ENVIRONMENT

Climate plan designed to curb Thurston County’s greenhouse gas emissions

The public has offered some 70 solutions that are included in the current draft of the plan.

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As more attention than ever before is focused on the climate and how greenhouse gas emissions are predicated to have lasting, devastating effects, emissions in Thurston County are still increasing.

Climate change could be felt locally over the summer, said Olympia Director of Public Works Rich Hoey. Smoke from record-breaking wildfires lingered in the air and created hazardous air quality, making it dangerous to be outside.

Prompted by increasingly dire warnings from climate scientists that emissions must be curbed to avoid the most serious consequence of climate change, officials from Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater have worked on a plan with the Thurston Regional Planning Council, which coordinates multi-jurisdictional projects here. The plan will outline what must be done in local communities to make Thurston County as climate-conscious as possible.

With help from the public, the group has put together a draft of the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan (TCMP). The TCMP consist of around 70 different solutions aimed at reducing emissions by 85 percent by 2050. Hoey presented an update of the plan to the Olympia City Council last week.

Thurston Climate Action Team, a local nonprofit has been doing “greenhouse gas inventory” for years, said Hoey. They’ve found that 57 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in Thurston County are generated from energy consumption — heating, cooling and electricity in buildings. Thirty-two percent is generated from transportation — vehicles operating on fossil fuels.

Through multiple public events and methods of gathering public feedback, Hoey said they gathered roughly 300 solutions to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Those tips were whittled down to 70.

The draft plan, in its entirety, can be read at: https://www.trpc.org/DocumentCenter/View/8084/TCMP_00_SeptemberDraft_Chapters

Hoey said the first step of the plan would be making the local electric grid green, which would require partnership with Puget Sound Energy. The statewide Clean Energy Transformation Act has already set the ambitious goal of making the state run on 100 percent reusable energy by 2045.

In fact, multiple pieces of recent climate-focused state legislation could go a long way in helping the TCMP hit its goal of reducing emissions 85 percent by 2050, said Hoey.

The draft plan also prioritizes changes in transportation, including improvements to public transit, increasing walkability and biking and encouraging electric vehicles.

Allison Osterberg, senior planner with the Thurston Regional Planning Council, told council members that survey of 86 citizens showed 60 percent approved of the plan with few to no changes. Twenty-four percent approved of the plan, but with moderate changes. Meanwhile 16 percent said they don’t favor adopting the plan. Those who disagreed with the plan primarily felt it was either to aggressive or too costly to implement. Although, Osterberg said, only a few said they felt nothing should be done.

On Dec. 3, the Thurston County Steering Committee, a group of policy makers from the county and three cities, will meet to review and consider approving a finalized version of the plan. By early 2021, the plan will be sent to municipal jurisdictions and the Board of County Commissioners for approval.

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