Sonoma County’s plan to become carbon-neutral by 2030 involves improving carbon storage on county-owned land. Melanie Parker, deputy director of Sonoma County Regional Parks, left, and Misti Arias, acquisition manager of the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, tour Carrington Ranch on the coastal bluff above Salmon Creek, Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020, north of Bodega Bay. The 335-acre ranch was transferred from the Open Space district to Regional Parks. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat file, 2020) Sonoma County officials have their eyes set on an ambitious goal — to make the county carbon-neutral by 2030, starting with government operations. A new 167-page plan spells out how the county intends to reach that goal via 54 projects tackling energy use, emissions, waste and carbon sequestration. Of those projects, the county’s Climate Action and Resiliency Division has recommended starting with 25 measures over the next two years, with an estimated price tag of $38 million. The plan is meant as a blueprint to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, a goal the Board of Supervisors established in 2021 as part of its five-year strategic plan. Reaching that goal means the county would have to account for all of its greenhouse gas production and offset that output by local and other means to achieve a net neutral impact on the emissions driving climate change. In the past three years, the county’s climate division has audited the county’s energy use, waste production and overall greenhouse gas inventory, resulting in the action plan approved Sept. 10 by the Board of Supervisors. The board had previously approved $30.7 million for the effort but on Sept. 10 allocated an additional $2.7 million from the county’s climate resilience fund and tribal mitigation fund, according to a staff report. The additional funds will be used to […]
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