Amador County – Amador County Board of Supervisors discussed a county-wide greenhouse gas inventory report it received last week, saying it was flawed but the county lacks the money to fix it.

Supervisor Brian Oneto asked why Assembly Bill 811, which encourages energy efficiency, considers small hydroelectric dams as renewable energy, but large hydroelectric dams are not renewable. AB811 helps municipalities meet the “Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006,” which requires the California Air Resources Board to develop regulations and market mechanisms to reduce California greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

Kate Schoenberg, PG&E program manager for Sierra Energy Watch, said utilities have not been able to build large dams because of impacts, but they can build small ones. Supervisor Chairman Louis Boitano said “hydroelectricity is the cleanest energy out there and it’s a crying shame that we can’t build more.” Oneto said: “It’s nothing personal. You are just doing your job. I just don’t like the whole thing. It’s state law.”

Supervisor Ted Novelli said three or four of us in the Upcountry have never seen Caltrans do studies on off-road vehicle emissions, and he wondered if Caltrans went out to the areas to calculate emissions numbers. Sierra Business Council’s Emma Ingebretsen said no visits were made, and the off-road data was taken from a model created by the California Air Resources Board.

Supervisor John Plasse said the inventory was “counting lawn mowers as off-road vehicles but you’re not counting airplanes.” Plasse urged the groups to work with your agencies on the numbers and “if you are going to use numbers, then make them real.”

Oneto asked if the report included casino traffic, and Plasse asked if it included electric generation costs for the Central Amador Water Project’s pumped pipeline to Buckhorn. Ingebretsen said the inventory would include anything that existed in 2005. Plasse said it would be an indicator that they could use to state support for the Gravity Supply Line in CAWP because it would reduce the carbon footprint.

Boitano said: “I would like to see the data more accurate.” Sierra Business Council’s Ken Larson said he agreed, and “it’s your data now. You can update it” to include the number of homes on wood heating, and “crunch the numbers how you see fit.” Boitano said “we don’t have enough money to revise the data.”

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.