The county discusses its plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Starting May 5, the county’s Alternative Energy and Environment Committee will be holding four public meetings over the next six weeks to discuss the county’s climate action plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with state laws.

The first of those laws, Assembly Bill 32, was passed in 2006 and directed the California Air Resources Board to create regulations that would reduce the state’s GHG emissions to 1990 levels by the year of 2020; as part of the approved environmental mitigations for the county’s 2010 general plan, the county pledged to reduce emissions under the county’s jurisdiction – using 2005 emissions as a baseline – by 15 percent by 2020.

State Senate Bill 32, passed in 2016, was more aggressive, requiring jurisdictions to reduce emissions by 40 percent of 1990 levels by the year 2030.

The county amended its general plan in 2020 to reflect those goals, and this January, released a draft GHG emissions inventory to inform the county’s climate adaptation plans.

That report quickly received pushback from nonprofit Landwatch Monterey County, which argued in a Jan. 20 letter the inventory was flawed in two key ways. One is an alleged mathematical error in calculating vehicle miles traveled in the unincorporated parts of the county; the other is it omits miles driven on state highways.

A draft emissions inventory lists agriculture as contributing 33 percent of the emissions under the county’s jurisdiction, with on-road transportation second at 30 percent. Still, the 966,203 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent within the county’s purview, per the draft inventory, are dwarfed by sources outside its jurisdiction.

Chevron’s fossil fuel extraction and refining operations in the county are regulated by state and federal laws, and account for over 37 million metric tons, per the inventory.

The committee will meet May 5 at 10:30am to discuss buildings and energy, and 9:30am May 6 to discuss transportation and land use.