In 2016, the city of Durango committed to cutting its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. Presently, it’s not on track to achieve that objective with less than six years remaining.
Residents and members of San Juan Citizens Alliance told Durango City Council in August that the city needs to elevate its emissions reduction efforts and throw more support behind its sustainability department.
The city aligned its goals with Colorado’s statewide targets of 50% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030 and 100% reduction by 2050. But between 2016 and 2022, the city only managed to reduce emissions by 10%, or 269,100 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to a city emissions inventory report released by the city earlier this year.
However, the report is not all ruin and smog. It highlights the 10% reduction was achieved despite an 8% population growth during the same time period.
Nevertheless, the city has a long way to go before it’s on track to meet its objective, Durango Sustainability Manager Marty Pool said in June. But a lot can happen between now and the turn of the decade, and Pool expects such.
His optimism is fueled by several factors, including rapid technological advancements such as the continuing electrification of vehicles and more public funding than ever before.
Historic levels of state and federal funding are available for renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, he said, referencing the Biden administration’s bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s $65 billion clean energy package.
“I think we are going to see huge increases in the amount of renewable energy being installed throughout the country, but also here locally, especially, thanks to that legislation,” he said.
Likewise, he said continuous technological advancements in batteries, electric vehicle charging networks, home heating and cooling systems and lighting technologies are driving down prices and making more energy efficient technologies more widely accessible.
For example, light bulbs are 90% more energy efficient than they were a decade ago, he said. More efficient light bulbs are the only lights available to consumers today. Whereas just a few years ago, people were skeptical about the supposed efficiency of new heat pumps. Now, heat pump technology is effective enough to operate down to zero degrees Fahrenheit.
“Costs are becoming comparable with other heating and cooling technologies,” Pool said.
The same applies to renewable energy, with declining costs spurred by federal government investments the market will eventually catch up to, he added.
He said La Plata Electric Association has made strides in its push for more renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from their electricity production. Getting more power supply contracts with higher renewable energy portfolios would also directly help the city meet its emissions goals.
About 40% of the city’s electrical power currently comes from renewable sources, he said. From that angle, the city is close to meeting one aspect of its 2030 objective in sourcing 50% of all electricity from renewable sources, according to the city’s emissions inventory.
Not everyone shares Pool’s optimism.
Residents and members of the San Juan Citizens Alliance who attended the Aug. 6 Durango City Council meeting applauded the city’s sustainability efforts. However, they emphasized the city needs to do more to meet its 2030 goal and to do its part in combating the global climate crisis.
SJCA Energy and Climate Program Associate Emelie Frojen said City Council should direct more funding toward sustainability programs in the city’s 2025 budget.
“I was really excited to see Durango’s greenhouse gas inventory accounting that came out earlier this year and the progress that we’ve made thus far,” she said. “But what I learned from that report is that Durango has only reduced 10%, leaving 40% to go by the year 2030.”
She said the city’s reliance on LPEA for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is “irresponsible” when the city could take more steps itself, such as by updating its building codes. And Pool, who is responsible for sustainability across five sectors in buildings, transportation, solid waste, water and natural systems, needs more personnel and funding for sustainability programs.
“It’s a really heavy load for an individual,” she said. “It should not fall onto just one single person to implement and reach greenhouse gas emission goals that we set as a city. And those goals are necessary in order to do our local part in averting the climate crisis.”
She said the sustainability department needs more personnel and more funding for programs.
SJCA Finance Manager Brian Rogers said the city should view sustainability as a crucial investment, adding the city should leap on federal funding opportunities before they expire.
“The greenhouse gas emissions target’s at 2030. We are not on track for those, but it’s not too late,” he said.
Resident Karen Pontius said climate change threatens to decimate Durango’s tourism economy. She highlighted evermore sporadic snowfall, recent low river levels and wildfires.
“More must be done and time is of the essence,” she said. “So it’s going to require the council to move sustainability to top priority.”
Residents respectfully but firmly asserted their stance to City Council that reducing emissions should be prioritized as seriously as the climate crisis.
However, decarbonization and emissions reduction takes longer to materialize and is not as simple as flipping a light switch.
Colorado Energy Office Deputy Director Dominique Gomez said the work Durango is doing now is setting the city up for future success.
She said local governments wield jurisdiction over three important areas that contribute to greenhouse gases: Land use, buildings and waste.
“Transportation is the No. 1 source of emissions in the state of Colorado,” she said. “ … And it is really local governments that make most of the decisions around land use that impact transportation.”
How people reach their destinations greatly depends on road and street infrastructure, which itself relies on prudent city planning.
Buildings are another major contributor to greenhouse gases because they tend to consume a lot of energy. Gomez said the state plays a role in regulating buildings, but local governments have unique oversight of buildings in their jurisdictions.
At an Engage Durango forum in July, a resident asked Durango Community Development Director Scott Shine why the city doesn’t align its building codes with Colorado’s much more “progressive” codes.
Shine said the city historically has adopted building codes one year after the state releases its own because state codes are often revised shortly after being enacted.
The city will likely adopt the state’s 2024 building codes in 2025, he said.
Pool also noted the state is taking aggressive action on building codes. He said municipalities are granted flexibility in some areas and are bound by state mandates in others. The city tracks incentives and mandates as they develop.
Gomez said local governments also play a distinct role in waste management. Recycling and composting programs, such as Durango’s partnership with Table to Farm Compost, play their part in reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions.
“Policy changes that are needed to reduce emissions don’t have immediate impact,” she said. “It takes a couple years, but it’s really important to make those choices at the local level to reduce emissions through this decade and beyond, (which) is where we’ll see the biggest impact.”
She said the Colorado Energy Office received $130 million from the United States Environmental Protection Agency to help local governments become more sustainable in land use, buildings and waste.
The city’s energy performance contract, described by the city as a way to upgrade facilities while offsetting long-term utility costs, has been completed, bringing lighting upgrades and HVAC control improvements to over a dozen city sites and new solar installations at five sites.
The city has also contracted McKinstry for energy management services through a conservation program called powerED, Pool said, with a focus on controlling energy use such as heating, cooling and lighting across city facilities.
The program will help building managers and operators identify “hundreds of little things that we can do across our facilities to keep reducing energy consumption, saving money, reducing our greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.