Climate and Energy Action Plan (CEAP)

Ashland GHG Inventory, 2011 - 2015 4 Findings in Brief Community GHG Inventory • Ashland’s largest sources of community emissions include residential and commercial energy use by buildings (24% of total); residential on-road transport (17%); and emissions from the production of residential goods (22%) and food (15%). • Ashland’s Community GHG emissions have decreased by 6% between 2011 and 2015. This is the result of decreases in electricity and natural gas use in the residential sector, decreases in natural gas use in the commercial sector, and increased hydro electricity generation on the regional electricity grid. These effects lower the average carbon intensity (CI) of grid electricity and the emissions from its use. • Ashland Community GHG Emissions intensities also declined between 2011 and 2015. On a per capita basis, emissions have declined by almost 8%. In 2015, the average Ashland resident’s carbon footprint is 16.6 MT CO2e / person. In 2015, average household emissions equal 36.8 MT CO2e and have declined nearly 6% since 2011. City Government GHG Operations • City government operational emissions represent roughly 2% of community emissions. • The largest emissions sources include production of goods and services purchased by the City (60%), electricity use in buildings (19%), fuel use in vehicles and equipment (8%), and landfill disposal of wastewater biosolids (7%). • City Government’s overall emissions have increased by 10% between 2011 and 2015 due to increases in purchasing. During the same time period building energy related emissions have decreased by -15% due to warmer winters and the lower carbon intensity of electricity. Electric Utility Supply Portfolio • Ashland’s contracted and owned-electricity generation supply is very low-carbon compared to the regional electricity grid. This is overwhelmingly the result of Ashland’s long-term power contract with Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), which is served by hydro and nuclear resources that do not produce GHG emissions during generation. • From a community perspective, Ashland’s electricity supply is from low-carbon resources, but the Utility and, by extension, the community does not own the contracted resources or the associated environmental benefit. Ownership of the environmental benefits associated with renewable electricity is conveyed contractually with Renewable Energy Certificates (REC), which are not produced or bundled with contracted BPA electricity. However, in 2015, the Utility, and to a lesser extent, the community voluntarily purchased RECs equal to 5.7% of community grid electricity use from BPA and Bonneville Environmental Foundation. Therefore the climate impacts of Ashland’s grid electricity use are best represented by the carbon intensity of the region electricity grid, the Northwest Power Pool, adjusted by community REC purchases. • From a Utility perspective, this inventory provides a public accounting of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with Ashland’s owned electricity-generation (2% of total) and the upstream emissions from the community’s contracted supply from BPA (remaining 98%). The Utility’s electricity supply is generated almost entirely from low-carbon resources and therefore risk related to future GHG regulations is likely low.