Irvine delays adopting climate plan on achieving carbon neutrality by 2040
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On Tuesday, Irvine City Council dusted off its draft Climate Action and Adaptation Plan draft at cutting greenhouse gas emissions and discussed it for the first time in nine months.
Councilwoman Kathleen Treseder requested the update from city staff and sought a vote to approve it.
“If we really want Irvine to be the greenest city, this is the foundational document to do that,” she said during the council meeting. “We can’t have it both ways. We can’t say…we want Irvine to be the greenest city, we emphasize the environment, and then keep delaying the CAAP.”
With the future of the Orange County Power Authority in Irvine uncertain, activists drowned out Irvine Mayor Larry Agran’s address to urge the city not to withdraw from the green power agency.
Back in 2021, Irvine became the first city in Orange County to set a carbon neutral goal. The following year, it earned the distinction of being the largest city in the county to opt for 100% renewable energy as a means to meet the climate goal by 2030.
But in June, council directed staff to make the draft a work plan, instead of a regulatory document. City staff also received direction to explore a new carbon neutral goal of 2040, just five years before California’s own statewide objective.
That revised effort was complicated in December when a new council voted to withdraw from the Orange County Power Authority sometime this year. The agency has been rocked recently by audits and departures from two members, including the city of Huntington Beach.
In the meantime, the city lowered its renewable energy plan with OCPA to a 47% Basic Choice tier, which paused finalization of the draft climate plan, per city staff.
The delay on approving the plan motivated several climate activists to speak out during the council meeting.
“The more we wait, the more unready we are for the decades to come,” said Tomas Castro, an activist with Climate Action Campaign. “It also bears remembering that the CAAP goals cannot be met without participating in OCPA.”
Luis Estevez, Irvine’s acting director of public works and sustainability, outlined that much of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions come from land use, transportation and building energy in a presentation to council.
The original 2030 carbon neutral goal would have required significant fleet overhauls, substantial electric vehicle charging station installations and a complete pivot away from landfills.
A new goal of carbon neutrality by 2040 could be more attainable, Estevez said, even as Irvine’s energy options appear limited for now.
Estevez told council members that Southern California Edison’s “Green Rate” program, with a 100% renewable option, isn’t accepting new applicants due to capacity constraints.
OCPA’s option at that tier would entail significant rate increases for this year and next.
But Estevez outlined three achievable pathways to carbon neutrality before council.
The first two options considered updates to the draft climate plan with either 100% or 47% renewable energy supplying Irvine residents and businesses with power. A third option could delay carbon neutrality until 2045, when state law will mandate 100% renewable energy for all electrical utilities.
“I am pleased to hear from the staff that even though we’re on Basic Choice, we can still meet our goals by 2040,” Treseder said.
She wanted a vote from her colleagues on adopting the climate plan draft before the meeting adjourned Tuesday night.
Irvine pledged carbon neutrality. A year later, climate activists say the city isn’t doing enough to get there.
Irvine Mayor Larry Agran acknowledged that he had not reviewed the draft climate plan thoroughly and favored revisiting the issue at a future council meeting with a final draft in hand.
Agran had outlined lofty green goals during his state of the city address earlier this month, a speech that was briefly disrupted by climate activists who want the city to stick with OCPA.
“I’m not only sympathetic, I’m actually enthusiastic about real implementation of a climate action plan,” he said on Tuesday. “But just saying yes tonight to something that hasn’t even been distributed to us seems to me to be a very, very poor example of governance.”
Councilman Mike Carroll raised his hand when Agran asked who on the council had thoroughly reviewed documents related to the draft climate plan.
He spoke in opposition of the plan and also called Treseder’s push for a vote a political “charade.”
“I’m not enthusiastic about a political trap,” he said in wanting to punt discussion of the climate plan off the agenda indefinitely.
Council voted 4-2 to scuttle discussion at the moment, with Agran and Treseder voting against the move.
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