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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-04-17 Climate Action and Sustainability Summary MinutesCLIMATE ACTION & SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE SUMMARY MINUTES Page 1 of 9 Special Meeting April 17, 2026 The Climate Action and Sustainability Committee of the City of Palo Alto met on this date in the Community Meeting Room and by virtual teleconference at 2:01 p.m. Present In-Person: Veenker (Chair), Lu, Burt Absent: None Call to Order Mayor Veenker called the meeting to order. Public Comments: None Verbal Report A. Staff Comments Director of Public Works Brad Eggleston shared that the City's third annual Earth Day Festival takes place Sunday, April 19, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Art Center. The mayor, City officials, and Youth Climate Board Chair will kick off the event. As part of the City's electrification programs, a new rebate for induction cooktops was launched on March 18, with 5 residents submitting reservations for the program. Those interested can learn more at www.paloalto.gov/electrifymyhome. Library card holders can now borrow induction cooktops thanks to an interdepartmental collaboration and a donation from Acterra. The cooktops can be borrowed for 7 days and residents can request one be sent to their local library branch. B. Committee Member Comments and Announcements Councilmember Lu provided an update on the Finance Committee's discussion about permitting fees. Their motion related to solar and battery fees matched existing state law that caps these fees. For electric and HVAC, they agreed to reduce fees with the exception of 400-amp panels in single-family residential homes. For EV chargers, there was no specific action to take but the Building Department found a few ways to simplify the flow and reduce fees overall. There will be a subsidy for solar and storage, electric, and HVAC fees and a general reduction in EV charger fees without a subsidy. Mayor Veenker stated this is great news and asked if the charges will come to Council as part of the budget discussion. Assistant Director of Public Works Jonathan Abdenschein confirmed this should come to Council as part of the budget via the Finance Committee. Mayor Veenker announced important upcoming meetings. The Northern California Power Agency commission meeting is in Shasta Lake next week. The Annual Federal Policy Conference in Washington is the following week, where they meet with the Western states' power agencies and spend a few days advocating on Capitol Hill. This is more important this year given some fork-in-the-road letters that SUMMARY MINUTES Page 2 of 9 (Sp.) Climate Action and Sustainability Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 04/17/2026 continue to affect partner agencies such as hydropower generators. Working with the Bureau of Reclamation, the Department of Interior, and others will be important. The mayor and utilities director are attending and can report on it afterward. Mayor Veenker shared that the Air District has an important board meeting on Wednesday, May 6, where the no-NOx appliance rules will be discussed. Starting in 2027, new water heaters purchased cannot emit nitrogen oxide. Staff proposed flexibility amendments to cut out edge cases and so people who can afford them and have homes that can accommodate them will be in the first group subject to these rules. Flexibility amendments will be heard in early May. Mayor Veenker emphasized that these rules are not for immediate transition or upon sale of a home and they apply to water heaters in 2027 and space heaters in 2029. Agenda Items 1. Review and Discussion of Scope of Policy Research and Analysis Planned for 2026-2027 S/CAP Work Plan Items CA13, CA14, and CA16 focused on the Regulatory and Financial Strategies and Scenarios for Community-wide Electrification; CEQA Status – Not a Project Assistant Director Abdenschein said the workshop last December talked about outcomes from the S/CAP funding study and gave helpful insights into what will happen financially to the city, individuals, and community as a whole as they electrify on a large scale. They received good financial insights but the timelines and scenarios modeled were high level and need to be adjusted and remodeled, including reflecting new federal policy, cost escalation, and more granular, actionable plans. The purpose of today's review is to gather feedback and questions from the Committee on strategies, method, and timeline. The team is pulling together a set of policy options into a single electrification strategy which can be put into the S/CAP funding model to project a timeline for achieving the 80 percent emissions reduction goal. By modeling them with the updated assumptions in the S/CAP funding model, they could project the City revenue need to implement, individual community member expense impacts, and utility rate impacts. They did a comprehensive look at regulatory approaches and highlighted what they think are good options. Regulatory options for consideration include regulations on new construction, major remodel, end of life replacement, and emissions savings; standards for building performance and rental habitability; and tenant "right to plug", which is an existing state regulation that could work well with EV charging financing concepts. Carbon pricing approaches for consideration include different offset mix for the existing Carbon Offset Gas Program, carbon tax or tax and dividend, voluntary carbon pricing, renewable gas procurement, and a clean heat standard. Working group questions and feedback around these various options were outlined on Slide 7 of the presentation. Next steps are to return to the Committee in June with more details. They are still working out how to involve UAC and City Council. Mayor Veenker asked if anyone on the Committee was able to attend the working group meeting and it was confirmed that no Committee members attended. Item 1 Public Comment: Bret Anderson asked what criteria are being used for screening the ideas and focusing on the most probable solutions. Assistant Director Abendschein responded to public comment by sharing that the working group looked at a range of considerations when recommending which to consider, including legal feasibility, impact, appropriateness for local implementation versus state or national, and alignment with programs being considered and other regional regulations. Mayor Veenker added that state laws coming into effect in a variety of these areas are also relevant. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 3 of 9 (Sp.) Climate Action and Sustainability Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 04/17/2026 Councilmember Burt expressed thanks for the comprehensive framing of this item, which shows the range of options and challenges. He referenced Page 5 of the staff report and suggested "declining gas sales could lead to an increase in gas rates" be changed to "would lead" or "would likely lead". Councilmember Burt suggested that voluntary carbon pricing is the lowest hanging fruit among carbon pricing options. He noted the Palo Alto Green Program had the highest participation in the country in what was essentially a carbon offset program for electricity; engagement would likely be higher today. Councilmember Burt asked for more on how difficult voluntary carbon pricing is to implement and whether it can be moved forward ahead of other programs. Assistant Director Abendschein responded that the challenge with voluntary carbon pricing is finding and designing it. Implementation can be difficult, depending on how it is designed. The first question is what people are getting in exchange. In the Palo Alto Green Electricity Program, participants received green electricity through the purchase of a renewable energy credit and a lawn sign. Lawn signs are still available for those who want to show appreciation for electrification. The simplest concept is to get renewable natural gas (RNG) but it is difficult to implement. There was a short-term market for renewable energy credits when the Green Program ran but there is not a short-term market for RNG. You can turn to offsets but there is already a Carbon Offset Gas Program for the entire community, so the question is what participants get in exchange. There may be a way to make it a voluntary savings program where certain financing or incentive programs are conditioned on opting in to a gas price signal. There are questions about opt-in versus opt-out programs; opt-out programs are tricky from a legal standpoint but drive much more participation. Councilmember Burt added how they calculate what carbon impact they are offsetting. Assistant Director Abendschein explained there are many ways to do that, depending on the product. For a savings program, you would choose a benchmark. If buying a product, you would express it in dollars per ton and translate that into dollars per therm. Assistant Director Abendschein clarified this is focused on natural gas. To achieve the deep electrification needed within the state, they have to invest in electrification measures and winter renewable energy that will be more costly than what is reflected in carbon prices now, so this is an attempt to get to that by looking at things like RNG, which reflects the true cost of achieving those goals without electrification. Councilmember Burt asked if participants are able to buy in to RNG and shared that CEO Johannes Escudero of the Coalition for RNG is a Midtown resident. Assistant Director Abendschein responded they are in touch with someone local who is involved in the RNG industry. Councilmember Burt said Denmark is the only country that has been able to have RNG become a major part of their gas portfolio for certain economic and agricultural reasons. Councilmember Burt asked whether they could have contracts on that scale for those who opt in to carbon offset. Assistant Director Abendschein explained that the question is whether it is possible to find a short-term contract for a few years so it can be sold off when there are surpluses because people opt in to these programs, get renewable gas for a year or two, and then electrify and suddenly do not need renewable gas. Then the City is stuck with a take-or-pay contract. RNG seems simple in concept but the take-or-pay contract problem makes it tough to find a path forward. Councilmember Burt suggested any amount of contracted RNG purchases beyond what they need for folks participating in the program could be folded into the portfolio and absorb the price differential, which Assistant Director Abendschein noted then becomes an affordability discussion. Mayor Veenker asked for a comparison of RNG versus LNG in terms of pricing. Assistant Director Abendschein explained RNG is about 3 to 5 times as expensive as LNG. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 4 of 9 (Sp.) Climate Action and Sustainability Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 04/17/2026 Assistant Director Abendschein confirmed that the goal of the community electrification strategy is to identify actionable strategies and say when each strategy would achieve 80 percent emissions reduction. Councilmember Burt encouraged the Committee to look at how Palo Alto compares to other entities and their carbon reduction goals. He noted the City may be nationwide or global leaders in carbon emission reduction but will look like a failure if the goal has to be adjusted. Councilmember Burt stated that if an adjustment is needed, the community will feel better if they understand how Palo Alto compares and is leading in this area. Director Eggleston noted this topic has come up several times. When this action item went to City Council in March during approval of the 2026-2027 Work Plan, they looked at the most recent Greenhouse Gas Inventory and included the goals and progress of other communities. Director Eggleston offered to continue doing that. Councilmember Burt suggested they look at communities not only in California but across the U.S. and the world. Councilmember Lu asserted that after the 80 percent goal, a good and natural aspiration is to be the first fossil fuel-free city, which is another way to rank some goals. Councilmember Lu asked about the clean heat standard listed in electrification and carbon pricing sections. The clean heat standard is a Colorado concept where they require regulated gas utilities to reduce emissions through efficiency, electrification, and renewable gas. It was researched to see if any concepts were transferable but the difference is Palo Alto owns and operates its gas utilities, so it has its own policies to make and does not need to regulate itself. Councilmember Lu offered that RNG does not always product a 1:1 emissions reduction because sometimes the natural gas supply is a biproduct of oil drilling or there is natural gas emitted from landfills. Councilmember Lu wondered where and how Palo Alto procures its natural gas and how much incremental reduction is possible with a renewable natural gas supply. Assistant Director Abendschein replied that all gas goes into a single set of pipelines, so you cannot trace the gas coming to Palo Alto from a specific source, whether natural gas focused or a biproduct of oil drilling and that complexity is important to acknowledge. Even if taking renewable gas and injecting it into the system, there is leakage through the system. An analysis of the UAC several years ago showed it very significantly increases emissions from building gas use if you look at upstream emissions. Renewable gas goes into the system, a portion leaks out, and it is methane in the atmosphere. Even if renewable, it is a strong greenhouse gas, so these are problems with RNG that the working group was concerned about. Councilmember Lu noted it is still worth researching but some math could be done to determine overall effectiveness in reducing net impact. Councilmember Lu stated the recommendations on what to consider and research make sense overall and added a couple alternative ideas or add-ons. For carbon pricing, Councilmember Lu suggested a one- time impact fee could make more sense in certain situations or dissuade people from installing natural gas toward the tail end of when things are being shut down. For electricity, Councilmember Lu expressed interest in seeing what the next step is for mandated solar and battery storage under certain conditions for certain new construction. It did not pencil out in the previous financial analysis but when it becomes only a minor financial burden, it could be a good requirement for new buildings. Mayor Veenker asked whether the carbon tax and tax and dividend items need further research or are not recommended. Assistant Director Abendschein clarified the Carbon Offset Gas Program is not listed for research because it is a current program and the carbon tax and dividend is not listed for research because it is conceptually very simple. Mayor Veenker asked what staff's capacity is to research the SUMMARY MINUTES Page 5 of 9 (Sp.) Climate Action and Sustainability Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 04/17/2026 options and whether the Committee needs to reduce options or prioritize them. Assistant Director Abendschein stated that dealing with carbon pricing in the model is not complicated and these options are ways to generate the number to put into the model. If an option is of strong interest, it will get extra attention to legal and regulatory issues. The research to be done is to familiarize staff with the field as opposed to deep research. Mayor Veenker expressed appreciation for the holistic strategy looking at what it takes to get to 80 percent by 2030. Mayor Veenker asserted that percentage and year goals are different from city to city, so it is hard to do a direct comparison. Mayor Veenker asked about the carbon neutrality goal. Assistant Director Abendschein stated they hope to talk about the carbon neutrality goal with the Committee in Q3. They are researching it to frame up policy challenges. They have to some extent figured out an approach to carbon neutrality for the gas utility but it gets more complicated when thinking about transportation, funding sources, and finding ways to approach the offsets. It is not far enough along to discuss at this time. Mayor Veenker suggested it could be part of what the Committee shares to show the community what they are accomplishing and it may be easier to compare with other cities and entities. Mayor Veenker highlighted Assemblymember Berman's bill called the Home Energy Choice Act, which would incentivize people to figure out ways to go without as a gas distribution lines are replaced. While the Air District regulations help with home appliance electrification, these things may help with gas retirement. The bill is set for hearing this week and something to keep in mind. Mayor Veenker had no strong aversion to any of the options presented and nothing to add. Mayor Veenker noted legal feasibility issues, alignment with local programs, and changed circumstances on things like voluntary carbon pricing will have an impact. Councilmember Burt noted that RNG has issues of cost, availability, and carbon intensity. The most carbon intense is methane from agricultural manure, which is several times more carbon intense and beneficial to eliminate than some other forms. Councilmember Burt stated carbon neutrality is less meaningful than the current goal but has become a more common and achievable standard. If carbon neutrality is featured more because it is achievable in the desired timeframe, they still need to explain consistently why carbon reduction is more important. Councilmember Burt said Scope 3 carbon is missing from the options and noted that groundwork needs to be laid for when they begin to embrace that goal. Director Eggleston clarified that Scope 3 carbon is not part of this item and is distinct from carbon neutrality as defined in their goals. Staff are thinking of bringing introductory information to start discussing Scope 3 when they bring the 2025 Greenhouse Gas Inventory to the Committee for review in August or September. Councilmember Burt asked whether they would have an update at that time on progress with things like the carbon concrete initiative, which Director Eggleston confirmed may be possible. Mayor Veenker asked whether, with respect to 80x30 goal, the Committee is more optimistic about some lanes than others. Mayor Veenker suggested that in public communications, they should share what things became harder or take longer than anticipated while showing progress has been made. Assistant Director Abdenschein noted progress has been made on vehicles and water heaters, though there is a long way to go. Other areas of progress are EV adoption, EV charging in multi-family buildings, and water heaters. There are enough people doing it that everyone knows someone doing it, which raises awareness. Mayor Veenker shared that she and Councilmember Lu met with the delegation from Yangpu, Palo Alto's sister city in China, and they have 40 percent EVs in their city. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 6 of 9 (Sp.) Climate Action and Sustainability Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 04/17/2026 Councilmember Lu asked if the Committee needs to make a motion on researching impact fees related to natural gas connections. Assistant Director Abdenschein responded that decommissioning is highlighted a lot in this report because the gas transition study showed decommissioning is a second-order conversation while the greater focus is on achieving higher levels of electrification first. This concept is important to think about and does not need a motion. It came up in the working group as well and is something to talk about internally. Mayor Veenker expressed excitement about these lists and liked the idea of modeling to help figure out the path forward. MOTION: No Action Taken 2. Status Update on 2026 Communications and Engagement Planned for 2026-2027 S/CAP Work Plan Items C1, C2, and C3; CEQA Status – Not a Project Chief Communications Officer Meghan Horrigan-Taylor shared that Attachment A is a Communication Dashboard showing efforts completed last year, which is not all-encompassing but provides a snapshot of last year's efforts and is a way to provide a benchmark for efforts this coming year. CCO Horrigan-Taylor provided an overview of distinct work plan items; further details are in the staff report. Priorities for the work ahead are updating the City's S/CAP theme and tagline, celebrating sustainability milestones to build community awareness, sharing tools and resources for the community to take action, and leveraging community partners to extend City S/CAP communications and engagement. Communication efforts include layering different outreach types, including digital, print, and mailers. Sustainability milestones being celebrated include reaching over 769 heat pump water heater installations, the City's Horizontal Levee Pilot Project completion, and major transportation planning set to expand the bicycle/walking network. The Electrify My Home Program recently launched and is the next iteration of the Heat Pump Water Heater program, now featuring all major appliances. Benchmark statistics from 2025 are mainly digital items like social media post engagement and newsletter subscriptions. Metrics going forward center around things like growing social media engagement and eNews subscribers, sustaining reader numbers for the community blog series, increasing website traffic, and increasing engagement at events, workshops, and webinars. The goals for the new S/CAP tagline elements are to build awareness, inspire, and influence change. The Youth Climate Advisory Board provided feedback on new tagline options on April 1, with a final tagline of "Sustaining Our Future" with a tree/arrow image that demonstrates progress. Upcoming community engagement opportunities include the Earth Day Festival on Sunday, April 19 and Eco-Cleanup at the Baylands on Saturday, April 18. Bike to Wherever Days and National River Cleanup Day take place in May. CCO Horrigan-Taylor provided an overview of feedback and comments from the working group. Data dashboards are planned throughout the year, with the Q1 dashboard to be presented in May, Q2 in August, Q3 in October, and Q4 in February 2027 alongside the 2026 annual report. Mayor Veenker expressed thanks for the presentation and liked the arrows pointing up in the tagline image. Item 2 Public Comment: Bret Anderson stated this is a great improvement and is firing on all cylinders as far as tactics and measuring marketing efforts. Bret Anderson suggested getting meaningful measures of progress in terms of how many automobiles, appliances, homes, buildings, and businesses have been or are being transitioned. Bret Anderson insisted that the transition away from fossil fuels to all electric is the main event for Palo Alto and should be explicitly and directly messaged to all residents. Residents and the City have a big investment to make, so the City should be clear about that and show them concretely SUMMARY MINUTES Page 7 of 9 (Sp.) Climate Action and Sustainability Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 04/17/2026 that they are joining in a community effort to get to the other side of this transition. Bret Anderson offered that when Palo Alto compares itself to China or Norway, countries that have a more supportive government, they are in good company if they make a more aggressive approach to electrification and reduction in fossil fuel use. Bret Anderson concluded it is very dilutive to stay on this sustainability and environmental benefits pitch. Councilmember Lu liked the tagline and logo, stating it is much clearer than the default City logo, and noting "Sustaining Our Future" is positive long-term messaging. Councilmember Lu offered that communicating health risks aligns with something Council gave direction on and it does not need to be overemphasized. Councilmember Lu suggested communicating Air District mandates and any underrated parts of the transportation network, such as Marguerite Shuttle or Safe Routes to School, in addition to all other transportation issues that were mentioned. Councilmember Lu approved of the incentives and stated it is good to emphasize carbon neutrality as a more understandable win that people will be excited about contributing to. Councilmember Lu suggested looking at marketing measurement frameworks that Meta, Google, and others can provide, which can reach most of the city multiple times with any given ad buy. Councilmember Lu recommended using measurement tools associated with ads to gauge how aware people are of a given campaign. CCO Horrigan-Taylor confirmed they are using ads through Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Nextdoor. The advertising budget is flexible and she can get back to Councilmember Lu on a number for that. CCO Horrigan-Taylor added they will be doing polls and surveys through those platforms with a focus on educating and building awareness. Councilmember Burt expressed thanks for the update and pointed out the phrase "including health benefits" on Slide 4, asking for more information about what was intended there and more details on the work group feedback around it. CCO Horrigan-Taylor responded that the focus is to share all community benefits of switching from gas to electric and health benefits are part of that. They have not fully developed what that looks like, so part of the working group conversation was talking through it. The City needs to balance how far to go into the risks conversation. Councilmember Burt expressed interest in hearing how prominently it will be featured and whether the City has any liability if those risks are featured. CCO Horrigan-Taylor answered that they are highlighting community health benefits like clean air, focusing on the benefits of moving from gas to electric but not going to the next level of what those exact possible risks are. The challenge is to lead with the benefits versus fear. Statements about cancer risk may cause people to disengage. CCO Horrigan-Taylor shared that AB testing has been done on messaging. Details of the various health risks have not been included in the messaging because conversations among staff have conflicting viewpoints on how far those pieces can be communicated. It is something they are working through based on Council direction to get to a more definitive answer and determine liability related to messaging. Director Eggleston added that Council gave direction in early March to have more emphasis on this, so it has only been a month and they have not settled on exactly what that messaging will be. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 8 of 9 (Sp.) Climate Action and Sustainability Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 04/17/2026 Mayor Veenker noted the Air District's primary mission is public health and climate is a co-benefit. Mayor Veenker suggested talking about health benefits in terms of the number of lives saved or the dollars saved on medical costs versus talking about toxicity or mortality rates. Councilmember Burt asserted that messaging can still address concrete identified risks versus being broadly conceptual and noted benefits around childhood asthma are particularly motivating. Councilmember Burt wondered if there is some restriction on referencing published, substantial, medical research papers related to risks and benefits. Director Eggleston did not want to speak too much on the liability landscape in a public meeting but stated that public research is what it is whether it is repeated in S/CAP messaging. Research has evolved to a concrete point and the legal landscape trails along with it, so it is something to think very hard about. Councilmember Burt appreciated that a fuller discussion is needed and stated concern that they are being overly shy about directly stating the risks. He added that an additional dimension to leveraging partnership is experts, such as medical experts at Stanford. Councilmember Burt suggested the school district and PTA Council could be great community partners and wondered how to get through to those folks who do not look at the usual communications. CCO Horrigan-Taylor responded that as part of their work, they are building out a community toolkit and there will be specific focus on resources for specific partners. One of those is school district partners with the PTA. There is a very active group that is sent informational emails all the time, so this will be an area of focus in terms of connecting. Councilmember Burt highlighted the business community, such as the Chamber and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and wondered how to reach and engage them. Stanford Research Park, the hospitals, and the shopping center combined employ most workers in the city and they do not have as strong a relationship with the Chamber, so engaging with them directly in addition to through the Chamber is important. Mayor Veenker drew attention to the 2025 benchmark statistics and noted a 52 percent open rate on newsletters is very high. To a question about the Climate Action Blog, CCO Horrigan-Taylor clarified it is an average of 357 reads per post and the blog is sent out through a platform called medium.com, which sends it to their followers plus anyone who follows topic tags that are marked for each post. Mayor Veenker highlighted a working group comment on using metrics for the 80x30 story, which stated the public is not likely to be influenced by data. Mayor Veenker noted the numbers are important to driving their work but questioned how important it is to comms and suggested further discussion around that. CCO Horrigan-Taylor elaborated that some members were interested in distinct data like "1 in 4 residents drive an EV" which is tangible and easy to connect with versus 80x30, which requires more explanation. They are working toward using tangible data that connects back to S/CAP goals, awareness, and implementation and having a website with the rest of the data for those who are interested. Mayor Veenker agreed with Councilmember Lu that the graphic is excellent and has a clean look. Mayor Veenker liked the tagline "Sustaining Our Future" but wished it mentioned climate because some people see sustainability as different from climate action and electrification. Mayor Veenker opined the new tagline is an elegant and simple phrase but there is a lack of calling out climate action. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 9 of 9 (Sp.) Climate Action and Sustainability Committee Meeting Summary Minutes: 04/17/2026 CCO Horrigan-Taylor appreciated the feedback and mentioned the visual and tagline would not always stand alone but be included with content, a visuals, other words, or sub-taglines, so there are ways to tie the tagline to specific projects or initiatives. Mayor Veenker commented on the goal of leveraging partnerships and highlighted that next week is San Francisco's Climate Week and there is a conference at UC Law San Francisco where she will be talking on a mayor's panel about the great stuff Palo Alto is doing. The nice thing is they have been doing their own comms around it, including posting on LinkedIn. ICLEI made a video on the horizontal levee project and put that on LinkedIn as well. Those kinds of things can build up a network of informed people and help the overall effort. Councilmember Burt stated climate action should be referenced in the tagline and noted the words Palo Alto are more prominent compared to the tagline. Councilmember Lu suggested that some communications could feature factual, sober messaging and gave the example of City heat advisory warnings, which list possible negative risks of overheating. Councilmember Lu stated there are ways to test out slightly negative messaging without worrying too much. Mayor Veenker added that when assessing the wisdom or propriety of things, they can take a broader lens. Mayor Veenker provided the example of past messaging around gas stoves, which included the health impact of cooking indoors. MOTION: No Action Taken Future Meetings and Agendas The next meeting will be at the same time on May 15, and staff are still working on the topics. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 3:55 p.m.