A pair of unconventional allies was in agreement during the March 4 Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting over the notion that the county needs to do more than just talk about saving energy and conserving resources, but also needs to “walk the walk.”
Board Chair Steve Lavagnino (5th District) joked that the day would go down in history as the only time Michael Chiacos from the Community Environmental Council and Andy Caldwell from the Coalition of Labor, Agriculture, and Business have agreed on anything. Caldwell and Chiacos spoke during the public comment portion of the hearing in which supervisors adopted a zero net energy standard for county buildings with a 4-1 vote. Fourth District Supervisor Peter Adam dissented.
Caldwell told supervisors the county would be wrong to spend money installing renewable energy sources on county buildings when the county’s current energy use exceeds what’s needed. He spoke to the board from Santa Maria via video feed. Caldwell said he was the only one watching the meeting from Santa Maria, yet he was in a gigantic, fully lit room with several television sets running. Caldwell said it was overkill.
In response, 1st District Supervisor Salud Carbajal said if the county was going to move forward with a zero net energy plan, measures should be included that ensure the county isn’t wasting resources.
“We should really understand what walking the walk is,” Carbajal said during the meeting. “That we are doing everything to save water during a drought, that we are doing everything to save energy.”
The county’s zero net energy plan is part of an overall sustainability action plan adopted in 2010, and it coincides with California’s zero net energy goals for state buildings. All new Santa Barbara County-owned facilities and major renovations that are beginning design after 2025 will be zero net energy facilities, and 50 percent of new facilities beginning design after 2020 will be zero net energy.
Supervisors Dorreen Farr (3rd District), Janet Wolf (2nd District), and Carbajal all said the plan wasn’t aggressive enough, and asked that solar panels be considered in design plans for the new North County Jail, which currently doesn’t include solar.
During a presentation to county supervisors, General Services Assistant Director Greg Chanis described zero net energy as “a facility that on an annual basis only uses as much energy as it produces from renewable energy sources.”
Chanis also gave the supervisors a list of 15 buildings that would help the county transition standing buildings toward zero net energy. The buildings could be retrofitted with solar panels and wind turbines to help offset energy use. Upgrades are estimated to cost the county $946,000 and pay for themselves in less than 10 years. Any future projects would still need to be approved by the Board of Supervisors.
Carbajal introduced the motion to adopt the plan with a couple of additions: that county staffers bring a more comprehensive plan back to the board with more goals and different cost options for upgrading county buildings.
“I think we can take it to the next level,” Carbajal said. “All in all, I think [the plan’s] a great product, but it’s far from what we should have.”
This article appears in Mar 13-20, 2014.