On June 26, 2020, the Environmental Council of Sacramento submitted a letter to the City of Sacramento asking for the City’s support for the recommendations made by the Mayors’ Commission on Climate Change.
Tag Archives: Climate Emergency
Funding Sacramento County’s Climate Action Plan
On May 12, 2020, the Environmental Council of Sacramento, 350 Sacramento and the Sierra Club Sacramento Group sent a letter to Sacramento County with concerns about funding the County’s Climate Action Plan.
We are gratified that on April 7, the Board of Supervisors directed staff to proceed with work on the County’s Climate Action Plan (CAP). However, we are concerned that the fiscal impact of the Covid-19 pandemic could make it difficult to include the CAP work, of approximately $300,000 disbursed over two fiscal years, in the County’s FY 20-21 budget.
Click here to read the letter in full.
On May 27, 2020, the Environmental Council of Sacramento, 350 Sacramento and the Sierra Club Sacramento Group sent a response letter to Sacramento County with concerns about funding the County’s Climate Action Plan.
Thank you for your prompt response to our May 12 letter on CAP funding. We appreciate your efforts to secure funding for the CAP. As reported at the County’s May 24, 2017 CAP workshop, most of the work (then $267,060 contract and $431,300 staff) was to have been funded by Long Range Planning fees. However, your response indicated funding from development project applicants instead. It isn’t clear if these are only applicants currently in the entitlement process; if so we have the following concerns.
Click here to read the letter in full.
Photo by Ron Reiring via flickr.
Putting Vehicle Miles Traveled Guidelines Into Action
On May 26, 2020 the Environmental Council of Sacramento joined a large coalition of organizations in sending a letter to the Governor of California urging our state to move forward in implementing the Vehicle Miles Traveled guidelines for transportation impact analysis per Senate Bill 743 (2013).
We, the undersigned organizations, are grateful for the decisive actions you’ve taken to protect Californians during the COVID-19 pandemic. We understand the far-reaching impacts of COVID-19 and know that difficult choices will need to be made. We are aware that there are requests from some parties to postpone the implementation of SB 743 (2013); we urge you to not further delay the implementation of this very important statute.
COVID-19 has created an economic crisis for California, and the magnitude of the challenges ahead for our state’s recovery are immense, but postponing implementation of SB 743 would be a mistake. Rather, expeditious implementation of SB 743 is now all the more important to ensure a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient future for California.
Click here to read the letter in full.
Photo by Robert Couse-Baker via Pxhere
Win! Sac County Commits to Climate Planning
April 8, 2020
From 350 Sacramento:
Victory! At their April 7 public hearing, the Sacramento Board of Supervisors directed staff to start work on their long-overdue Climate Action Plan (CAP). Supervisors mentioned the significant public comments they received and growing public concern over climate change. It’s taken over a year of advocacy by 350 Sacramento, ECOS, and Sierra Club to get the County to say they would do what they had committed to. Our coalition submitted numerous letters and comments, coordinated with environmental justice and faith organizations, and organized an online letter/petition email campaign that generated 94 emails to each Board member encouraging them to move the CAP forward. 350 Sacramento also provided each Supervisor copies of 350 Sacramento’s CAP Recommendations document and the book Uninhabitable Earth. We achieved a big goal, but this is just the first step. Our next challenge is to make sure adequate funds are budgeted for the CAP. Then the real work begins. Big land developers consider robust CAP measures a threat and they have political influence. To get a strong CAP we need to generate strong public support over the next year. This is a fight we can win but it won’t be easy. We’ll keep you posted on how you can help.
Image by Bessi from Pixabay
Initiation of Sacramento County Action Plan
April 06, 2020
The Environmental Council of Sacramento, 350 Sacramento and the Sierra Club submitted a comment letter regarding Sacramento County’s initiation of a Climate Action Plan.
Here is an excerpt from our letter:
Thank you for your leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thank you also for committing to initiate the County’s Climate action Plan (CAP), and to discuss it during the Board’s April 7, 2020 hearing on the County’s General Plan 2019 Annual Report.
We are gratified that the CAP is included in the planning department’s work plan, but disappointed that the Report asserts work won’t begin until “a path forward is made clear” with the resolution of unspecified CAP-related lawsuits in other jurisdictions. Absent identification of such suits and explanation of why they preclude progress on the CAP, the County has not explained why it needs to continue its nine-year delay in fulfilling its greenhouse gas-reduction commitments (noted in Attachment).
As we’ve advised in previous correspondence, since the County committed to adopt a CAP in 2011, four other jurisdictions in the SACOG region have adopted CAPs which they consider “qualified”, and three more are currently in active draft, notwithstanding pending litigation in other jurisdictions.
We recognize this is a difficult time to begin new initiatives, but with both the pandemic and climate crises, time is not on our side. The pandemic crisis is short-term and immediate, but while the impacts of climate change are gradual, they are more enduring.
Therefore, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. We ask you to move ahead with a climate action plan and do what is required to avoid a threat whose scope has no historic parallel; to do not as little, but as much as possible.
City Announces Temporary Ban On Residential Tenant Evictions
The Sacramento City Council adopted an ordinance on March 17 to establish a temporary ban on evicting residential tenants unable to pay rent due to a loss of income caused by the Novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19).
“It is vital for us to protect residential tenants during this tenuous time,” said Assistant City Manager Michael Jasso. “This ordinance is part of the City’s efforts to address the financial impacts of the disease on renters locally, the population most at-risk of swift housing displacement.”
Click here to view the article on the City of Sacramento’s website.
Why is this an environmental issue? People need to have the option to live near their jobs and other every day destinations. This means making sure there are enough affordable, quality residences in the urban core of Sacramento, even in the face of a pandemic. If people who work downtown cannot afford to live downtown, we are not going to meet our region’s greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. To do our part as a city, Sacramento must find ways to reduce the need for workers to commute every day.
