Energy Advisory Committee

Montpelier Energy Advisory Committee Meeting Montpelier City Hall October 17, 2017 Attendance: Members: Kate Stephenson, Chair; Jared Duval, Vice Chair; Amy Gamble; Dan Costin; Councilor Anne Watson; Cara Robechek; Geoff Fitzgerald; Dan Jones; Barbara Conrey; Karl Johnson; Chris Damiani, Tim Terway Approval of September Meeting Minutes: Dan C. moves to approve September minutes. Dan J. seconds. Passes unanimously. Approval of Agenda: Geoff moves to approve the proposed agenda. Cara seconds. Passes unanimously. Public Comment: None Home Tour/Button Up Update: Four homes have been lined up for this year’s home tour: 10/21, 11/4, 11/7 and 11/11. Button Up/EVT will pay for one ad to go in the next issue of the Bridge. Posters are almost ready, event listings will go in The Bridge, Seven Days and Times Argus. Dan suggested buying Facebook ads and posting to Front Porch Forum. Volunteers from MEAC are needed to help welcome guests at each tour. Button Up has provided 250 LED bulbs for distribution by MEAC. Two tabling events are planned at upcoming farmers markets on 10/28 and 11/18. Volunteers are needed for tabling. Button Up materials will be distributed and residents will be asked to make a pledge to Button Up in exchange for receiving a free bulb. GUEP Finalist Update and Reporting: Montpelier has been named a Finalist for the Georgetown University Energy Prize. Kate and Barbara worked on a 2 page Executive Summary which was submitted to GUEP yesterday by Bill Fraser. We should hear by the end of December about the winner. Once we get permission from GUEP we can issue a press release about our finalist status. MEAC does not expect Montpelier has a chance of winning, but it turns out the judging is not just on energy reductions but also on a variety of other factors such as innovation. The $5 million dollar prize is not actually a cash prize but involves financing assistance, consulting, and training. Work group updates: Residential: Needs to meet. Will follow up on modern wood heat outreach initiative. Policy and Planning: Zoning re-write is moving forward in Council; they will devote their whole next meeting to zoning. Master Plan/Energy Plan will continue in parallel. MEAC will plan to present to Council in November once the municipal metrics are updated (Geoff and Kate). Transportation: The Transportation Infrastructure Committee (MTIC) met to discuss how to use its funding more strategically. They are looking at getting a grant for 5 possible sidewalk projects identified in the Montpelier in Motion plan. Anne suggested looking at the pedestrian connection between the Park and Ride and the bike path, which is currently dangerous and involves crossing the railroad tracks. Dan C. is working with the police department on a proposal for installing idling reduction equipment in police cruisers. Tim is working on data visualization based on the American Community Census transportation data. Cara is working with school board members and parents to address the lack of bussing and explore electric school bus options. Anne would like to meet with members interested in exploring supplying biodiesel or biodiesel blend to the municipal fleet. Barbara has discussed with Mike Miller (Planning Director) the possibility of a streetscape design project for State/Elm/Langdon that would incorporate the Rialto Bridge project, and encouraged the Transportation Working Group to find out more about that project. Municipal: The municipal energy audit project team (including Kate and Barbara) had a kickoff meeting on Oct 4th with consultants from Cx Associates and Zero By Degrees. They discussed logistics around doing blower door testing in each building, to be done in off-hours, probably early mornings. A city staff person will need to be present to unlock buildings and turn HVAC systems on and off. Testing is expected to take place over the next few weeks, and a full audit report is expected by end of December. Geoff has been coordinating with ESG on an outreach strategy in anticipation of a bond vote on the Organics to Energy project next March. He expects to hear back from ESG soon on the outcome of their Project Development Agreement. The municipal working group is planning to coordinate a series of articles in local papers, letters to the editor, and FPF postings to educate Montpelier residents about the project prior to the vote. Modern Wood Heat Outreach Initiative: The committee discussed the presentation last month by Jeff Rubin. Members were generally in favor of collaborating but want to know more details before officially committing to anything. The residential working group will meet to follow up to clarify exactly what Jeff would expect from MEAC. Members suggested that the “Drive for 105” slogan was not very clear, that we should consider promoting other bioheat options (like biodiesel) in addition to wood/pellets, and that the outreach should also highlight available incentives that can make installing modern wood heat cost competitive with fossil fuels. Other business: Membership: MEAC member Wavell Cowan has stepped down from the Committee. Metrics: Anne would like to convene a group to explore options for how Montpelier can track metrics related to the Net Zero goal. Potentially we could issue an RFP to potential service providers, or partner with a university or VEIC to develop a methodology so we know what to track and how. Policy Pitch: Jared encouraged MEAC members to consider submitting ideas to the EAN policy pitch (due Friday 10/19). They are looking for statewide policy ideas that could be presented to the legislature via the governor’s Climate Action Commission. Form to submit ideas is at http://eanvt.org/pitch_submission_form_november_2017_summit/. Secretary for November meeting: Ken Jones. Dan J. moved to adjourn at 8:35pm. Dan C. seconded. All in favor.