A car emits exhaust in Cascade Park on Dec. 5. (Amanda Cowan/The Columbian)Photo Gallery
For the first time, Clark County and all of its cities must address climate change in the 20-year plans required by the state’s Growth Management Act.
These plans guide where new residents will live, work and shop, and are part of the larger countywide efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The plans are due in a year, but the county and cities still have a lot more work before they’re completed — let alone until greenhouse gas emissions goals are met. Meanwhile, the global climate crisis continues to drive extreme weather, rising sea levels and glacial retreat.
“The Legislature established a goal saying the state shall reduce emissions 45 percent by 2030. That’s a tall order,” said Don Steinke, a local environmental activist and one of 30 members of the county’s climate planning community advisory group.
To get an idea of how challenging that will be, Steinke said you don’t have to look any further than the advisory group itself. Despite regular meetings for the better part of a year, he said the committee still has not discussed emissions reduction goals. And he’s seen little collaboration among various jurisdictions.
“How do you reduce the emissions from entities for which you have very little jurisdiction?” he said.
The impact of the state’s requirements for reducing greenhouse gas emissions won’t just affect local governments, Steinke said.
“The climate amendment requires Clark County to change the rules for every person, every hospital, every school district, every port district, every homebuilder, every supermarket, and every developer, telling them what they can and cannot do,” he said.
Lofty goals
The name for greenhouse gases comes from their ability to trap heat in the atmosphere and create a greenhouse effect. The gases are primarily made up of carbon dioxide, which accounts for 80 percent of total emissions, methane (about 11 percent), nitrous oxide, fluorinated gases, water vapor, ozone and others.
While fluorinated gases — including hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride and nitrogen trifluoride — are typically emitted in much smaller amounts, they trap far more heat than carbon dioxide and deplete ozone in the atmosphere.
The state goal requires emissions be reduced from 1990 levels, which is also referred to as the baseline. The goal increases to 70 percent below 1990 levels by 2040 and 95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
According to the state Department of Ecology’s greenhouse gas inventory, the state produced 88.4 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in 1990. By 2019, the most recent year data is available, the number had risen about 15 percent to 102.1 million metric tons.
Transportation accounts for about 39 percent of emissions. Residential, commercial and industrial heating is the second highest source at 25 percent, with electricity generation at 21 percent and other sources, like waste management, agriculture and industrial processes, at 14 percent.
While coordination among local jurisdictions appears to be limited, the city of Vancouver has been leading the way. The city created a climate plan before the Legislature made it a requirement of the Growth Management Act. That plan now serves as a model for other jurisdictions.
Rebecca Small, senior policy analyst for Vancouver, said many of the strategies and actions set by the city’s 2022 Climate Action Framework are being incorporated into its own 20-year growth plan.
“It has given the city an advantage in responding to new climate element requirements of the Growth Management Act,” Small said.
Vancouver set its own emissions goals, which are even tougher than the state’s goals. They include an 80 percent reduction in emissions by municipal operations by 2025, an 80 percent reduction by the Vancouver community by 2030, and both operations and the community carbon neutral by 2040.
“We owe it to our children and grandchildren to create a future that’s livable, equitable and sustainable, and we’re ready to do the hard work to make that happen,” Small said.
Working together
The Climate Environmental Justice Coalition is also pushing for climate policies that benefit all residents.
The coalition is made up of 15 local community organizations, including the Council for the Homeless, Fourth Plain Forward, Latino Leadership Northwest and NAACP Vancouver, among others.
The coalition is helping Clark County meet public engagement and environmental justice requirements in the climate planning legislation, said Jenna Kay, a planner with the county’s planning department.
Given how the state’s climate legislation was written, Kay said there is opportunity for the various jurisdictions to work together.
“Not only do you have to reduce greenhouse gases, you cannot increase emissions somewhere else in the state. You’re also not allowed to do something that pollutes more in your neighboring town or something like that,” she said.
Kay said the county is on track to have proposed climate policies ready for public review and the adoption process by this spring.
Energy transmission
Less well known but equally important to reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the Clean Energy Transmission Act, or CETA, passed by the Legislature in 2019, which requires the state’s supply of electricity to be free of emissions by 2045.
Similar to how counties and cities are required to incorporate climate planning goals and policies, CETA requires the same of public utilities. By including requirements to preserve affordable rates and reliable service, lawmakers wanted to ensure public utilities wouldn’t pass the costs onto its customers. The bill also requires all customers to benefit equally from the transition to clean energy.
Like the Climate Commitment Act, the clean energy bill also set new goals for utilities. By 2025, Clark Public Utilities won’t be able to sell coal-generated electricity. By 2030, it must be greenhouse gas neutral, meaning 80 percent of its energy load must be produced with renewables or emissions-free sources.
While the remaining 20 percent can be from emitting sources, the utility will have to offset that with renewable energy credits and other alternatives. By 2045, the utility must sell 100 percent clean energy.
Clark Public Utilities has already begun implementing changes to meet the upcoming targets. The utility spent about $10 million on upgrades to its River Road Generating Plant to better meet energy demands and integrate renewable energy sources like wind and solar into its power resources.
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In partnership with the Port of Camas-Washougal, construction on the Community Solar East facility began in 2023 and went into service in early 2024. The site allows residential and business customers to benefit from the renewable energy source without having to install individual solar arrays.
“The utility is on pace to achieve state clean energy targets ahead of schedule,” Clark Public Utilities spokesman Dameon Pesanti said.
Regulations
Perhaps one challenge to the county and its cities collaborating to meet the new state requirements is the complicated and complex nature of the laws created by the Climate Commitment Act, as well as the comprehensive growth plans.
That’s not to say the county and cities aren’t working together in some areas. Kay said the county and cities, with the exception of Vancouver, are working together on getting grant funds from the Department of Commerce to offset costs for technical consultant work. Vancouver had already done this work when the city rolled out its climate action plan in 2022.
As the county and cities go into the final year of the growth plan update, Kay said they will need to collaborate and come to agreement on countywide planning policies.
“Staff have been working on doing some drafting, but then it will have to go to each of the city councils and the county council to get those countywide policies approved,” she said. “That is forthcoming.”
This story was made possible by Community Funded Journalism, a project from The Columbian and the Local Media Foundation. Top donors include the Ed and Dollie Lynch Fund, Patricia, David and Jacob Nierenberg, Connie and Lee Kearney, Steve and Jan Oliva, The Cowlitz Tribal Foundation and the Mason E. Nolan Charitable Fund. The Columbian controls all content. For more information, visit columbian.com/cfj.
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