On 03/19/2025, the Common Council will be voting on the resolution setting the city’s emissions reduction goals. This resolution would update the city government’s emissions reduction goal to a target of reducing net emissions by 50% (13,600 metric tons of CO2e) by 2034 and maintaining as “aspirational stretch goal” of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 “contingent upon our electrical utility supplier meeting its Scope II target.” The Parks and Recreation Committee voted unanimously to recommend it for approval, but Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) who was not a member of the committee expressed a desire to know what city staff’s overall plan was to meet this goal and what the estimated costs would be.
Alderperson Martyn Smith (District 4) one of the Parks and Recreation Committee members who voted in favor of the resolution engaged in a Facebook conversation with me regarding the purpose, value, and associated cost of the resolution.
He took issue with the concern voiced in my original post about the Parks and Recreation Committee discussion that the costs associated with the resolution were opaque. He responded, “But of course that will obviously be the case. This is a principle that will guide decisions over the next decade. When a question arises about replacing this system or that vehicle, we on council will be able to look to this commitment and try (within our limited resources) to make choices that reflect this principle and draw us closer to meeting this commitment.”
I responded, “If the College Avenue lane reconfiguration is any indication, once the city sets a course on something it is locked in to it. Therefore, I think it is reasonable for the city to clarify up front what the end point of the course the resolution is setting will be and how much it will cost the tax payers and utility rate payers.” I also asked him if he could provide an estimate of the Scope I and Scope II emissions for the entire City of Appleton (not just the part the city government was responsible for) as well as the Scope I and Scope II emissions for the entire Fox Cities area so that we could get a better understanding of how much the emissions reduction proposed by the resolution would impact the overall area. This seems like basic information that would be necessary to conduct a cost/benefit analysis of the resolution’s proposal.
The only emissions data that Alderperson Smith pointed to was the emissions inventory for the City of Appleton government that had been provided to the Parks and Recreation Committee for review. He reiterated his view that this resolution was setting a principal to guide the city in decision-making, saying, “In my view the nature of affirming a principle is that we agree it will guide future considerations. Nobody can give you a list of decisions and cost points for the next ten years. I can assure you that the city takes seriously its budget constraints, and so all decisions will be subject to the same rigor. I would imagine that there will be points where we have to consider whether to make a short-term decision that kicks a problem down the road two years or instead to make a long-term upgrade. This resolution will perhaps push us to opt for the long-term choice which also will tend to be greener.”
I reiterated my concern that the resolution set the city on a specific path but the elected officials could not give even a ballpark estimate of what the fiscal impact of following that path would be. Additionally, there seemed to be no estimate of how much the proposed reductions would impact overall emissions in the area.
I finished up by asking, “Is there a reason why you need to set a specific emissions reduction goal rather than setting a goal that is more general such as ‘the City of Appleton will pursue measures that reduce carbon emissions when those measures do not increase costs and are determined to be fiscally prudent’? That would set a guiding principle for the city but also acknowledge the need to be fiscally responsible.”
At this point, Alderperson Smith has not responded, but one would expect some of the themes raised in this conversation to also be raised during the upcoming Council discussion on the resolution.
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