Auburn achieves significant greenhouse gas reductions

With Earth Day last weekend, Auburn celebrated its sustainability achievements, including significant greenhouse gas reductions, solar production, installation of electric vehicle charge stations and electrification of its fleet. "We have achieved remarkable greenhouse gas reductions for a small town," said Mayor Sandra Amara. "Our approach includes combining efficiency measures with solar production and electricity provided from renewable sources." The city of Auburn lowered the amount of CO2 it released into the atmosphere by 2.1 million pounds (the equivalent to avoiding 2.4 million miles driven by the average gasoline-fueled car) by combining renewable electricity purchases with solar generation. Auburn became the first city in Placer County to opt up to Pioneer Community Energy's Green100 program in 2022, and to date remains the only city in Placer County to be Green100 (electricity provided only from renewable resources). Auburn also installed a solar production system at its wastewater treatment plant and its Corporation Yard. The city also initiated fleet vehicle conversion to electric vehicles except in the case of emergency response vehicles. "We recently added three Ford Lighting public works trucks and five electric 10-passenger vans for transit," said City Manager Sean Rabé. "We already had two Teslas for the on-demand system." The city's current Transit fleet includes two battery-powered passenger vehicles and two battery-powered cutaway vans used for transit operations. The two battery electric buses (BEBs) were approved for purchase by the City Council in August 2019 and have since accumulated a combined 172,060 miles. In February 2023, the Transit Department added the two battery-powered passenger vehicles, which have already surpassed a combined 70,000 miles of travel. Auburn also installed four city-owned DC Fast charging stations at the Cherry & Magnolia lot. In addition, Level II chargers were added at the Nevada Street multimodal station and the City Hall lots for public consumption. Charging infrastructure is also available at the city's Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) and Corporation Yard to support daily operations. The Corporation Yard is equipped with four DC fast chargers and four Level II chargers, while the WWTP has four Level II chargers and one DC fast charger. The city has also begun a program to replace fluorescent lighting in City Hall and other facilities with LED lighting. "These actions place us well ahead of schedule to reach state mandates to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions," said Amara. The California Legislature passed laws requiring cities to reduce their emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Cities must achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. This can be challenging for small towns, but the combination of energy efficiency efforts, solar, fleet conversion and using electricity from renewable sources propelled Auburn forward.