Item B: Greenhouse Gas Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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I.Executive Summary i House Bill 2186 directs the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Greenhouse Gas Emissions Task Force to study scenario planning and provide recommendations for legislation directing metropolitan areas to conduct land use and transportation scenario planning to aid in meeting state goals to significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This report sets forth the Task Force’s consensus findings and recommendations. Overall, the Task Force finds that revising transportation and land use plans in metropolitan areas will be a necessary part of a broader statewide effort to meet state GHG reduction goals. Planning our metropolitan areas in ways that build in transportation options can reduce the need for travel and significantly reduce GHG emissions from automobiles. The Task Force acknowledges that revising plans will be a challenging, long-term effort, and concludes that it is also necessary, doable, and should start now. Done soon, and done well, it can help create safer, healthier, and more prosperous communities and expanded transportation choices for Oregonians, and can avoid the need for more dramatic measures later. The Task Force recognizes that the state must get started immediately at all governmental levels to plan how to reduce GHG emissions from the transportation sector in the future and to identify and carry out actions that can be done now to reduce GHG emissions. The Task Force identified several important attributes of scenario planning to reduce transportation GHG emissions: - Provide flexibility to the local governments and MPOs particularly in the beginning to reflect differences in authorities, resources, geographic situations, and aspirations; - Build on and coordinate with ongoing planning efforts; ii - Build on the work already required by House Bill 2001; - Be iterative and phased; and - Be clearly tied to the availability of adequate funding for MPOs, local governments and state agencies, and recognize significant additional resources will be needed. The state, through the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) – and their respective commissions (the Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC) and the Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC)) - has a key role to play in providing an overall framework for metropolitan planning. The Task Force recommends that: - ODOT lead development of, and OTC adopt, a state strategy for reducing GHG emissions from the transportation sector to provide a framework for metropolitan and local planning. - LCDC take the lead in setting targets for GHG emission reductions for individual metropolitan areas. - ODOT and DLCD provide technical assistance in the form of a detailed toolkit, improved modeling tools and recommended best land use and transportation practices for reducing GHG emissions. Page 1