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Commission Continues Humboldt Regional Climate Action Plan Workshop; Staff to Return With Edits and Final EIR
Summary
After an extended presentation and public comment, the commission continued the Humboldt Regional Climate Action Plan workshop to Sept. 4 to allow commissioners to review tracked changes, draft responses to comments and the draft EIR before formal hearing in October. Staff highlighted GHG targets aligned with state goals and described proposed urban/rural thresholds and streamlining benefits.
The Humboldt County Planning Commission continued its workshop on the Humboldt Regional Climate Action Plan (RCAP), asking staff to return on Sept. 4 with tracked changes and revised materials and indicating a final hearing and potential action on the RCAP and its CEQA documents would occur in October.
RCAP project lead Megan Acevedo summarized the plan’s purpose and scope: a countywide greenhouse‑gas inventory (2022) with a 1990 backcast, forecasts (business‑as‑usual and legislative adjusted) and quantified targets to align with state goals — roughly a 40 percent reduction below 1990 by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2045 when sequestration is included. Acevedo said the working group drafted 12 strategies across sectors (e.g., increase carbon‑free electricity, decarbonize buildings, reduce VMT through land‑use and transit measures, and increase sequestration). “The overall purpose of the RCAP is to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in Humboldt County from the general plan and to reduce regional greenhouse gas emissions in line with state goals,” Acevedo said.
Much of the discussion focused on methodology and implementation: staff emphasized that a CEQA‑qualified cap requires substantial evidence demonstrating the region can achieve its targets and described the draft EIR and a streamlining checklist meant to simplify future GHG analysis for projects consistent with the RCAP. Commissioners and members of the public raised repeated questions about the 1990 backcast methodology, the inclusion (or not) of wildfire emissions, rural versus urban thresholds, and whether sequestration credit could or should be included in the baseline.
Public commenters urged caution about setting thresholds that might unfairly penalize rural Humboldt (Angie Dodd), requested clearer examples showing how projects would pass the streamlining checklist (Praj White, Colin Fisk), and noted technical corrections or clarifications (Faith Carlson from RCEA clarified language related to 100 percent local renewable commitments). Staff agreed to refine the RCAP document, update the urban area mapping, add definitions for biofuels and renewable fuels and return responses to comments in the final EIR.
The commission voted to continue the workshop to the Sept. 4 meeting to allow commissioners more time to review tracked changes and comment responses; staff intends to bring the final EIR and a staff report for a formal decision at a later meeting, likely in October.
