Letter Writer Claims, ‘Humboldt County Undermines Climate Action Plan’

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Humboldt County environmental advocates are demanding that local jurisdictions take climate planning seriously. Spurred by the advocacy of local environmental groups, Humboldt County began developing a regional Climate Action Plan five years ago. In those five years, worldwide atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased by ten parts per million (from 408 to 418 ppm). Meanwhile, a draft plan released in April 2022 has languished, and now Humboldt County is proposing to weaken the Climate Action Plan by adopting fuzzy math to limit the amount of climate action necessary to meet state targets.

Humboldt County is proposing to ignore state guidance that directs jurisdictions to avoid quantifying point source emissions in their Climate Action Plans because local jurisdictions are generally preempted from regulating these kinds of emissions. By including point source emissions, Humboldt County can claim climate action without actually reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Here’s how: Climate targets are based off of 1990 emissions estimates. Since 1990, and unrelated to climate change, a number of large point sources of greenhouse gas emissions have closed, like the Samoa pulp mill in 2008. As a result, by considering point source emissions like the Samoa pulp mill, Humboldt County is proposing to claim that it has already met or almost met its greenhouse gas reduction targets without reducing current emissions at all.

Climate activists are furious at the misdirection.

“Through clever accounting, Humboldt County is proposing a Climate Action Plan that fails to actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions, ” said Matt Simmons, Staff Attorney at the Environmental Protection Information Center. “We know that climate change is directly impacting the North Coast, from sea level rise to warmer waters in salmon-bearing rivers to increased fire behavior. Failure to plan for emissions reductions fails Humboldt.”

“Through this climate bait-and-switch, Humboldt County is only making attainment of future climate reduction targets more difficult,” said Colin Fiske, Executive Director of the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities. “We are obligated to reach net-zero emissions by 2045. The path to reach that target is virtually impossible without ambitious action now.”

“Rising ocean temperatures are harming a wide range of marine organisms off our coast, and the Humboldt Bay area is ground zero for impacts from sea level rise, which is increasing at roughly double the rate of other areas, threatening our remaining salt marshes and other ecosystems that make the Bay so unique,” said Jen Kalt, Executive Director of Humboldt Baykeeper. “Humboldt County needs to be part of the global solution to climate change and that means actual emissions reductions.”

“We know what we need to do to reduce our emissions and fight the climate crisis—we need more walkable communities, more bike infrastructure, more public transit, and less sprawl—but apparently Humboldt County lacks the will to actually do what is necessary,” said Caroline Griffith, Executive Director of the Northcoast Environmental Center. “This is a failure of leadership, not of science.”

“Climate change is already wreaking havoc on people in this country with fires, floods, drought, and extreme heat,” said Nancy Ihara of the 350 Humboldt Steering Committee. “It is hard to imagine that an imperfect, but at least aspirational document, Humboldt County’s draft CAP is to be replaced by one that does almost nothing. Let’s pick our highest priorities and get them done!”

Climate advocates point to other areas where Humboldt County has failed to take climate change seriously. The county has yet to create a single staff position dedicated to climate action. In 2019, the Board of Supervisors moved to create a Climate Advisory Committee. Climate activists are still waiting for that committee to be formed. Environmental advocates had to threaten litigation to force the incorporation of greenhouse gas reduction measures for the North McKay Subdivision. One of the Humboldt County Planning Commissioners has expressed a belief that climate action was part of “Agenda 21” an “extremist conspiracy theory about a secret plot to impose a totalitarian world government in the name of environmentalism,” as summarized by the Lost Coast Outpost. And if the county doesn’t get its act together and adopt a serious Climate Action Plan soon, it will also be leaving money on the table – like the $4.6 billion in federal Climate Pollution Reduction Grants available to communities that have adopted a plan by March of next year.

“Environmental voters are going to be looking at what elected officials actually do to fight the climate crisis,” said Melodie Meyer, co-director of the Redwood Coalition for Climate and Environmental Responsibility. “We are tired of empty promises. We need leaders to actually lead.”

[Matthew Simmons

Staff Attorney

Environmental Protection Information Center]