From Vision into Prac­ti­cal­ity: The Ques­tion of How to Get Car­bon Out of Buildings

In Cal­i­for­nia, fos­sil fuel burned in build­ings accounts for 12% of the state's green­house gas emis­sions (GHGs), as com­pared to 11% from in-state elec­tric­ity gen­er­a­tion. If we're seri­ous about long-term cli­mate tar­gets, we quickly need to turn our atten­tion to how to avoid this source of emis­sions. Elec­trify end-uses with renew­able energy? Decar­bonize the gas sup­ply? Some­thing else? The options for how to do this will be chal­leng­ing on mul­ti­ple lev­els - phys­i­cal, eco­nomic, logis­ti­cal, and polit­i­cal. Mer­rian will dis­cuss some of the options and prac­ti­cal con­sid­er­a­tions for address­ing these chal­lenges, and engage the group to explore the path­ways for­ward. As a bonus topic, she will also pro­vide a quick update on the 2015 leg­is­la­tion just signed by Gov­er­nor Brown.

Speaker: Mer­rian Borgeson