Oakley residents offer feedback on ideas to fight climate change | News

The points were divided into four categories — Adaptation and Resilience, Buildings and Energy, Governance and Leadership, and Transportation and Land Use — with a fifth board also available for miscellaneous comments. The various ideas had equally diverse sources, according to Spanias. They came from not only city planners and experts, but also from the community, though they had to be vetted by the Planning Commission and City Council, among others.

• The Adaptation and Resilience category included such points as the hardening of infrastructure against climate change effects, the creation of carbon sinks to remove greenhouse gases from the air, and the protection of historical and ecological sites.

• Buildings and Energy included the complete cessation of carbon emissions in Oakley, municipal, residential, and commercial, by 2040.

• Governance and Leadership included the prioritization of climate action and sustainability in the budget and collaboration with nearby communities.

• Transportation and Land Use included the encouragement of active (e.g. bikes), shared (e.g. carpooling or school buses), and public transportation and the pursuit of a “15-minute city,” where all residents can access amenities within a 15-minute walk or bike ride.

In the discussions that followed the stoplight poll, Fuller asked when information on federal money would arrive, and whether the EPA would change environmental requirements to “something less than we ought [to have].” Spanias replied that he “wouldn’t expect too much from them,” and that “funding on the order of billions of dollars” from the Biden era is now likely “stuck somewhere” between the federal government and the municipal environmental initiatives it was intended for.

Another unnamed attendee pointed out that there is still “a big chunk of change” being doled out by the state for green programs, and that this will likely be the main source of the plan’s finances. Cumming Group project manager Cassidy Wallerstein said that the uncertain situation at the federal level makes local action like Oakley’s Climate Action Plan even more important.

Fuller was also concerned about the potential for further tax increases on local residents due to the creation of new regional tax areas to pay for the Climate Action Plan in collaboration with nearby cities.

He worried that the other cities in the tax area would vote for increased taxes and drown out Oakley’s residents if they voted against, as had happened in the past.

Other attendees spoke up about the city transitioning its vehicle fleet to electric vehicles, saying that there needed to be a more concrete schedule for doing so. Shaw explained that the process is not always linear, with cities sometimes finding that there are not enough electric vehicles available to meet their demand, forcing them to return to gasoline power.

“A lot of cities have had to go back on EV plans due to unavailability, we’ve been watching larger cities do this,” Spanias said.

Spanias gave San Diego as an example. They had looked into converting bus and freight lines to electric, but found the existing vehicles unsuitable for these purposes. One possible alternative they came up with is hydrogen fuel cell technology, which is also very low emission, but the environmental impact of creating the fuel cells has yet to be fully studied, they said.