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Friend --
On Friday, after months of public hearings and
hard work, I put forward a revised budget for the Council's Committee
on Transportation and the Environment. It passed
unanimously! As the Chair of that committee, I oversee
the budgets for several agencies, including the Department of
Transportation and the Department of Energy and Environment. These are
the agencies most responsible for ensuring we hold dangerous drivers
accountable, fight climate change, keep our rivers and air clean, and
build a transportation network for the 21st century supporting
Metrorail and Metrobus, biking, walking, rolling, and driving.
Because DC was facing such critical and devastating cuts in the
proposed budget that was sent to my committee, I wanted to share a
quick update specific to this effort. I'll send out a more
comprehensive update on the full budget and wins for Ward 6 as the
Council budget process continues.
Here's what our Committee moved forward on climate, traffic safety,
and transportation:
-
Reversing $20 million of cuts to the District’s
main climate change
fund (the Sustainable Energy Trust Fund)
to:
- Implement the Healthy Homes law to help modernize and upgrade
homes of low- and moderate-income residents with efficient electric
heat pumps, stoves, and water heaters, thereby improving indoor air
quality and helping them affordably transition away from fossil
fuels;
-
Restore most of the DC
Green Bank’s funding to support low-interest
financing for sustainable and affordable housing development and green
infrastructure projects, enabling 9:1 private-to-public
investments;
-
Restore funding for DC’s Solar
for All program for low- and moderate-income
families; and
-
Advance DC’s Building Energy Performance Standards with
technical and financial support for commercial-to-residential
conversions and affordable apartments; and much
more.
-
Funds provisions from my STEER
Act to hold dangerous drivers
accountable: 1) creates new positions within the
Office of the Attorney General to go after dangerous drivers or their
vehicles, and 2) requires the installation of "speed governors" in the
cars of people who engage in reckless and dangerous driving. It also
requires better coordination between MPD, DDOT, and the DMV to prevent
issuing parking or speeding tickets against a person whose vehicle was
stolen at the time of the ticket. My office has sadly helped multiple
residents with this issue, which only adds injury to the trauma
they've experienced.
-
Advances the additional $217 million needed to
ensure WMATA avoids its
fiscal cliff and serious reductions in Metrorail and Metrobus service,
and funds the Kids Ride Free and Adult Learner Transit Subsidy
programs.
-
Restores funds dedicated to important Anacostia
River clean-up and education programs, like the Anacostia Riverkeeper,
Living Classrooms and its Kingman Island Rangers program, City
Wildlife, and the Anacostia Watershed Society; trash traps to keep
garbage out of our waterways; the RiverSmart
Homes program to install rain barrels, trees, and
gardens at no or low-cost; and green
summer workforce training for young people. I heard from my
Ward 6 neighbors specifically on how these cuts would hurt programs
they really care about -- I'm glad we got them
reversed.
-
Gives the green light to dozens of bus priority and safe streets
projects to improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and
drivers, including ensuring DDOT moves forward with a a
safer Connecticut Avenue Safety
Project that includes a protected bike lane –
consistent with the concept strongly supported by Ward 3 Councilmember
Frumin and impacted Ward 3 ANCs.
-
Requires a detailed transition plan and monthly updates from
DDOT on winding
down DC Circulator
operations in collaboration with the Circulator
contractor, WMATA, and affected labor unions - ensuring riders,
drivers, and neighborhoods aren’t left stranded without bus coverage.
I'm going to be watching closely to see how this impacts especially
Ward 6 routes such as Eastern Market to L'Enfant Plaza and Eastern
Market to Union Station.
- Includes $204 million for street
paving, $110 million for alley
repaving, $127 million for faster
sidewalk repair, $109 million for bus
priority projects, $32 million
for protected bike lanes and pedestrian
safety improvements, $10 million for new or
upgraded Capital
Bikeshare stations, and $500,000 to
continue my new e-bike incentive
program for District residents.
I put out graphics
with these updates on Instagram, hopefully a helpful summary to
share with neighbors who care about these issues.
Fixing the Solar Credit Marketplace with the Full
Council
Because so many Ward 6 neighbors and DC residents have already
taken steps to add solar or invest in community solar, I want to talk
about one remaining wonky but incredibly important issue I'll work
with the full Council to address before the final vote. It has to do
with the threat to the solar credit market (SRECs, for those who are
familiar).
Although the Committee restored $20 million in cuts to DOEE’s
Sustainable Energy Trust Fund, which supports many of the programs
above, there’s still a dangerous proposal in the Budget Support Act
that accompanies the budget that takes even more money – and pulls the
DC government itself out of the solar market by paying a penalty
instead of investing in green energy.
The Mayor swept $17 million out of the Sustainable Energy
Trust Fund (SETF) and simultaneously opted the District government out
of our renewable energy goals, choosing instead to pay a much higher
“alternative compliance fee” to buy non-renewable energy. The fee
exists to incentivize people to buy renewables. If this budget
maneuver isn’t reversed by the full Council, next year District
taxpayers will be paying $4 million more than they should for the same
energy usage, while adding 166,000 metric tons of carbon to the
atmosphere by choosing to buy non-renewably sourced
energy.
Who do we pay the fee to? Ironically, ourselves. The fee is
paid back to the District government and scored by the CFO as “new
revenue.” It then flows right into the city’s general coffers. To
unwind this complicated scheme, the Committee would have had to
identify $22 million to replace that “new revenue”, plus the original
$17 million to replenish the SETF – close to $40 million. Working with
my committee members, we did restore most funding to the SETF in the
budget through a small increase in the fee assessed for gas and
electricity usage - from which low-income ratepayers can be exempted –
but this expensive budget and policy maneuver will still need the
Chairman and full Council’s support to undo.
Opting the DC government out of the solar credit market
through the budget gimmick and paying the “alternative compliance
fees” will do a lot of damage. Right now, anyone who owns solar panels
can sell credits for the excess extra energy they create. Utilities
like Pepco and Washington Gas are required by law to make sure a
certain percentage of all their energy is sourced from renewables, so
they buy credits from solar panel owners – like people who own rooftop
solar and churches who have solar panels. Because it cost an
additional $22 million, we couldn’t undo the Mayor’s proposed subtitle
and restore funding
for all of the programs above. It’s a short-sighted
proposal and tells residents and businesses to do as we say, not as we
do. I'm going to work with the Chairman and my colleagues to reverse
this disastrous decision and ensure the District government is a
leader, not a hypocrite, on our climate
goals.
Still, I hope you feel as excited as I am for this budget --
given how challenging this budget is, we're making important strides
forward on some critical issues that affect every neighborhood in
DC.
I'll write again soon with a full newsletter and a
more specific Ward 6 update on budget items on public safety,
education, housing, and more. Finally, I want to recognize the hard
work of my legislative team (pictured left to right: Anthony
Thomas-Davis, Kate Mitchell, Antonio Nunes, and Kevin Whitfield).
Budget is always a very demanding time, and having lost two wonderful
legislative staff members in Chris Laskowski and Nate Bell this year,
I just want to express my appreciation for how hard the team worked to
serve our city even as we all mourned our colleagues.
See you around the neighborhood,
Charles Allen
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