When I first got involved with Irvine City Council policy and politics in early 2017, our City Council had a majority that thought little and did even less on climate action. That same year, I independently joined the “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice,” with two ecologists that I now serve with on the City of Irvine Green Ribbon Committee: Prof. Kathleen Treseder and Prof. Steven Allison. I wrote about the climate crisis highlighted in that warning in Scientific American as a major reason as to why I ran for Irvine City Council. Jump forward five years, and we have a Council falling over itself in attempting to lead on climate action.
Irvine, as a leading scientific hub with the presence of its own University of California campus, had previously seen scientific advocacy on an existential threat. The UCI chemists who discovered that CFCs were destroying the ozone layer—Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina, who won the Nobel Prize for their work—also lead efforts to ban the destructive chemicals. The City of Irvine passed a pioneering CFC ban ordinance in 1989 that is widely acknowledged as a model that led to broader CFC bans. As CityLab wrote, “The move made national headlines. The New York Times called the ordinance ‘the most far-reaching measure’ to protect the ozone, and the Los Angeles Times declared it ‘the most comprehensive law in the nation’ against CFCs.” At the City Council level, that effort was led by then-Mayor Larry Agran. He has served on-and-off Irvine’s City Council since 1978, and was re-elected in his current term in 2020.
Jumping forward to now, we see the scientific community overwhelmingly united in drawing attention to the need to take action on a new planetary-level crisis we face: climate change. And that is even more so than in 2017. In 2019, I joined 11,000 other scientists in a “World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency” that called for prompt response and immediate, transformative change with the need to replace fossil fuels with renewables. The 2021 update on that warning delivered our approach to tipping points that are likely irreversible. And, the snippet above of some of the media coverage accurately portrayed the scale of the crisis unfolding. The 6th assessment report last year by the IPCC also called for rapid and drastic reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.
The step forward with fully renewable sources for Irvine’s residential and business electricity was significant. But, it only addresses about 27% of Irvine’s energy usage. In 2019, Ben Leffel, Giana Lum and I published an analysis showing that natural gas and transportation made up the overwhelming fraction of our fossil-fuel usage, but it could also be completely accommodated by the solar energy hitting residential rooftops (OC Register and ICNV). I wrote a detailed report for the Green Ribbon Environmental Committee in 2021 on the energy need and solar resource available.
With opting into 100% renewable electrical energy this week—implemented this year to commercial entities in April and to residential in the fall—the other two largest fossil-fuel energy sectors remain to be solved by our City. In August 2021, the Green Ribbon Environmental Committee passed the ACHIEVES Resolution calling to decarbonize our buildings’ natural gas usage with an electrification ordinance, and investment in zero-emission vehicles. There is a fierce urgency to tackle those now.
Last, but not least, the Green Ribbon Environmental Committee has asked for an update on the plans of the Orange County Power Authority, which is our City-established and City-funded CCE tasked with delivering the choice of 100% renewable electricity. We have not gotten such an update. Councilmember Larry Agran has also asked for such an update, with none given to the City, which again, is solely funding its operations. One question I would specifically would like to know the answer to is that why, if renewable electricity is now wholesale cheaper than fossil-fuel electricity, OCPA is charging more for the 100% renewable option than the mostly fossil-fuel option. I hope we can know.