Thurston County sees a 4% greenhouse gas emission increase over the pandemic levels, still below pre-pandemic levels

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After a steep drop in 2020, Thurston Regional Planning Council (TRPC) assistant planner Casey Mauck said they saw a 4% increase in greenhouse gas emissions as the community rebounded after COVID-19.

At the Climate Action Steering Committee (CASC) meeting on Monday, February 27, Mauck presented the 2022 report on climate mitigation measures using the latest 2021 greenhouse gas inventory data.

Mauck said the increase has not yet hit pre-pandemic levels but is creeping back up.

In 2021, Mauck said, a community-wide emissions increase of 4% is still below the 2015 baseline year.

Mauck showed the breakdown of the emissions in various sectors such as buildings and energy, transportation and land use, water and waste, agriculture, forests, and prairies.

Buildings and Energy

The TRPC reported a 3% decrease in buildings and energy sector emissions from the baseline year, contributing about 54% of emissions.

"But while emissions are decreasing, our actual energy usage was not decreasing," noted.

From the baseline year to 2021, Mauck claimed electricity usage increased by 8% and natural gas usage increased by 19%.

"We are not on track to meet either of the targets for commercial or residential, electricity or natural gas usage," Mauck commented.

From 2021 to 2022, Mauck said, the local generating capacity of renewable energy rose to 40%. "That is a huge jump in large part to the growth of solar that we have seen throughout the region. It will be interesting to see how that looks at the end of 2023."

Mauck highlighted the energy upgrades in various municipalities:

  • In the Tumwater Timberland Regional Library, Mauck said the city replaced around 900 fixtures with LEDs.
  • Olympia completed a replacement of about 300 fixtures at the old Family Support Center on State Street.
  • Lacey reported that all their traffic signals have now been converted to LEDs.
  • Thurston County has retrofitted streetlights along Martin Way.

"The electricity usage overall rise, [but] energy usage from street lighting has decreased by 46% from our baseline year. Thanks to the investments by all of our partners," Mauck said.

"While we have seen the buildings and energy sector emissions decrease, we have not seen energy usage decrease overall. That is certainly an area of focus going forward," the TRPC assistant planner added.

Transportation and land use sector

According to Mauck, transportation and land use is the second largest sector, with 36% in emissions.

She noted a 9% decrease in emissions since the baseline year. They also saw a 4% decrease in vehicle miles traveled. That is due to telework and electric vehicle usage, both rising significantly. "It keeps us on target to meet our 2030 and 2050 goals for reducing vehicle miles traveled."

Mauck said the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan (TCMP) jurisdictions adopted new telework policies in 2022.

Mauck said they had seen an uptick in electric vehicle usage. "This is not mirrored emissions at this point. We don't have methodology yet to take those emissions out of our transportation sector."

On the land use sector, Mauck said they are not on track to meet the land use targets.

The goals are to have 72% of urban households in the county within a half mile of a center or corridor by 2035 and to have no more than 5% of residential development outside of urban growth areas each year.

Mauck said the four jurisdictions made efforts to increase the transportation system's efficiency and make it safer for other modes of travel besides driving a car.

She cited Franklin Street in Olympia, where the city installed new sidewalks, lighting and amenities to provide a safer experience for walkers, cyclists, transit users, and everyone getting around.

The other project includes Thurston County's Martin Way ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) improvement project.

She also pointed out that school districts worked with the TRPC to create safe routes to school maps that support the children in walking and cycling to school.

Water and waste sector

Mauck said they had seen the most significant increase in emissions in this sector, climbing to 26% since the baseline year due to the increase in the solid waste that the community is producing.

She added that they are not on track to meet the 2030 or 2050 targets.

Mauck said they have seen wastewater treatment emissions rise to 4% of the baseline year but quickly added that “LOTT is constantly making innovative improvements to keep their emissions down.”

She said the emissions from wastewater treatment only make up 0.6% of the sector. About 70 to 75% of emissions in the industry are methane from landfills, followed by emissions from septic systems.

Mauck enumerated municipalities' actions, including:

  • Tumwater kicked off a study this year to look at water and energy efficiency at all city facilities
  • Olympia is continuing to complete waste audits for businesses
  • All jurisdictions are moving forward on organics management ordinances to meet a new state law passed in 2022

Agriculture, forests, and prairies

In the agricultural activities, the TRPC assistant planner said the emissions rose to 3% from the baseline year.

She said they also looked at the forested land cover changes, which resulted in an 18% increase in the net emission. "That is from land that either became or was forested and changed to a different land cover type from 2019."

The TCMP's goal is to have a negative 40% for 2050.

According to Mauck, the TCMP partners are working on several sequestration actions, including:

  • Thurston Country has seen 122 acres of prairie protected through easements or acquisitions from 2020 to 2022.
  • Tumwater is updating the city's tree and vegetation protection ordinance, street tree plan, and landscaping ordinance.
  • Lacey recently acquired over 500 acres of public open space and currently working on a master plan for that space.
  • Olympia has updated their habitat stewardship geographic information system (GIS) and improved the way it can prioritize, plan and track restoration and planting projects

Mauck mentioned that Thurston County's habitat conservation plan was federally approved in 2022. The permitting for the project is beginning soon.

"The county is currently acquiring land. Of developing a conservation land system to create climate mitigation credits that can be purchased to offset development impact," she added.

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  • Southsoundguy

    This is all a complete farce. The problem is made up and the goals are arbitrary. We’ll never hit “targets” and these programs will go forever. Just cancel them now.

    Wednesday, March 1, 2023 Report this