HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 01/17/2012South Burlington Energy Committee January 17, 2012 Meeting Notes
Don Cummings, the Committee Chair, convened the meeting at 7 PM. Attendees: Don Cummings (Chair), Laura Waters (Vice Chair), Marcy Murray, Sam Swanson, Marc
Companion, Keith Epstein, Steve Crowley, and Paul Conner. Guests attending: Anna Sommer, Sophie Quest and Efficiency Vermont's Tim Perrin
Sam Swanson volunteered to take notes
The Energy Committee reviewed and adopted the minutes for the December 15, 2011 meeting
(presented below).
City Staff Updates - Paul Conner -
• New Staff: the City has a new Project Director, Olana Blanchard, who will focus on implementing
projects
• Route 7 Park and Ride - There will be a community workshop in February. The Park n Ride
committee will advise the consultant studying options. The consultant will report any
recommendations to the City Planning Commission that will in turn advise the City Council. The
City Council is responsible for deciding whether to implement specific projects.
• Municipal Building Energy Upgrade Grant Status - US DOE has requested that the funds be
obligated or that the City request an extension by January 19. The City is evaluating whether
mold in the existing City office building structure is reason to not proceed with the heating system
upgrade. This includes $10 thousand from the "outreach" component that was committed to the
heating system upgrade. This decision is pending. If the heating system upgrade does not go
forward, the funds will be committed to implementing other efficiency improvements
recommended by the audit performed by Allen Bullis. We will learn more in February.
• Chittenden County grant for solar system education and condo efficiency - Paul indicated that the
solar tracker project has been abandoned and asked whether the funds should be released back
to the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission for others to use. After discussing
options, the Energy Committee decided to ask the school district if they could implement the
project that included funding for education. Marcy Murray will consult with Steve Crowley and
proceed with asking the school system whether they want to implement this project. The work
must be complete by September 2012. The Energy Committee also discussed the condo
efficiency improvement project; steps are underway to invite bids for this work. The condo
improvement project must also be completed by September 2012.
Project Updates
• Comprehensive Plan: Goals, Objectives & Targets
The Committee discussed at length how to define the energy goals in the draft City plan in terms
that would enable the City to focus efforts and to evaluate progress. The Committee discussed
what metrics to use, whether to use some measure of energy consumption or the climate change
emissions that result from energy efficiency. The draft plan calls for action to reduce energy use
and to increase renewable energy production.
The Committee noted that the County ECOS project planned to publish metrics that may be
useful with in the next month.
The Committee discussed whether to set the goal at a level we were confident could be met or at
a level that would require a strong effort, i.e., "a stretch goal." The Committee decided to offer a
stretch goal recognizing that the goal would be revisited periodically in light of information on
progress and need: 20 % reduction by 2020.
The Committeed discussed what metric to use, energy use or carbon dioxide-equivalent
emissions associated with energy use. The Committee developed a goal statement that
integrated energy use and carbon dioxide emissions measures.
The Committee adopted the following goal statement: "Achieve a reduction of 20% in carbon
dioxide-equivalent emissions from 2009 levels by 2020 through an increase renewable
energy production and reductions in energy use in the following sectors: transportation,
commercial/industrial, residential, municipal/school."
the Committee provided this statement to Paul Conner for integration into the draft Long Range
South Burlington Plan.
the Committee explicity stated that the Committee would reassess this goal statement periodically
in response to new information on energy use in South Burlington, carbon dioxide equivalent
emissions associated with energy use, and progress being made in South Burlington toward this
goal. The Committee observed that such periodic reassessments were important because
monitoring energy use and related emissions is a new City endeavor.
• LED Street Lamp replacement project: Marc Companion committed to working with Olana, the
City's new project manager, to move this project forward while Don Cummings, who has led this
initiative, is out of town.
Next regular meeting: The Committee will meet next on Thursday, February 16, from 7 PM to 8:30 PM
at the City Offices. Because the current Committee Chair, Don Cummings, will be out of town next month,
Vice Chair Laura Waters will chair the meeting.
The meeting adjourned at 8:55 PM