One Community at a Time: How to Gain Real GHG Benefits Quickly for Least Cost -- Experiences with the Frederick County and City Climate Emergency Mobilization Work Group

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September 23, 2021

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by Joanne Ivancic* (Advanced Biofuels USA) Over the past year I have had the opportunity and privilege to participate in the Frederick, Maryland, County and City Climate Emergency Mobilization Work Group subgroup on Energy, Buildings and Transportation.

Our beautiful final report is available here: https://www.mobilizefrederick.org/

The aim of the CEMWG was to explore and discover how citizens and leaders in Frederick City and Frederick County could do the following:

Reduce Frederick County emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2 and methane at least 50% by 2030, and 100% by 2050;
Drawdown or sequester carbon and greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, while protecting wildlife and pollinator habitat; and
Lessen the impact of expected climate-related changes. These include floods, storms, habitat and home destruction, and increase in disease and heat-related health risks.

Volunteer participants (the effort had no funding) agreed to pay attention to science and data, to look for imaginative and innovative solutions. Although with Frederick’s proximity to Washington, DC, the professional level of expertise in these areas was significant and many had worked on climate change mitigation at a regional, state or national scale, we were intent with this effort to mitigate or adapt to the harmful effects of climate change focused on this one community. Our report, along with extensive sources, is available for use by others thinking of similar efforts.

Work Group and Sub-Groups

The work was assigned to subgroups on:

Agriculture, Forestry and Land Management;
Energy, Buildings and Transportation;
Health, Extreme Weather and Resilience;
Public Awareness and Outreach.

The final report is in two volumes. The first volume includes summaries of the recommendations; the second volume includes technical recommendations and sources.

Transportation and Renewable Fuels

Although the transportation recommendations emphasize electrification, significant key points were made regarding renewable fuel use. These are summarized in Recommendation #16 (page 63 of Volume 1, reproduced below) and include:

Begin using renewable fuels in municipal and County fleets and equipment as soon as possible.
Encourage local fuel supply businesses (heating oil, aviation and retail/wholesale gasoline and diesel suppliers) to increase the renewable fuel options available to private consumers, businesses for fleets and equipment, and for agricultural purposes.
Provide consumer education, encouragement, and facilitation of renewable fuel use in collaboration with the business and agricultural communities.
Frederick Municipal Airport should provide sustainable aviation fuel as soon as possible.

School Buses as an Example of the Power of Renewable Fuels

With such an undertaking, including a wide variety of perspectives and an all-volunteer workforce, some inconsistencies might be inevitable. One that shows up in the transportation section relates to the country school bus fleet.

Although the recommendation above states “Begin using renewable fuels in municipal and County fleets and equipment as soon as possible,” Recommendation #12 states “Transition all bus fleets to electric and enhance ridership experience.”

Regardless of the recommendation to begin using renewable fuels in county fleets, the section includes a special highlight, “Winning drivers over to electric school buses” written by Ron Kaltenbaugh, President of the Electric Vehicle Association of Greater Washington DC, who served as the chair of the subgroup on Energy, Buildings and Transportation.

It’s a shame that the final decision to highlight electrifying school buses was made in contradiction to the only presentation to the subgroup on this topic.

Ahmed Abdellah presented his case study based on a cost-benefit analysis of school buses in near-by Howard County, Maryland. He compared the price and carbon reduction potential of electric school buses to the price and carbon reduction potential for diesel school buses retrofitted to use 100% renewable fuel. A recorded version of his presentation, along with his report, are available here: https://advancedbiofuelsusa.info/case-study-of-proposal-for-100-biodiesel-school-buses/

Particularly useful are these tables from his presentation. The first illustrates the benefit of biodiesel over petroleum diesel.

The second shows the comparative carbon reduction potential in electric school buses using local electrical power and those using 100% biodiesel for a given amount of investment.

Abdellah showed that converting existing school buses to use 100% biodiesel resulted in vastly greater carbon dioxide reductions.

As discussed during his presentation to this CEMWG subgroup, this is not a pie-in-the-sky analysis. Locally, the Public Works Department for Washington, DC, has won sustainability awards due to making these conversions for many of its heavy duty diesel trucks; and it continues to install these conversions in additional parts of its fleet.

Important Points about Renewable Fuels that Do Not Appear in the Final Report

Certainly, with hundreds of pages in a report, some things have to be left out. One illustration that “speaks 1000 words” that found itself on the cutting room floor clearly shows that we in communities, cities, states, regions and beyond will continue to need liquid and gaseous fuels for decades, even generations, to come.

From the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration, this graph indicates significant need for such fuels into the future and implies a crying need to make those fuels as “clean and green” as possible.

I fear that the critical urgency to convert to renewable as much fossil-based fuel as possible as soon as possible, to "defossilize" liquid transportation fuel is not adequately communicated in the final presentation. Thus, I want to take this opportunity to emphasize that many of us will be needing liquid transportation fuels for a long time. We should strive to use every opportunity to defossilize as much as possible as soon as possible. While we wait for electric vehicles to be affordable, available, powered by renewables using fair trade batteries, the general public should have access to the "cleanest, greenest" fuels available.

The background materials included below also emphasize the environmental justice impacts of forcing the use of unhealthy fossil fuels from leaded aviation gasoline to petroleum diesel and everything in between. Every effort by all levels of government and private industry should be engaged in efforts to bring affordable, clean renewable fuels to every community.

Details

More extensive documentation and recommendations for each of the points made in Recommendation #16 are in Volume 2, the appendix, on pages 82-91 (reproduced below). Each recommendation includes:

Expected GHG Reduction or Climate Adaptation
Timeline for Action
Rational
Co-Benefits
Experiences of Other Counties and Cities
Interface with the Livable Frederick Plan and Frederick City Master Plan
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Finance
Recommended Actions
Local Legislative Action
Administrative Action by City and County
References

To provide more complete resources, I have also included links to the original recommendations and analysis provided to the Work Group that was summarized into the materials provided in the final documents.

Share Your Knowledge and Insights

Of the 70 or so people deeply involved in this project, I was one of very few who had any experience or knowledge of renewable fuels for transportation, equipment and heating. In the course of conducting the research and interviewing stakeholders for this project, I expanded my knowledge and understanding, as well.

I was glad to see that the CEM Work Group did take seriously, and include in the recommendations, some opportunities for renewable fuels to quickly, effectively and inexpensively provide substantial greenhouse gas emissions mitigation and climate change mitigation.

Because the world of renewable fuels is unfamiliar to so many, I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to tell the renewable fuels story, to explain the benefits of immediate transition to renewable fuels, to work with their communities to make this change happen.

I especially encourage participation in community projects like this one. Your knowledge, insights and expertise will be invaluable to expanding the understanding and use of this very important, immediate and cost-effective method to reduce and adapt to the harm caused by our changing climate.

*Joanne Ivancic serves as the executive director of Advanced Biofuels USA.