Lakewood Supports DRCOG Climate Pollution Reduction Leadership

At the April 5 Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) meeting, Lakewood City Council Member and DRCOG Representative Jeslin Shahrezaei expressed support for DRCOG taking the leadership role over regional pollution reduction grant.

The grant is newly available through the EPA called the  Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG). These grants are a part of the Inflation Reduction Act, announced as “the most significant climate legislation in U.S. history”. As such, the grants make money available to municipalities and local governments. Lakewood is not currently seeking a grant itself but is signaling its aim to be included in available efforts.

As one of the 67 most populous Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), the Denver-Lakewood-Aurora MSA can receive $1 million as part of Phase 1. The grant needs a leader for the application and management. DRCOG may seek to serve as that leader.

In this way, DRCOG may play a pivotal role in Lakewood’s climate decisions, much the same way they did in choosing to eliminate funding for commuter routes without a formal discussion or vote by Lakewood Council.

Money from this grant can be used for staffing, modeling, and studies to reduce climate pollution.

Climate studies are a controversial issue. From pewresearch.org:

“The credibility of climate research is also closely tied with Americans’ political views. Some 55% of liberal Democrats say climate research reflects the best available evidence most of the time, 39% say some of the time. By contrast, 9% of conservative Republicans say this occurs most of the time, 54% say it occurs some of the time.”

Those numbers come from a 2016 study and America has only become more polarized since. Lakewood’s Sustainability Plan was written in 2015.

One tip from Harvard Business Review on polarizing issues is:  “Before engaging in public debates, leaders should ensure that they have addressed polarization within their own organizations.” They also say to engage the “67% of Americans in the ‘Exhausted Majority,’ who say they feel fatigued by politics and feel forgotten in current debates.”

Have Lakewood Council, residents, and the “Exhausted Majority” been engaged in decisions to support the latest federal climate goals?

Supporting DRCOG’s leadership is Lakewood’s step toward supporting those goals. The  Inflation Reduction Act could “potentially reduce U.S. emissions by 40% by 2030”.

Federal goals align with Lakewood’s sustainability goal of 50% emission reduction by 2030.

Lakewood’s next target date is 2025, with a goal of achieving a 20% reduction in greenhouse gases below 2007 levels. According to the 2021 report, Lakewood is currently at a 12% reduction.