Objections to this plan are fourfold: It spends too much on actions with minimal emissions impact; it overly relies on state government for enabling legislation; there is little overall emission reduction in the first five years; and the plan's density elements do not take into account embedded emissions, i.e. the carbon impact of concrete production. All true, but not properly framed. Most of these problems are not the plan's fault, but are due to our failure to address carbon emissions earlier. On the first, many of the low-impact actions enable the high-impact ones, and can't be decoupled. And we must get to zero emissions anyway. Two, the plan offers a plausible plan for the necessary legislation to ultimately select a clean electricity provider. Three, city-wide electrification is a necessary first stage, even though it will not show emission reduction until we have clean electricity. And four, there is a carbon price to pay for emission reductions. The plan is flexible; adopt it.
Ann Arbor cannot afford to wait any longer to take action to reduce our carbon footprint. Please vote yes on this Agenda item.
Objections to this plan are fourfold: It spends too much on actions with minimal emissions impact; it overly relies on state government for enabling legislation; there is little overall emission reduction in the first five years; and the plan's density elements do not take into account embedded emissions, i.e. the carbon impact of concrete production. All true, but not properly framed. Most of these problems are not the plan's fault, but are due to our failure to address carbon emissions earlier. On the first, many of the low-impact actions enable the high-impact ones, and can't be decoupled. And we must get to zero emissions anyway. Two, the plan offers a plausible plan for the necessary legislation to ultimately select a clean electricity provider. Three, city-wide electrification is a necessary first stage, even though it will not show emission reduction until we have clean electricity. And four, there is a carbon price to pay for emission reductions. The plan is flexible; adopt it.