Executive orders to reduce global warming

Summary of Executive Order on Land Use Strategies for Global Warming Preparedness

Goals:

• Reduce fossil fuel consumption resulting from regional vehicle miles traveled
• Protect agricultural land, forestry and open space as ecological buffers against global warming impacts
• Be a successful laboratory / national model of land use & transportation strategies to prepare for and mitigate global warming

Accomplishments:

• Implemented nationally recognized smart growth plans that have created a “wall against sprawl” and have focused growth in urban areas while protecting natural resources and rural lands
• King County ’s nationally recognized Land Use, Transportation, Air Quality and Health (LUTAQH) study found that higher-density residential neighborhoods with mixed land uses and a connected street network are associated with: less automobile use, less air pollution, fewer greenhouse gas emissions and less energy consumption
• Over the past ten years King County has protected over 125,000 acres of forestland via acquisition, purchase of development rights, conservation easements and other means
• Protected 340,000 acres of forestry lands in the Forest Production District through land use regulations and policies, and promoting healthy forests in rural areas through the King County Forestry Program and Rural Economic Strategies
• Protected approximately 12,800 acres of farmland through the purchase of development rights in accordance with the Farmland Preservation Program

Actions:

• Preservation of 100,000 acres of forest
• Design and fund more land use & transportation strategies
• Measurement program to determine progress
• Update Comp Plan with global warming lens
• Public education
• Business-government outreach

Summary of Executive Order on Environmental Management Strategies for Global Warming Preparedness

Goals:

• Protect health, safety and landscape from global warming impacts & related natural resource (e.g. water) supply emergencies and threats
• Capture and sequester more potential GHG (e.g. methane otherwise emitted from landfill and would-be carbon "sunk" into landfill)
• Be a successful laboratory / national model of environmental management strategies to prepare for & mitigate global warming

Accomplishments:

• Award to Flood Hazard Management Plan
• Protection of shoreline, wetlands, lakes and natural vegetation
• Capture of 100,000 tons of would-be Cedar Hills landfill methane emissions
• Sequestration of 250,000 tons of carbon in Cedar Hills landfill
• Design, $8.5M USEPA funding and private partnership for capture & use of Renton South Treatment Plant wastewater methane in hydrogen fuel cell

Actions:

• Plan for assessing how King County landfills, forests and farmland (e.g. the above 100,000 acres of land to be protected by land use order) can be a "lab" for carbon capture & sequestration

Summary of Executive Order on Renewable Energy and Related Economic Development

Goals:

• Be a market catalyst
• Be a successful laboratory / national model of renewable energy applications to prepare for and mitigate global warming

Accomplishments:

• King County development of biodiesel market
• Renton hydrogen fuel cell demonstration ($8.5M grant from USEPA)
• Cedar Hills waste-to-energy conversion demonstration
• Development of Brightwater Energy Technology Center with major partners as laboratory for experiments and public education on innovative ways to get energy from wastewater treatment

Actions:

• Get to 50% in renewable energy across stationary energy users by 2012
• Get to 50% in renewable energy and technology efficiencies for transportation by 2020
• Maximize waste-to-energy projects such as Cedar Hills
• Purchase electricity from renewable sources
• Design and use of biodiesel, hybrids and other alternative fuels / transportation technologies

Summary of Executive Order on Global Warming Preparedness (in Transportation)

Goals:  

• Reduce single-occupancy vehicle miles traveled regionally
• Increase the percentage of public transportation used by residents for their total daily travel needs
• Advance regional development of a climate-friendly clean energy economy by implementing economic development policy and investing in alternative fuels and transit technology

 Accomplishments:        

• Began fueling part of its fleet with a blend of 5% biodiesel and 95 percent ultra-low sulfur fuel last year
• The entire King County Metro Transit fleet has been using ultra-low sulfur diesel for several years, directly reducing exhaust soot by 20%
• Has purchased over 200 highly efficient hybrid diesel-electric buses, making KingCounty the nation's largest operator of the articulated hybrid buses
• Nationally recognized as a leader in the use of hybrid and alternative vehicles for use by government agencies
• One of seven organizations recognized by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (ESSI) as a National Clean Bus Leader for 2004
• King County’s award-winning Fleet Division: includes vehicles powered by many alternative fuel and technologies; was selected in 2003 as the lead agency to obtain a national contract for the procurement of hybrid-electric vehicles on behalf of all public agencies in the US, with a goal of reducing procurement cost through volume purchase and the resulting purchase of 30,000 hybrid vehicles over the following three years; and has begun negotiations on heavy-duty hybrid truck technology and “plug-in” vehicles
• Works to fund and provide public transit service to improve regional mobility and the quality of life in King County, reducing public dependency on single-occupancy vehicles by offering fixed-route buses, demand-responsive transportation services, the largest public vanpool program in the US, access to transportation for people with disabilities, and taxi scrip for low-income residents and other services
• Provides park-and-ride lots, bicycle parking at transit facilities, and connections to transit in areas served by ferry, bus and rail

Actions:        

• Increase the amount of biodiesel used in all County diesel vehicles to 20%
• Seek to use other alternative fuels and hybrid vehicles as technology and funding allow
• Continue to seek and implement a series of aggressive transit, land use and demand-side strategies, such as expanded transit service, commute trip reduction and transit-oriented development, to encourage KingCounty residents’ use of public transit.