It鈥檚 been nearly a year since Denton adopted a Climate Action Plan to reach net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. The City Council-approved plan looks at communitywide emissions that could be avoided, reduced or replaced in three main areas: transportation, building and land use.
Reaching net-zero emissions to small residual ones that can be absorbed or stored by nature, as well as other carbon dioxide removal methods, to leave zero emissions in the atmosphere, according to the United Nations Climate Action.
Denton鈥檚 Climate Action Plan uses science-based targets to reach its goal and is structured into key areas of need, based on how much greenhouse gases are emitted.
City staff recently made reaching the goal more transparent by launching a new dashboard last week where the public can track completion of Denton鈥檚 climate action goals.
The path to get to net-zero, however, may still have a few roadblocks from local and state governments and general consumer interest.
At the council鈥檚 July 15 meeting, staff gave an update about the plan鈥檚 , which now tracks the climate plan鈥檚 alignment with other master plans, such as the Denton 2040 Comprehensive Land Use Plan, the Denton 2022 Mobility Plan and the Water Conservation Plan.
It also shows 鈥渁ll the good work the city鈥檚 already doing in advance of, and in the past of, continuation of the Climate Action Plan,鈥� Michael Gange, the city鈥檚 director of environmental services and sustainability, told council members.
As of Tuesday, according to the public dashboard, the city is currently on track with 30.9% of transportation improvements, 37.8% in building efficiency and 48.5% of land-use enhancements to reach the goals of the Climate Action Plan.
鈥淭he dashboards, since we鈥檝e been implementing them across the different departments, have been an excellent tool,鈥� council member Brian Beck told Gange and other council members. 鈥淚 really appreciate them. I do find it really informative when department heads of all flavors give us trends, and so like when you were showing us just the one rebate trend, we can see those trend lines.
鈥淭hose are nice because it鈥檚 nice to project them out to our anticipated zero goals.鈥�
Last week, Gange highlighted several accomplishments the city had made in 2024, including a million-dollar investment in the ; a 24% increase in solid waste diversion, which extends the life of the city landfill; and an increase in rooftop solar generation to 3.2 megawatts from April 2023.
Gange said Denton is one of five cities in the state to receive the gold standard from SolSmart, a national program that helps cities, counties and other regional organizations become solar energy leaders.
鈥淲e were still 100% renewable energy by DME, which is a huge lift,鈥� Gange told council members. 鈥淎 lot of cities are only doing that for their municipal complexes or portions of their city. We鈥檙e doing it for all of our customers.鈥�
Denton isn鈥檛 producing renewable energy within city limits. Instead, Denton Municipal Electric is purchasing renewable credits, which means renewable energy was used from elsewhere in Texas to load the state鈥檚 electric grid.
Purchasing renewable credits allows cities to make the claim that they are using renewable energy without having to produce it via solar panels or wind turbines, for example, for local residents to consume.
Last month, the to increase energy production as Denton grows. Critics have said that moving forward with a new plant would go against Denton鈥檚 Climate Action Plan.
At the July 15 council meeting, Mayor Gerard Hudspeth said he didn鈥檛 see 100% renewables as one of the goals in the Climate Action Plan. He requested a side-by-side comparison of the cost to maintain the renewable distinction versus lower electric rates.
鈥淚 just want to see what it looks like from a residential and a commercial component, because the commercial people that I鈥檝e talked to are worked up,鈥� Hudspeth said. 鈥淚鈥檝e been trying to raise awareness on purpose because not one presentation do we have a commercial representative that comes in and talks to us. It is critical to have that voice at the table because you have a Peterbilt [facility] versus a 2,000-square-foot home. If we鈥檙e only listening to the 2,000-square-foot home on average folks and ignoring several, several thousand square feet, I think we do them a disservice.鈥�
Gange replied that by offering 100% renewable energy, the city is 鈥渃ontributing to our overall climate action goal of reducing those emissions.鈥�
To help reduce emissions on the municipal side, the city has cut carbon emissions produced by its fleet by adding 11 electric vehicles, six electric bikes for Denton police, one and electric vehicle options for the light-duty fleet.
On the community side, the city added 4.2 miles of trails, repaired almost 2 miles of sidewalks and issued 67 e-bike rebates. Gange said 57% of Denton residents live within a 10-minute walk from a city park.
The city is also working to decrease vehicle trips, encouraging people to use other forms of transportation, like buses, GoZone or the A-train.
In addition, utility usage has decreased in Denton: 5% per customer in electric, 1% communitywide in natural gas and 7% communitywide in water, according to the July 15 presentation.
The number of residents using also increased. Those increases led to 769 rebates in fiscal year 2023-24 issued to residents, including a 275% increase in HVAC rebates, a 54% increase in windows rebates and a 243% increase in insulation rebates.
GreenSense is a program DME uses to reward customers who perform qualifying energy efficiency and conservation improvements. It aims to reduce energy demand and consumption by promoting conservation and helping reduce the peak load of the city鈥檚 electric system, according to DME鈥檚 GreenSense brochure.
Beck said the program also seeks to increase adoption of electric engines instead of internal combustion ones by offering lawn mower and leaf blower rebates.
The program is divided into several categories: residential rebates, multifamily rebates, solar rebates and standard offer incentive.
In October, the council voted 4-3 to lower the solar panel rebate from 10.65 cents per kilowatt-hour to 3.79 cents per kWh.
鈥淪o right now we鈥檙e at the top tier on how much we鈥檙e investing in that regard,鈥� Gange said. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a great commitment. Whether it鈥檚 enough or not, I can鈥檛 say yet. We need to look 鈥� now that we鈥檙e two years into our new rebate structure 鈥� to see if we can tweak some of the rebates and get more customers in and stretch the money even further.鈥�
Council member Brandon Chase McGee mentioned that the Committee for the Environment has been having tough conversations about running out of money. McGee wondered that if overall revenue from DME continues to increase, could the body look at using it to increase funding for GreenSense?
City Manager Sara Hensley, however, cautioned against it and pointed out that the city needs to pay down the electric utility鈥檚 debt, which Hensley called 鈥渜uite high鈥� due to the severe winter storm from February 2021.
鈥淲e need to be very careful in how we spend our money from the utility because it is on [the Legislature鈥檚] radar that they feel like we are abusing the money from utilities to put into a general fund program or others,鈥� Hensley warned.
On Monday, Beck said DME spent not only $120 million during the February 2021 storm, in part because they didn鈥檛 winterize the gas plant, but also another $30 million in summer 2023 because DME had underpurchased power due to the extreme variations of climate change.
鈥淭his is what we are doing to ourselves if we don鈥檛 follow our Climate Action Plan,鈥� Beck said. 鈥淚t isn鈥檛 easy. It is hard.鈥�