The board voted 4-1 to join the Cool Counties Climate Stabilization program.
Supervisor Rob Brown voted no, voicing concerns over the substantive quality of the action, and questioning whether the program's baselines for energy use reductions were realistic.
Supervisor Denise Rushing, who asked the board to consider the measure, introduced the discussion by saying that she believes global climate change is “the culminating crisis of all generations.”
In a written statement provided after the meeting, Rushing wrote “Our ability as a people to wake up now and deal with this issue first may well determine not only our fate as human beings, but the fate of most of the other species as well.”
Rushing credited fellow board members with the leadership they've already shown on environmental issues. She said joining the Cool Counties program included “no regrets decisions” such as greening the county's operations, an effort already under way with officials looking at adding solar power to county facilities.
Lake County has a lot to offer, and to protect, she said. “People come to Lake County because of what we have.”
Adopting more green operating practices also is a good fiscal decision, because the county will save money on power and fuel, said Rushing.
Joining the Cool Counties program, Rushing added, was merely a way to set a sustainability goal and track the county's progress in pursuing it. That, in turn, can create momentum, and help focus attention on the effort.
“We have an important role to play in reminding people of their connection to the natural world,” she said.
Lake County has qualities other places have already lost and cannot remember, Rushing said. She urged the board to join the program and set the pace for other states.
Supervisor Ed Robey said the grassroots nature of the program appealed to him. He said over the years he's developed the attitude that local government is where “the rubber hits the road.”
“The attitudes I've developed is that the higher you get in government, the more disconnected you get from reality,” he said, adding that it's important for change to go from the bottom up.
Supervisor Anthony Farrington agreed with Robey's take on the importance of local government in effecting change.
“We're the ones providing the services,” he said, listing law enforcement and health care as examples.
He suggested adding language to the resolution to stipulate that the federal government shouldn't adopt sustainability measures as unfunded mandates – meaning local governments have to pay for federal requirements. “We're the ones forced to find the money, the coin, to implement the change.”
Farrington added that he feels Lake County already is “cool” because of its incredible geothermal production.”
Board Chair Jeff Smith said the Cool Counties discussion was arising at an interesting time – with the county going through a dry year where the lake didn't fill up. He wondered aloud if that was going to be a trend, and said the county needs to look at everything it can do to reduce its impact.
He said he wanted to know if the county could begin trying to reduce its energy usage by 10 percent right now, although the Cool Counties program only asks for a 2-percent annual reduction.
Rushing said Pacific Gas & Electric is working on a system to provide real-time energy usage graphs to citizens; a similar program in Washington state's Puget Sound area immediately reduced energy use by 5 percent, she said.
Smith said he felt that the county already was a step ahead, especially with its clean air. He said he couldn't imagine a downside to joining the program.
Replied Supervisor Rob Brown, “There's always a downside to being symbolic instead of substantive.”
Brown said the county already has taken many substantive efforts to improve its operations, and questioned if the program's baseline reductions were realistic. “I don't think we can reduce emissions by 80 percent,” he said.
The county already is working to make its buildings more efficient, and has raised mileage limits on county-owned vehicles.
Brown also praised Public Service Director Kim Clymire's “unbelievable” efforts in implementing the couty's recycling program, which Brown said should be a model for other counties.
Smith agreed, saying Lake should challenge others to step up, but that it also can do more.
Rushing said joining the program wasn't “just a feel-good resolution,” but also would help the county identify local vulnerabilities to climate change, such as fire danger and water supply, which is important information for the general plan update.
She explained that modern society is “extractive,” and would need three and a half planet Earths to continue at its current pace.
“We are taking literally billions of years of ancient sunlight in the form of plants that have created oil and have spewed half of it into the atmosphere in a century and a half,” she said.
She added, “I think a leadership statement is important.”
Brown replied, “We all have an obligation, to what level, we don't know.”
About the environmental movement's leading figure, he quipped, “Al Gore being in charge of the environment is like Michael Vick being in charge of animal control.”
He said the county has been leading with its efforts, and questioned the value of a “monkey see monkey do resolution process.”
Members of the public who spoke to the board about the Cool Counties program supported joining.
Sierra Club Lake Group Chair Victoria Brandon told the board, “If we sign on to this now we will be at the forefront of counties in California,” adding that Yolo County's supervisors have the issue agendized for next month.
“The county is doing all sorts of really good things right now for the environment,” said Brandon; by signing onto the effort they will put additional focus on the climate.
Hidden Valley Lake resident Bill Barrows said while society has come a long way in paying more attention to climate change. “We all, as a culture, can go much farther,” he said.
Jack Bettencourt of Lucerne said he understood Brown's concerns. “I do not believe in emotion and feel-goodness,” he said.
But Bettencourt said he lived for a year in Greenland, which has a massive ice sheet that is beginning to melt due to climate change and is dropping off pieces of ice “the size of Safeway.”
It doesn't matter why climate change is happening, said Bettencourt, only that it is taking place. “If we don't take action to keep it from getting out of hand there's a tipping point where it can never be protected.”
In the case of Greenland, if the ice continues to melt it could affect weather everywhere and dramatically raise sea levels by as much as 23 feet, he said.
While scientific projections on the impacts of climate change tend to vary widely, the one issue all agree on is that sea level rise – such as that referred to by Bettencourt – is accelerating beyond original projections.
Smith, who said his wife has visited the Arctic in recent years to see the polar bears, said he agreed with Bettencourt that they need to do something. “Boy, do I feel like I'm turning green,” he said.
He added, “I think it's worth stating that we are making a difference.”
Rushing offered the resolution with Farrington's addition of asking the federal government to give financial assistance to green efforts like this one.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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