Here’s everything you could want to know about climate change and the local energy transition in Sacramento, California.
1.0 Climate Change in Sacramento
Sacramento’s climate is changing from Hot Summer Mediterranean
Sacramento’s climate is currently classified as Hot Summer Mediterranean, which has mild, rainy winters, and warm/hot, often rainless summers. The local climate here has been more or less the same for tens of thousands of years.
Current: Q4 2021
Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Köppen_climate_classification
What is Sacramento’s climate changing to?
Sacramento is trending toward a much hotter, much drier climate – something that could tentatively be called “Torrid-Summer Calescent.” Latin for “getting hot,” calescent describes the reality of Sacramento’s emerging climate. This climate will feature extremely hot, long summers, and warm winters. Sacramento will get little rain throughout the year, but damaging rainstorms will pound the City for a few days every few months. Visually, the landscape around Sacramento will begin to look more barren, with less and less variety of plant and animal life.
Current: Q4 2021
Dictionary: Calescent. adjective (comparative more calescent, superlative most calescent): increasing in warmth, getting hot. from Webster’s New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition
State Govt Report: Sacramento Valley Report. California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment (2018) Hall, Alex; Berg, Neil; Reich, Katharine. (University of California, Los Angeles) Publication number: SUM-CCCA4-2018-007
Sacramento’s Climate Forecast
The usual weather (the climate) of Sacramento has been changing over the past several decades, and the change has been accelerating – especially since the 1990s. Here’s how the climate is trending in Sacramento, California, (The City of Trees).
This is how hot it will be getting in Sacramento.
The highest range of temps projected in Sacramento during this century is 122.5˚ – 128.7.˚ Using a medium-high warming scenario, climate scientists project Sacramento sometimes reaching this temp range by the the 2070s or 2080s.
August 2021 was Sacramento’s warmest of the 1,500+ months since records began in 1880s. Downtown Sacramento’s highest temp on record is 113˚, set on July 10 2021 (tied with a day in 1961). During the last century (1900s), a temp in the 100˚s was very rare. Since the 1990s, temps above 100˚ have become much more common.
Cal-Adapt. (2018). [Number of Extreme Heat Days for 6×6 km grid cell (34.03125, -118.21875) RCP 8.5, Global Climate Models HadGEM2-ES, CNRM-CM5, CanESM2, MIROC5]. Cal-Adapt website developed by University of California at Berkeley’s Geospatial Innovation Facility under contract with the California Energy Commission. Retrieved [15 Aug 2021], from https://cal-adapt.org/tools/extreme-heat/
Livneh et al, (2015) A spatially comprehensive, hydrometeorological data set for Mexico, the U.S., and Southern Canada 1950–2013. Scientific Data, 2(1). doi:10.1038/sdata.2015.42
Pierce, D. W., J. F. Kalansky, and D. R. Cayan, (Scripps Institution of Oceanography) 2018. Climate, Drought, and Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the Fourth California Climate Assessment. California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment, California Energy Commission. Publication Number: CNRA-CEC-2018-006.
Sacramento’s historic normal temperatures
For comparison, normal Summertime temps historically have stayed within a narrow temperature range. In the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, Sacramento’s normal high temp during July was 92.˚
Current: Q4 2021
National Weather Service (NWS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Data for Midtown Sacramento, 1981 – 2010 averages
Longer, scorchier Summers are becoming normal in Sacramento.
The 2020s – 2040s and 2070s – 2090s timelines here show Sacramento’s emerging new heat season. Atmospheric scientists are calling this extended period of high heat a “Super Summer.”
Current: Q4 2021
Cal-Adapt. (2018). [Number of Extreme Heat Days for 6×6 km grid cell (38.58, -121.46) RCP 8.5, Global Climate Models HadGEM2-ES, CNRM-CM5, CanESM2, MIROC5]. Cal-Adapt website developed by University of California at Berkeley’s Geospatial Innovation Facility under contract with the California Energy Commission. Retrieved [15 Aug 2021], from https://cal-adapt.org/tools/extreme-heat/
Livneh et al, (2015) A spatially comprehensive, hydrometeorological data set for Mexico, the U.S., and Southern Canada 1950–2013. Scientific Data, 2(1). doi:10.1038/sdata.2015.42
Pierce, D. W., J. F. Kalansky, and D. R. Cayan, (Scripps Institution of Oceanography) 2018. Climate, Drought, and Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the Fourth California Climate Assessment. California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment, California Energy Commission. Publication Number: CNRA-CEC-2018-006.
State Govt Report: Sacramento Valley Report. California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment (2018) Hall, Alex; Berg, Neil; Reich, Katharine. (University of California, Los Angeles) Publication number: SUM-CCCA4-2018-007
From the 1990s to the 2050s, the number of extreme heat days in Sacramento quintuples
Extremely hot daytime high temps during the summer months have been on the increase and will continue to rise as time goes on. The 5 days of extremely hot summertime temps in the 1990s is lengthening to 25 days in the 2050s.
Current: Q4 2021
Cal-Adapt. (2018). [Number of Extreme Heat Days for 6×6 km grid cell (38.58, -121.46) RCP 8.5 and RCP 4.5, Global Climate Models HadGEM2-ES, CNRM-CM5, CanESM2, MIROC5]. Cal-Adapt website developed by University of California at Berkeley’s Geospatial Innovation Facility under contract with the California Energy Commission. Retrieved [15 Aug 2021], from cal-adapt.org/tools/extreme-heat/
Livneh et al, (2015) A spatially comprehensive, hydrometeorological data set for Mexico, the U.S., and Southern Canada 1950–2013. Scientific Data, 2(1). doi:10.1038/sdata.2015.42
Pierce, D. W., J. F. Kalansky, and D. R. Cayan, (Scripps Institution of Oceanography) 2018. Climate, Drought, and Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the Fourth California Climate Assessment. California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment, California Energy Commission. Publication Number: CNRA-CEC-2018-006.
People in Sacramento will survive, somehow, because people can adapt to just about anything. Right?
Saltwater contaminates freshwater, making it unsuitable for drinking or farming.
Set on a freshwater delta upriver from an ocean bay, Sacramento’s existential climate worry is saltwater flooding. On a map, Sacramento looks to be so far inland from the Pacific Ocean, you’d think it couldn’t possibly be affected by the rising sea. But the complex network of streams and canals and wetlands that Sacramento sits on is effectively an an inland extension of the San Francisco Bay. The Bay is rising with the warming Pacific Ocean. The salty ocean water will be pushing further and further into the area around Sacramento, where several rivers (freshwater) meet.
People in Sacramento might not get enough drinking water.
Without monumental infrastructure improvements for saltwater inundation, huge swaths of Sacramento Valley farmland will be lost. Vast populated regions south of Sacramento will need to have water pumped from further upstream in the Sierra Mountains. Problem is, the Sierra’s dwindling snowpack is holding less and less water for the region’s growing 10,000,000s (tens of millions) of people. And less water will be causing billions of dollars worth of food to not be grown.
Current: Q4 2021
Regional newspaper: How climate change could threaten the water supply for millions of Californians. www.sacbee.com/news/local/article158679214.html
Downtown Sacramento is regularly smothered by thick smoke from city-sized wildfires.
California’s fire season has been getting more and more extreme, by far, during the 2010s. In nearby Paradise, CA, 85 people died, and 19,000 homes and 27 downtown businesses were reduced to ash in November 2018. The timing and severity of the fires are attributable to the warming atmosphere. The fire season in California used to be something that only happened during the warmer months of the year. Now, all year long, places like verdant Sacramento are subject to monster wildfires.
Current: Q4 2021
City document: Climate Vulnerability Assessment for the Sacramento County Climate Action Plan: Communitywide Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation (2017).
Keep track of Sacramento’s local version of the global energy transition. Here, we’ll
Buildings are a major part of the Sacramentos’ energy transition
This is the biggest solar rooftop in Sacramento.
Sacramento’s basketball team is showing how a sports franchise can take a chunk out of its hometown’s carbon emissions. The Sacramento Kings’ solar rooftop makes enough electricity to power 100% of the arena’s energy needs. This is equivalent to about 600 average-size homes. The rooftop solar farm, along with the venue’s Platinum-rated energy efficiency, keeps 4 tons of carbon from heating the climate each day.
“We believe sports teams have the responsibility to drive meaningful change in their communities. Our hope is that basketball fans, Sacramento businesses, and communities around the world will be inspired by this.”
– Vivek Ranadivé, owner and chairman of the Sacramento Kings
Current: Q4 2021
Arena site: Golden1Center.com/news/detail/golden-1-center-solar-days
Electric Vehicles in Sacramento
Here’s the latest news on electric vehicles in Sacramento.
Sacramento school kids have been riding around in 3 brand new electric busses since 2018. Sacramento’s suburbs have over 17 electric school busses buzzing around.
Electric charging station company EVgo installed 6 public-use charge stations across Sacramento in 2020. The newer generation technology of vehicle chargers gives drivers a range of 240-miles from a battery charge that takes 20 to 30 minutes.
Volkswagen is building and operating a network of 75 vehicles chargers throughout Sacramento. The charge stations will be available to the public by mid-2021. Volkswagen is confident that many of those vehicles will be the car company’s newest line-up (2020) of electric vehicles, which includes a sedan, a crossover, a hatchback, and the 360 horsepower “Buzz” retro microbus.
Current: Q4 2021
Company site: motor1.com/features/346407/volkswagen-id-price-on-sale/4058205/
City site: cityofsacramento.org/Public-Works/Electric-Vehicle-Initiatives
This is about how Sacramento’s city leaders are dealing with the changing climate and driving the local energy transition.
City of Sacramento might be showing leadership in solving climate change.
City of Sacramento has declared a Climate Emergency.
The City of Sacramento had gotten started on climate back in 2012, but hasn’t stood out as a leader in reducing its carbon output. So, in December 2019, protesters (see Section 5. below) got the Sacramento City Council to declare a “Climate Emergency.” The City’s recognition of The Climate Emergency raises expectations and gives residents something tangible with which to hold their city accountable.
City of Sacramento gets a climate grade of “C plus.”
The City’s climate plans themselves look to be comprehensive. Climate change strategies cover just about every aspect of City operations. Each City department has prescribed ways to reach its carbon-reduction goals.
Transparency may be a problem with City of Sacramento’s climate efforts – there’s no easily accessible record of what progress, if any, the City has been making. People in Sacramento want to see that their City is acting quickly to cut carbon and adapt to the climate.
The City of Sacramento has had its Climate Action Plans for several years now. If things are going as expected, the City would be Making Progress or is Ready and Working on climate – a “C” or “B” grade. Local climate activists will want to find out if the City deserves this good a grade.
City of Sacramento’s climate plans, policies, and projects
Sacramento requires new buildings to make their own solar electricity.
Indeed, only 15% of a new building’s electricity needs to be generated from the on-site solar panels. But it’s a start. Having the basic equipment for making solar, building owners can always add on more generating and battery capacity. What’s hopeful is that SMUD, the local electric utility, will phase out its carbon-fire electricity and provide only climate-neutral electricity to its customers. For now, the 15% requirement will reduce the electric company’s generating load, and put a bit less carbon in the air.
Current: Q4 2021
City site: cityofsacramento.org/-/media/Corporate/Files/Public-Works/Electric-Vehicles/EVStrategy_171212_FINAL_CityOfSacramento.pdf?la=en
City of Sacramento is using its internal climate plan to decarbonizing the City’s operations.
Sacramento’s Climate Action Plan for Internal Operations (2016) builds on progress from past municipal energy work, like building retrofits, solar photovoltaic installations, streetlight conversions, and water management. Strategies in this plan aim for big reductions of municipal carbon emissions by the 2040s.
Sacramento residents: Are people keeping track of this? Where’s a recent progress report for this plan? Is the City of Sacramento actually cutting back on its own carbon? How much? Is that enough to reach the City’s carbon reduction targets?” – LocalClimate.org
Current: Q4 2021
City site: cityofsacramento.org/-/media/Corporate/Files/PublicWorks/Facilities/CityOfSacramento_1606_ClimateActionPlan_InternalOps_FINAL.pdf?la=en
The Sacramento Climate Action Plan “General Plan Appendix B” has great potential for cutting carbon. Progress? Unknown.
In 2015, Sacramentans got their City Council to approve “Appendix B – General Plan Climate Action Plan Policies and Programs.” The carbon-reducing strategies in Appendix B are extensive – they cover all sectors of Sacramento’s economy. These strategies promote things like densified land-use and expanded mass-transit lines. Pedestrian and bicycle paths are prioritized. One innovative strategy requires landlords to make their rental units more energy-efficient. The plan even covers leaf-blowers. Buildings will be required to make outside electric outlets available for electric leaf-blowers (gas-powered leaf-blowers spew an amazing amount of climate-damaging carbon).
It’s been five years (in 2020) since Sacramento’s Climate Action Plan went live. Are City leaders reporting any progress? Is the City of Sacramento on a track toward significant carbon reduction by the 2030s or 40s? What can City leaders do to speed things up? -Ed
Current: Q4 2021
City site: CityofSacramento.org/-/media/Corporate/Files/CDD/Planning/General-Plan/2035-GP/Appendix-B—General-Plan-Climate-Action-Plan-Policies-and-Programs.pdf?la=en
The Electric Company: Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD)
Sacramento’s biggest power plant burns methane gas, so it spews monstrous amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, and it’s damaging the climate.
Aaahrr!! Most of the electricity SMUD sells you comes from a fire-breathing climate monster.
To be fair, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) does source 10% of its electricity from solar arrays, and SMUD will be buying electricity from a newly-built solar farm in 2020.
The GOOD: Climate solutions-wise, SMUD has been a leader among U.S. electric utilities in making solar electricity available to its customers. SMUD has a long list of clean energy initiatives that go back to the 1980s.
The COOL: SMUD has a 13-megawatt solar farm set aside just for the City’s municipal operations. Solar Electric powers 35% of City properties like City Hall, City parking garages, police stations, firehouses, community centers, and the water treatment plant.
The BAD: “SMUD” makes most of Sacramento’s electricity, enough to power 450,000 single-family homes, from one great big 500,000,000 watt (500 megawatts) carbon-fired generating plant. SMUD’s Cosumnes Power Plant has been committing as much as 9,000 tons of climate-warming gas into the atmosphere every day, and it’s been doing this since it’s construction in 2006.
The UGLY: The Cosumnes Power Plant is scheduled to keep spewing carbon into the atmosphere until at least 2036. This is later than 2030, when scientists say that carbon emissions must already have been substantially reduced, so that the climate won’t become unlivable in the 2070s.
Current: Q4 2021
Electric Utility site: smud.org/en/Corporate/Environmental-Leadership/Power-Sources
City site: CityofSacramento.org/Public-Works/Electric-Vehicle-Initiative
2. Sacramento’s Solar & Wind farms have started making electricity
Sacramento has been getting a small portion of its electricity from carbon-free sources – solar and wind farms – and it’ll soon be getting more. Its all about making our energy atmosphere-friendly.
Sacramento’s Rancho Seco Solar Farm is being built on the site of a shut-down nuclear power plant. 👍
With construction almost complete, Rancho Seco’s first energy is expected on the grid toward the end of 2020. The solar project sits on the site of the decommissioned Rancho Seco Nuclear Generation Station. The Rancho Seco solar farm will generate 100,000,000 watts of electricity (100 million watts), enough to energize 120,000 average-size homes.
The Rancho Seco project does not currently include energy storage, but Amanda Beck, SMUD senior project manager, says SMUD is actively looking at utility-scale battery storage. “We are looking at doing more solar projects,” Beck said, noting that the utility’s plan calls for 1,000,000,000 (1 billion watts of solar power – twice the output of SMUD’s carbon-spewing gas-guzzler) by 2040.
Industry Association site: American Public Power Association. SMUD signs 30-year PPA for 160-MW solar project by Peter Maloney, June 3, 2019. publicpower.org/periodical/article/smud-signs-30-year-ppa-160-mw-sol
Current: Q4 2021
Local Business News: Sacramento Business Journal. SMUD set to develop its largest solar array with Lendlease by Mark Anderson, June 30, 2019 BizJournals.com/sacramento/news/2019/05/30/smud-set-to-develop-its-largest-solar-array-with.html
Photo: Screencap of local TV news. From nuclear to solar power by Adam Christy, Sep 9, 2016. abc10.com/article/news/local/from-nuclear-to-solar-power/327657069
Sacramento’s Solano Wind Farm is getting a towering makeover.
SMUD is upgrading and adding to its Solano wind farm, with 22 new, modern turbines, for a total of 320,000,000 watts (320 million watts) of carbon-free electricity. Construction is expected to begin late in 2020 and be completed in early 2022.
Current: Q4 2021
Electric Utility site: Sacramento Municipal Utility District Solano 4 Wind Project Smud.org/en/Corporate/Environmental-Leadership/Power-Sources/Solano-4-Wind
Photo: DailyRepublic.cost/smud-wind-turbine-dedication-ceremony/attachment/smud-wind-turbine-dedication-ceremony/m/m
This is about how Sacramento’s local officials talk & act on the climate at City Council, in the California State House, and at the U.S. Capitol.
Sacramento politicians take action on the Climate
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg understands the “here and now” of climate.
Photo: Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and his family take a selfie at their energy-efficient Sacramento home.
“Some people say, ‘Climate change, it’s an existential crisis,’ as if 30 or 40 years from now we’re going to have to worry about it. It’s not an existential crisis. It’s a state of emergency right now in 2019.” – Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg speaking at the Sacramento’s Climate Strike in September 2019
Current: Q4 2021
Major newspaper: sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article235294077.html
Doris Matsui wrote (and won) the 2019 U.S. Clean & Efficient Cars Act.
Longtime local Doris Matsui (D CA 6th) represents Sacramento in the U.S. Congress. Matsui chairs the Congress’s Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition and authored the Clean and Efficient Cars Act (2019), which keeps the wayward U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from lowering car fuel-efficiency standards. Current standards have automakers improving gas mileage and reducing auto exhaust. Short of having only an electric vehicle, better gas mileage is the next best way for drivers to reduce their damage to the atmosphere.
Current: Q4 2021
Public record: projects.propublica.org/represent/bills/116/hr978.html
This is about climate and energy education in Sacramento, from grade school to grad school.
Climate at School in Sacramento
Sacramento Youth Climate Summit
Sacramento City Unified School District held its first annual Youth Climate Summit. The October 2019 Summit for teachers and students centered around how to develop a climate curriculum. One big meme coming out of the summit was that climate should be taught not just in science class, but in all applicable areas like social studies, English, and math.
Current: Q4 2021
School district site: scusd.edu/youth-climate-summit
Sacramento State held its first local climate summit.
Students at California State University (Sacramento campus) held their first annual day-long program of speakers and workshops. Students from other local Universities and colleges participated. The April 2019 Local Climate Summit had public discussions about ways local college campuses can reduce their carbon spew. Attendees also got to check out Sacramento’s 3D-printed electric shuttle busses.
Current: Q4 2021
University site: csus.edu/news/articles/2019/4/8/Mayors-turn-to-students-to-reverse-climate-change-.shtml
This is about local groups of people helping Sacramento reduce carbon emissions and adapt to the warming climate.
Climate Orgs in Sacramento
Sacramento’s Capitol Region Climate Readiness Collaborative gets cities ready for climate.
The Capitol Region Climate Readiness Collaborative works on climate adaptation in the 6-county Sacramento Area. The collaborative is a membership network of local and regional agencies, businesses, and associations. Its members work across jurisdictions to coordinate their adaptation efforts.
Org site: ClimateReadiness.info
Sacramento’s youth climate activists want carbonized politicians out.
Sacramento has a local group representing each of the big climate action orgs. Climate action groups in Sacramento are currently focused on ousting elected officials who refuse to act quickly to end carbon emissions.
“Spineless!” This Sacramento middle-schooler called out politicians in front of thousands of angry students.
At the annual school-kids’ Climate Strike in September 2019, middle-school student Supriya Patel asked state and local politicians,
“Will you speak up and protect your constituents, or will you choose to be spineless – bowing down to corporate interests and being scolded by a 13-year-old girl?”
Patel founded the Sacramento chapter of Fridays for Future.
Current: Q4 2021
Local broadcast news: KRCA.com/article/sacramento-teen-organizes-climate-strike-rally-california/29157366#
If the Sacramento Climate Coalition can stop a monster train, what other amazing things can it do?
Sacramento Climate Coalition got its start leading the successful 2014 fight against a 100-railcar train that would have been rolling through Sacramento each day with sand tar and fracked oil. Now, in 2022, the Coalition is pressing for local policies that reduce climate impacts on Sacramento’s disadvantaged communities.
Current: Q4 2021
Org site: sacclimatecoalition.org
Sacramento’s 350.org group is now on local radio.
Sacramento’s local 350.org climate action group produces it’s radio show, “The Climate Report,” on KUBU 96.5 FM. (Wednesdays at noon and Thursdays at 5pm) Neighboring communities Elk Grove and Placer each have their own 350.org groups.
Current: Q4 2021
Org site: 350Sacramento.org
