bold and italicize and underscore everything that you just said, the kudos and accolades to the commission. And I want to give credit to Jan (Bohman) and Devon (Mann), Ward 2 commission members who go out of their way to meet with me regularly to loop me in about what the Sustainability Commission is working on.

It’s my understanding that the commission’s bylaws or charter charges that the commission members engage with their respective counselors, either quarterly or monthly. I found it wholly valuable and encourage colleagues to connect with their sustainability members if they are not already.

[00:07:56] I’m enthusiastic about supporting the recommendations for establishing the following committees, the education outreach, the clean and reliable backup energy systems, and the climate-friendly landscaping committees.

[00:08:10] Councilor Jennifer Yeh: I have been really impressed over the last couple years about how well the work plan for the Sustainability Commission has focused on what council is doing, what the city is doing, what staff are doing. This year, particularly, when I was looking at the work plan, every single topic was something I’ve talked to a community member about, like, in the recent, like, I don’t know, six months or so. You guys are obviously doing your engagement. You know what people are talking about. You know what staff are working on. And you hit them all. And they’re also very interesting.

[00:08:39] I was really particularly interested in the committees. I thought they were really interesting topics. I look forward to hearing more about it.

[00:08:50] Devon Mann (Sustainability Commission, chair): The Education Outreach Committee is sort of evolving quite rapidly from what it was maybe last year. We’ve created a PowerPoint presentation that I actually gave to the NLC (Neighborhood Leaders Council), which was interesting.

[00:09:04] One of the goals for the education outreach committee for this particular year is to kind of figure out what it can do best, and we’ve been tabling at a lot of the neighborhood associations and getting feedback from people, like: ‘What are they concerned about?’ And we have lists of those things. And, ‘What interests them about sustainability issues? Do they know what the Sustainability Commission is?’ Stuff like that.

[00:09:28] The Waste Committee we had last year was awesome, because we had some preconceived notions about what issues people might have with composting. And when we did the actual outreach, we learned that those weren’t really what people were worrying about. Those were what we thought people were worrying about.

[00:09:45] There’s a few ideas floating around about how we could better communicate about CAP 2.0 and what the Sustainability Commission works on and what staff is working on, to, like, how can we get that out better to the community… We’re really working on trying to get information from the public to help us figure out what we need to be saying.

[00:10:04] John Q: Praise for the volunteer members of the Sustainability Commission, and also concern from the city council’s most knowledgeable councilor on energy issues that the city is missing the boat on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.