Environmental Sustainability Council

Environmental Sustainability Council/Energy Transition Subcommittee Meeting Agenda October 19, 2023❖7:30pm 300 Park Ave, Council Chambers, Falls Church, Virginia 22046 • Call to Order and Roll Call Atteendees: ESC Members: Joseph Schiarizzi, (Chair), Jon Ward (Vice-Chair, ETS Chair), Michael Trauberman, Jennifer Tabola, Andrew Crawford, John Ferris, Christopher Behr, Matthew Cunningham, Sarah Baylon Student Representatives: Haiden Cusig (Spelling?), Ali Sigorski (?), Ally Campbell, Gia Kahn, Serena Binkowski, Clementine Kim, Lilja Anderson, Wendy Abstone, City Staff: Andrew Young (ESC Staff Liaison). ICF: Fiona Wissell, Robin Ramey and Susan Elliot. • Approval of September 21, 2023 ESC Meeting Minutes Joseph proposed one edit to reflect that the comments on the Clinton Project were submitted to the Planning Commission and not the City Council. Jon Ward also proposed edits regarding Public RIPs were submitted to Andy and Matthew noted that DC is providing tax incentives for E-bikes (not the Federal government). John Ferris moved to approve the minutes of the ESC meeting of September 21, 2023, with the proposed edits. Jon Ward second the motion. Motion to approve the minutes with the edits was approved unanimously. • Community Energy Action Plan (CEAP) Andy updated the ESC on the process to obtain comments from the community since the September 21, 2023 ESC meeting. The Plan focusses on the where the majority of the emissions are coming from: transportation and buildings. Plan has 5 core strategies: • Enhancing car-free alternatives • Accelerating the shift to electric vehicles • Improving efficiency and electrification in existing buildings • Minimizing impacts of new development • Increasing on site solar adoption As of 2022, the City of Falls Church has 274 electric vehicles out of 11,439 registered vehicles. 4 Barriers to reaching 2030 goal: • Short time period until 2030, • Scale of adoption needed to go further is beyond end-of-life replacement (reductions will need equipment replacement before end-of-life), • On-road Emissions,  • City will grow between now and 2030. Chris commented on the potential to utilize the new growth to demonstrate (possibly in a side bar) that the people moving to Falls Church produce less emissions than if they stayed in their previous location. Andy received additional comments on the potential costs for the emission reductions. The revisions of the Plan will be anchored around 4 items: • One-stop shop for education and support, • Include a dedicated source of funding, • Existing environmental and sustainability capacity of the City with existing resources, • Adding to the City Council Workplan recommendations o provide EV Charging Support o building improvements campaign o tax incentives o micro-mobility support ESC recommends the Plan should be reviewed every 2 to 3 years. Feedback on additional options (tree canopy) but the plan focusses on the steps necessary to provide reductions from where the majority of emissions are occurring. Based in a question from Chris, Andy noted that he will be receiving the model from the contractor to get a better understanding of the assumptions, including something the ESC can track. Mike noted that the benefit of having the model would allow us to work with the assumptions to achieve the 80% reduction (what would it take to reach these goals?). Andy noted that the transportation emission models are based as a subset of Fairfax County transportation emissions. Matthew recommended using the Rewiring America website (identifies potential tax credits), Active Score Certification (use in voluntary concessions process), try to push heat pump from the start, and tax incentives. Andy clarified the plan includes 3 potential areas for tax incentives: 1) use of personal property tax on vehicles as a way to enhance electric, 2) commercial redevelopment tax incentives, and 3) tax credit for rooftop solar to make it more useful. Matthew noted the cost difference for the cost difference for replacing an air conditioning unit with a heat pump, and whether the City could provide a tax credit, rebate or grant to assist with such conversion. Jon commented that a key goal of the CEAP is to accelerate decarbonization beyond the rate that utilities achieve. The fact that the VCEA, if it remains in effect, will gradually decarbonize the grid and thus reduce the 'carbon abatement value' of vPPAs is not a good reason to de-emphasize them. After all, the CEAP encourages rooftop solar and energy efficiency, and the 'abatement value' of those will also drop as Dominion decarbonizes its electricity sources. Also, if MWCOG's GHG-accounting challenges with the risk of double-counting are a reason not to do something, this risk will almost surely apply to private rooftop solar owners, who can sell their SRECs to Dominion, likely leading to double counting. Despite this, private rooftop PV will be (at least for the foreseeable future) a net improvement beyond what the VCEA mandates, as would an offsite VPPA, regardless of the accounting challenges. Jon mentioned that he would send the following comments: Removing two sections of text from the pg. 30 box: "At this time, the City is prioritizing the adoption of onsite renewables within the city rather than pursuing the development of offsite renewables through a community-level virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA). Onsite projects lead to direct emission reductions through reduced electricity consumption, provide additional community benefits (e.g., solar installation jobs, reduced electric bills), and can be completed in the short-term. Conversely, offsite renewable projects in the region face significant barriers, including development delays and competition for renewable energy certificates credits.Moreover, the carbon abatement value of a VPPA will decline over time as the grid-supplied electricity decarbonizes in line with VCEA requirements. The City will consider studying the cost-effectiveness of such an option. An additional factor for prioritizing onsite renewables in the short term is that the current GHG inventory methodology does not incorporate the impact of offsite contractual agreements; the City will continue to discuss potential methodology revisions with MWCOG to address this." Mike proposed that the ESC supports the revision of the 2050 goal from 80% to carbon neutral. Mike noted that Councilmember Hiscott and Hardy discussed it and at least one other council member supports it. Joseph noted that the proposed plan does not meet the 80% reduction and we don’t have a plan to get us to be carbon neutral. Andy commented that the Plan does not meet the 80% reduction, so the Plan is separate from the 80% or potential carbon neutral goal. Mike added that the state of Virginia’s goal is net zero by 2045, and that Arlington and Fairfax Counties have changed their goals to net zero/carbon neutral. After a significant amount of discussion on the proposed goals and the timing of the completion of the Plan, Joseph proposed that: • Joseph, Jon and Mike will talk to City Council members to add a resolution to change the goal in their meeting on November 17 • Request that Andy modify the CEAP based on the new goals • A proposed resolution (attached) to document the resolution. Jon noted that greenhouse gas emissions includes leakage of methane and HFCs, while carbon neutrality is just the CO2 component. The COG data is based on greenhouse gas emissions. After reading the resolution, Joseph proposed a motion that the ESC adopt the resolution (attached). Jon second the motion. The resolution was passed unanimously. • Public Comments: There were no public comments. • ESC Input to 2024 Legislative Agenda • Andy reviewed a draft 2024 Legislative Priorities from ESC draft document, which is based on the 2022 submission. Andy did not think we had until the November meeting to provide to provide this input to City Council. • Mike reviewed the ESC equivalents in Arlington and Alexandria. Mike noted the need to add of Clean Cars Virginia Act, local authority to establish codes beyond the state energy code, including the International Energy Conservation Code, support electrification of school and transit buses, direct Dominion to not allow an extension of the use of fossil fuel plants, and enhance competition in renewable energy market, making manufacturers of single use plastics responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products, allow Dominion to provide loans to its customers for the purchase of new low energy appliances then include the payback on their energy bill, and stop shareholder owned and regulated utilities from using rate payer dollars to lobby state legislature. • Joseph added support for stopping the use of rate payer dollars for lobbying and the responsibility of manufactures who use single use plastics to be responsible for the lifecycle of their products. • Mike will review the proposal and send to ESC for review. • Subcommittee/Liaison Report-Outs o City Council – Council Member Debbie Hiscott. No report o Planning Commission – Tim Stevens. No report o Habitat Restoration Task Group – UFC Chair Amy Crumpton No report o Education Task Group – Sarah Bayldon. No Report o Energy Transition Subcommittee – Jon Ward Jon requested that the ESC receive an update on the energy performance monitoring at the new High School. Jon notified Andy and Joseph that he will not be renewing his ESC term when his term ends in February. o Staff - Liaison – Andy Young • The city completed the purchase of Solar Renewable Energy Credits, bought from a broker on the national market. They are solar RECs. • New energy management software purchase was funded to help the city review energy use. • Budget amendment to use surplus 120,000 energy action plan, including half from school board. • 50K for CEAP for a program to offer commercial building energy audits. • Cherry Hill demonstration project for energy. Short call in November. City is trying to bring together historic preservation and energy savings. Demonstrate that such audits can be done in other houses. Andy to send invited to interested ESC members, including student reps are encouraged to notify Andy to take part in the Cherry Hill Farm House energy audit. The intent is to get people excited to do the same at their house. • Joseph and Andy to ask Amy to plan an invasive plan removal “Invasive Plan Pull” project. Adjourn