Fighting climate change saves money, creates jobs, plan says | News

Doing those things “will generate new jobs, stimulate innovation, increase resilience, provide energy security, reduce household energy costs, advance equity, and improve quality of life,” it says.

The Climate Action Plan comes three years after County Council decided the county should have one and after $271,810 was paid to consultants led by the Sustainability Solutions Group. It calls for no mandates but lays out a broad framework.

Over 260 pages, the document lays out a mix of steps the local government could take and aspirational hopes about what others could do on their own, including residents and businesses.

Charleston County government has little influence over how electricity is generated by public utilities, for example, but to meet the plan’s goals, all power generated in the state would have to become emission-free.

The county could, over time, replace its fleet with electric vehicles — it currently has three, out of 1,014 — but getting to net-zero emissions would depend on county residents and businesses doing the same. Vehicles account for about 44 percent of emissions countywide.

Replacing expensive heavy equipment, such as county garbage trucks that get between 3 and 6 miles per gallon, would be an added challenge.

“There are lots of parts to it, lots of places in here where a difference can be made, and we can tweak things and make things better,” Council Chairman Herb Sass said.

There are nearly 420,000 vehicles registered in Charleston County, according to the Auditor’s Office. State records based on data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Experian Information Solutions show that about 1,900 of those vehicles are electric, and about 7,500 are hybrids.

Residential, commercial and industrial buildings are together the county’s largest source of emissions, which is close to half the total. But the county has no control over the decisions owners of existing buildings make about energy efficiency.