Earlier this year, the Town of Fairfax passed its new Climate Action Plan. During the Public Comment phase of this work, we received a number of comments from the people of this town noting that it can be financially infeasible for people on fixed incomes or in other situations to make needed investments into reducing their personal carbon footprints, not matter how much they might want to. These folks said that they needed help.
Also, earlier this year, the Federal Government passed the American Recovery Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). Under the terms of this Act, a certain sum of funds is being allocated to the Town of Fairfax. The Town Council asked the Climate Action Committee to propose ways that the Town can use some of our allocation to support the people of this Town in realizing our climate goals.
The CAC has proposed two different ideas to the Council. One would help Town Residents to reduce our water consumption. This measure will have a small impact on our emissions, but is an obviously needed response to our current water crisis, which is itself an impact of our increasingly urgent climate situation.
The second CAC proposal is to help low- and moderate- income households in Town to install solar panels on their homes to simultaneously reduce their GHG emissions and reduce their costs. The structure of this proposal includes a provision under which the Town Person receiving the panels would pay for the electricity generated by the panels, so that the money can be used again in the future by others who also need panels, thus maximizing the benefit to the people of this Town.
The Town Council asked the CAC to convene a special workshop to involve the people of this Town in considering these two ideas, and to see if there is support for the idea of using this money to help you in this way.
On Tuesday of next week, September 21. All of our meetings are publicly noticed on the Town Website. We will post a packet with the agenda and with drafts of the two proposals.
Please join us if you can; we need everyone's best thinking to make best use of this amazing opportunity. If you can't join us, then reach out to me anytime, and let's talk through your thinking.
The IPCC says we are in Code Red for Humanity; if we do not bend the carbon curve, nothing else is going to matter.
Help us help you.
Also, earlier this year, the Federal Government passed the American Recovery Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). Under the terms of this Act, a certain sum of funds is being allocated to the Town of Fairfax. The Town Council asked the Climate Action Committee to propose ways that the Town can use some of our allocation to support the people of this Town in realizing our climate goals.
The CAC has proposed two different ideas to the Council. One would help Town Residents to reduce our water consumption. This measure will have a small impact on our emissions, but is an obviously needed response to our current water crisis, which is itself an impact of our increasingly urgent climate situation.
The second CAC proposal is to help low- and moderate- income households in Town to install solar panels on their homes to simultaneously reduce their GHG emissions and reduce their costs. The structure of this proposal includes a provision under which the Town Person receiving the panels would pay for the electricity generated by the panels, so that the money can be used again in the future by others who also need panels, thus maximizing the benefit to the people of this Town.
The Town Council asked the CAC to convene a special workshop to involve the people of this Town in considering these two ideas, and to see if there is support for the idea of using this money to help you in this way.
On Tuesday of next week, September 21. All of our meetings are publicly noticed on the Town Website. We will post a packet with the agenda and with drafts of the two proposals.
Please join us if you can; we need everyone's best thinking to make best use of this amazing opportunity. If you can't join us, then reach out to me anytime, and let's talk through your thinking.
The IPCC says we are in Code Red for Humanity; if we do not bend the carbon curve, nothing else is going to matter.
Help us help you.