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Home My WebLink About4/7/2026 Item 8a, SLO Climate Coalition Eric Veium <eric@sloclimatecoalition.org> Sent:Monday, April To:E-mail Council Website Subject:SLO Climate Coalition Comments Item 8a Community CAP Study Session Attachments:04072026 SLO Climate Coalition Comments - Item 8a Community CAP Progress Report & Study Session.pdf Clerk, Please see attached SLO Climate Coalition public comment on tomorrow's City Council item 8a Community Climate Action Plan Progress Report and Study Session. At your earliest convenience, please share with Council and Staff and include in the public record. Thank you. Eric To help protect your privacy, Microsoft Office prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet. Eric Veium, MPP he | him (why do pronouns matter?) Board Chair Home Energy Advising Service Director Co-Director, CCA Workforce & EJ Alliance 805.835.3669 eric@sloclimatecoalition.org www.sloclimatecoalition.org About Me Add to Contacts Schedule a Meeting Connect with SLO Climate Coalition Climate Pulse | Instagram | Facebook | X To find our DEI Vision Statement & Land Acknowledgment visit our About Us page. 1 April 7, 2026 Honorable Mayor Stewart and Members of the City Council City of San Luis Obispo 990 Palm Street San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 RE: Item 8a – Community Climate Action Plan Progress Report and 2027 Climate Action Plan Update Strategic Direction Dear Mayor Stewart, Vice Mayor Shoresman, and Council Members Francis, Marx, and Boswell: On behalf of the SLO Climate Coalition, we write to express our gratitude to the City Council, City Manager McDonald, and the dedicated staff across every department who have contributed to the 2026 Climate Action Plan Progress Report. The scope and quality of this work—spanning a comprehensive greenhouse gas inventory update, pillar-by-pillar implementation review, and extensive community outreach—reflects the institutional commitment that has made San Luis Obispo a nationally and internationally recognized leader in local climate action. We par ticularly commend Sustainability Manager Chris Read and the Green Team for shepherding this process with transparency, rigor, and genuine community engagement. The results speak for themselves: over $57 million in external funding leveraged since 2020, a 20% reduction in community emissions from 2005 levels, 96% par ticipation in Central Coast Community Energy, one-third of the Tier 1 active transportation network completed, citywide organics recycling in place, over 6,000 trees planted, and a municipal operations plan projecting 84% emissions reduction by 2030. These are real, measurable outcomes that reflect what sustained local leadership can achieve. Reaffirm the 2035 Carbon Neutrality Goal The SLO Climate Coalition strongly urges Council to reaffirm the 2035 carbon neutrality goal. We recognize that updated forecasts project a roughly 50% reduction by 2035 rather than the original 70% trajectory, and that staff characterize the remaining gap as requiring technological breakthroughs and unprecedented intergovernmental alignment. We do not view this as a reason to retreat. The 2035 target has served as a powerful organizing principle for the community, a signal to regional and state par tners, and a driver of the very external funding and innovation that the Progress Report documents. Softening or abandoning it would send precisely the wrong message at precisely the wrong time. At minimum, the City must adopt targets consistent with AB 1279. But the value of the 2035 goal lies in its aspirational pull—it compels urgency, creativity, and ambition that a more distant target alone cannot. A Moral Imperative in a Time of Growing Risk The Progress Report itself documents the headwinds: federal funding disruptions, rising electricity costs, regional growth outpacing mitigation, and wildfire and climate hazards threatening existing carbon stocks and community safety. These are not abstract future risks. Our community faces increasing wildfire danger, water supply uncertainty, extreme heat events, and the economic consequences of inaction. Every year of delayed progress compounds these risks and shifts greater costs onto future residents, businesses, and local government budgets. The SLO Climate Coalition believes that continued climate leadership is not simply good policy - it is a moral imperative. The community members who stand to bear the greatest burden of climate impacts - low-income residents, renters, seniors, mobile home park residents, and frontline workers - are the same community members who have the least capacity to adapt on their own. The City’s climate action program, with its explicit equity lens, is one of the most impor tant tools available for protecting these residents. We urge Council to frame the 2027 CAP update not only as an emissions reduction plan, but as a community resilience and protection plan. Aligning Our Work with the City’s Climate Action Plan The SLO Climate Coalition is currently developing our own four-year strategic plan, and we are intentionally aligning it with the City’s Climate Action Plan timeline and priorities. We see our role as a force multiplier for the City’s climate work - mobilizing community engagement, delivering outreach and education (including our Home Energy Advising Service), and advocating for the policies and funding that make implementation possible. As the Progress Repor t notes, the City’s formal Memorandum of Understanding with the Climate Coalition and partnerships through programs like the TECH QuickStart grant are producing tangible results. We intend to deepen this alignment and expand our capacity to suppor t the 2027 CAP’s implementation. New Oppor tunities for Leadership San Luis Obispo has earned its reputation as a climate leader. The City has received A-List recognition from the Carbon Disclosure Project, built a cross-departmental Green Team, attracted tens of millions in external investment, and demonstrated that a mid-sized California city can make real progress toward carbon neutrality. Much work has been done, but much work remains. We also recognize that the fiscal landscape has changed dramatically. Local and state budgets are under stress, and the federal government has taken an openly adversarial posture toward climate investment - canceling grant programs, eliminating tax credits, and disrupting the funding pipeline that California cities have relied upon. In this environment, it is no longer sufficient to do more of the same. It is time to explore new opportunities for leadership and reimagine the ways the City can lead. We respectfully call on Council to empower staff and the organization in four critical areas: 1. Research and Develop New Models for Funding Local Climate Leadership. The Progress Repor t highlights exciting models emerging elsewhere - Ann Arbor’s Sustainable Energy Utility, bulk purchasing programs, plug-in solar systems - but our community needs a systematic effort to identify, evaluate, and adapt these innovations for San Luis Obispo. We urge Council to direct staff to conduct deep research into where climate funding leadership is occurring nationally and internationally, and to bring back a portfolio of funding models for Council’s consideration. The era of relying primarily on federal and state grants is giving way to a more entrepreneurial approach, and the City should be at the forefront. 2. Optimize Organizational Assets and Structure for Climate and Resilience. The Progress Repor t makes clear that many of the City's most significant emissions challenges — regional transportation, electricity affordability, waste diversion — are regional in nature and shaped by decisions made at bodies like the Regional Transit Authority, Central Coast Community Energy, the San Luis Obispo Council of Governments, and the Integrated Waste Management Authority. The City already brings credibility and expertise to these tables, and the opportunity now is to build on that foundation with a more deliberate and resourced strategy for shaping policy, priorities, and investment at the regional level. Given the scale of the regional emissions gap identified in the Progress Report, this work deserves dedicated attention and preparation so that the City's representatives can be as effective as possible. The SLO Climate Coalition would be a willing partner in supporting and amplifying the City's regional advocacy. 3. Strengthen Regional Board Leadership. The Progress Repor t makes clear that many of the City's most significant emissions challenges — regional transportation, electricity affordability, waste diversion — are regional in nature and shaped by decisions made at bodies like the Regional Transit Authority, Central Coast Community Energy, the San Luis Obispo Council of Governments, and the Integrated Waste Management Authority. The City already brings credibility and expertise to these tables, and the opportunity now is to build on that foundation with a more deliberate and resourced strategy for shaping policy, priorities, and investment at the regional level. Given the scale of the regional emissions gap identified in the Progress Report, this work deserves dedicated attention and preparation so that the City's representatives can be as effective as possible. The SLO Climate Coalition would be a willing partner in supporting and amplifying the City's regional advocacy. 4. Take an Active Leadership Role in Shaping State Policy. The Progress Report identifies state regulatory decisions - CPUC rate structures, non-bypassable charges, interconnection delays, and changes to solar compensation - as among the most significant headwinds to local progress. The City cannot afford to be a passive recipient of state policy decisions that directly undermine its ability to resource and implement local climate resilience. The Local Government Climate Alliance appears to be an impor tant, necessary, and innovative approach to this challenge. We strongly support staff’s recommendation for the City to join LGCA, and we urge Council to go further: provide the City’s full backing to LGCA, and empower your exper t staff to shape key policies at the state level with the Council’s support. At $1,500 annually, LGCA membership is an extraordinarily cost-effective investment in the City’s ability to influence the legislative environment that determines whether local climate action succeeds or fails. Closing The 2026 Progress Report is a testament to what this community has built together over the past six years. It is also an honest accounting of the distance that remains. We are grateful to the Council and staff for that honesty, and we are committed to doing our par t to close the gap. In summary, we urge Council to: ● receive and file the Progress Report, ● reaffirm the 2035 carbon neutrality goal, ● approve all seven action areas for further evaluation in the 2027 CAP update, ● join the Local Government Climate Alliance, ● and embrace the broader organizational and strategic shifts that the moment demands. The SLO Climate Coalition stands ready as a par tner in every dimension of this work. Thank you for your continued leadership, your willingness to listen, and your commitment to building a resilient, equitable, and vibrant San Luis Obispo. Respectfully submitted, Eric Veium, Board Chair on behalf of the SLO Climate Coalition