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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 03/06/20241 South Burlington Energy Committee Meeting Minutes March 6, 2024 Committee members present: Brittany Baldwin, Steve Crowley, Keith Epstein, Fred Kosnitsky, Ethan Goldman, Marley Hauser, Sam Lipschutz, Carrie McLaughlin, Rob Meader, Tim Perrin (Chair), MJ Reale (Vice Chair) Committee members absent:, Frans Van Boden City staff present: Lou Bresee, Nick Atherton City council member present: Andrew Chalnick Community member present: Glenn McRae (online) Guest presenters: Debbie New, Richard Donnelly Convene: Tim called the meeting to order at 6:35 PM. MJ volunteered to serve as scribe. Committee comments not related to the meeting agenda – none Minutes. Keith motioned to adopt the minutes from the February meeting and Fred seconded. The members voted unanimously to adopt the minutes. Vermont Community Thermal Networks (VCTN) – Debbie New, Coordinator of VCTN presented information about their work. https://www.vctn.org/getting-started-resource Richard Donnelly from Shelburne Energy Committee and VGS participated in the presentation. The presentation was about how “network heat” can omit fossil fuels for groups of buildings. Geothermal ground source energy is an alternative to air source heat pumps. VCTN has a tool kit and will be participating in a VECAN webinar on March 13. https://vecan.net/event/winter-webinar-how-to-develop-a-thermal-energy- network/ The committee participated in a discussion related to costs, benefits, geology and harnessing wasted heat. We talked how this could work for developers and municipalities. What is the return on investment and related timeline? What are the regulator issues? Needs for furthering this work include, workforce development, financing and policy changes. There are currently Vermont bills under review: https://legislature.vermont.gov/bill/status/2024/S.252 https://legislature.vermont.gov/bill/status/2024/H.669 State of VT EV charging standards – The group continued the discussion from the January and February meetings. Since the last meeting, Nick had been in contact with the Planning Commission (PC) who requested that SBEC provide more feedback. A subcommittee with Keith, Carrie, Rob, Steve, Ethan was formed. Most of that group and Andrew met with Nick to further reviewed and discuss the RBES and CBES EV parking standards. A letter was produced for the full committee to reviewed at this meeting. Details were discussed related to capable vs. ready, cost data and clarity, timelines, equity/access. 2 Sam made a motion to have Keith revise the letter based on the discussion and further input as needed from Nick and subcommittee. The letter can be sent through Nick to Planning Commission, noting it is a working document with more research forthcoming. Carrie seconded the motion and the group approved. Andrew suggested that SBEC present to the PC in order to inform the related LDRs. The EV charging letter is in the shared folder - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_dK24aFxnke_KnYTz18uv9aaj0YHGCSR ACTION: Keith, Nick and subcommittee will finalize the letter for presentation to PC. 2024 Community Engagement Events Book discussions Fred reviewed the upcoming March 21 book discussion event. Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson MJ and Keith have promoted this on FPF, TOP, city newsletter, SBEC newsletter. ACTION: MJ and Keith will repeat promo on FB and FPF. Nick reported that he reached out to Paris Marx, author of Road To Nowhere and he is able to join us for a November event. https://roadtonowherebook.com/ ACTION: Nick will further coordinate with Library and author. SBEC will discuss promotion at future meetings. Workshops Rob updated the group on the February 20 EV event. 12 people from the community came to the event - in partnership with VEEP (Vermont Energy Education Program) and DriveElectric VT. Each person was very engaged with discussion. The group discussed whether we should have our own heat pump event or work again with VEEP. There is heat pump event in Shelburne that we can promote. ACTION: MJ will find out when these heat pump events are and she and Keith will promote them. ACTION: Rob will look further into what VEEP offers for heat pump event. Movie nights The group revisited the idea of having energy/climate movies for the community. Marley will connect with the library regarding using the auditorium and accessing the films. She will review the list of movies previously discussed. ACTION: MJ will provide Marley with movie list and Library contacts. ACTION: Marley will review list and contact Library. Community Games Rob, Steve and Ethan had ideas that could engage the community on in person game related to climate. Wedges Game: https://cmi.princeton.edu/resources/stabilization-wedges/the-wedges-game/ Community Coalition 3 Nick and MJ met with representative from the firm that manages the city’s newsletter platform. There are options on this platform that can help us grow the list. MJ has connected with Andy and Andrea about creating a template with the look and feel of the city newsletter and using our SBEC logo. Adjourn: Meeting adjourned approximately at 8:45pm. Next Regular Meeting: Wednesday, April 3, 2024 at 6:30pm.