Suzanne Downing in Must Read Alaska linked to the newly released Anchorage Climate Action Plan. It is a mere 89 pages long and contains every single wet dream of leftists, environmentalists and democrats to tell you what to do, how to do it, and what you are allowed to do it with. https://moa_onlineforms.formstack.com/forms/draft_climate_action_plan
Comments are open through March 31 and can be made via the link above.
The team who put this together numbered some 140 of our neighbors. This ought to bother you. To have this many people write something like this is both disappointing and frightening.
The summary of the plan on page 9 starts off with a bang:
The Anchorage Climate Action Plan puts Anchorage on a path to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent from 2008 levels by 2050, with an interim goal of 40 percent by 2030.1 This goal aligns with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy and the Paris Agreement for emission reductions necessary to avoid severe impacts of climate change.2,3 The objectives and actions in the plan also support resilience and adaptation planning in the Municipality.
The assumption here is that manmade global warming due to increased CO2 levels is somehow a Bad Thing and that we here in Anchorage must change the way we live to stop it. This is a bit like Mayor Berkowitz doing his best King Canute impression, standing in the middle of Ship Creek at low tide, holding up his hand, and demanding the incoming tide to stop. Hint: It’s not going to happen.
On the other hand, in their reckless pursuit of renewable energy, the Mayor and his task force can most certainly make energy here in Anchorage and in the Railbelt less reliable, more expensive, and significantly less resilient. Nothing like rolling blackouts in the dead of winter when it is -15 F to keep us comfy and warm at night.
The task force references the Paris agreement that President Trump withdrew the US from as a Good Thing. In doing so, the completely ignore the overall reduction in CO2 emissions in the US over the last decade, meeting the Paris targets for reductions by bringing a significant increase in natural gas fired electrical generation online over that period.
We here in Anchorage have natural gas producing 90% of our electricity, with hydro the other 10%, so there are not a lot of things we can do to improve emissions other than bring the Watana Dam on line (emission free hydro), embrace small nuclear reactors (emission free heat engines), or Coal to Liquids (emission free with CO2 capture).
None of these are mentioned. But the document goes to great lengths to prattle on about energy use reduction in local buildings (changes in building codes), changing financial incentives for renewable energy (your energy costs WILL increase), justifying everything based on climate change via 10 pages detailing the so-called problem (no mention of what happens if things get colder). Transportation section is 6 pages hectoring us to stop using so much gasoline and diesel. Electric vehicles are prominently featured even though battery life of electric cars drop 40 – 50% when it is cold outside, also not mentioned. The plan contains 24 objectives detailing how you and I will live our lives. And we will have no choice but to do it.
The bottom line in all this is that the best way to combat climate change is to allow residents the resources to deal with the problem as they see fit. Those resources disappear completely when you make it more expensive to live, travel, work, eat, sleep and recreate. And every single one of the objectives – every single one of them – will make it more expensive and more difficult to live here, after which we will need more help from the Muni. Which may be the ultimate goal after all.
As far as the stated goal of changing the climate, I wouldn’t even call this a nice try.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He is a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
