The town I live in, Chico, CA is sometimes known as “Berkeley North” due to the liberal influence of Chico State University (CSUC). In this case, CSUC’s sustainability cabal, led by Professor Mark Stemen and Mayor Ann Schwab, has snookered our town into passing a “Climate Action Plan”.
Last Tuesday, our city council (who’s been deep in the red financially) approved by a 6 to 1 vote, the “Climate Action Plan” (CAP) from the “Sustainability Task Force”. It’s quite the hoot, because as I point out, they could buy “carbon indulgences”, for less than the cost of the “studies” money, and be done with it rather than continue to waste everybody’s time and effort. But in my opinion, the CAP really isn’t about results, it is about a continued agenda and public funds being used to support that agenda.
Here’s the story on it:
Full story here
Here’s what went down in discussion:
But Councilor Larry Wahl contested whether a Climate Action Plan, or its subsequent directives, would produce any “tangible benefit” to Chico.
“I do not literally see what this will accomplish … Will the sky be bluer? Will anything be prettier?” Wahl asked.
Holcombe said he didn’t want the city to take the chance that it wouldn’t.
“Nature is not waiting and certainly I don’t want the city of Chico to wait,” Holcombe said.
The rest of the council supported Holcombe.
By a 6-1 vote with Wahl dissenting, the council directed the creation of a Climate Action Plan, simultaneously approving a number of actions to be implemented in the first phase of the plan.
Here’s the Climate Action Plan (PDF) as it was approved that night. You’ll find it starting on page 80 of the meeting agenda. The Enterprise Record wrote a scathing editorial on it:
Full editorial here.
I had identified the same issues, but took it a step further with my letter to the editor I sent, citing what I recently discovered about the Chicago Climate Exchange:
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Dear Editor:
Regarding the recently passed city “Climate Action Plan,” one good idea is the installation of LED street lighting. While it won’t do much to offset carbon dioxide (since power plants program for lower idle loads at night) it will save money due to increased power efficiency. Anything minimizing expense and waste is a good thing for our spend-happy city government.
Besides this misguided but fiscally sensible idea, I note this in the Climate Action Plan: “Carbon Offsets Goal 1: Purchase Carbon Offsets Where Cost Effective.”
Since Team Schwab seems determined to waste money on this, I’ll point out three things:
1. Carbon offset trading in the USA is essentially dead. Even Sen. Harry Reid admits this. The Senate failed to pass cap and trade.
2. If they must waste money, don’t wait, do it now, because carbon offsets at the Chicago Climate Exchange are going for the bargain price of 5 cents per ton, down from the heyday highs of $7.50 per ton. See www.chicagoclimatex.com.
A bag of charcoal briquettes is worth more right now.
3. The plan said Chico emits 516,000 tons of carbon. At that price, we can offset the whole town for $25,800, far less than the cost of the actual city “Climate Plan.”
Maybe the council should buy boatloads of carbon credits at 5 cents per ton then resell it to the clueless Europeans trading carbon at nearly $20 per ton (see www.ecx.eu).
Yeah, that’s the ticket out of our city financial crisis.
Anthony Watts,
Chico CA
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Here’s the price today:
Waste money now, or later? That is the question.
For the record, I like LED lighting, and I put my money where my mouth is.
My view of carbon offsets? The City of Chico could buy them here, save our public funds, and they’d be just as effective. In fact, if they print them on this paper, the 69 cents a sheet paper would actually be worth more than the 5 cents per ton of carbon they “offset”.
Such a deal, sounds just like a job for our city government.
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UPDATE: I’ve added the PowerPoint presentation given at the City Council Meeting which you can download here: CityCouncil9-7
I lived in Chico for a while (82-84), well I lived in Chapman Town and later Paradise, while finishing off my geology degree. The town was a little nuts back then but apparently the nuttiness has become a lot more institutional since. Most of my profs were oil and mining guys cooling their heels after industrial careers, fairly conservative types. I wonder how the geology staff is now? Seems like rockheads tend to be skeptics, has to do with actually “gorking” the immense scale of time and the changes that occurred and are occurring.
I haven’t been back in 15 years, is the Madison Bear Gardens still pumping? Burger Hut?
Soon if you make a fire to stay warm, the carbon police will be there with there hand out for the carbon tax or carbon fine.
Freedom???
Anthony,
Are you sure you don’t live in Ann Arbor, Michigan? This is exactly the sort of silly, pointless and expensive greenie crap that the city council and the liberals of this town love. A stupid idea like AGW and what to do about a non-existent threat to the planet is perfect for the People’s Republic of Ann Arbor.
Anthony,
I politely deny your offer. This is not what I consider a community forum. I live in a community where people know each other, and they know when people are telling them the truth because they can see it in their eyes and hear it in their voice.
For the rest of you, Anthony twisted the truth to make the task force look silly. It is his pattern. My pattern is to sink to his level in my replies to WUWT, and get even worse in the cesspool of Topix.
REPLY: Thanks for the note. You can “deny” my offer, but it is most certainly there for everybody to see, thus real. Or did you mean to say “politely decline your offer” like most people say?
So tell me please, where I either lied, as you said in the comment previously or twisted the truth. Going back to my first comment: What part of my letter is non factual? Why would it be so bad to simply send $25,800 off to CCX for Carbon mitigation and disband the task force? Problem solved, some money saved, participant’s lives now with more time to do other useful community things. Seems like a winner.
Also, see Bill Illis comment earlier, are the numbers wrong?
– Anthony
Mr Latitude, I am willing to bet, if they have done the job properly, that some of it comes from their buildings (domestic heating, shops, offices, er… educational establishments; that sort of stuff)
Jim Barker says:
September 13, 2010 at 4:52 pm
I don’t believe there is a venue large enough to hold all the people “like” Mark.
California’s big enough. The trouble is that as soon as they’ve finished bankrupting the golden state, they’ll just move elsewhere.
so-called “climate change” action in S-E Queensland and elsewhere in Australia has the public riled up.
in S-E Queensland, councils pretended to privatise water after spending billions on desal & such-like on the basis of CAGW propaganda, yet they still own the “private” entities! water bills, now sent separately to Rates Bills, were not sent out in July but were held until the australian election was over. the $1.2bn desal plant in my region has barely worked since it was finished in Feb 09, and is unnecessary anyway:
11 Sept: Australian: Prospect of water ‘white elephants’ raised
Questions such as whether the Victorian government was panicked by climate change fears into funding a multi-billion-dollar “white elephant”….
Southeast Queensland’s Grid Three dams have reached 96.6 per cent, from an August 2007 low of 16.7 per cent. Similar rises have been seen in Melbourne and Adelaide, where water restrictions are being eased…
Victoria’s Auditor-General recently raised concerns that the estimated cost of the desalination plant near Wonthaggi of $3.1bn could balloon out to more than $5bn by the time it comes online next year…
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/prospect-of-water-white-elephants-raised/story-fn59niix-1225917685332
15 Aug: Courier Mail: High water bills in Queensland without a drop
DAMS are full and millions of dollars worth of water infrastructure is sitting idle, but residents are still being forced to pay for the white elephant projects with rising water bills.
Homeowners have lashed out at waste involved in delivering the $9 billion water grid and blamed it for blowing out their household water bills.
Queensland Water Commission figures reveal it could be more than a decade before the Western Corridor recycled water project adds a single drop to the region’s drinking supply after the State Government backflipped in 2008 on plans for an earlier start date.
While a length of pipeline sits ready to pump millions of litres a day of recycled water in to Wivenhoe Dam, government predictions show it will remain shut for years…
The Gold Coast desalination plant – the “showpiece” of the water grid – has been closed for repairs after ongoing problems, including rusting pipes.
Taxpayers are also facing millions of dollars to pay off the scrapped Traveston Crossing Dam proposal, with $265 million already written-off.
Angry ratepayers have criticised the costly water grid bungles at public forums held to protest the sky-rocketing water prices…
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/high-water-bills-in-queensland-without-a-drop/story-e6freon6-1225905278267
11 Sept: Brisbane Times Australia: Unitywater’s guesswork slammed
A lack of trust in consumption amounts on the first set of Unitywater bills sent out in the past month has fuelled anger that led to protest meetings at Kawana and Noosa this week.
Fed up with what it sees as gross misrepresentation about who is responsible for rapidly increasing water costs, the South-East Queensland Council of Mayors has requested a full and independent review of the books of the three council-owned water retailer-distributors, Allconnex, Unitywater and Urban Water Utilities…
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/unitywaters-guesswork-slammed-20100911-155f6.html
Universities frequently receive funding in a manner that requires “in-kind” contributions. This means an instructor could have her/his class load reduced (or committee assignments) and contribute the time to a project. The State still pays and perhaps twice if the department picks up a graduate student or adds to a part-time instructor’s pay and class hours to compensate for the in-kind contribution of the principle investigator (PI). Thus, my earlier comment still holds: @ur momisugly 1:20 P.M.
The amazing thing about this is that it is actually achievable. Move all electricity generation to nuclear, outlaw gas heating, electric vehicles only and voila!
But of course, this isn’t what they’re doing.
“Ten thousand went to pay two interns who worked at the city.”
Perhaps the two interns were students from the University.
REPLY: I believe they were students associated with Professor Stemen’s sustainability group. -Anthony
from the Climate Action Plan:
“In October 2006, the City Council signed the U.S. Conference of Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement confirming the City’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By signing the Agreement, the City agreed to strive to meet or beat the Kyoto Protocol GHG emission reduction target of 7% below 1990 levels by 2012. In addition, Governor Schwarzenegger’s Executive Order S-3-05 and the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32) establish a statewide goal of reducing GHG emissions reductions to 1990 levels (or by approximately 25%) by 2020, and a GHG emission reduction of 80% by 2050. To assist the City in implementing the U.S. Mayor’s Agreement, the Council formed the Sustainability Task Force in December 2006. The Task Force consists of sixteen members representing the University, business community, environmental groups, and members at large. Mayor Ann Schwab is currently the Chair of the Task Force.”
lol:
Mayors aren’t the brightest lights so the idea a U.S. Conference of Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement has got to be a real treat to read.
1990 levels were dismissed as unreasonable (no data exists) and 2005 levels were substituted; WUWT. Do they really believe the population and level of emissions to be the same and if not how does this comply with the intent (as stupid as it is intent)?
What a mess and huge waste of tax dollars — imagine the waste if every community is required to do this!!!
Mark says:
September 13, 2010 at 6:48 pm
For the rest of you, Anthony twisted the truth to make the task force look silly. It is his pattern. My pattern is to sink to his level in my replies to WUWT, and get even worse in the cesspool of Topix.
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Mark, I know you’ll find this hard to believe, but you were given ample opportunity, to present your side of the discussion. You didn’t do so. The fact is, the “task force” made themselves look silly. The fact that Chico has a CO2 task force is silly. Sometimes, an outside perspective is necessary to evaluate if your actions are sensible or not. I am truly sorry you chose not to engage, perhaps when you learn the art of correspondence as opposed to animated dialogue you can come back and engage?
BTW, it isn’t that you sunk to anyone’s level in replies, it is that you failed to rise to an acceptable level of engagement here. If you repeatedly call someone a liar, you should damned well be able to back it up. We all misinterpret, misquote, or simply misunderstand certain issues and topics. All that means is clarification is necessary. Don’t be to proud to say oops. This is a forgiving bunch here, but you should come here with more than ‘I call BS because it isn’t my perspective!’, that’s pretty lame for someone over the age of 12.
Mark is a university professor? Oh…my…God…
I remember professors being facilitators of knowledge infusion. Are they merely emotional pro-bots today? What happened to critical thinking? Replaced by bias-of-the day regurgitators?
Mark, you would serve your students vastly more if you just quit. Imagine them seeing your immature name-calling and accusations backed up with…nothing. Is this the example of an honored professor you want your students to see? Is this the kind of public persona the university expects from its employees?
Having read a number of requests for information on the GHG study, I will try to answer them.
I will also describe the very specific argument I have with Anthony’s claim, a claim he has made before, and that I clarified before.
I do not need to debate action on climate change because in California, it is state law. The City of Chico is required by SB 375 to include a greenhouse reduction strategy as part of its general plan update. The law reinforces a previous decision by the city council to reduce greenhouse gasses by 25% by 2020.
To establish the baseline, the CSU, Chico Research Foundation contracted with the City of Chico to complete the study in three months for $30,000. The money went to a laptop and software (both City property now), and a staff of four researchers to gather data (1200 hours).
The City joined ICLEI (www.iclei.org) to help with the process. ICLEI provided the software. A GHG inventory is not rocket science. It is EXCEL. The software provides coefficients for easily accessible data like energy use or gasoline use. I am sure readers have a myriad of objections to this approach, but it is the universally accepted method in California.
As part of the package, ICLEI provides a long list of potential items. These were added to the appendix of the report. Here is my specific beef: Anthony then wrote that the Council was proposing a gas tax. The Council was doing no such thing. The gas tax was on a list of recommendations coming from a third party consultant.
Oops, he did it again. The carbon offsets are from another ICLEI list. What the council voted on was clear to all who attended, or watched on TV, as many do in Chico. His ‘mistake’ then led him to ridicule his neighbors. I guess I am too sensitive.
What we found was not surprising. The low pounds per person figure reflects the fact that we do not produce much of what consume, which is also reflected in our high transportation number.
And one does not need to twist the truth to pick holes in the plan. The Council has repeatedly said the reductions will “pay for themselves,” and while that may be true for some electrical conversions, it is clearly not true. As an aside; the Council did not like being called on this either.
Unfortunately, my peers are not like me. They are normal faculty. So please do not think poorly of Chico State by association. Lest you think me a complete loon or spoof, however, . . . http://news.csuchico.edu/2008/09/10/‘dr-mark’-honored-for-sustainability-contributions/
REPLY: Thanks Mark, that is the first factual response you’ve made. I’ll publish a detailed reply later- Anthony
I’m sure glad that here in the “Live Free of Die” state we wouldn’t put up with such silliness. Umm. We seem to have lost our way – in my Email this AM:
(I deleted some ID info.)
I attended a “public listening session” a couple years ago when the CAP was being formulated. They didn’t listen to me, they didn’t listen to Joe D’Aleo. Their only scientist didn’t attend. http://wermenh.com/climate/gccptf.html
I work in Nashua, this will be a convenient thing for me to attend. The Collaborative is a different group than the one that created the plan. Well, the organizers are the same, the folks implementing the plan are not.
“Anthony then wrote that the Council was proposing a gas tax. The Council was doing no such thing. The gas tax was on a list of recommendations coming from a third party consultant.”
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Anthony, by your reply, “Thanks Mark, that the first factual response you’ve made.”, am I to assume the above comment is an rejoinder to a prior discussion? I’m not seeing a reference to a gas tax here.
Good letter, Anthony.
I don’t suppose that even one of the councillors had the intellectual curiosity, or the temerity, to ask whether anthropogenic CO2 was actually a problem or not. Surely some of them must know that their city hosts the pre-eminent Internet site for Climate Realism in the world, and that they have a resident expert on the subject of climate named Anthony Watts in their own backyard. Surely!
/Mr Lynn
Chico is a party school and therefore does not qualify to be “Berkeley north”. The Northern CA college town that suffers from enough Berkeley envy to earn that honor is Davis. Davis once delayed a much needed overpass for years to save toad habitat. When they could no longer stall the construction they had a $14,000 (not including the cost of research and the delays) toad tunnel built so the little guys wouldn’t get squished. http://www.widgetworks.net/toad-tunnel/welcome.htm
There was at least one rational thinker there. The Post Master’s father realized that the little fellas would need a place to rest after the long journey through the tunnel, so he built Toad Hollow, a town complete with a hotel and a saloon (with little toad stools to sit on). So far only a few toads have found the tunnel. Davis also has a strict anti-nuclear law that will hit Russia with a heavy fine if they dare bomb Davis. They too are working on their climate plan.
Chico only has the world’s largest yo-yo.
Mark says:
September 13, 2010 at 2:23 pm
“I have not received a single cent for my work, nor has my department. ”
As a former prof, I noted no mention was made of “in-kind time release” nor for the typical exorbitant overhead usually charged by the U. Foundation. $30K for an inventory seems a bit high since the excel program apparently had coefficients built into it and all one had to do was provide the inventory of people, cars, etc.
BTW, just because the entire State of CA has gone loony over AGW still doesn’t make it true.
Breckenridge, Colorado is also working on a sustainability plan. I attended the initial meeting in June where a slick environmental activist told us that global warming was real and that the oil industry was spreading lies to discredit the science. As proof that the world was taking it seriously He pointed to the election of Kevin Rudd who would soon usher in an ETS scheme for Australia. Ironically, the next day Rudd was thrown out of office. During the question, answer session I asked whether Breckenridge was now pro tree or anti tree pointing to recent studies that indicated that the cooling due to the increased albedo of snow with fewer trees apparently was more effective than the effect of reducing co2 through absorption by more trees and less snow . The town in the past would send tree nazis to fine you if you tried to cut down trees. They said they would study that and get back to me. The environmental activist’s claim to fame was in converting the always on incandescent light bulbs in the parking garages in Aspen to LEDs.
One slick tool were the clickers they passed out which allowed us to immediately select choices displayed on the screen. What a surprise when they discovered that saving electricity scored much lower than the need for more jobs.
@James Baldwin Sexton:
“The fact is, the “task force” made themselves look silly. The fact that Chico has a CO2 task force is silly.”
Exactly what I was thinking. Because really, states without money, comprising a bunch of towns without money, really should be spending money on what is arguably a non-problem in order to feel superior.
Mark says:
September 13, 2010 at 7:25 pm
Mark, of course, could have written this first but chose not to. We find now that the Climate Ca$h went from the poor taxpayers of the city to Chico State. I’m sure the ruling class will be appropriating more. Remember this, Anthony, when they vote to raise your property tax rates…
Mr Lynn says:
September 13, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Good letter, Anthony.
I don’t suppose that even one of the councillors had the intellectual curiosity, or the temerity, to ask whether anthropogenic CO2 was actually a problem or not. Surely some of them must know that their city hosts the pre-eminent Internet site for Climate Realism in the world, and that they have a resident expert on the subject of climate named Anthony Watts in their own backyard. Surely!
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Generally, it’s just human nature. As Jesus sagely observed, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.” Just another version of familiarity breeding contempt, especially when the message is not popular or trendy.
By the way, contra the obnoxious Mark, I would argue that WUWT has a very well-defined community: regulars here (readers and contributors) enjoy the interplay of frequent and familiar commentators, and, like all communities, despite our different perspectives and backgrounds we share common interests. It’s unfortunate that Mark has such a parochial understanding of the word and feels the need to belittle us.
@Patrick Guinness – with regard to desalination plants in Australia …
The purpose of having desalination plants is not to run them 24/7 . These plants are very expensive to run and you therefore want to make absolutely minimal use of them. They are and always will be absolutely the last resort when it comes to sourcing fresh water because the fresh water they produce is very expensive.
Desalination plants are really an insurance policy against the prospect of running out of water in times of drought. Australia as you know is subject to horrific droughts on a reasonably regular basis. The prospect of a major Australian city running completely out of fresh water is a pretty awful one. Desalination plants are there to prevent that disaster from ever happening. I am unsurprised to hear that desalination plants are only being used minimally in normal non-drought conditions.
Complaining about this is rather like complaining that your insurance policy is a waste of money because you haven’t used it yet. It is a trivial corollary of Murphy’s law that canceling your insurance policy pretty much guarantees that your house will burn down. Similarly if you guys hadn’t built those desalination plants you’d be having a huge drought right now ;-).
Incidentally global warming is expected to lead to increased precipitation overall. While rainfall is notoriously fickle and difficult to predict, there is a good chance that global warming could lead to a greening of the outback rather similar to the greening of the Sahara which we now seem to be seeing. So that insurance policy might be less essential than previously thought. As is typical of climate research, potential negatives to warming are explored in great depth while potential positives are ignored.
The majority of the population doesn’t get the precipitation angle and associates warming with dry and with deserts. That picture is wrong. Don’t think deserts – think jungles.
JT says:
September 13, 2010 at 2:43 pm
You have to admit, its probably a nice head trip for those selected to be on the “Sustainability Task Force” where they can be self important, self-righteous bores.
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Remember “Sustainability Task Force” is the code for implementing the UN’s Agenda 21. Professor Mark is an classic example of our new would be petty dictators.
A word to the wise Professor Mark. Take a look at the history of the Attacks on Intelligentsia once the “war” is won. Historically you see “mass arrests of professors and scientists ..[as the new] leadership sought rapidly to purge Russia of past leaders in order to build the future on a clean slate.”
I think the term “useful idiots” applies.