Olympia City Council Study Session on Climate Program Update - February 10, 2026
Olympia City Council Study Session on Climate Program Update - February 10, 2026
The Olympia City Council held a study session on February 10, 2026, to receive an update on the city's Climate Program from Climate Program Manager Dr. Pamela Braff. The presentation covered recent accomplishments, ongoing work, challenges, and next steps, including a discussion on a proposed home energy score policy, the SHARE accelerator pilot, and climate resilient design guidelines. The council also held an executive session on litigation. No formal votes were taken.
Discussion Items
- Climate Program Overview: Dr. Braff presented a new slide deck titled "From Commitments to Impact," highlighting Olympia's long history of climate leadership, including the 2018 Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan, the Climate Inheritance Resolution, and the 2045 Comprehensive Plan with its first climate element. She noted that greenhouse gas emissions in Thurston County have risen post-pandemic and that the city is not yet on track to meet its 2040 net-zero goal.
- Building Blocks to Net Zero: The city's goals include producing 100% renewable energy, adding 17.6 megawatts of rooftop solar, electrifying and improving efficiency of 100% of buildings, reducing vehicle miles traveled by 20%, electrifying 100% of remaining passenger vehicles, and reducing solid waste generation by 50%.
- Energize Olympia/Thurston Program: Since 2023, the program has installed 228 heat pumps and 21 heat pump water heaters in Olympia. 61% of installations were fully or partially subsidized, nearly 150 households gained access to cooling, and the program is expected to reduce nearly 3,000 metric tons of CO2e over 15 years. The city contributed $200,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds, leveraged $1.3 million in state and federal grants, and an additional $620,000 in savings through negotiated discounts, rebates, and incentives.
- Land Use and Transportation: The city is focusing on strategic infill development in high-density neighborhoods, middle housing code amendments, and transportation improvements such as transit signal prioritization on Martin Way and in-lane bus stops. The Transportation Benefit District, funded by a 0.1% sales tax, generates $3.1 million annually for pedestrian, bike, and roll projects.
- Electric Vehicle Infrastructure: The city is installing EV chargers at multifamily housing with grant funding and developing a citywide multifamily EV charging strategy. EV-ready parking standards were adopted for new construction. Future work includes evaluating pole-mounted EV charging and bike parking requirements for e-bikes.
- Community Preparedness: The city adopted a Sea Level Rise Response Plan in 2019 and has completed 86% of near-term actions. A collaborative of seven agencies is working on long-term adaptation through 2040 and 2100. Other efforts include wildfire and drought maintenance protocols and updated street tree maintenance.
- Home Energy Score (HES) Policy: Dr. Braff discussed the proposed HES policy, which would require disclosure of a home energy rating at time of sale. The city has been working regionally with Thurston County, Lacey, and Tumwater. Thurston County will hold a public hearing on February 17, 2026, and Tumwater has a work session on February 24. Lacey has not yet decided. The city council discussed timing: some members preferred to wait for at least one partner jurisdiction to act, while others emphasized the need for local leadership. The item is scheduled for council consideration in March 2026. Councilmembers expressed varying positions: Councilmember Green wanted at least one partner, Councilmember Barrett suggested a contingency, Councilmember Madrone preferred the council make the decision directly, and Councilmember Gilman noted the five-year process and eagerness to decide. The city manager noted that the budget assumed partner participation. Dr. Braff estimated the assessment cost to sellers at $150–$350, with subsidies for low-income sellers.
- SHARE Accelerator Pilot: The Safe Housing and Rental Efficiency (SHARE) program aims to improve health, safety, and energy efficiency in affordable rental housing. Initial funding from a Department of Energy prize was received in 2023, but additional federal rounds are no longer available. The program has been scaled back and is expected to launch in 2026, with a call for interested landlords by the end of March.
- Climate Resilient Design Guidelines: The city is developing guidelines for capital projects to ensure infrastructure can withstand future climate hazards, in collaboration with Public Works and Parks. Completion is expected within the year.
- Funding Needs: Dr. Braff emphasized the need for predictable, sustainable funding beyond grants, as grant dependence creates risk of gaps. The city manager noted that the climate program was cut in the last budget and that additional staffing may be needed for both program implementation and measurement. The council discussed potential local funding sources, including the Climate Commitment Act (which is designed to sunset) and future bond opportunities.
- Measurement Challenges: Councilmember Gilman questioned the lack of outcome metrics, such as the total number of heat pumps installed citywide or progress toward milestones. Dr. Braff explained that measuring community-wide indicators is difficult due to permit data limitations and resource constraints. The city is working on modifications to the permit system to track future installations. Councilmember Vanderpool suggested that the home energy score policy could help gather data. A community survey was discussed but deemed insufficiently granular. Dr. Braff noted that rooftop solar installations are already trackable and appear on track.
- PSE and Electricity Costs: Councilmember Green raised concerns about electricity costs from Puget Sound Energy (PSE) and the impact on electrification. Dr. Braff acknowledged the complexity and noted that heat pumps are far more efficient, so bills may not increase despite higher electricity rates. She also mentioned data centers as a significant factor in rising electricity prices, separate from electrification.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken during the study session.
- The council discussed the Home Energy Score policy and agreed to bring it forward for a decision in March 2026, with the understanding that at least one partner jurisdiction (Thurston County or Tumwater) appears likely to act concurrently.
- The council acknowledged the need for long-term, sustainable funding for climate programs and will continue to explore options, including potential local funding sources and future budget discussions.
- The meeting recessed at 7:20 p.m. for an executive session pursuant to RCW 42.30.110(1)(i) (litigation and potential litigation), which lasted from 7:26 p.m. to 8:04 p.m. No decisions were made, and the meeting adjourned at 8:04 p.m.
Meeting Transcript
Three, two, one. Good evening and welcome to the Tuesday, February 10th, 2026 study session of the Olympia City Council. For the record, we have a quorum with all council members present tonight. So we have one business item uh for to discuss, and that is an update on our climate program. And we have Dr. Pamela Brath, who is the director of climate programs here at the city presenting tonight. Hi, Pamela. Good evening. Hi, everyone. I'm excited to provide this update to y'all tonight. And not only is it an update on all of the climate work we've been doing at the city, but we're debuting a brand new presentation slide deck that we've been working on over the last couple of months to do a little bit better storytelling around our work to address climate change. So I hope you all like it. So tonight we want to just talk about from commitments to impact and the work that we're doing to address climate change, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and build resilience here at the city. So a bit of a presentation over for you all tonight. We're gonna start with a little bit of background, then go into what we've done, what we've learned, where we're going, and then what we need. So I want to start by acknowledging that Olympia has a really long history of climate leadership and policy, and really a lot of work that started far, far beyond far before when I joined the city, dating back to the early 1990s when the city developed its first climate plan. Um and then in 2018, the city started working with uh the cities of Lacey, Tonewater, and Thurston County and the Thurston Regional Planning Council to develop a regional climate mitigation plan, the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan. And that was really, I would say the start of the next wave of action at the city to really focus on climate work. Um, but even with all of that going on, the youth in our community knew that we needed to do more, that we needed to do more to adapt to climate change, prepare for climate impacts, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And that led to uh youth in our community working with city council to develop a and pass a climate inheritance resolution, which really supercharged the city's climate work and set a goal to achieve net zero emissions by 2040. This was soon followed by uh the city's acceptance of the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan as our regional framework for climate action, and then um the city declaring a climate emergency. Very soon after that. Well, I guess two weeks before the plan was adopted, uh, you all hired me uh as the city's first climate program manager, and that was really the first um step that the city took towards uh establishing a comprehensive and dedicated climate program rather than having one that was just kind of dispersed throughout departments where folks had time and capacity um doing some additional work. Um even since all of that has happened, we have seen climate change and climate impacts here in Olympia continue to get worse. Um in 2020, the city had um a wildfire smoke event where air quality peaked at 217 AQI, the air quality index, which is considered very unhealthy. Um, in 2021, we had the really kind of unprecedented heat dome event where we experience our highest temperatures ever recorded at 110 degrees Fahrenheit, and then in 2022, um, the highest tide ever recorded in the city of Olympia at just over 18 feet as a part of that pretty extreme kink tide. And so we know when these events happen, they put our health, our safety, our community at risk, um, and they strain our resources in order to be able to respond to those. And we also know that events like these are becoming more extreme. They're becoming more frequent, and they're really just an indicator of what's to come as climate change continues to worsen over the next um decades. But it's not all negative. Um, the uh 2045 comprehensive plan is really our north star as we navigate an uncertain future. As you all know, we adopted this um late last year, and it includes the city's first ever climate element or climate chapter, which really sets out the the goals and policies for how the city is going to address greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change over the next 20 years. We received more than 500 comments from the community throughout the development of this chapter. And really, what we heard was very clear. Uh, our community wants to see affordable, equitable, and high impact climate solutions. And the climate chapter really outlines how we make this vision a reality. We know that our greenhouse gas emissions are not yet on track uh with our goals. Uh, despite our really kind of sharp reduction during the pandemic and early 2020, emissions throughout Thurston County have been rising again since then. This is not really that unexpected. And it doesn't mean that we're not doing anything. It doesn't mean that we haven't put actions into place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But what it does mean is the things that we've done, it's going to take time to see the effects of those. They build over time. And it also means that we still have quite a bit of work more ahead of us to get back on track and to reach those goals. So how do we get there? The vision that I keep mentioning, that is Olympia 2045, and we're bringing it to life through our citywide implementation plan. And this is where we go into more detail about the actions and the who and the when and the what to really implement on that on that vision. We just published this, I think like a week ago, and we're going to be sending out through our next climate newsletter. We have an interactive table where community members can kind of sort by area of interest, time frame, kind of whatever they want to know to understand how we're how we're bringing this to life. And it's also a tool to help our departments understand their role in implementing our climate element and the city's climate actions.
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