Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, September 03, 2024
Consent
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTION NO. 24-089 SUPPORTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF BUILDING PERFORMANCE POLICIES AND PROGRAMS (CITY COUNCIL)
Body
I. SUMMARY
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed at the federal level in 2022 presents a landmark and unprecedented national investment in climate action, lowering energy bills and developing clean energy jobs. Funding available now through the IRA includes up to $1 billion for states and local governments to take innovative approaches to improve the efficiency of and reduce emissions from both new and existing buildings, offering the City of Carson a unique window to bring critical and timely resources to implement our Climate Action Plan. The resolution acknowledges the City of Carson will (a) explore development of a building performance standard (BPS) to reduce energy use among the largest buildings with a goal of adoption by 2026; (b) lead an application to the Department of Energy to support staff in development of such a program; (b) consider joining the National BPS Coalition to bring additional supports to the City.
II. RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
WAIVE further reading and ADOPT resolution no. 24-089, “A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CARSON, CALIFORNIA, SUPPORTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF BUILDING PERFORMANCE POLICIES AND PROGRAMS.
Body
III. ALTERNATIVES
TAKE another action the City Council deems appropriate and that is consistent with applicable laws.
IV. BACKGROUND
The City of Carson has a unique opportunity to benefit from several timely resources to help staff implement energy efficiency-focused aspects of the City’s Climate Action Plan.
Responding to a request for proposals from the Department of Energy, staff have been working on a collaborative grant application to be lead by the City of Carson and due in mid-September. It will bring to the City critical resources for additional staff, technical assistance, program implementation costs and community-based partnerships, and will leverage learnings from Carson’s work to support other jurisdictions.
A notable aspect of the project is the collaboration which will bring peer-to-peer learning between Carson and at least three other cities and three states also working on building performance standards, as well as deliver a unique and free-for-use BPS impact web-tool that jurisdictions nationwide can leverage to follow in Carson’s lead. National and California-focused technical partners as well as local community-based organizations will support Carson the partnering jurisdictions.
The City can also benefit from and strengthen its application to the DOE by joining the National BPS Coalition, launched by the White House in 2022 which now includes almost 50 jurisdictions committed to inclusively design and implement building performance policies and programs to drive reductions in energy, emissions, and utility costs among their largest buildings. Coalition members are being supported by federal agencies, labor, and non-governmental organizations that are providing resources for location-based workforce engagement, technical analysis, equity strategies, localized policy design, and stakeholder engagement.
Taken together, these are timely and valuable resources to support the City’s deliberative and ambitious approaches to climate action, lowering energy costs and supporting development of clean energy workforce in our community and peer jurisdictions.
V. FISCAL IMPACT
None at this time.
VI. EXHIBITS
Exhibit No. 1 - Resolution No. 24-089. (pgs. 3-5)
Prepared by: Reata Kulcsar, Innovation and Sustainability Manager