The Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District (District) investigated several different strategies to generate greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and developed that a spreadsheet that presents scenarios for each measure with estimates of potential costs and benefits. The information in the spreadsheet tool is presented for comparison purposes only, and it is expected that the actual costs and benefits of any implemented measure could be different.
November 2019: The GHG Matrix spreadsheet tool has been updated based on new data and methodologies. Please see the “Read Me” section for a description of the changes.
Strategies
Linked below are separate discussion documents for each of the strategies.
- Rebates for zero-emission vehicles
- Expanded use of zero-emission school or transit buses
- Expanding battery-electric and fuel-cell electric vehicle infrastructure
- Planting urban forests
- Conservation projects on working agricultural land
- Retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency and renewable energy, and battery storage
- Expanding the vessel speed reduction incentive program
- Renewable gas trucks
Background
Greenhouse gas “mitigation” in this context means reducing greenhouse gases to address increases from specific land-use projects or as part of local climate action plans. Because GHGs are a global pollutant, mitigation can potentially occur anywhere in the world to offset locally-generated GHG emissions. However, local mitigation efforts could achieve additional local benefits.
For land-use projects, the District’s role under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is to review projects to be approved by lead agencies (usually, the city governments or County government) and assess whether air quality impacts have been adequately evaluated and mitigated. The District recommends that lead agencies prioritize GHG mitigation to occur first on site, then near the site, then within California, and, only if other options have been exhausted, outside of California.
Ultimately, any decision about whether to implement a particular mitigation measure as part of the CEQA process would rest with lead agencies. CEQA mitigation measures must be quantifiable and enforceable, and they must go beyond regulatory requirements.
2017 Workshops
The District held workshops in September 2017 to discuss and gather input on these strategies. See Workshops on GHG Mitigation Strategies for more information on that process. We received verbal and written input from many individuals before, during and after the workshops. General comments and input were summarized here: General Input Received. Specific input on the different strategies that were discussed were added to the Strategies documents above. One additional strategy was also added, titled “Renewable gas trucks.”
These individual letters were received after the workshops:
- Community Environmental Council
- SoCalGas
- Community Environmental Research Project of the Santa Maria Valley
Additional Information
Information on the County’s and cities’ planning departments and climate action plans
Information on the District’s website:
