Some Sweet Year-End News: Owls and Kids

A touching and important story appeared in the Los Angeles Times today.  Worth your time to read.
Los Angeles Times Story about owl and classroom

It is also an important reminder how connected we are with nature, or can be when we have the opportunity to fall in love with nature and the Earth.  Kids just love animals.  We are so touched to read at the end how the owl makes that young boy, who has so many difficulties in his life, "very happy".  We are committed to keeping those animals that make him so happy part of our world.

We have our own local and very threatened Burrowing Owl populations that the Wildlife and Habitat Conservation Coalition will be working very hard to protect in 2017.  Escondido Neighbors United is a member of the coalition and we would love any help and support anyone would like to offer. (Just a reminder that you can offer a tax-deductible donation here.  Info for joining ENU )

We will share soon about our activities for 2017 but wanted to be sure everyone had a chance to enjoy this story.

Happy New Year!
From all of us at Escondido Neighbors United

Escondido Climate Plan ranked lowest in the region. Gets a 'needs improvement' in Climate Action Campaign Report Card

This week the Climate Action Campaign released its first ever Climate Action Report Card.  Only only 9 of 19 cities in the region have even done a plan.  Of those plans that have been completed, Escondido ranked the lowest earning  a  'needs improvement' ranking.  Our city came in last with 40 of 100 points.  Vista was next lowest with 47.  San Diego took home the Gold Medal with their nationally recognized Climate Action Plan.

There are so many excellent strategies that cities can adopt and pursue that make a city more energy efficient, nice to live in, and more cost-effective.  We look forward to working with Escondido to try to improve this plan so that next year our region shows 'most improved'!
A good first step would be to investigate a Community Choice Energy study such as other North County cities are engaging in.

Below are highlights of the report.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS REPORT  Only nine (9) out of 19 San Diego region municipalities have adopted a CAP. We have graded seven (7) CAPs in this report. We have not graded the CAPs of Encinitas and Chula Vista, as those cities are in the process of updating their CAPs. Below are statistics on the seven (7) CAPs graded in this report.

 CAP Structural Elements:

• 6 are legally binding (San Diego, San Marcos, Carlsbad, National City, Vista & Escondido)
• 4 meet state GHG targets to 2030 (San Diego, San Marcos, Del Mar & Carlsbad)
• 3 address social equity (San Diego, San Marcos & National City)
• 2 address jobs (San Diego & National City)
• 7 assign implementation responsibility to staff/department & have a timeline of strategies
• 2 call for a public taskforce (San Diego & Del Mar)
• 5 analyze costs of strategies (Del Mar, San Marcos, Carlsbad, Vista & Escondido)
• 4 require annual monitoring (San Diego, San Marcos, Carlsbad & Vista)
• 4 require GHG reporting at least every 3 yrs (San Diego, Carlsbad, National City & Escondido) 

Key CAP Strategies:

• 2 include 100% clean energy goals & Community Choice Energy (CCE) (San Diego & Del Mar)
• 3 have energy & water reduction goals and ordinances (San Diego, Del Mar & Carlsbad)
• 4 have municipal & citywide ZEV policies (San Diego, Del Mar, Carlsbad & National City) 
• 5 have commuter mode shift goals (San Diego, Del Mar, San Marcos, Carlsbad & Vista)
• 3 have actionable smart growth strategies (San Diego, San Marcos & Vista)
• 2 call for Zero Waste (San Diego & Del Mar)
• 2 have tree canopy goals (San Diego & Del Mar) 

BREAKDOWN OF SCORES

FULL REPORT

Download the full 2016 Report Card here.

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