Comment Log Display

November 19, 2008

Mary Nichols
Chair, California Air Resources Board
1001 I Street 
P.O. Box 2815
Sacramento, CA  95814

RE:  City of Santee Comments on Air Resources Board Proposed
Scoping Plan

Dear Chair Nichols:

On behalf of the City of Santee, thank you for the opportunity to
comment on the California Air Resources Board’s (ARB) Proposed
Scoping Plan.  

We are currently making plans to reduce our City’s greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions with cost efficient and innovative solutions.  As
part of our City’s Sustainability Project, we will be conducting
energy audits, completing GHG inventories, creating action plans
and implementing cost effective programs to reduce emissions and
improve our carbon footprint.

While the City of Santee is generally supportive of a number of
the programs and policies outlined in the Scoping Plan, it is
crucial that state policymakers account for the means that will be
needed to achieve the goals.  With the state’s recent “take” of
local redevelopment dollars, along with declining property tax and
sales tax revenues, we have concern about the ability of local
jurisdictions, like ourselves, to finance many of these efforts on
their own.  

We encourage ARB to consider what can be done to provide
incentives for the type of planning and decision-making that will
be required to reduce GHG emissions.  While we recognize that
incentives may be beyond the scope of the ARB’s direct authority,
the board has an important voice within state government.  We also
request that any targeted fees maximize economic benefits and
minimize economic harm.  Local governments enact fees to cover
costs associated with operating local programs, with an
understanding of the impact that fee may have on the community.  We
must not implement fees without looking at the cost to communities
and local businesses that allow our communities to thrive.

Finally, as both the state and local governments are faced with
critical budget shortages, additional costs to invest heavily in
GHG emission technologies in the next two to three years will
become more burdensome for local governments.  While local
governments can influence development design to a certain extent,
the reality is that developers will only build projects that are
profitable and will be purchased by willing customers.  In order to
effect the desired change, incentives must be provided to the
development community and local agencies in order to encourage more
development in areas where the reductions in GHG emissions will be
the greatest.  The City of Santee strongly encourages the ARB to
consider these limitations as it moves forward with the Scoping
Plan

Thank you again for the opportunity to comment.  The City of
Santee looks forward to working with the ARB in the future. 

Sincerely,

Keith Till
City Manager