Tumwater officials talk city’s role in Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan

TUMWATER –– Tumwater city officials held a work session Tuesday evening to talk more about the city’s role in the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan, which is currently in Phase 2. 

The goal is to reduce net communitywide greenhouse gas emissions to 45 percent below 2015 levels by 2030, and 85 percent below 2015 levels by 2050. It seeks to allow the county to do its part to prevent the global average temperature from rising more than two degrees Celsius above historic levels, according to Planning Manager Brad Medrud.

The council last discussed this plan in July, when 71 possible actions for reducing the carbon footprint of the city were brought to light. This work session dealt more with logistical concerns over handling the broadness of the plan.

“It’s an emergency. This is important,” said Medrud, referring to the primary points offered by a committee advisory work group. “It is better to do something and need to improve on that than try to get it perfect and end up with nothing.”

According to Medrud, the greatest percentage of carbon emissions can be reduced by working on the built environment and the transportation system, which includes all the homes, businesses and other structures that urbanize the city along with transit and cars. These areas are “90 percent of the total emissions that we’re looking at here,” said Medrud.

Councilmember Tom Oliva, who works with Medrud, suggested that banning new connections for natural gas, expanding support for electric cars, and carbon sequestration in trees and prairies would be crucial, despite the challenges brought about by these actions.

“The reason I bring those up is that the plan is not going to work if it doesn’t have those three things,” said Oliva. “But we don’t get across that finish line without all these [other] things in the plan, and those are a pretty heavy list.”

Medrud also emphasized the importance of supporting state-level action for lower emissions, investing in the energy efficiency of homes, and expanding the practice of regenerative agriculture. The plan also suggests aiming for 30 percent of vehicles in the city to be electric by 2050.

“Adopting the plan does not make it happen,” said Mayor Pete Kmet. “We’re going to have to change our building codes significantly if it’s not already captured in state code, we’re going to have to redirect funds for staffing to create a different emphasis in what we’re doing, and those decisions are going to be made by individual elected bodies that are going to change over time, so that’s the challenge.”

The council aims to be in position to adopt the plan by November.