Reporting from Hillsboro
Making good on a promise to keep local leaders informed about the region's vehicle emissions reduction efforts, Metro representatives visited the Washington County Commission on Tuesday to talk climate.
The visit of Council President Tom Hughes and Councilor Kathryn Harrington underscored one of the key challenges presented by the regional government's Climate Smart Communities program – finding the Goldilocks point where the program's goals are just right.
Leaders from Metro are leaning on a mandate from state government to lend legitimacy to the program, which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles by 70 percent per capita before 2035. But they'd like to do that by making it so people don't have to do as much driving, by improving access to jobs, stores and restaurants in the suburbs where driving is prevalent.
On the surface, that's a pretty easy connection – if people choose to drive less, emissions will be reduced. But discussions about using zoning as a tool for reducing driving has at times been seen by suburban leaders as a reach, and tends to lead the way to discussions about other ways of cutting emissions, beyond cars.
So it went on Tuesday in Hillsboro, as Washington County commissioners talked about solar power in Germany, coal and gas exports to Asia and the potential future of hydrogen vehicles.
With the Climate Smart Communities program not really looking past the state mandate on tailpipe emissions, the discussion between the commissioners and councilors went fairly off topic.
It was somewhat reined in by Commissioner Roy Rogers, when he said many of the emission reduction proposals that Metro is considering studying are "not the answer."
"The real answer is technology," Rogers said. "I was watching TV – and I've been saying for a long time that hydrogen is the big new thing – I was watching two days ago and the Japanese already have hydrogen fueling stations. By 2015 they'll mass produce these and take them to the larger market.
"That's a real game changer," Rogers said. "If that happens, we might as well say 'Let's take this (climate program) and throw it away, because the emissions are zero.'"
Harrington pointed out that the program has check-ins to re-assess strategies at given points, including in 2015.
Hughes was more blunt in his response.
"It's one thing to develop cars in Japan," he said. "It's another to deploy them in the U.S. with an auto industry that is geared to produce other types of vehicles."
Councilors are continuing their outreach to city councils and county commissions as the climate program heads into its second phase of research. The project is expected to be completed in mid-2014.
MPAC discussion shows climate project starting to come together (April 12, 2012)