City Council candidates respond to 100% Renewable Energy Committee questions

On April 18, 2017 the South Lake Tahoe City Council unanimously passed a resolution to: 1) Power the South Lake Tahoe community with electricity provided from 100 percent renewable sources by 2032 and 2) Reduce community carbon emissions from baseline by at least 80 percent by 2040, and reduce municipal emissions by 50 percent by 2030.

This year, as in past election years, the 100% Renewable Committee (a committee formed to assist the City with implementation of the resolution) circulated a short questionnaire to each of the candidates running for City Council. We requested responses by October 5, 2020. Of the nine candidates running, six responded.

City Council Candidate Questionnaire and Candidate Responses

Candidates’ unedited responses to the questionnaire are compiled below ordered according to chronology of receipt: Keith Roberts, Scott Robbins, John Friedrich, and Cristi Creegan. Bruce Grego and Leonard Carter also provided responses, but not specifically to the questions posed. As such, their responses are simply stated under their names without a prompt at the end of this section.

Climate adaptation focus
Describe your concerns about climate change and our city. Are we on course to adapt to the inevitable changes?

Keith Roberts
I am very concerned about our ski resorts, our vibrant winter life could diminish or disappear; I am concerned about our forests; the bark beetle survives in milder winters; if we continue to have warm winters I fear our fire danger will increase; I am concerned about trash with so much not being recycled; I am concerned about the air pollution and excessive energy needs in our city.

Scott Robbins
Children learning to ski today, will be the parents of the last generation to ski in Lake Tahoe.

Our national leadership has abandoned their responsibility on this issue, leaving it to states and localities to demonstrate environmental leadership. Under these circumstances, we persist in ignoring the exploitation of our local environment from relentless over-tourism – from overflowing trash on our beaches and trails, to endless miles of traffic choking our air and roads. We cannot take seriously our city’s talk about leadership on the issue of long-term climate change when the threat to our immediate environment is so completely ignored. This is hypocrisy, plain and simple.

We must address the trashing of our own backyard, only then, can our efforts to lead on green energy, solar power and other sustainable energy solutions be taken seriously.

And a serious problem it is. We face a climate future with winters too warm for consistent snow and summers so hot and dry that Paradise-level wildfires will become the norm, not the exception. If we do nothing, if we cannot demonstrate leadership, if we cannot be taken seriously, our jewel in the Sierras will be lost for future generations of locals.

John Friedrich
Climate change will negatively impact the ski industry and winter tourism as warming temperatures reduce snowpack. The increase in rain rather than snow during the winter will flush more sediment into Lake Tahoe, which will harm clarity, along with warming water, which is fueling the spread of invasive weeds and algae, some of which is potentially toxic.

The impacts from catastrophic wildfires that are increasing in frequency and intensity would devastate the local economy, as we've seen happen to communities throughout California. Warming temperatures also drive people to seek relief from the heat at Tahoe, which may increase tourism revenue, but on the other hand brings a litany of impacts that we experienced this summer.

Given that climate change is the largest threat to Lake Tahoe's clarity and the our Basin ecosystem, we have an opportunity and an obligation to respond with bold renewable energy and electrification solutions. Responding to climate change at the pace and scale needed to confront the problem requires transforming our economy toward one that is resilient to climate impacts and models the renewable energy and electrification solutions we need statewide, nationally and throughout the world. We need to move faster toward the solutions needed to mitigate and adapt to climate change, because the impacts are accelerating, and we’re not on track yet to respond to the inevitable changes. We owe it to our kids, grandkids and future generations to make the changes they are counting on us to make to leave them a livable world.

Cristi Creegan
Our changing climate will effect every aspect of our city: tourism, emergency services, fire preparedness, land management, wildlife management, building codes. I’m going to end the list there but it could go on and on with the recognition that our earth is the foundation for all other policies, programs and efforts that come after it and without a healthy environment the infrastructure of society can’t be created. (I’m looking out my window at Mt. Tallac to note that there’s no snow left in the cross this year.) With regard to being on course to adapt to the inevitable change, I feel hopeful that efforts such as the passage of the renewable resources resolution by our city council and efforts being taken at the state level will move us in the direction of appropriate adaptation, but there is a long way to go. I love that the CAP is a dynamic document intended to evolve as the facts evolve to remain relevant and effective.

Building and energy efficiency focus
Lake Tahoe Unified School District has implemented energy efficiency upgrades resulting in cost savings of more than $200,000 annually from LED lighting window retrofits and insulation. Do you support the City making the same actions to save our community money over time? How can the city ensure residences and commercial buildings make similar improvements?

Keith Roberts
Yes, I very much support these efforts to save the City Money; I also support regulations that require new construction meet Green Building Certification. A better marketing campaign to our locals about the benefits financially and environmentally we’ve gained from our changes in the city and how they can get the same benefits. Sponsor Energy Fairs in the shoulder seasons with games, rides prizes and industry leaders with displays and demonstrations. Make learning fun for kids and adults.

Scott Robbins
We should be requiring that future commercial construction comply with the highest efficiency and environmental standards (e.g., LEED). Incentives have shown limited utility with developers that prioritize short term returns and “greenwashing” of projects. We can and should make efficiency standards a requirement, not a request.

We must push for congestion-based basin entry fees for tourists (and not locals). We cannot cake seriously city efforts on long term climate change emissions while we relentlessly encourage and incentivize endless miles of vehicle traffic into the Tahoe basin. Projects like the Loop Road serve to double-down on car transit by encouraging traffic into the basin to access the casinos and new Nevada convention center. We must make mass transit and carpooling options significantly preferable for tourists, by making individual vehicle travel more expensive.

John Friedrich
Yes, I absolutely support the City making investments in energy efficiency to save energy and money. Energy efficiency is the most cost effective path to save money for every ratepayer, move us faster toward our 100% renewable energy goal, and employ local workers. The City should move forward with energy efficient, LED lighting, for its sidewalk lights, streetlights, outdoor municipal lights, and interior building lighting. Further, the City should look at ways to electrify heating and cooling, including through installation of energy-efficient air-source heat pumps.

I ran energy efficiency and low-income weatherization programs at Liberty Utilities, and saw first hand how making homes more efficient not only reduces bills, but also makes homes more comfortable. The City can help make sure all residents and businesses are aware of available energy efficiency programs. In addition, the City could establish a low-interest loan fund to pay for energy efficiency improvements at homes and businesses, to be paid back with energy savings. A broadly applied program like this would also offer many job opportunities to local workers. I support a similar program to bring vacant homes up to code, and to make them more energy efficient, in exchange for renting them to local families.

Cristi Creegan
It’s important that our community invest in infrastructure and be proactive, such as the opportunity the LTUSD was presented with, rather than reactive and be forced to act without an overall plan. I would very much support similar projects that came to the city with the dual benefits of cost savings and energy efficiency and would seek out such opportunities in which the City could invest. With regard to private buildings, in the long-term the City could work to implement reasonable and manageable building code requirements that go to ensuring similar improvements. In the short-term, the City could create and support programs with subsidies and offsets to encourage homeowners to take these steps voluntarily, such as Lake Valley Fire Department’s program several years ago that funded some portion of the replacement of shake roofs.

Building and transportation focus
To meet the City’s emissions reduction targets, transportation and building energy strategies and actions must be prioritized. Which of the strategies (14 strategies) and actions (27 specific actions) identified in the City’s Climate Action Plan would you prioritize implementing? Why? (Note: a summary of the strategies and actions proposed in the CAP can be found on page 4 of the Executive Summary)

Keith Roberts
Land Use Planning will be an early focus once elected, I am passionate for our city to bring nature back; new construction should be a building finding a home amongst the trees and not replacing the trees; new construction (and changes to old buildings), need to be moved back off the streets, a drive through our town should be like a drive through the forest with a bustling city partially hidden from view; not frontage buildings like some highway drive thru city. Green Buildings will work in sync with our natural environment.

Affordable housing not for those able to purchase but for those who work 2 jobs as a cook. Dishwasher or Housekeeper just to keep a roof over their head and food on the table; we need also to improve wages; as we grow and improve as a city; we need better trained and a work force that stays here and makes a life here.

I want more low emission vehicles and electric city transport is a great idea but I am concerned about the footprint of the EV batteries is less then optimum; we need to continue to search for better alternatives…. Hydrogen Fuel or Biofuels maybe.

Make some of the new bike paths not paved, wood chips of just scorched earth; walkers will enjoy it more without bikes flying past but mountain bikes will still enjoy it; dogs won’t burn their feet; less run off to the lake, less maintenance.

Scott Robbins
We must push for congestion-based basin entry fees for tourists (and not locals). We cannot cake seriously city efforts on long term climate change emissions while we relentlessly encourage and incentivize endless miles of vehicle traffic into the Tahoe basin. Projects like the Loop Road serve to double-down on car transit by encouraging traffic into the basin to access the casinos an new Nevada convention center. We must make mass transit and carpooling options significantly preferable for tourists, by making individual vehicle travel more expensive.

John Friedrich
So many great strategies, so little time! There were many other draft strategies that were considered along the way, and we should keep those in mind as we go forward. Given the urgency of the climate crisis, we need to seek every opportunity to implement CAP projects as soon as possible, and as expansively as possible. South Lake Tahoe alone can not solve the climate crisis that threatens the Lake, our forests, and communities, but in our boldness and dedication to solutions we can inspire other locations to follow our example.

Here are some of the top CAP strategies and action that I’d prioritize:

Transportation Strategy 1, COT-2, to explore Basin entry fees to fund regional transit. We need to do everything possible to reduce the impact of private automobile traffic to and around the Basin, and to implement a robust electric transit network, including microtransit, to move people outside of their private cars. This strategy would help accomplish that goal

Transportation Strategy 3, COT-1 and COT-3, to promote use of electric vehicles with a strong network of EV charging stations, and to convert public fleets to EVs. I formerly managed the electric vehicle charging program at Liberty Utilities, so I know how to get this job done, and as an EV driver for 5 years, I’m very passionate about making a wholesale shift to vehicle electrification. We need to move quickly to be able to support the changing automobile market, which will accelerate with Governor Newsom's new Executive Order to require all cars sold in California to be zero emission by 2035. On City Council, working with staff to convert the city fleet will be a priority focus for me.

Transportation Strategy 5, TR-2: Regional and Local Transit System for Tourism. We need to make this happen to reduce the carbon footprint of visitation to Tahoe, and to reduce traffic congestion in the Basin. I will advocate for making this system electric as much as possible, including adequate charging infrastructure to support new regional and local transit routes. I will advocate for adoption of an extensive electric microtransit system to maximize use of public transit, which currently moves a small fraction of Basin residents and visitors.

Strategy 6, Walking and Biking, WB-1: My family moved into the City from the County last year, in part so that we could have a more walking and bicycle-oriented lifestyle. I ride my bike for errands almost every day. I support expanding and maintaining our trail network for pedestrians, bikes and e-bikes, with more wayfinding signage to help people throughout our community access the trails.

Land Use Strategies: A priority for me is creating more walkable/bikeable/transit-connected town hubs throughout South Lake Tahoe, in neighborhoods including the Y, Sierra Blvd, Harrison Ave./56 Acres, Bijou, Ski Run Blvd., and Stateline (which is furthest along with the Main Street project). We should maximize the number of both visitors and locals who live in walking/biking distance to workplaces and businesses to reduce traffic and related emissions, road degradation, microplastics from tire shedding, etc. We have an urgent need to develop more workforce housing options. I support incentives for 2nd homeowners to rent out vacant properties (which requires no new construction footprint), as well as permitting Accessory Dwelling Units and tiny homes, made from sustainable building materials including wood milled from local healthy forest projects, powered by solar, and built by local workers.

Strategy 9: Energy Efficiency for existing buildings. Described in the previous section.

Strategies 10: Renewable Energy. As part of the 100% Renewable Energy Committee, I helped win adoption of the City of South Lake Tahoe's 100% renewable by 2032 goal. I think we can and should hit this target much sooner -- by 2025. And we should maximize the percentage of new renewable energy projects that directly benefit local residents through encouragement of rooftop solar, community solar, etc.

Cristi Creegan
The most straightforward strategies to focus on in the short-term are the education and public outreach pieces. Successfully implementing those strategies will set the stage for the later efforts, which include significant partnership with other public as well as private entities. I support the emphasis on encouraging new vehicles for public and private fleets to electric vehicles when purchasing opportunities arise and to work to reduce personal car travel in the several ways described by the plan.

Economic focus
What opportunities do you see to employ local residents in renewable energy, electrification and related areas, that will help meet our climate goals?

Keith Roberts
The best way to get the locals involved is to lead by example; we make changes quick; show and celebrate our results in the community at fairs and events; then they will learn the value and follow. Especially when they see tangible environmental results and the financial benefits. Also, get the public involved in the process, get plans our early and often for public to review and comment.

Scott Robbins
Reducing our dependence on endless miles of vehicle traffic into the basin is critical to reducing our climate footprint. While we do not have the kind of geography that is suitable for the kind of large-scale wind turbine or solar farm projects that would be better situated in the Carson valley, there is much we can do to diversify our economy away from its current focus on tourism-only:

Continued expansion of Barton Hospital into a center of excellence for orthopedic and sports medicine, much like the Steadman Clinic in Vail, which brings in fellowships and patients from around the world.

Expansion of outdoor wilderness education programs through LTCC and attracting schools such as NOLS.

Improving wired internet service that supports the relocation of business to Tahoe which can operate locally and serve clients remotely.

Diversification away from a singular reliance on tourism is a necessity, not an option, if we are to support efforts to shift our economy away from a singular dependence on vehicle trips into the basin.

John Friedrich
Acting on climate means many new job and career opportunities. As the founder and director of the Tahoe Green Jobs Initiative, I am developing training programs to prepare low-income local residents for livable wage jobs in sectors that are vital to our economy and environment, including building new sustainable, affordable homes (like ADUs and tiny homes), and milling wood from local healthy forests/fuels reduction projects, which in turn can be used in constructing those homes. Other workers trained in solar installation will be able to help make those same homes 100% renewable energy powered

Deploying distributed energy solutions to meet our 100% renewable energy target means distributed job opportunities as well. For every 1 megawatt of solar installed, approximately 25 installers are needed. I’ll push for the City to continue building solar on its buildings, and on land it owns, to meet our renewable target in a way that maximizes local jobs. Similarly, the City can help create demand for new jobs installing EV charging infrastructure by deploying charging stations at its properties, and electrifying its fleet. As mentioned above, offering a low interest loan fund for making energy efficiency improvements would put locals to work.

Cristi Creegan
We as a community are always discussing what new industries can we bring to South Lake Tahoe to expand beyond a tourism-based economy, and construction with a focus on renewable energy, solar, etc. will be a very positive expansion of job opportunities. Building trades have fallen out of favor as our overall economy has moved toward white-collar jobs, to the detriment of infrastructure but also homebuilding. These can be high-paying jobs with a lot of growth potential. This approach makes me think of the Works Projects Administration created following the Great Depression that created an overarching goal, the construction of public works, for the dual positive benefit of infrastructure and jobs. The work that John Friedrich and the Tahoe Prosperity Center are doing around the creation of green jobs folds right into this focus.

Waste focus
Transporting our waste, and failing to remove organics, contribute substantially to GHG emissions. What ideas do you have to reduce our waste stream?

Keith Roberts
The City needs to help South Tahoe Refuse with their efforts; purchase trash bins (not just bags) for residents that want to participate in compost recycling; also give them a change to get fresh finished compost free or reduced price if they are participating.

It is time someone starts to push back on individual packaging, heavy plastic that often is more than the item purchased; new boutique stores can get subsidies if they sell more products in bulk or paper wrapping or at least thin film or even thin film of the compostable plastic type bags.

Scott Robbins
Reducing packaging and non-reusable plastics in retail will help reduce the size of our waste stream, as would efforts to encourage composting, however, as the transportation and building energy sectors contribute 91% of our emissions contributions, that is where our efforts should be prioritized.

John Friedrich
I advocated along with many others in our community for the plastic bag ban. We need to expand on that with a number of additional measures. I serve on the City of South Lake Tahoe Transformational Change Committee, and support the recommendations that we’ve developed:

“Ban single use plastics, install water bottle filling stations and bear boxes in the community. Increase clean up efforts by supporting partners like Clean Tahoe, educating the public, and engaging volunteer groups. Reduce the amount of waste reaching the landfill through recycling and other programs.”

In addition, I support Waste Reduction Strategies identified in the CAP, including:

“Develop a food waste prevention plan for restaurants and grocery stores in the City. Provide food waste collection for all single-family residents, multifamily residents, restaurants, and grocery stores. Expand bagless green waste pickup for residential customers to encourage the separation of compostable waste and landfill waste. Work with customers to ensure that plastics bags are not contaminating the green waste stream.”

I would like to see South Tahoe Refuse develop a composting operation in South Lake Tahoe, and to offer curbside green waste pickup. I’m an avid composter myself!

We can supplement and boost these efforts with city sponsored educational campaigns, perhaps themed “Don’t Waste Tahoe!”

Cristi Creegan
In partnership with STPUD and South Tahoe Refuse, the city can encourage more sustainable waste management prices, which the CAP focuses on. One area in which our community could do better is with food waste, as noted in the CAP. A food waste prevention and composting program for restaurants, supermarkets and residences would be a very welcome addition to our community’s current waste management programs. I do wonder, though, what impact our (current) winter climate and active wildlife will have on such a program; I don’t know the solution but am very interested in pursuing such a concept.

Please add any other ideas you have to ensure the City successfully implements its emerging Climate Action Plan (CAP) and its resolution to:
A. Power the SLT community with electricity from 100 percent renewable sources by 2032, and B. Reduce community carbon emissions from baseline by at least 80% by 2040?

Keith Roberts
We need a City Council and City Management that shares this vision and puts all these Strategies in the forefront. Human Beings must stop mistreating our Mother Earth; with great minds and dedicated efforts; we can find the ways to keep our familiar life styles without damaging our beautiful surroundings and our life-giving resources.

Scott Robbins
Despite the dire long-term consequences to our natural environment, probably the biggest single impediment to achieving our local climate goals is public motivation and an inability for our city to link local decisions to emissions consequences.

Our city continues to push small, but relentless decisions to prioritize tourism, and the vehicle traffic that comes with it. Decisions such as the last months expansion of the Tourist Core into Bijou in support of Edgewood-style resort development, will drive more traffic, and more cars into the basin. The Loop Road, which claims environmental bonafides is, ultimately, a highway bypasses to increase traffic capacity to the casinos and convention center. This is environmental window dressing.

More pressing than any technical implementation issue, is the need for the public to track and insist that the environmental impacts of local decisions be consistently considered. We must better communicate the real, manifest connections between issues such as zoning, road projects, and economic incentives, with the larger picture of long-term climate change.

John Friedrich
Climate change is the largest threat to Lake Tahoe, and the strongest responses to climate change in the energy sector are to decarbonize the grid, and to electrify as much as possible, as fast as possible. Transitioning to 100% energy on a fast timeline -- I think we can get there by 2025 -- demonstrates that South Lake Tahoe is committed to being a bold part of the solution. This in turn provides an opportunity to educate the millions of annual Tahoe visitors about the impact of climate change to Lake Tahoe, and ways that people can advocate for renewable energy solutions where they live.

The key is implementation, which requires city council and city staff leadership to make sure the CAP isn't filed away, but rather acted upon. I will advocate for hiring a City of South Lake Tahoe Sustainability Director, and will regularly ask for updates on the status of implementation at City Council meetings, as well as encouraging city staff to pursue funding opportunities for implementation.

Cristi Creegan
The most important thing the City can do around these issues of sustainability and renewable energy is public outreach and education. The more ownership the community as a whole takes over implementation of the CAP will help it be its most successful.

City Council Candidate General Responses to the Questionnaire

Bruce Grego
I have reviewed the City’s Climate Action Plan and the questions that you have posed for the candidates for this coming election.

I have been involved in local government matters for many years, and I am presently on the advisory planning commission of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. As a practicing attorney, I know that it is good to have objectives and deadlines to achieve a result.

But my job, as council member, if elected, is to balance all of the demands that our citizens place upon us not only for the long term, but for today.

As the State of California moves to eliminate fossil fuels energy generation for the State, I can’t ignore the fact that in the last month we have experienced rolling black- outs due to the lack of power generation. What do you say to the people when there are immediate needs for electricity? What do you say to people that need electricity to run their oxygen machines, or for other health care needs, or what do you say to the people when they are seeking to fulfill their employment obligations when we have a black out?

Over the years we have seen the results of narrow environmental objectives ignoring other elements of our social needs. We see that the TRPA has set conditions for projects based upon a public transportation network. The result is a shortage of parking for vehicles, the subsequent traffic congestion, and people placing their selves in danger when parking on the highway while trying to enjoy public facilities. In the zest to protect the environment, we now have a situation where people have inadequate housing in South Lake Tahoe and throughout the State. Millions have been spent on our public transportation system in the basin, yet it takes two hours or more to travel from South Lake Tahoe to the Carson Valley.

It would be too easy to merely accept the objectives of the Climate Change Action Plan during the election and to make a commitment to reach certain goals by certain dates beyond the time I hold office. I reject the single purpose planning that we have all too often experienced over the years. Good planning must consider all factors.

I pledge to adopt policies to be more energy efficient and to seize the opportunities to reduce our carbon footprint, but at the same time, assure that we have sufficient energy to meet our needs today, fill the pot holes, remove snow and support our essential services.

Thank you for the opportunity to express my views on this subject.

Leonard Carter
Thank you for sending the information.

Due to the City Council passing the Resolution concerning 100% renewable energy and the time line, I will be on board by being committed to this resolution if elected.

Thank you, Leonard Carter