Implementing Ashland’s Climate and Energy Action Plan

In 2015, Ashland embarked on a journey to explore our role in addressing climate change, and how best to prepare for the changes to our climate that are already underway.  The culmination of this work was the Ashland Climate & Energy Action Plan  (CEAP) – a document which establishes goals to reach net-zero by 2050 and enhance Ashland’s resilience to climate change. The City Council approved the CEAP in 2017, as well as a city code to formalize the City’s commitment (AMC 9.40 Climate Recovery).

As we approach the ten-year anniversary, it’s a good time for a conversation about the CEAP. Since our founding, the Ashland Climate Collaborative has been intently focused on monitoring the implementation of the CEAP. Is the City really following it as intended? Does the community continue to be engaged? What is working well and what isn’t? How could it be made more effective? 

This is the first of a number of articles in which we’ll share our viewpoints on the CEAP and share some recommendations for how we use it going forward.  Thanks for tuning in! 

The CEAP was and Still is A Great Thing

No document is perfect – especially one like the CEAP that was developed with tons of community input, without a clear sense of what would be needed to turn it into reality.  But all in all, we continue to believe that creating the CEAP was a brilliant idea. It still provides a solid foundation for dramatically reducing our contribution to climate change and enhancing our resilience. 

But let’s face it:  Ashland had a very rough patch for a few years.  Right out of the box, the City struggled with how best to carry forward the work of the CEAP – both in terms of staffing as well as ongoing community involvement. Then we were brought to a standstill by a global pandemic and traumatized by the devastating Almeda Fire – neither of which have we completely recovered from.  We had a massive turnover in all ranks of our City government over several years. 

It was impossible to put climate action on the front burner in the midst of all these crises.  

Fast forward to  2025, we believe our community is in a good place to carry this work forward.  We have stable and highly capable leadership in our municipal government and a supportive council and staff.

With the recent upheaval in federal climate (and other) policies being carried out by the new federal administration, local action is more important than ever.  We are fortunate that Ashland has a well-established path to climate action that we can continue to follow.

We are now poised to really move forward with the work of the CEAP. 

So let’s do this!

What have we accomplished so far?

The CEAP has helped maintain a continued focus on Ashland’s  role in addressing climate change. Whenever something is considered at City Council meetings that supports or goes against our climate goals, the CEAP is an effective tool for calling attention to the CIty’s commitments.. 

Also, a number of excellent programs have been approved by City Council and implemented by staff because of the CEAP. These include:

• A carbon-pollution fee for new homes, approved by Ashland City Council on February 18. People who choose to install gas appliances in new homes will be charged an up-front fee based on the social cost of carbon for the lifecycle of each of five appliances and its carbon emissions. 
• Virtual net metering.  VNM enables energy produced at any location in Ashland be credited to another Ashland electric customer. This increases access to solar for all residents, especially renters and those who live in locations that don’t get enough sun. VNM makes community solar projects possible, like those being developed by the Ashland Solar Cooperative. 
• Various City incentive and rebate programs, for purchase of climate-friendly products ranging from heat pumps and insulation to smart irrigation controllers.  Additional incentives are being considered. 
• An expansion of the City’s on-bill financing program to give residents and businesses access to a low-interest long term loan for energy efficiency upgrades. The Council authorized borrowing from USDA to fund this program.
• The City is nearing completion of a facilities master plan, which will include an inventory of fossil fuel equipment and planning for replacement with energy-efficient alternatives.
• Other examples include a growing public Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure; the electrification of our City vehicle fleet; a growing network of protected bike lanes; ongoing water conservation efforts; and more

And these are just the programs led directly by the City! 

The Ashland Climate Collaborative is here because of the CEAP – our explicit aim is to mobilize the community to achieve our climate goals.  One look at our 2023 Annual Report shows just how much we’ve accomplished so far by working together towards these goals. (Just wait until you see our 2024 Annual Report!)

Other great things that have come about since the adoption of the CEAP include the proliferation of solar panels all over town, including impressive arrays at SOU and “Strackers” (raised dual-axis solar trackers), and the creation of the SOU Institute for Applied Sustainability.  And more and more Ashlanders are cutting their fossil fuel usage by switching from “natural” gas to heat pumps for home heating and cooling, water heating, and cooking.  With over five megawatts of installed solar capacity, Ashland has among the highest rates of solar and EV adoption in the state. 

Yes, there is so much more to do, but let’s admit that, despite the obstacles, we’ve actually come a long way!

Moving Forward 

Moving forward, there are a number of enhancements that we believe would make the CEAP a much more effective tool for reaching our targets. Rather than re-do the document – which we would view as a waste of resources – we recommend these should be published in a 2025 implementation report: 

1. Let’s refine how we’ll make progress toward the CEAP emissions goal.  The CEAP sets a goal of reducing our emissions by 8% per year from 2017 to 2050. There are several problems with this: It can’t be measured, and it ignores the time lag inherent in implementing major systemic changes that will move the needle. So the upshot is that we feel like we are failing when in actuality we are still in the early stages of an endeavor that has been framed out for a period of 33 years (2017-2050). Let’s refine  this goal with interim goals that will help us focus our emissions-reduction efforts in specific, meaningful, and measurable ways.  

2. Let’s focus on the emissions we actually control – like the fossil fuels we use to heat and cool our buildings, to travel around town, and do our yard work, the methane produced from food waste in the landfill, and more.

There are thousands –  possibly hundreds of thousands!– of people outside Ashland spending billions of dollars working on reducing emissions outside Ashland. Hopefully, these folks will continue to do their jobs while we – and other like-minded communities – focus on doing ours, and learning from each other.

Collectively, local efforts can make a huge difference both reducing emissions and protecting ourselves from the consequences of climate change already here and yet to come. 

3. Let’s prioritize.  Let’s highlight the actions that will have the biggest impact. While all the programs recommended in the CEAP have value, there are a handful of actions that will really move the needle. 

4. Let’s create a CEAP implementation plan.  A plan is a detailed proposal for doing or achieving something; it defines who will do what, by when, and with which resources.  The CEAP did not go that far. We believe that, in concert with the enhancements listed above, creating a CEAP implementation plan is the best next step.

5. Let’s formalize the essential role of community partners in achieving our goals alongside our city government. City government has an essential role to play in achieving our climate goals, but the community itself is equally essential. Our culture generally values individual liberties over government mandates.  A community-driven approach alongside a supportive government aligned with our community values seems like the best fit. That’s why we created ACC; we were inspired by communities like Missoula, Montana, and others who forged an ongoing partnership between a local NGO and the city government to work together to achieve our community goals. 

6. Let’s enhance the CEAP by making resilience, like equity and diversity, permeate everything we do.  The CEAP is much more focused on emissions-reduction than on community resilience. We absolutely need both. Reducing our emissions is one side of our response to addressing climate change. Mitigating the effects will be essential to the quality of life we experience in the near future, whether it be to ensure low-income households have access to heat-pumps to economically cool their homes in the sweltering summer, to our community’s response-ability to wildfires exacerbated by drought. This preparation and network building will also be invaluable in the event of an earthquake or other catastrophic event.

The CEAP has put us on a good pathway to do our part to reduce our contribution to climate change.  As the CEAP approaches its tenth anniversary, the refinements above will put us on a path for success.In our next blogs in this series, we’ll talk further about what we think is needed. Stay tuned!  And send us any questions or comments you have to info@ashlandclimate.org.