Energy Advisory Committee

Montpelier Energy Advisory Committee AGENDA 4/18/17 7:00 PM City Hall, Montpelier VT Members: Kate Stephenson (Chair), Dan Jones, Geoff Fitzgerald, Anne Watson, Johanna Miller, Jared Duval, Barry McPhee, Ken Jones, Wavell Cowell, Barbara Conrey, Dan Costin, Rebecca Harris (AmeriCorps VISTA). Public: Hannah Huber, Amy Gamble. 1. Introductions 2. Approve agenda and minutes from prior meeting: Geoff moves to approve agenda, Dan seconds, all in favor. Ken moves to approve last meeting minutes, Barbara seconds, all in favor. 3. Opportunity for public comment:  Kate will check how many members are mandated to be on the committee. There may be open space for more members.  Discussion of open meeting laws 4. Legislative Update (Johanna Miller)  H411 will maintain existing appliance efficiency standards, despite the fact the Trump Administration wants to roll these back.  Governor demonstrated support for 90 by 2050 goal in statue  Carbon pricing o 4 different legislatures introduced tax reform on climate bills, which may include carbon pricing. Rep Hooper is interested in broader tax reform.  Net metering o Go back to public service boards. Limits now are going to stay in place for municipalities. o Governor is not supportive of things that may raise electric rates. Additional solar needs to make sense for GMP. o GMP is a regulated utility that has shareholders. Net metering benefits are shared more broadly. o Important information when forward with wastewater treatment plant.  Can design production schedule to make sense for utility vs. solar 5. Review Energy sections for City Plan  Planning commission is creating an implementation plan. o The energy plan document will first go to the planning commission, the planning commission will aggregate strategies and city council will approve the whole document.  Transportation plan can be the toughest (where does it fit under sections?)  Similarities between electric goals for residential, commercial and municipal.  How do we want to break up the plan? o Regional planning broke down plan by energy use, however members find breaking down the plan by building use type to be clearer.  Have to establish benchmarks  o Regions use LEAP for energy models but this may be in conflict for municipalities. o Regions apportioned renewable energy production based upon percentage of regional population. We are 12.1% of the population and thus we should produce 12.1% of renewable energy.  Benchmarks- megawatt hours per year/ MMBTU. o Eventually we need to translate this document for the public, but now we need to prioritize representing our values.  Who is the authority on particular strategies, who is implementing and who is paying for strategies? Can we determine that for each strategy?  Intro paragraphs may change after shuffling when sections are headed by Municipal, Residential and Commercial. Each working group can contribute to writing the introduction.  Do we have a commercial working group? (Brent and Barbara)  Anne is still spearheading the State section. Next steps: start fleshing out narrative sections in working groups. Lets get deliverable done and than present to the public. 6. Updates from Working Groups a. Planning and Policy b. Residential  Meeting next week c. Transportation  Are we trying to measure what we are saving or what we are consuming?  In the report do we write- after we save 30% what are we consuming and what do we need to compensate with renewables. d. Municipal 7. Other business 8. Adjourn