Pleasanton on Quest to be California's Greenest City by Reducing Emissions

Pleasanton will be the greenest city in the state, and that's not just hyperbole, say local officials.

On Tuesday night, the Pleasanton City Council approved a climate action plan that will reduce greenhouse-gas emissions throughout town by 15 percent over 10 years.

The city plans to conserve energy and de-pollute through things like recycling, building more homes near BART, installing efficient bulbs in streetlights, and putting electric car chargers throughout town.

"We control what this looks like," said Vice Mayor Cheryl Cook-Kallio.

"If we lag behind, someone else invents it for us. It's exciting to see that we're out in front."

She referred to increasing state mandates that require cities to green up their policies.

AB 32, for example, requires cities to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, said Daniel Smith, director of operations services.

But the city plan, say council members, goes beyond what the state is requiring.

"It's been a long, long time that we've been talking about this," Mayor Jennifer Hosterman said about the nearly two-year process of cobbling together this plan.

So far, the city has applied for grant funding for electric car charging stations to go in downtown and has already installed solar panels on city buildings that will end up saving $3.5 million in energy costs over the next 20 years.

Pleasanton has also installed more efficient lighting controls throughout city property, endorsed California Youth Services members fanning throughout town to make sure homes are efficient (read more about this effort ), and provided water-saving devices to local residents.

The city will continue to provide irrigation audits to commercial and residential customers and will continue to work with to figure out ways to reduce waste and save water and energy through events like last year's "Green Scene" festival that attracted 85 exhibitors and hundreds of people. This year's fair, scheduled for Oct. 6, already has 200 exhibitors signed up.

Smith said that if everything goes according to plan, Pleasantonians who now drive to and from destinations within the city will become less reliant on their cars by 2020, reducing the carbon dioxide output locally by 124,000 metric tons.

City officials would like to see more people bicycling to destinations downtown, or living in future high-density housing projects that will be within walking distance of BART stations or other transportation hubs.

Smith said that 73 percent of the recyclable waste in Pleasanton is in fact recycled, and by 2020, the plan would require that to go up to 90 percent.

Councilwoman Cindy McGovern said that in order to do that, there should be more recycling bins placed throughout town — especially downtown, where there are none.

Hosterman said she'd also like to see Pleasanton aggressively go after light rail projects that could snake through the city, eliminating the need for longer car trips.

Cities like Berkeley have passed ordinances that require anyone selling property to upgrade their real estate, making it more efficient and environmentally friendly. Some say that the problem with that, however, is that in this down economy, that type of requirement punishes people who are already having a hard time offloading property. Pleasanton staffers putting together the plan decided pretty early on that they didn't want to go that route, Smith said.

Smith said that because of greenhouse gas emissions, extreme heat days are expected to double by 2035, putting impossible demands on the power grid, not to mention causing more wildfires and floods.

"Some believe in global warming and some don't," Smith said. "That's something we learned in the workshops.

"But whether you believe in climate change or not, there's a benefit to being frugal," added Cook Kallio, referring to things like solar panels that not only conserve energy but drive down costs.

Smith said that worldwide, 78 percent of energy use is based on fossil fuels, while only 22 percent is based on nuclear, solar or hydro energy, etc. By 2030, the goal nationwide is to reduce that 78 percent to 13 percent, even though the worldwide population is expected to go up from 7 billion people now to between 8.5 billion and 9.5 billion by 2040.

"There's no way we'd be able to sustain our current levels," Smith said.

He said the city took its queues from the U.S. military, which is working to reduce its carbon footprint by 50 percent over the next 10 years.

"It's kind of a climate action plan on steroids," Smith said.

He said that right now, it costs $400 to transport a single gallon of gas to Afghanistan, and the military uses 12 million gallons per day. Tanks, he said, guzzle up about four gallons of fuel per mile. That, he said, is not sustainable.

Councilman Matt Sullivan said the Pleasanton plan, in conjunction with plans being hammered out throughout the state and country, is about creating a better environment for future generations.

"This plan is very important for Pleasanton and for the planet; it's a great milestone," he said.

The plan started out as part of a settlement Pleasanton reached with the California Attorney General’s Office, which sued the city on the grounds that its general plan environmental impact report did not address how Pleasanton’s growth would affect greenhouse-gas emissions.

To read more about the city's climate action plan, go to www.pleasantongreenscene.org.

To see the plan, click here.