Pima County making plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions across region

TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) - From transportation to heating and cooling buildings, much of our energy usage still creates greenhouse gas emissions.

The Pima County Department of Environmental Quality aims to reduce those emissions across the region.

“What I think these funds are designed to do is kind of help us put together a plan that will incentivize and make it easier for people to make those transitions,” said Natalie Shepp, an environmental planning manager in the department.

Those transitions go to either solar, renewables, or to use less energy overall. A million dollars from the EPA will be used to create the plan to do that with public input.

“Any time that we reduce the amount of energy that we use, we save money,” Shepp said.

For example, transportation creates 43 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions.

“That’s a big chunk,” Shepp said.

The plan could focus on regional governments or businesses but it could also include incentives for citizens to be more efficient. The plan the county forms now will determine how much of the $4.6 billion from the EPA it gets next spring under the Inflation Reduction Act.

“There will be no sticks, there will be no regulatory component of this. This is all going to be carrots, really incentivizing people to make those transitions,” Shepp explained.

The county has a short time frame and there will be public surveys or comment periods.

They need to get this done by the end of the year or so, which means more about this outreach will be seen soon.

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