Bend council makes headway on climate change plan
The Bend City Council made significant headway Wednesday night toward adopting a climate action plan resolution, but not without a lot of crosswinds of debate – testy at times – about how firm the goals should be and how high a priority to make the issue in a growing city with a lot of needs.
A majority of councilors agreed that the city should set a goal for city operations of reducing fossil fuel use by 40 percent by 2030 and by 70 percent by 2050. But when it comes to a plan for the community to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, concerns arose over what to include, and several councilors said key is make clear what efforts the city already has underway.
Just about every councilor said the idea is to set “aspirational” goals – not hard-and-fast limits. But councilors Victor Chudowsky and Casey Roats offered skepticism from many in the business community about what the city was trying to do and the benefits that would result.
Chudowsky used examples from Portland and Eugene to show how he believes there should be more focus on concrete, short-term projects that can promote energy efficiency and save money, rather than focus on goals that largely involve things out of the city’s control, such as the economy’s impact on energy use.
“The plan shouldn’t have targets, since it’s out of our control,” he said. “I’m just leery of spending two years to develop one.”
Councilor Doug Knight acknowledged that sustainability efforts may set goals that aren’t achievable, but are worth pursuing.
“If it turns out we have to turn back 300 feet from the summit of Mt. Everest, so be it,” he said, urging the city set a path “that would assure us the highest percentage of success.”
While the vast majority of testimony at recent meetings supported creating such a plan, city Senior Policy Analyst Gillian Ockner noted that more than 100 email comments were split almost 50-50 on whether the city should be taking up the task.
Roats put it this way: “I have no interest in spending money or time on environmental symbolism. If you can sacrifice a little symbolism for pragmatism, you have seven votes.”
At one point, Councilor Barb Campbell got more than a bit perturbed with Chudowsky’s proposals, asking, “How is that different from a plan” as being proposed now.
“We’re not telling people what to do,” he said, but offering encouragement.
Knight said they “are not going to be telling people when to drive their cars or flush their toilet,” but offering ways to address what a majority of scientists consider a serious threat, “so they can help be part of this army.”
Councilor Nathan Boddie said they are not that far apart: “I agree with you — let’s get on the ground and start doing stuff.”
Councilor Sally Russell was generally supportive but said the city needs to reach out to partners in the private and public sectors for some buy-in for such proposals as funding a sustainability coordinator. Those and other funding issues will be discussed at the next biennium’s budget discussions next year.
City staff will revise the proposal to reflect what they heard and come back for more discussion on Sept. 7.
