By Jon Ullman
Our Central California coast municipalities are lucky. We have been given a full slate of tools to protect health and fight climate change, and we should use every one of them.
As someone who worked for 20 years for the Sierra Club in Florida, I know how hard it is to make progress on climate when the state doesn’t have your back. Our biggest statewide climate champion was then-Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who served from 2007 to 2011, and is now a Democrat. He modeled his strong climate policy after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Those days are long gone.
Today, I’m working with activists in the city of Santa Barbara to phase out harmful natural gas in buildings. Last fall, Ojai passed the first all-electric code for new buildings in our Chapter region (Santa Barbara and Ventura counties). Santa Barbara looks like it will follow with an all-electric code this spring. And there are more in our area that could take the plunge this year.
On March 17 we co-sponsored a webinar with Community Environmental Council entitled: Santa Barbara Electric New Buildings 101. It’s available here.
Already 45 cities have already passed similar ordinances to reduce carbon in buildings in California including San Francisco and San Jose. They are called “reach codes,” which simply mean reach as high as far as you can. (Technically, it means locals can vote in stricter rules than the state.)
California wants cities to set climate goals, pass climate plans and take actions beyond the state’s minimum standards. To use a football metaphor, California gave us the ball, and we need to run with it.
But while we have the ball, Florida and more than a dozen other states with GOP-majority legislatures this year have introduced “pre-emption” laws, which strip the rights of cities and counties to pass laws to reduce carbon. The Florida Chapter is trying every trick up its sleeves to keep these bills from a final vote in the next six weeks before the legislative session ends. Florida, with the third most-populous state, would be the most populous state to ban local carbon restrictions.
Last year, the gas industry passed a “test” preemption law in Arizona just before the pandemic hit. It was a success. Laws were also passed in Oklahoma, Tennessee and Louisiana in 2020. This year, the industry has rolled out bills in Georgia, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Utah. Only Colorado, with a Democratic-controlled legislature, has stopped it in committee – on a party line vote.
Given that, I urge cities in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties (as well as the counties themselves) to run with the ball. Some are running. But some are slow walking. Some are frozen.
This is a 50-state fight. The oil and gas industry is running with the ball everywhere it can and so must we.
If you want to help with an all-electric new building campaign to protect health and climate in your city in the next couple months, email me at jonathan.ullman@sierraclub.org
We have rights, and we intend to use them.