Dear Mayor Taylor and City Council Members, I am writing as a former Chair and 8-year member of the Environmental Quality Commission, founder and Vice-Chair of Menlo Spark, and a 25-year resident of Menlo Park. This week City Council will review the unanimous recommendations of the EQC that include the framework for a significant update to the Climate Action Plan (CAP) along with a new community-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target. Menlo Park’s original GHG reduction target of 27%-by-2020 was considered to be very aggressive when it was adopted by City Council in 2013. At the time the EQC had not identified all of the initiatives required to achieve this target nor was the required level of estimated funding yet available. However, the EQC identified the categories of feasible initiatives and also identified potential sources of funding. Even though the impacts of the “great recession” were still being felt, City Council understood that Menlo Park, as a center of innovation and wealth, is uniquely positioned to play a leading role among small cities in addressing climate change. We all shared an understanding that the impact of proving out best practices in our community could speed up the adoption for many many other communities. The past 7 years have borne this out. Menlo Park took a leading role in establishing Peninsula Clean Energy with a firm commitment to provide zero-carbon power to San Mateo County within 5 years of inception. PCE is very close to achieving that target. Menlo Park was a very early adopter of fossil-free building standards for new construction and nearly 20 communities in the Bay Area alone have followed suit, inspired and informed by our resolve. Indeed, Menlo Park has now achieved it’s very aggressive goal of reducing GHGs 27%-by-2020. Yet, this is only the beginning. As we are well aware, the impacts of climate change are being felt worldwide at a pace equivalent to our even exceeding the worst-case projections among climate scientists that were in place at the time Council adopted the initial targets. The world is truly facing a climate emergency, and as the EQC points out the impacts in our community will be catastrophic for many of our residents and businesses if we fail to rise to the occasion. Without communities taking the lead on proving out best practices that zero out GHG emissions and drawdown CO2 from the atmosphere, humanity will surely fail. By adopting the 2030 GHG reduction target of net zero carbon that is recommended by the EQC, Menlo Park will maintain its leadership and inspire and embolden many others to join us in these efforts. You will see within the CAP that there is meaningful action that can be taken right away, even during the current recession, and the EQC provides documentation for follow-on initiatives that can be adopted as infrastructure and other funding becomes available. This is the most in-depth CAP that I have seen a community consider and it is worthy of Menlo Park as a center of innovation. Yet, should our City Council fail to rise to this occasion, I am concerned about the unintended harm that could result. If Menlo Park pulls back from taking a leadership role in addressing climate change it could negatively impact the willingness of many other communities as well. We would effectively be sending the message that action during a shaky economic time is futile. So, please act boldly and inspire our community and many others to follow suit. Together we can attain the aggressive target proposed by the EQC by adopting the CAP they are proposing and being ready to jump in with additional action as funding becomes available. Thank you so much for your continuing efforts on behalf of our community and enabling us to leverage our unique position to influence the necessary investment in the future of our children and grandchildren. Mitch Slomiak _________________________________ Mitchel J. Slomiak Vice Chair, Advisory Board Menlo Spark mslomiak_at_(domainremoved) 650-322-6349 [cid:7D0689A3-D988-4B2D-9B2D-550BAC41C835] Achieving Climate Neutrality as a Community Received on Sun Jul 12 2020 - 12:02:58 PDT
