The Ad Hoc Sustainability Committee Chair requested a report from staff comparing actions in the County’s climate planning documents (the 2008 Municipal Climate Action Plan focused on County operations and the 2015 countywide Climate Action Plan) with actions in recently updated climate planning documents from the California Air Resources Board (Scoping Plan Update), and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD; Clean Air Plan). A chart that details this analysis is attached. This report provides an overview of areas where the various documents align, and areas where there are differences.
In general, all the documents share the objectives of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing public health benefits. The general theme of energy efficient buildings, transit oriented land use, more renewable energy, cleaner fleets, more waste diversion, and lower water consumption are shared across all the documents. The County documents are more specific about particular actions and measures and have more focus on funding and outreach. The BAAQMD Clean Air Plan includes a section on reducing emissions from the stationary source sector that the County documents do not include because BAAQMD is the lead agency for regulating stationary sources, and the County's authority is very limited in this area. The ARB and BAAQMD also include measures on short-lived climate pollutants that are not included in the County documents, again because the County has no regulatory authority over such pollutants.
Energy Efficiency
All the documents have a goal of using energy more efficiently. The County’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) focuses more on measures related to participation in energy efficiency incentive
programs. The Air Resources Board (ARB) Scoping Plan Update recommends the implementation of energy storage in commercial and industrial buildings as a strategy for controlling peak energy loads. The County’s documents do not include energy storage. The County’s documents include operational measures related to LED lighting, facility siting, and use of materials that are not as prominent in the ARB or BAAQMD documents. The County also has more specificity about outreach and education activities, building design and construction, funding opportunities, workforce development, and zero net energy goals than the ARB and BAAQMD documents.
Renewable Energy
The County and State both identify installing renewable energy on public properties and using renewable energy for government operations. The County and BAAQMD both identify bulk procurement programs for rooftop solar systems – the County for municipal use and BAAQMD for community scale programs. The County names several topics under renewable energy which neither ARB nor BAAQMD do: cogeneration; financing for municipal, residential, and business renewable energy and energy efficiency installations; grid infrastructure preparedness; and community choice energy.
Land Use and Transportation
All the documents focus on active transportation, particularly increased access to safe routes for walking and bicycling, and better transit. For the County, success with transportation goals is linked with actions taken by other entities, particularly the Contra Costa Transportation Authority. The County’s Municipal Climate Action Plan includes a number of measures that provide alternatives to Single Occupant Trips, all of which are mentioned in the other documents and some of which have been acted on since the Municipal Plan was adopted in 2008, particularly with the County fleet. Opportunities for the County to do more include increased use of flexible employee work schedules and telecommuting, carpools, and pretax benefits for mass transit and carpools.
The County, ARB, and BAAQMD all talk about the importance of increasing transit ridership and expanding transit service.
The County CAP and the BAAQMD Clean Air Plan both mention Safe Routes programs that identify and eliminate barriers to safe access to and from school and work when walking, biking, or taking transit; the State does not. On the issue of complete streets policies that facilitate the design and buildout of streets that allow easy walking and bicycling and include amenities such as lighting, vegetation, and drainage, the State urges these policies as well, while BAAQMD does not mention them.
The State and BAAQMD both recommend traffic circulation policies that promote intelligent traffic management systems and freeway and arterial street efficiency. Similarly, the State and BAAQMD both discuss smart driving strategies and pilots; the County does not.
The State and BAAQMD recommend policies that charge for parking for individual vehicles and prioritize parking for carpools, electric vehicles, and/or vanpools near major employment areas. The County Municipal CAP recommended a user fee for employee parking, with the surplus allocated to incentives for commute alternatives; no action has been taken on this issue.
The development policies in the County CAP align with the ARB and BAAQMD documents on the overarching goal of reducing vehicle miles travelled through land use policies, particularly by adopting an urban limit line, building more housing near transit stops and stations, and establishing specific plans/Priority Economic Development Areas. The State goes farther in naming policies that specify incentives for development plans and projects that use green building standards. The County CAP is the only document that mentions the siting of schools in agricultural areas as a practice to discourage.
BAAQMD’s Clean Air Plan is the only document that names cleaner aircraft engines and renewable jet fuel, and technologies to reduce emissions from harbor craft. The BAAQMD Clean Air Plan also is the only document to recommend identifying pollution emissions from economic and population growth that can accompany a project, for example, by generating more vehicle trips.
The County and the ARB documents both recognize it is important to identify funding for low-carbon transportation. ARB recommends developing a transportation impact fee program for this purpose. The County similarly discusses funding transit through development applications and other methods.
The County, BAAQMD, and ARB all recognize the importance of reducing emissions from vehicle fleets. The County CAP names waste haulers specifically, while the BAAQMD Clean Air Plan talks about goods movement and the ARB talks about joint purchase agreements. It should be noted that the County already takes advantage of joint purchasing for vehicles with the State. The County, BAAQMD, and ARB also all recognize the importance of reducing emissions from off-road equipment used for agriculture, landscaping, and gardening.
Both the County and ARB address vehicle idling. The County Climate Action Plan discusses idling in the context of off-road and heavy equipment, while the ARB Scoping Plan Update restricts all idling, especially in sensitive areas such as schools. The BAAQMD is sponsoring an Idle Free Bay Area program that some Contra Costa County schools and community groups have adopted. The Board of Supervisors took the Idle Free Pledge on April 25, 2017, and encourages County employees and residents to do the same.
Similarly, all four documents identify alternative fuel vehicles both for fleet use and for personal use and the infrastructure to charge them. The County has made good progress in changing out the vehicles in its fleet and using cleaner types of diesel fuel. The County’s ability to pursue funding opportunities for electric vehicle chargers would be enhanced if the Board allocated matching funds required in the grant applications from BAAQMD; currently, individual departments determine whether they wish to allocate funds for electric vehicle charging equipment.
Solid Waste
All the plans emphasize diverting waste from landfills, doing more to compost and recycle. All the documents also state zero waste goals, although the ARB anticipates meeting those goals by 2020 while the County’s zero waste goal is for 2035. The County’s Municipal Climate Action Plan does not discuss composting in County facilities, while the State discusses organics collection and edible food recovery programs in all residential and commercial facilities, as well as requiring new construction to include bin space for recycling organic materials.
The County's Department of Conservation and Development is piloting a composting program in its office currently in cooperation with the waste hauler for Martinez, where the office is located.
As in other issue areas, the County Climate Action Plan includes a focus on education and outreach that the ARB and BAAQMD documents do not. All the documents also discuss opportunities to install anaerobic digesters, a form of renewable energy, at landfills and wastewater treatment plants.
The ARB Scoping Plan Update contains recommended actions around construction and demolition waste practices, carbon sequestration, and requirements for landscapers that are not mentioned in the County or BAAQMD documents.
Water
All the documents provide goals and actions for conserving water. The ARB has more recommendations, including developing a plan for water recycling and greywater reuse that are not included in the BAAQMD or County documents. Both the County and ARB discuss removing turf, using instead water efficient landscaping. The ARB and BAAQMD both identify reducing greenhouse gas emissions from publicly operated treatment works, which the County does not. The State also recommends working with local water agencies to evaluate the impact of proposed new development and land use on groundwater and long-term water supply.
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