First solar energy system on a commercial property financed by MoCo's Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing program. Image from MoCo's Climate Action Plan.

Climate change is a huge, amorphous problem that requires huge, ambitious plans. In June, Montgomery County released its official roadmap to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 80% in 2027 and 100% by 2035 (compared to 2005 levels). It’s called the Climate Action Plan (CAP). County Executive Marc Elrich described the plan as “among the most ambitious in the world” during a recent launch event.

The CAP tackles numerous areas on the path to reduced emissions: clean energy, buildings, transportation, carbon sequestration, climate adaptation, governance, and public engagement. A number of advocacy groups, however, had critiqued an earlier version of the plan in at least three ways saying:

  • The plan needs stronger, more specific implementation measures;
  • that it has almost nothing supporting dense land use, particularly around transit;
  • and that its equity measures are insufficient and need more ongoing consultation with Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) groups.

While these same activist groups have not yet analyzed and critiqued the latest version, it seems to retain many of these problems. Still, the plan has many virtues.

Montgomery County GHG emissions reduction p progress and goals. Image from Montgomery County's Climate Action Plan.

What is the Climate Action Plan?

The Climate Action Plan document is described as “Montgomery County’s strategic plan to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions” drastically and to “play a leadership role in modeling strategies to safeguard the planet.” Developed beginning in June of 2020 in consultation with scores of county residents with expertise in a variety of climate-related areas over multiple sessions, the plan provides actions for all components of county government, including buildings, transportation, consumption, and community engagement. Not only is the document meant to be a roadmap to achieve the county’s climate goals, but it’s also a “living document” with the flexibility to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances.

Tackling the climate monster

The county’s Emergency Climate Mobilization resolution, included within the Climate Action Plan, is brutally honest, describing “an accelerating collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the thawing of the Arctic permafrost, an increase in mega-droughts, heat waves, super-storms, flash flooding, the migration of mosquito-borne diseases, the melting of glaciers, polar ice-sheet collapse, coral bleaching, the mass extinction of species, ocean oxygen loss, and sea-level rise,” with humans suffering “an increase in water and food shortages, civil unrest, state failure, civil war, and terrorism.”

Montgomery County itself is threatened by “extreme heat, severe storms, and drought,” according to the Climate Plan. Elrich further explained the threats to Montgomery County in a Zoom interview: “We’re already looking at things like the impact on us of stormwaters. We’re seeing these increased storms, and we’re getting flooding in older communities where you can’t blame it on new growth.” Elrich added that fewer, more intense rains hurt vegetation and wash pollution into waterways.

Because the plan uses 2005 as a baseline, and emissions had already declined 19% from 2005 to 2018, the targets aren’t quite as elusive as they might first appear. Still, the pace needs to pick up significantly to meet an 80% total reduction in six short years. The question is whether the Climate Action Plan provides the tools to do so.

Many hands were involved in the making of the county’s Climate Plan, including 176 technical climate workgroup members in multiple sessions to come up with a detailed range of plans. People with deep expertise, including from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “provided the backbone of the research” for the plan, said Elrich at the kick-off event.

Elrich also explained, in the interview, that the county government will not succeed in a vacuum, but will need strong support from the county’s people, and from the state and federal government. As one key example, Elrich explained that if the state of Maryland increases its target of achieving a clean grid from the current 2045 to Montgomery County’s target of 2035, it would greatly aid the climate plan. State support of public transit, such as the county’s long-planned bus rapid transit network, would also be helpful. Leveraging Montgomery County’s influence could help move the state forward in a kind of virtuous circle.

Montgomery County GHG emissions reduction pathway across the County’s major GHG emissions sectors. Image from MoCo's Climate Action Plan.

Will the plan do what it says?

At times, the Climate Action Plan appears more as a fuzzy map than a strenuous blueprint, critics say. The Sierra Club described the earlier version as failing to “measure impacts and costs in an appropriate and consistent manner.” For instance, in the transportation section, the Sierra Club argued that the plan “needs to be aggressive and specific in spelling out a variety of actions to expand transit and pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.” The newer version did add a map of actions but is “definitely still lacking in clarity on how to implement the actions in the plan,” Jane Lyons*, Maryland Advocacy Manager, Coalition for Smarter Growth, told me.

Elrich defended the plan’s implementation measures, saying that the new version has added charts and tables so that people can now see what the plan actions will lead to on the 2027 and 2035 timelines, as well as a summary sheet to go through every action. “I know people wanted costs but there are things we don’t know the cost for,” Elrich added.

Indeed, some flexibility in implementation is needed, since conditions and technology are constantly changing. For instance, one potential technological breakthrough is in hydrogen technology. Elrich cites this long-promised, long-elusive potential source of clean energy as just about ready to go, but not ready for detailed implementation in the climate plan.

Racial and age composition of Montgomery County. Image from MoCo's Climate Action Plan.

At the intersection of equity and environmental justice

Another key source of contention is equity and environmental justice. Advocacy groups had criticized the earlier draft of the plan as not doing enough to help low-income, Black and brown communities that have been disproportionately impacted by pollution and are vulnerable to climate-change disruption. Such communities need “investment in natural systems to improve health and wellness,” including walkable, bikeable green neighborhoods, community health, and green jobs, according to the Montgomery County Racial Equity (MORE) Network. In an e-mail, Denisse Guitarra, MD Conservation Advocate at the Audubon Naturalist Society, stated the problem: “We are in a climate emergency and that means we must also ensure that environmental justice is at the forefront of the climate change movement, because communities of color experience disproportionate harms from the damage caused by climate change.”

The Sierra Club stated that the plan “may fail to fully include Black, indigenous and people of color communities (BIPOC), labor and youth as active partners and decision-makers.” The MORE Network similarly asks that the plan do more to incorporate these groups’ ideas and make them full policy partners throughout the planning and implementation process.Early iterations of the Climate Action Plan did include such input, designating 130 community members as ambassadors to amplify “the voices of Black, Indigenous, People of Color, immigrant, and income-distressed communities.” The plan states that “we have no choice but to address COVID-19, climate change, economic disruption, and racial equity simultaneously” and that climate change affects “vulnerable populations disproportionately.” It further details the long-term discriminatory practices that continue to harm affected communities today, leading to inequities in housing, energy, air conditioning, health, and transportation.

The latest version of the plan has added the development of an Equity Assessment Map, using EPA’s Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool (EJSCREEN), to understand and address environmental justice concerns and allow the County to conduct data-driven community assessments. So the real question is whether specific measures and follow-through happen mostly on paper, or the county takes the politically difficult route to fully incorporate BIPOC voices throughout the process and take multiple, specific measures advocated by these communities.

Land use is key

Probably the weakest aspect of the Climate Action Plan is its treatment of land use and smart growth, about which it has virtually nothing. “Unlike most of the identified actions, sustainable land use governance is one area in which Montgomery County has near-complete control,” wrote Jane Lyons, in the Coalition for Smarter Growth comment on the plan. The latest version of the climate plan lacks “concrete goals and actions” around land use, Lyons told me.

To be fair, a separate plan, Thrive Montgomery, aims for compact growth and complete communities, taking steps to increase “the supply of new housing near transit, jobs, and amenities.” The Climate Action Plan has little about land use, explaining that “While Thrive Montgomery 2050 focuses more on long-range land use issues,” the climate plan has a different focus. Land use has long been a flashpoint for critics of Elrich and led Greater Greater Washington to oppose him for county executive in 2018, explaining that he “would generally curtail construction of new homes and offices in the vast majority of Montgomery County,” and limit growth close to Metro stations. Elrich has long been reluctant to support calls from smart-growth advocates for dense, mixed-use communities near major transit stations to reduce automobile use.

Elrich explained to me that much smart growth is a tool of developers, consisting mainly of high-end units designed for profit, largely exclusive condos with an insufficient set-aside of about 15% of units for low-income residents. Furthermore, Elrich said that building high rises near transit won’t work unless multi-bedroom units are provided for families, which rarely happens in practice.

Lyons countered that “of course new construction is going to be more expensive, but the new construction of today will be the older buildings of tomorrow that are more affordable.” And clearly, increasing the overall housing supply, especially near transit, is a necessary part of alleviating the shortage of housing and increasing affordability. Lyons also advocates for additional affordable housing near transit, especially if done in conjunction with agencies and nonprofits such as the Housing Opportunities Commission and Habitat for Humanity.

Overall, Lyons argued that the Climate Action Plan needs to include more “concrete goals or actions” to directly support specific actions from Thrive Montgomery and modeling of how land-use changes can alter climate emissions. For instance, the plan mentions a possible vehicle carbon tax on vehicle miles traveled (VMT), which would reduce solo driving, but doesn’t provide specific goals. The plan, Lyons believes, should strongly support and incorporate Thrive Montgomery, rather than punting on land-use issues.

Toward a murky future

The Montgomery County Climate Action Plan is a crucial attempt to take bold action and meet ambitious goals before it’s too late (if “too late” wasn’t already yesterday). Yet some critics fear CAP could be like Vision Zero plans in the United States, with laudatory goals that it can’t meet. The ideal plan, advocates say, would include strong goals, measurement, and means of implementation with the flexibility to quickly adapt to new technology and best practices.

Montgomery County could be a leader in response to the worst crisis the globe faces, or the Climate Action Plan could end up mostly rhetoric. Still, its ambitious goals and blueprint provide a start.

*Editor’s note: Jane Lyons is also a contributor at GGWash.