The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
Jim Sinex
We talk a great deal about climate change, but much like the weather, we complain but don’t do enough about it. Many in our population remember a time when we considered ourselves a “Can Do” nation. Alas, I show my age. Please pardon a hope toward a positive solution here.
In Tucson we have little effect on the overall problem, as we represent less than 0.002 of our national population. Yet here in the desert southwest summers are hotter longer and water is becoming a bigger problem than we’ve been ignoring all along. Politicians plan for growth and ignore the opposite possibility. We can’t solve the overall problem alone, but we can do what we can do and that helps.
Here’s a liberal idea that also holds true to fiscal conservancy.
Our city has a multimillion-dollar electric bill (+$25 million). What if we could turn that resource into climate change action? Expensive? Maybe not, but we’ll need some seed money.
My favorite funding format is to ask a billionaire’s ex-wife to counter the effect of their ex-spouse. With a willing participant the idea would be free to the city of Tucson.
We begin with a ward office and $50,000. It would not be too advantageous to multiply this by 7, thus giving each ward office and the mayor’s office a stake in the solution. That would require a $350,000 initial investment. Pocket change to our city budget or to the billionaire’s ex-wife. $50K or $350K, a thousand here a thousand there, we’re not talking about what Everett Dirksen would have called “real money” in terms of governmental spending.
In the ward office example, $50,000 would be used for solar panels and to install the infrastructure to handle a system that would zero out the office electric bill. $50K probably won’t do it all at once, but the innovation of the idea is in the future financing.
There’s one financial caveat. The structure of future system growth must be written into law in such a way that politicians can’t take from the cookie jar, so to speak. No small task. They’ll get cookies, but their appetites must be regulated.
In year one, after the installation is complete, there will be a reduction of the electric bill. We can be sure of that. Rooftop solar saves in two ways. It produces electricity directly and it also saves on air conditioning costs by shading, thus electricity.
Savings would be put aside, in that cookie jar, and tallied publicly. Half of that savings would go to growth and maintenance of the system. Solar panels don’t require much repair, but the roof below the array should be included. Management of the system, for now, would be the responsibility of the ward office. Every year the system would grow as a simple force of nature. More savings, more panels. Managing the growth in the next 5 to 10 years will be trouble, good trouble.
The other half of the savings would go to the ward office. Not to be used at will, but only to mitigate the effect of climate change on the city. Parking shelters or shaded agricultural spaces could be funded. Asphalt on our east-west streets could be cooled with trees on the south edge to combat the heat island effect. Many of our midtown streets are older and wider. Some of that width could be used in volunteer neighborhoods to plant shade.
There’s an old schoolyard challenge that goes like this. Give me a penny today and double it each day for thirty days. Sounds simple until you note that on day 30 you will have given away $10,737,418.23. That’s the power of compound interest.
An initial $50K or $350K will grow exponentially without raising taxes. Our city would begin to harden itself against a hotter dryer future. True, there is a cost to the electric company, but I’ll bet they can be persuaded to join us. We can all be planet friendly together.
Liberal freethinking can meet in agreement with fiscal conservancy. Who knew?
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