The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutPACKET Environmental Sustainability Task Force Special Listening Session 2021-11-16 November 16, 2021 7:00 p.m. VIRTUAL To view or listen to the Working Session by Zoom Meetings ONLINE (Zoom Meetings): https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82491240043 Meeting ID: 824 9124 0043 CALL-IN (Telephone Option): 877-853-5257 (toll-free) Meeting ID: 824 9124 0043 1. ESTF Members Opening Comments/Announcements. Chair MacAlpine. 2. Community Listening Session. Adjourn. AGENDA ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY TASK FORCE (ESTF) SPECIAL LISTENING SESSION Comments for the ESTF - Let's buy everyone a car! Nathan Welton <nswelton@gmail.com> Tue, Nov 16, 2021 at 2:53 AM Hi all — I am out of the country but wanted to offer my input in your process as I can’t make the listening session today. I write with dismay after the failures in Glasgow. They show that decarbonization will only succeed when climate change is at the heart of nearly every discussion nationwide — at every dinner table, at every lunch meeting, on every phone call. Our town nearly burned down due to climate change, yet we have yet to implement any meaningful policies to curb emissions. I would submit that a great way to get people to care more about decarbonization is to give them a free electric car, $50k in free home equity, and free utilities — and I think this actually might be possible. More on that in a second. We need a movement. We need people to understand that the most important thing they can do isn’t going vegan. It's lobbying the establishment for systemic change, and that often starts in a pocketbook. I would encourage you all to focus on an action plan that can build a movement among cities across the country. Addressing climate change only works when scaled up. A sustainability plan for Estes Park cannot live up to its potential unless it makes Estes into a national leader on climate action. We have the optics (National Park town), the storyline (huge forest fires), the revenue source, a municipal energy company that doesn’t need to satisfy shareholders, and the requisite sunshine to make it all happen. Yes we need to change building codes to ban natural gas, yes we need to change net metering rules to allow for increased solar capacity, etc. etc. But moreover, we need to encourage every single person in America to invest in their own personal zero carbon infrastructure: electric heat pumps, electric dryers, electric hybrid water heaters, solar panel on their roofs, and an electric vehicle with a big battery in it. This is well laid out by Saul Griffith and the folks at the Electrify America nonprofit. We have no chance of fixing climate change if we can’t figure out how to finance the migration to a decarbonized economy. While there’s lots of cheap government money to buy homes, there’s none to buy heat pumps. But in Estes, we have tourism revenue — and a lot of it — as well as an extremely innovative business community. And that can serve as our own local Fannie/Freddie for zero emission loans. I own and manage short term rentals. Our town generates nearly $100M a year in lodging revenue alone, yet our bed tax is only 10.7%. That’s half of what visitors to Tahoe pay, which means we have quite a bit of leeway to generate an additional $10M in tax revenue just on lodging. I would argue that our visitors aren’t going to stop coming here if they have to pay a little more. They literally have no other option if they want to visit the park and not get stuck in I70. We are the only small mountain town in the front range with access to a National Park, and that means we have a captive audience. My all-electric house from 1978 with its 2x4 walls can run indefinitely on a solar install with a monthly loan payment of $250/mo (paid at a commercial loan rate at a relatively high interest rate; I’m sure that it could be way way less). Interestingly enough, $10M is enough to pay that same solar loan for all 3500 households in town if they required that same amount of electricity as mine. Imagine for a second if we could achieve buy-in from our entire town because we can offer every homeowner $50k in free equity in the form of a rooftop solar array (if it could fit) and every family living in that home could save up to $400 in electricity bills in the winter. Imagine then if we could raise another $10M a year through other sources that could cover the monthly payment of an electric car for every family in Estes Park. My short term rental industry is often maligned by the establishment — we are “taking away affordable housing” and somehow ruining the fabric of our community. My view is that if local businesses are seen as allies and not enemies, we can work together to build truly sustainable communities for the benefit of the profit, people and the planet. It’s a win, win, win. There could be a massive cost of living reduction if every family in Estes Park has free electricity and a free car. And a large scale citywide electrification initiative would create hundreds, if not thousands, of high paying jobs in a town where so many aren’t paid what they’re worth and where so many complain they can’t afford housing. (I argue that the ability to afford housing is mostly because we refuse to pay people their worth; if my cleaners can afford home purchases in Estes Park, why can’t town staff? — but that’s another discussion entirely). Maybe this is all crazy talk. But it seems to me that we need to dream a little and think big and come up with ideas Public Comment received by 2021-11-16 that can finance large scale decarbonization and sell renewables and sustainability to the masses. Only then will people care enough to save our future. Happy to chat more if this resonates as I stay up at night trying to figure out how to finance this idea. Nathan Welton