Newly formed county team tasked with carbon neutrality review

Trying to create a countywide policy won’t be easy

Carbon neutrality, or the idea of keeping net carbon emissions to zero, could soon be part of Gunnison County’s official lexicon. The Gunnison Board of County Commissioners will be looking for a team of people to develop a countywide policy to take on the often-contentious topic early next year.

Using the term in county regulations and policy was first discussed last fall when the Planning Commission proposed including a carbon neutrality requirement for applications being reviewed under the Special Development Project Resolution, which regulates “mega-projects” in the county.
Advocating for the carbon neutrality provision, planning commissioner Rich Karas told the commissioners in September, “If carbon neutrality is a direction the County wants to go in, then not requiring the same of mega projects could make everyone else in the county emit less or offset more to compensate for that operation.”
And although the BOCC had indicated that it wants to pursue carbon neutrality in county regulation, commissioners weren’t ready to require it of certain operations and not others, or write imbalance into the county’s policy.
Instead they decided to drop the term from the SDPR until a comprehensive, countywide policy could be developed and adopted. At a regular meeting on Tuesday, December 15, the BOCC voted to get that process moving.
The first step commissioner Hap Channell wants to take in developing a policy is becoming educated about the issues surrounding the regulation of carbon emissions and understanding the various approaches the county might take in resolving them.
To help the county gain its bearings in the carbon neutrality discussion, the BOCC decided to form a working group to hear differing points of view on the subject, collect relevant and accurate data and start developing policy. The size of the working group will depend on how many stakeholders come forward to participate in the discussion.
Karas, who is an advocate for climate-related policy in the county and at the forefront of the discussion, told the commissioners this week, “I think policy is well formed with the stakeholders that will be affected by that policy participating in the process from an early stage. Having stakeholders and expertise at the table from the start will make the process go smoother, I think.”
Some of the stakeholders the BOCC had considered including in the working group are scientists, public policy and legal experts, representatives from the development and commercial communities, energy providers, and county planning staff.
Commissioner Jim Starr also wants someone in the working group who understands how to write policy statements and is informed about the “positions various entities are taking on this issue,” like group members from the Office for Resource Efficiency or the Colorado State University Extension office.
Perry Anderson, community liaison for the Mt. Emmons Moly Project, which has proposed a molybdenum mine just a few miles from the town of Crested Butte and would likely be beholden to any regulation the county creates, said he supported a working group that represented a wide range of perspectives.
“I think it’s a good idea to get these various kinds of scientists and expertise,” he said. “Our vice president of operations typically goes several times a year to those types of discussions as they relate to mining. So there are people out there with different thoughts, opinions and research, but they have not come to any conclusion. The issue and then the resolution are both very complicated.”
To tackle the issue of who will serve on the county’s working group, the commissioners agreed to start four weeks of advertising for letters of interest from applicants January 18. A work session, which will include other Gunnison Valley entities that could be impacted by any county regulation, will be held February 23.