Heated debate on global warming

If Mayor Scott Gruendl was hoping to put fellow councilmen and candidates Dan Herbert and Steve Bertagna on the hot spot two weeks before the Nov. 7 election, he certainly succeeded at the Tuesday night (Oct. 17) council meeting.

At issue was Gruendl’s request that the council sign onto the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement in time for the city to be honored for doing so at a big sustainability conference at Chico State University Nov. 2-5. Gruendl had sent each of the councilmembers a letter explaining his request and a copy of the three-page agreement.

Council chambers were packed with people hoping passionately—and at times boisterously—that the council would sign onto the agreement.

In his letter, Gruendl described the agreement as a set of 12 “guiding principles” for the city that “make not only environmental sense, but economic sense as well” in the effort to reduce global warming.

There is nothing binding about the agreement, nor does it commit the city to any course of action or expenditure. Rather, it expresses a willingness “to strive to meet or exceed Kyoto Protocol targets for reducing global warming pollution by taking actions in our own operations and communities such as"—and then lists 12 areas of focus, including land-use policies, alternative transportation, building code improvements, “green” buildings and so on.

Before anybody had spoken on the issue, however, Herbert said he was disappointed that he’d not been given more information. He wasn’t necessarily opposed to the content of the agreement, he said, but “I don’t feel educated on the issue.” He asked that the request be tabled for 30 days so staff could prepare a report.

Councilwoman Maureen Kirk agreed information was scarce but said she wanted to hear from the many people who wanted to speak and thought they could help the council learn more.

Bertagna and Councilman Larry Wahl quickly sided with Herbert, saying they needed to know more about the agreement before voting on it. Councilman Andy Holcombe said he didn’t need to know more to feel comfortable signing a simple policy statement, but Herbert insisted that standard procedure was to have a staff report before a public hearing.

His motion to table the issue failed on a 4-3 vote, so the public hearing went ahead.

With 34 people speaking, it lasted a long time. A large contingent of students and professors from Chico State, which is moving fast on the sustainability front, addressed the council, as did representatives from the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society and other groups.

Scott Wolf, a real estate agent, noted that more than 300 cities representing 50 million Americans had signed the agreement. Energy efficiency is “good for business,” he said.

Daniel Salazar, a Chico State student, said he was part of a group that was “feverishly working” these days on an inventory of possible energy efficiencies in municipal buildings, and Andy Keller talked about how he’d started his company, making the “Chico bag,” as a way to deal with the proliferation of throwaway plastic bags.

And so it went, with one person after another urging the council to sign the agreement. Several noted that it didn’t commit the city to any particular action; others detailed all the ways other cities had saved money by saving energy; and others praised the city for the progress it already had made, including solar panels at the wastewater treatment facility and atop the downtown parking structure.

Social service group director Emily Alma spoke directly to the politics of the situation: “Dan Herbert, the people who will vote for you will vote for you whether you support this or not,” she said.

Herbert, up for re-election, and Bertagna, running for supervisor, talked about the many energy efficiencies they’d implemented in their homes, but they and Wahl insisted they didn’t know enough to vote on the agreement.

Saying “a leader is someone who notices what the community wants,” Councilwoman Ann Schwab moved to sign the agreement. Her motion passed 4-3. People jumped to their feet, yelling and applauding.