German Cities Prepare for Energy Transition

Mannheim, Germany. Photo by Jorge Franganillo. (CC BY 2.0)

Every day at The Overhead Wire we sort through over 1,500 news items about cities and share the best ones with our email list. Each week, we take some of the most popular stories and share them with Urban Milwaukee readers. They are national (or international) links, sometimes entertaining and sometimes absurd, but hopefully useful.

The streetcar is not taking: The United States Supreme Court decided not to hear a case where a lower court determined that a utility company was not entitled to compensation for a taking when the OC Streetcar project asked them to move equipment that was in the right of way. The ruling means that the utility companies in California will have to pay to move any infrastructure in the right of way which has long been a point of contention between agencies and utilities around the country. (This item is behind a paywall but you can read about the case on the Constitutional Law Blog) (Shayna Greene | Bloomberg Law)

El Paso wastewater plant breaks ground: El Paso Texas has broken ground on a wastewater treatment plant that will use a four step process to produce potable drinking water. The plant will be the first of its kind in the country that does direct to distribution recycling. Las Vegas recycles water but it gets pumped back into Lake Mead. The construction will be finished in 2028 and generate 10 million gallons a day of drinking water for the city which gets less than 9 inches of rain per year. (Martha Pskowski | Inside Climate News)

Single stair buildings are safe: A new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts finds that residents in single stair buildings are not at greater risk of fire death because of the building’s design. International Building Code adopted by most US cities doesn’t allow single stair buildings above three stories. Changes in the codes that allow for small single stair buildings could significantly increase the supply of housing in states and localities. (Alex Horowitz | Pew Trusts)

German cities prepare for energy transition: Mannheim Germany is eliminating natural gas for heating by focusing more on district heating through heat pumps and is giving rate payers a generous subsidy of 10k Euro per household to make the switch to electricity. Hamburg is embarking on a heat mapping program that by 2026 will identify neighborhoods ready to switch as well. The energy transition will be cheaper for German utilities over the long run as the cost of carbon increases and climate goals focus on a 2035 phase out fossil fuels. (Jan Rosenow and Claudia Kemfert | The Progress Playbook)

Wealthy Palisades residents against more apartments: Wealthy residents of fire scorched the Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles are getting nasty about ideas for adding more housing during reconstruction of the neighborhood. The owner of a Shell gas station long had plans to redevelop the property before the fire and now is planning to build 100 units including some for low income renters. He knows the process will be hard and won’t happen without a fight. (Liam Dillon | Los Angeles Times)

Quote of the Week

A billion-dollar budget mistake coupled with a more than 300% increase on the cost of the Abernethy Bridge [on Interstate 205] are just two examples, although massive, of problems that need to be fixed and accounted for before we ask Oregonians for another dollar.

-Oregon state Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis in Willamette Week discussing the $1B federal funds accounting error ODOT admitted to recently.

This week on the Talking Headways podcast, we’re joined by Member of the Welsh Senedd (Parliament) Lee Waters and Dr. Jennifer Kent of The University of Sydney. They talk about how Wales set climate targets, did a roads review, got to a 20 mile per hour speed limit across the country, and what it might take for other places to do the same.

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