Pam's Plan for the Environment

By Pamela Conley Ulich

Carbon Free by 2033

This strategy falls short of leadership in comparison to other cities such as City of Lancaster (aiming to be net zero with renewable power by 2020 and is in LA County); City of Palo Alto (acheived 100% renewable power procurement in the last couple months and aims to make that better by dropping renewable energy credits in favor of direct contracts and onsite generation by 2017); the County of Marin (adopted a Community Choice Aggregation model to aim for 100% renewable power by 2020), the City of San Jose also has a plan to get to 100% renewable power by 2020.

Pam's Plan is to be energy independent and implement the goal to be fossil free by 2033 by transitioning to 100% wind, water, and solar for all purposes (electricity, transportation, heating/cooling, industry). (See thesolutionsproject.org for more information)

The Plan will include the following action items:

• Implement policies that will promote water conservation and recycling + grey water irrigation.

• Provide incentives for people to build green.

• Explore the feasibility of purchasing "green" power for LA County from utilities and provide incentives for solar and other renewable energy.

• Explore the possibility of creating separate bike lanes along major corridors. This is both a safety issue as well as an environmental one.

• Adopt and implement a Wastewater Plan: for filtering wastewater in from top--i.e. those putting the human, animal, and chemical waste into the system--to bottom--i.e. where the ground water enters the sea.

• Work to promote weekly Farmer's Market to support local farmers, with an emphasis on organic and pesticide-free farmers.

• Feasibility study for transitioning to 100% renewable energy.

• Ease permitting for the installation of renewables.

• Change all municipal lighting to LED, and all outdoor city lighting to solar.

• Set up a fund to help less affluent residents buy renewable energy and efficiency technologies.

• Identify sites for installation of solar, wind, and biogas (from waste) plants to power LA County.

• Identify public and private funds for small solar, wind, and biogas plants.

• Implement Green Building Code, Green Fleet, and Green Education Programs throughout LA County.

• Consider, and install where appropriate, wave power technology.

• Install dual or no flush toilets and waterless urinals, beginning with municipal buildings

• "Green Transportation Program" switch to biodiesel, straight vegetable oil, and/or hybrid or all electric for all city transport.

• Planting community organic gardens

• Installing windmills and solar panels in the LA County Parks and invite children track how much greenhouse gas they are saving and how much energy they are producing

• Get children and community involved in a 100% renewable energy study for LA County

• Host beach cleanups in coordination with Environmental Groups

• Conduct community awareness campaign to promote efficiency, conservation, and the transition to renewable resources

• Establish a tree planting and greening program using local species, and invite schools and community groups to be involved.