City Council approves final climate action plan

Whitefish City Council officially adopted the city’s Climate Action Plan last week.

The plan sets a path for Whitefish to make the transition to a clean energy economy and points to steps to improve local resilience to climate change impacts.

The plan is a joint effort by the city and Whitefish School District, working with the nonprofit Climate Smart Glacier Country. City Council in 2016 established the Climate Action Plan Committee, which has spent the time since drafting the plan.

A handful of folks voiced their support for the plan.

Whitefish High School student Luca Welle said students at Whitefish Middle School began a campaign for an idol-free zone for cars, and it’s great to see that grow into a much larger plan within the community.

“If we keep moving forward with this progress we can become carbon neutral,” he said. “Hopefully we can be a great example to the world.”

Chuck Overcast said the plan is a great idea.

“I wish I was younger so I could see more of this unfold,” he said.

In the executive summary of the climate action plan, it notes that here “residents will experience impacts to our health, our infrastructure, and our favorite recreational activities, such as skiing, hiking, and fishing” but Whitefish can minimize negative effects and create new opportunities by looking ahead and taking action.

The plan focuses mainly on city municipal operations and Whitefish School District operations, though it does encourage partnerships and personal action by residents and visitors to support the community’s transition to a clean energy economy.

The city of Whitefish committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent by 2025. To contribute to this goal, the plan says Whitefish should become carbon neutral by 2050 by ending reliance on fossil fuels and increasing carbon storage.

To meet that target, the plan outlines four energy-savings actions as top priorities — change all streetlights to LED bulbs, upgrade energy efficiency at the Emergency Services Center, improve gas mileage of the city’s vehicle fleet and transition to electric vehicles and construct a solar farm at the new wastewater treatment plant.

To strengthen the community resilience in response to a changing climate key priorities include — establishing the Whitefish area as fire-adapted, promoting water conservation, further protecting the drinking water supply, supporting public transit and strengthen partnerships with Whitefish Schools and the community.

Councilor Richard Hildner said he hopes the plan sparks action.

“There’s that saying that the best time to plant a tree is yesterday and the second best time is today,” he said. “Hopefully we can plant some trees and seeds that will provide the shade of the future.”

Pointing to concerns with numbers in the plan related to reducing carbon emissions, Greg Esakoff asked Council to table the plan until the numbers could be verified. He raised concerns about the greenhouse gas inventory, specifically the emissions factor used to calculate the city’s carbon footprint from electricity. He suggested that the city’s current footprint should be smaller because it gets its power from Flathead Electric Co-op, which gets most of its power from Bonneville Power Administration and largely uses hydroelectric power.

“I’m concerned about how we can reduce carbon emissions by reducing electricity usage when virtually 99 percent of our power is hydro power — near zero [for emissions],” he said.

“It’s a good idea to reduce energy usage for a number of reasons — environmental, fiscal responsibility,” he added. “But I believe the amount the emissions that can be reduced are overstated.”

Councilor Katie Williams, noting she supports the plan as a whole, did vote against approval based on Esakoff’s comments saying she wanted the numbers firmed up before approval.

“This is the potential for creating policy based on this plan,” she said. “We need to double check those.”

Hildner said Esakoff’s concerns are taken seriously and accommodations could be made to clarify concerns even after approval.

In a follow up memo to Council after the meeting, the Climate Action Plan committee explained the research behind the greenhouse gas inventory. It says the committee chose to use a regional grid factor to determining the emissions factor rather than focusing solely on BPA because while it generates most of its own power it also buys power from the broader regional market.

“Since FEC does not have a third-party verified emissions factor and future power sources may shift, a regional grid factor provides the most reliable, credible and reportable method,” the committee said in its memo.

To keep work going on issues related to climate change, the plan recommends creating a city standing Sustainability Committee.

Mayor John Muhlfeld said Council supports the recommendation to create a Sustainability Committee, but a timeline for creating such hasn’t been established.

“We’re supportive of it in general,” he said. “But we need time for city staff to review the plan internally first.”