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Council candidates tackle environmental issues at Friday forum

SOO RIN KIM & TOMÁS ORIHUELA Mar 10, 2017

COLUMBIA — Five candidates running for the First and Fifth Ward city council seats discussed environmental issues, including climate

change, pollution and renewable energy, at a forum on Friday.

The forum, hosted by several local environmental groups, posed questions to the candidates focusing on how they would tackle

environmental issues facing the city. It was held at the Roger B. Wilson County Government Center.

All 埝ve candidates agreed that the humanity is dealing with climate change, but they expressed some di埩erent views on how to do this.

Fifth Ward candidate Arthur Jago said climate change needs to be dealt with at higher levels of government.

"Of course I believe in climate change," Jago said. "But it’s not a city of Columbia issue. It's a regional issue, it's a county issue, it's a state

issue, it's a national issue."

Mentioning that Columbia has stopped burning coal since 2015, Jago said the problem is what’s going on in the national level and that

the city has to lobby the state to push for climate action.

First Ward incumbent Clyde Ru埫n agreed that climate change is a global problem but said the city should still be involved in solving it.

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22/3/2017 Council candidates tackle environmental issues at Friday forum | Local | columbiamissourian.com

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/local/council­candidates­tackle­environmental­issues­at­friday­forum/article_04eccf4a­05e8­11e7­af38­274f92b… 2/3

Soo Rin KimPublic Life reporter for spring 2017, studying investigative/data journalism; reach me at sk4h7@mail.missouri.edu

Tomas OrihuelaSpring 2017 Public Life reporter. I'm an exchange junior studying photojournalism with an emphasis on print and social media.

"That does not negate our responsibility at the level of city government to do what we can to ensure that we do not contribute to the

erosion of our climate," Ru埫n said.

Ru埫n called for a resolution to recognize and voice support for the scienti埝c 埝ndings of climate change and support educational

programs about climate change.

Andrew Hutchinson, also vying for the First Ward seat, said the city needs to think about climate change in every step of the policy

making process. He praised the community land trust program for taking an initiative in building high energy e埫cienct a埩ordable

homes.

The City Council proposed minimum energy e埫ciency standards on family rental housing at its Feb. 20 meeting. All 埝ve candidates

generally showed support for the standards and explained how they would implement them.

The main problem, Jago said, is the tension between property owners and renters because neither thinks the responsibility to make

homes energy e埫cient is theirs. Home owners don’t want to pay to update their homes, and renters feel it’s unfair to update a house that

isn’t theirs.

"All of us want a埩ordable housing, but we need to think where that money is coming from," Jago said. "We need to use available funds

for it."

Ru埫n, Hutchinson and Pat Kelley, a First Ward candidate, said the city should o埩er incentives to people who meet energy e埫ciency

standards.

Matt Pitzer, a Fifth Ward candidate, also emphasized the idea of increasing awareness of existing energy e埫ciency programs.

"I’m sure people don’t know they have free energy assessments to their houses," he said.

The candidates were also asked about the city's goal to be 100 percent renewable by 2035.

"We can strive to do it, but it will fall 埞at," Hutchinson said. "We don’t have as much money as we thought we did."

Jago, who has invested in solar energy, agreed, saying that the focus should not only be on renewable energy. "We need to balance solar

energy with other kinds of energy that we don’t like very much," he said.

On that same tone, Kelley called attention to the growth of the city, arguing that transportation is key to becoming renewable.

"Becoming renewable is not only about how we heat our houses," she said. "We need to stop living as we do now."

Pitzer showed more optimism.

"The costs of solar and wind energy are going down, and they will continue to go down," he said. "It's the time to do signi埝cant

investments. We're becoming 100 percent renewable a lot sooner than we think."

Ru埫n said the council is already embracing the idea of renewable energy, but it needs to do more with its strategic plan.

"We need to start immediately to begin to identify sources for wind power where we can engage in long-term contracts," Ru埫n said.

"We need to provide more incentives for solar energy."

Supervising editor is Tyler Wornell.