From: Cynthia Cannady
To: Gao, Beilei
Subject: Agenda item MSC #2
Date: Tuesday, March 11, 2025 3:31:34 PM
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Dear Councilmembers,
Last week, scientists reported that global warming and melting of the continental ice cap is slowing the Antarctic
Circumpolar Current. The ACC is 100-200 miles wide
and 3 miles deep and carries 100 times more water than all the worlds' rivers combined.
It is the only ocean current that flows around the entire planet, mixing in with all the oceans and keeping their temperatures cool and stable. The projected 20% slow down caused by global warming will have “dire consequences” for humanity.
And yesterday the new Secretary of Energy addressed a crowd of oil industry executives and said that he thinks that he’s all for methane gas and against renewable energy.
And then the Chevron CEO uttered the “affordability” creed of the fossil fuel industry, repeating the fallacy that methane gas helps poor people the world over.
We do indeed live in a world that is full of danger and foolishness. All the more reason why what we are doing here in Pasadena is important.
I am proud to live in a city that
has embraced local climate action and set a goal of 100% carbon free electric power.
We must achieve our goal. And we must act with urgency.
As for the E3 current update, as a member of the Technical Advisory Panel I have a number of concerns about the E3 update.
These include:
--failure to provide the Council with a range of possible outcomes using carbon free resources, storage and demand reduction;
--presenting the Council and the public with a single confusing mitigation scenario; --misleading cost information about who pays for private rooftop solar; --cost estimates for renewable resources without
point of comparison; what would
alternatives cost—specifically what is the cost of electricity from burning gas; what is the cost of unspecified energy spot purchases from the CAISO grid? --no advice or suggestions on front of meter local storage or community solar; --lack of technical guidance or advice on a critical element of success:
storage
--limited technical advice on demand reduction and unwillingness to model more aggressive approaches
--wasted effort exploring hydrogen which E3 acknowledges is not economically feasible and has safety and environmental risks;
--instead of fully exploring aggressive but realistic scenarios for carbon free
resources, too much focus on so-called renewable natural gas, which is simply methane, which when it burns makes carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
However, there is one area of clear agreement:
In order to move from the current
88% projection of where we will be by Dec. 2030, Pasadena will need to increase local rooftop solar as well as complementary battery storage and demand response technologies.
I urge you to recognize that local resources are critical for our energy security and for ridding ourselves of dangerous fossil fuels.
We have a bottleneck at the Goodrich
intertie, so local resources are critically important.
That means private, public and
municipal investment in rooftop solar.
We must work together, City leaders, City staff and the community to achieve our goal of carbon free electric power.
Cynthia Cannady