County Pursues Climate Action Plan
Original Article - Leadville Herald - November 6, 2024
The Board of County Commissioners selected The Brendle Group’s proposal to help the county develop a climate action plan, a locally adopted policy tool that outlines actions a community can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as counter the negative effects of climate change.
Out of the nine proposals the county received, Commissioner Jeff Fiedler said that The Brendle Group seemed the most aware of Lake County’s specific needs. The Brendle Group is a Colorado-based engineering and consulting firm that assists communities with climate action plans, electrification, water management and other environmentally-related issues.
Lake County received a grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) to create a climate action plan. The Brendle Group will be paid $130,000 for their services, $115,000 will be covered by the DOLA grant and the remaining $15,000 to be paid by Lake County as the grant required a minimum 10 percent local match.
In 2021, Colorado released the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap, which was updated in February of 2024. The roadmap aims for a 100-percent reduction in Colorado’s greenhouse gas pollution by 2050. Lake County’s Deputy Open Space Director Jane Schaefer said that the state will eventually trickle down to local communities and that it’s better for Lake County to be involved in the process and not be left behind.
“It’s an effort to steer [pollution reduction efforts] and ensure that decisions being made in Lake County for Lake County are done more or less by Lake County,” Schaefer said. “We can take the state goals in the various sectors they’ve identified and apply them to our community and our unique needs.”
A climate action plan, Schaefer said, will not just help Lake County set goals, but will also make the county eligible for further grant funding to achieve those goals. Lake County’s plan will assess the community’s emissions and the ways in which it is vulnerable to the effects of climate change and then find ways that the county and its community partners can address those areas. Schaefer said the county, The Brendle Group and community partners such as Cloud City Conservation Center (C4) will work to develop the plan over the next year.
For emissions, Schaefer said that the plan will include the Climax Mine in its assessment, but most likely not in its strategies. Since the mine is an outlier in terms of emissions, Schaefer said it makes more sense to address it separately. Potential emissions reduction efforts could come from commercial business or municipal entities, but also from small moves such as providing funding to residents who want to switch to electric appliances or heating.
To make sure Lake County is prepared for the effects of climate change, the plan will try to improve the county’s “climate resilience.” Fiedler said that in Lake County, this will mainly refer to increased runoff in the spring causing flooding, as well as an increased threat of wildfires. He said that Lake County Public Works’ project to replace old culverts with larger bridges can help with runoff and moving homes away from propane will make them less vulnerable in the event of a wildfire.
Schaefer said that the county will work with organizations like C4 who already have programs to help Lake County homes become more energy efficient, and that once complete the climate action plan can be referenced by groups other than the county in order to receive grant funding.