The City of Stillwater Looks Favorably on a Potential Climate Action Plan for the Next City Budget

Sustainable Stillwater MN's Linda Countryman and PaleBlueDot’s Ted Redmond, teamed up on Dec 7, 2021, to present the case to the Stillwater City Council that the time is right to avert the worst of climate change, reduce our carbon emissions, and pursue new clean energy and economic opportunities.

Linda Countryman

Sustainable Stillwater MN has offered 200 volunteer hours worth an estimated $10,000 toward the creation of a climate action plan. PaleBlueDot has also offered in-kind time and a reduced consulting fee to take the lead for a baseline study of Stillwater’s climate vulnerabilities and greenhouse gas profile. We asked the City Council to vote on an application for a grant from the MPCA to get seed money for the climate action plan, but unfortunately, they declined. The reasoning was that the city has too many other projects on Community Development Director Tim Gladhill's plate. Mayor Ted Kozlowski said at the meeting that he’s excited to work with Sustainable Stillwater MN on a climate action plan because we have “reached a tipping point” on climate, and said the plan "needs to happen, just not right now." Gladhill said they would consider putting a climate action plan into the 2023 budget at their July planning meeting. Climate risk, mitigation, and adaptation plans are in place or in the works at many Minnesota cities. In fact, at the same time the council was turning down a plan this time, Edina was giving final approval to theirs, which was a year in the making. Sustainable Stillwater MN is committed to doing everything we can to ensure climate change is a priority consideration for all future Stillwater decisions within the next year. What we did win in this round is that climate initiatives are now on the table for consideration and city officials seem amenable to moving forward with a plan in 2022.