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Summit County Council To Receive Sustainability Report

The Summit County council meets in regular session in Coalville Wednesday. A major part of their agenda will be the annual Sustainability Report.

Deputy County Manager Janna Young said that the county’s Sustainability Director Lisa Yoder, will be on the agenda and will update the council on their Green Goals.

“Reducing Greenhouse gas emissions by 80% and transitioning to 100% clean renewable power for both government operations, and the community at large.” Young explained “Lisa is going to show the council that we’ve made significant progress toward these goals. Most significantly, in my mind, is that the county’s carbon footprint remains 27%. Meaning if we hadn’t done anything our emission rates would be 27% higher than today.”

Young said that the county’s investments in energy efficiency has paid off.

“This includes various LED retrofit projects we’ve done in our county facilities. In other energy efficiency upgrades (such as) solar instillations, (Summit County) has reduced our emissions about 17% since 2010. Another key part is that we’ve invested in electric vehicles in our county fleet, which has also reduced emissions. We’re also on track to transition to 100% renewable in county operations likely to achieve that several years before the 2032 target.”

The county is also aiming to partner up with the general community and Rock Mountain Power.

“Rocky Mountain Power has been working with us on that, including developing a Watt-Smart community energy plan. As well as including us in an RFP process that will provide more subscriber solar to residents to help us get towards that 100% clean energy. The legislature this last session did pass some legislation to make it more feasible for Rocky Mountain Power to develop solar within the state. Prior to that they were buying it from other states, or even setting up installations in other states. There was something around the taxing mechanism that allowed them to get a rebate, so they can actually do solar within Utah. The counties we work with, especially in the rural side, were excited about that as an economic boon for them.”

Yoder was under the Administration department but was moved to the health department. Young says the report also ran into some issues when a staffer left “Unfortunately we did have Erin Bragg that was part of her team (…) she took an opportunity with another position. So, we did lose her as a resource which was a big loss for us. So, because of that some of the projects, as some the staff report mentions, have been delayed because of lack of resources.”

Known for getting all the facts right, as well as his distinctive sign-off, Rick covered Summit County meetings and issues for 35 years on KPCW. He now heads the Friday Film Review team.
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