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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-21-24 Public Comment - J. Therien - Sustainability Citizen Advisory Board - submissionFrom:Jesse Therien To:Agenda Subject:[EXTERNAL][WARNING: ATTACHMENT UNSCANNED]Sustainability Citizen Advisory Board - submission Date:Thursday, March 21, 2024 11:52:17 AM Attachments:Good evening members of the Sustainability Citizen Advisory Board, (1).pdf Good evening members of the Sustainability Citizen Advisory Board,.docx CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. I wanted to submit this to the Sustainability Citizen Advisory Board for tonight's meeting. Please let me know if I need to submit it elsewhere or in a different format. thanks Jesse TherienProject Manager - MTytcleancities.orgjesse@ytcleancities.org406.570.0770 Good evening members of the Sustainability Citizen Advisory Board, My name is Jesse Therien and I work with Yellowstone-Teton Clean Cities here in Bozeman.I attended a meeting in January of this year in person and shared some of what I’m including here in a discussion with one of the committee members.I felt I needed to share this, along with some quick calculations,with the rest of the committee as I view this as an important and effective step the city of Bozeman can take immediately,to significantly reduce city vehicle emissions.By illustrating the impact of using Renewable Diesel in terms of emissions reductions that would be seen by replacing heavy duty vehicles with electric vehicle equivalents,I think the impact is more obvious. If I said,by paying $0.50/gallon more for your diesel,you can have 10 free electric garbage collection trucks to replace 10 diesel trucks making the fleet almost 40%electric (and thereby significantly reducing emissions),I think the city would be eager to take advantage of this amazing opportunity and we’d likely make state and national headlines.From an emissions perspective,this is exactly what would happen if 50%renewable diesel was implemented today just in the ~25 diesel Solid Waste collection trucks alone!This can be extrapolated to all other diesel vehicles in the city’s fleet. Using historical data we have from the city regarding diesel consumption by Bozeman’s Solid Waste division (from 2010-2016),I was able to extrapolate using the city’s population growth to illustrate the emissions reductions that could be seen by using Renewable Diesel. I will include a couple resources/links below if anyone is interested in learning more about Renewable Diesel -which by the way,is made in Montana in Great Falls. Firstly,I’ve illustrated below in Figure 1,the actual (from 2010-2015)and estimated (2016-2030)volume of diesel consumed by the diesel trucks operated by the city of Bozeman’s Division of Solid Waste.To summarize,in 2023,we likely emitted about 819,672 kg of CO2 or about 1.8 million pounds as shown in Figure 2. The lifecycle emissions of CO2,by burning petroleum diesel,could be reduced by almost 75%by simply using 100%renewable diesel (R99).Due to some current cold weather concerns with the fuel being produced regionally,R99 may not be feasible year round just yet. So,I’ve graphed what the emission reductions would look like if R50,or 50%renewable diesel, were used (R99 in summer and maybe R5 in the winter);however R10-20 would be effective most of the winter as observed by Jackson Hole Mountain Resort’s continued use of Renewable Diesel. As illustrated below in Figure 2,by using R50,this small fleet could cut emissions by about 38%(as could any fleet of any size)by next week with no changes to any infrastructure or maintenance.Annually,this would increase fuel costs by about 12%for Solid Waste or an estimated $40,000 (due to the slight premium for this fuel currently),but would reduce almost 700,000 lbs of CO2 emissions. I am happy to talk with the committee in person,virtually,one or one or whatever might be helpful.I must mention that I threw all the above together this morning,so there may be small errors,but the overall theme is correct;Renewable Diesel is the most cost effective way to reduce carbon emissions from diesel-fueled vehicles today.In many locations,it reduces carbon emissions much more than electric vehicles do (because electricity generation often has significant emissions). Thanks for taking time to read through my submission. Here are additional resources if you’re interested. https://ytcleancities.org/projects/fuels/#renewablediesel https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/renewable_diesel.html Thanks for all you do! Jesse Therien,PhD Project Manager -MT ytcleancities.org jesse@ytcleancities.org 406.570.0770 Figure 1.Gallons of Diesel consumed by Bozeman’s Solid Waste Collection Trucks Figure 2.Estimated CO2 emissions from Diesel fueled Solid Waste Collection Trucks in Bozeman.In 2023,the volume of Diesel was likely around 80,000 gallons.The reduction of CO2 by using R50 is the equivalent of taking almost 10 collection trucks off the road.