Energy Advisory Committee

Montpelier Energy Advisory Committee January 20, 2015 Memorial Room Attending: Tim Shea, Barry McPhee, Dan Costin, Dan Jones, Anne Watson, Becky Wigg, Barbara Conrey, Keil Corey, Geoff Fitzgerald, Bill Chisdey, Robert Dostis, Andi Colnes, Paul Markowitz, Cara Robechek, Theo Fedder, Jane Pekol Meeting began at 7:06 Motion to approve December minutes Seconded Approved unanimously Project updates Solar: Geoff has been in contact with Mike Miller and the attorney for the project. They are in the back and forth stage with groSolar about template. Work in progress. Municipal consumption: Barbara gave an update on behalf of Scott and Andrew. The spreadsheets are coming along but need a little more clarification. They met with Sandy Gallup, who will be able to help get numbers. Electric information will come from Green Mountain Power. Overall, it’s coming together. Cara: we have school data from school energy challenge Anne: Cindy Rossi would have reimbursement figures for transportation at school. It’s the only way there’d be a record of it. Andi: And at EAN we have estimated data as part of dashboard that we can share. Becky: once we have it, what are we doing with it? Barbara: that is something we talked with Sandy about, setting it up in a form that they can continue to update it every 5 months or so. Anne: Council members get quarterly reports of statistics, we could have similar reports Workshops: Paul gave an update: great turnout, lots of questions! The ad in the Bridge really helped. Next scheduled for Feb 12 on heat pumps. Members will put up more posters; Paul will look into ads in the paper. Becky: would be really cool to have open house of a close-to-net-zero house. Dan: I’ll offer my place. Paul will ask Li Ling if she works with anyone in area who has a net zero home. Green Mountain Power update: At a meeting with Tim and Andi, GMP confirmed a 10 e-house pilot. Next steps are to confirm which houses we’re doing. Ideally, across the gambit, all types of folk. Send the message that it’s accessible. No need to wait. We can start producing outreach and marketing materials. Becky: don’t we have list of those who did energy pledge and a list from phone calls and sign-up sheets for net zero kick-off? 2015 goals discussion Members looked at list of potential projects and goals for 2015 and flagged favorites. Paul: this process seems truncated. What about a retreat to figure this with a longer discussion? Tim: after talking about that last time we decided to go this route and have this discussion now to speed up process. Anne: But if someone wants to be the champion of one goal then why not go for it? If it’s not at odds with something else, why not? Tim: But overall, what are our goals? Anne: well I know what I am going to do. Rental property focus. If we’re going to reach net zero and 40.5% of units are rental with a very low vacancy rate, there’s no mechanism for landlords to update. I’m interested in developing mechanism, sticks or carrots. Becky: Paul, do you have resources for us to go through this more thoroughly? Paul: we’ll talk. Becky: we can multitask, too… Barry: we’ve already gone through strategic planning process. Paul: not everything needs to freeze, but benefit of a longer process is this is a long term effort and then a record is in place for future people who work on this. We’ll be working as a team not just on personal projects. Dan: we could use technical assistance from DOE letter to help us in this process. Andi: The threads I’m hearing…let’s identify the most compelling things we have leadership on and continue…let’s complete longer term planning, but how to do all of this while respecting volunteer time? ….and what resources do we have? Paul said he might look and I’m happy to offer some from EAN. Members volunteered for specific projects: Rental properties – Anne, Cara, Barry, Barbara, Becky, Geoff Launch party, and other outreach events (op-eds, videos) – Existing outreach committee, Paul, and Andi through Brighter Vermont Climate Action Champion resources – Andi, Tim E-homes program – Geoff, Andi, Tim Other transportation coordination group – Tim, Dan C Zoning update and Net Zero – Barbara Solar RFP – Existing subcommittee School solar RFP – Ken, Anne Workshop series - Paul Baseline data – Scott, Andrew, Barbara, Dan C, Barbara’s students Strategic planning – Andi, Tim, Barry, Paul Members discussed lackluster response to Georgetown University Energy Prize announcement and possibility of hosting outreach or events to mark it. Tim updated committee on transportation coordination committee. The plan is to meet quarterly to discuss overlap in Bike, Parking, Pedestrian and Energy Committee’s work. Dan C updated committee on AOT money inquiry: got approval to send letter. Dan also shared insights from tabling at farmers market: city to city function on Go Vermont website, new buses in Vermont, poor conditions of public facilities, no bus shelters for greyhound bus, poor shelters at park-and-ride. Dan is interested in looking into who controls these facilities, where does budget come from? Andi: We should ask Jessie to update us on Carr Lot at next meeting. Cara: does everyone know that CarShare is bringing a couple of cars to Montpelier? Becky volunteered to help as needed. Tim mentioned that he is going to talk with large landowners about Net Zero Montpelier. Becky offered to inquire about District Heat tour for committee. Keil updated committee on Years of Living Dangerously showing. He’s gotten positive feedback on venue from Sweet Melissa’s and will keep group posted. Barbara introduced the interns: Alex Coache and Amanda Rochon, seniors in sustainable design program who will be working on benchmark data project. One other student, Kellan La Pearle will work with them. Tim updated on 3 committee vacancies. Anne: this is a large committee; there is space for non voting members or second tier members of who we go to if we need volunteers. Tim brought up outreach: how we can use social media to our advantage? Tim met with Ashley of Montpelier Alive which has potential avenues for outreach. Andi: Brighter Vermont can help promote. Keil and Hannah can help post on the Facebook page. Meeting ended at 8:38