Candidate Close Up: Kathleen Treseder

Dr. Treseder hopes her background as a scientist will help Irvine meet its climate goals if she prevails in November’s election. Photo credit Matt Fitt

Dr. Kathleen Treseder, who is running for Irvine City Council in the November election, is the first to say she is not a politician. As a UCI Biology Professor, she has dedicated the last three decades to educating tomorrow’s scientists. But with the climate crisis encroaching on our city, Treseder is uniquely prepared to use her expertise to see Irvine thrive.

“One of the major reasons I’m running is because of climate change,” says Treseder. “That is something that is really on the minds of residents and I feel really lucky that I have a background in how to deal with this issue.”

As a co-author of the resolution to make Irvine carbon neutral by 2030, which passed unanimously by the City Council, Treseder is laser focused on how to slash our city’s greenhouse gases. Her climate to do list is short but bold: make our energy renewable, turn our transportation fleet green, and electrify appliances in our buildings and homes.

Renewable energy is already in the works. This February the City Council voted unanimously to make renewable energy the default service for all Orange County Power Authority (OCPA) customers in Irvine. OCPA was formed to allow its customers to choose the source of their electricity so that they can opt for lower priced, sustainably sourced energy options. Irvine was joined by Buena Park, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, and Irvine in the endeavor. Service for Irvine’s commercial customers began in April and service for residential customers will begin in October of 2022.

“Renewable energy is actually cheaper than the energy So Cal Edison is providing right now,” explains Treseder. “The money that they save, we can invest in other energy programs.”

Treseder anticipates the OCPA will generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue annually, which she sees as a means to accomplish item number two on the climate to do list: transitioning to electric vehicles. In addition to electrifying our city’s fleet, she plans to put residents in the drivers seat of EVs. Following a model created in Sonoma County, Treseder foresees car dealership subsidies will help Irvinites drive greener vehicles.

“In other cities where this is set up, people can go in and buy a new EV for nine thousand dollars,” Treseder says. “I really like that because not only does it help green our transportation grid, but it also makes EVs more accessible to people who normally wouldn’t have the means to purchase a car or purchase an EV.”

In order to meet Irvine’s 2030 goal, Treseder knows changes need to be made not just on our roads but also in our homes. She has identified three areas where Irvinites can lower residential greenhouse emissions.

“My stove, my water heater, my central heating — they all use natural gas which contributes to greenhouse gases,” says Treseder. “All the appliances that use natural gas, I need to convert to electric.”

Treseder wants these changes not just in her own home but throughout the city. She says offering incentives to homeowners and business owners to convert their equipment to electric alternatives will help get us closer to carbon neutral. She knows Irvine has a lot of new housing construction in its near future. Her concern with all of this housing go beyond our climate.

“We’ve been assigned to provide over 22,000 affordable housing units by the state of California,” Treseder says. “That’s a lot to add to the city. It’s really important that we do this in a way that new homeowners go to work easily and don’t have a lot of traffic.”

Treseder sees Irvine’s ever-worsening traffic as a major challenge to our city’s future. She thinks public transportation can help ease road congestion.

“If we are careful about how we design public transportation, that could encourage more people to use it,” says Treseder, who envisions light rail as a potential solution to Irvine’s traffic. “It needs to be reliable, it needs to come frequently, it needs to move people through the major traffic corridors. I’m guessing that if we can do those things, people will use it.”

Of course converting people from private cars to shared transit will be a challenge with Southern California’s car culture. But Treseder predicts that eventually people will eagerly ditch their cars for faster alternatives.

“I’m trying to look ahead a decade down the line,” she says. “The traffic is going to be so bad that people will be motivated to switch over to something else. There will be a tipping point for people where they just can’t stand going stop and go all the way to their work.”

In addition to future problems, Treseder she has her sights set on current ones: the All-American Asphalt plant. Treseder says that residents near the north Irvine plant are reporting health effects and say the plant’s emissions are harming their quality of life.

“This plant is emitting noxious fumes every other day or so,” says Treseder. “They’re worried about their kids breathing all this. And yet the city is continuing to develop closer and closer to that plant, putting more people in the way of those emissions. It’s very important that we deal with this issue.”

Treseder has identified not only the plant but also the individuals who knowingly obfuscated the plant’s existence from homebuyers as part of the problem.

“It appears that the people who were selling the homes may have specifically targeted immigrants who may not have English as their first language and so they missed the disclaimers and they didn’t know about the asphalt plant,” says Treseder. “There are a lot of people in that area who are of Asian descent so I see that as an environmental racism issue.”

Treseder points out that as the plant runs night and day, it releases a ton of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. All of these issues have combined to make All-American Asphalt a serious threat to Irvine’s well-being in Treseder’s estimation.

“I want to make sure that plant is shut down as soon as possible,” Treseder says. “It’s legally possible to do that and I would love to push for that if I get elected.”

Of course, getting elected will require this scientist to tackle her first attempt at running for office.

“I feel like I have some idea of what it’s going to be like ,” says Treseder. “I am expecting some negative messaging because our local developers, if they think a candidate is not supportive of them, they will spend a lot of money on negative campaign mailers against them. So we’ll just see if that happens.”

One might think an Irvine developer would like a candidate who wants to make Irvine a more desirable place to live. Apparently, the issue is more complicated than that.

“It’s hard for me to predict,” Treseder admits. “They’re very important stakeholders in the city and I am always willing to sit down at the table with them. But on the other hand I want to make sure I’m independent of the developers and that I am considering all the stakeholders when I make decisions. It just depends on whether they like that or not.”

Treseder says she has no political ambitions beyond wanting to help Irvine residents. As we approach 2030, she wants to see Irvine meet its carbon neutral future in a way that honors our city’s past.

“Irvine has a wonderful master plan that has worked out well for the community,” says Treseder. “We’re in a fortunate position in that we’re growing fast. We can have a thoughtful and equitable plan for the future.”

Learn more about Dr. Kathleen Treseder online.