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Home My WebLink About04-08-10 Mayor's Community Climate Task Force MinutesMayors' Community Climate Task Force April 8, 2010 6:00p.m. 8:00p.m. Bozeman City Hall Commission Room Members in attendance: Lee Hazelbaker, Dan Stevenson, Mel Kotur, Chris Naumann, Otto Pohl, Mary Cloud Ammons, LeRoy Wilson, Bill Murdock, Kevin Barre, Anders Lewendal Absent Task Force Members: Scott Blschke, John Vincent, Daryl Nourse, Jeff Butler, Dawn Smith City Members: Hattie Baker Sustainability Consultant, Natalie Meyer Climate Protection Coordinator Members of public: Gary Gannon, Tim Schaub, Adrien Tanguay Public Comment 11. Announcements (10 minutes) A. April 8th Repowering Montana's Communities- Presented by AERO (Alternative Energy Resource Organization) Hattie shared plan with group. Helena, Missoula did a presentation. Helena Plan 200 pages, completed in 2009. B. Gallatin Earth Celebration April 18 -24 (Natalie Meyer) GEC is partnership b/w MSU, City of Bozeman and volunteer orgs focused on promoting education, outreach and service. Three main events: Race, Keynote, and City Clean -up. Distribute posters. C. April 19,21,26,28 Transportation Working Group Baker: Lee and Chris are co- chairing. Baker: McKenzie River sponsoring food. 111. Old Business (20 minutes) A. Cacheo Updates- Scott Bischke Baker: Hang -up with website. Still working on RSS feed. Building Energy group info posted. B. YBP Framework Need to vote tonight. Hattie: Glass, why not use Triple R? Mary Cloud: citizens would like to participate in City recycling, collection same time as trash. Would like to support curbside Stevenson: Disclosed that he is on board. Tremendous effort went into the Framework. Three -state effort with best planners in region. Local information. Kotur: Agree it will be useful to have local information and resources. Yes -11 No -0 The Task Force voted to unanimously support the YBP framework as it relates to climate change in the Bozeman Climate Action Plan. IV. New Business (90 minutes) A. Food sponsored by McKenzie River B. Economic Development Council- 2 representatives for May meeting Naumann: Chris is on Advisory Committee. The ED Plan was adopted by Commission and appointed Council to shepherd plan through process. Had 2 -3 meetings so far and will give feedback to City Commission to promote economic development. Baker: Share what climate Task Force working group has developed, it is relevant to economic development. Meeting will be 11:00 3 rd Thursday of month at 11:00. Ammons: It is a permanent group. Murdock: micro businesses are very concerned about sustainability /carbon footprints. It is a major piece of attraction to area. Let them know we are here and have great ideas. Naumann: Municipal Plan should act as attractor. Krauss: Talking about it all the time. Baker: Anders and Naumann will attend, maybe Murdock. C. RBE CBE Recommendations Pohl and Lewendal Co- Chairs. Have list of recommendations. Used criteria from Rocky Mountain Institute. Pohl: Will provide a two minute summary of each. 1) Carbon calculators: Get people excited about reducing. Low cost, low benefit, good for PR visibility, negative might be that it side tracks from high- impact recommendation. Anders: Benchmarking? Pohl: Part of next recommendation. Website could be on City website or elsewhere. Stevenson: Could Home version of Energy Star work? Has home rating system. Hers modeling could work. Anders: Energy star based on "30% more efficient than code so moving target as code improves. Hertz modeling is concrete target. Baker: Who is responsible for maintaining website? Pohl: Make simple for maintenance. Murdock: Considered mandatory or incentive to encourage involvement? Otto: Talk about each one and vote on favorite five recommendations. Awards for energy excellence. 3) Promote NW Energy rebates: Not used 100 Will be helpful, but won't change the world. Low hanging fruit. Stevenson: rebates can be tipping point for improvements. Will have an impact. Kotur: Awareness increasing as people more concerned about climate change and energy prices. Participation increasing. 4) Carbon footprint on energy bill. Mel, can it happen? Kotur: Need tool available for people to access. Need to be available to all customers in MT, not just Bozeman. People could use to compare to friends /neighbors and feel challenged to reduce. Pohl: Running test pilot? What are the chances? Kotur: If it could show some positive benefit. Positive cash analysis. That is how they establish programs. Must show energy savings or lifestyle changes, then Commission supportive. Baker: Can we target Bozeman as a pilot? Anders: How about NE neighborhood? They would be willing. Pohl: Test groups? How do you define cost effective? Kotur: Conserving supply can save them money. Otto: Part of renewable energy portfolio? Kotur: Not exactly. Behavior modification difficult to quantify. Stevenson: Bill display line: "If interested in reducing carbon footprint, go to XX website to learn more about reducing energy bill." Gannon: Synergy between climate awards and the billing and evaluate net energy dropping between cities. Collectively a community reduces. Ammons: We were thinking about a competition. Could bring in neighborhoods award program. Kotur: A lot of communities have Climate Action Plans; a competition would be successful. Green blocks program in Missoula where we offered free energy audits and retrofits in neighborhoods. Develop challenge to get everyone involved in neighborhoods. Successful program. Baker: Heard 7 neighborhoods were involved. Kotur: Downtown has Building Blocks Programs. There are three buildings involved. Get weatherization work done for free and get free advice on energy retrofits. Challenge one another to move forward. 5) Point of Sale Energy Audit. Before sell house you must get an energy audit and make results available to buyers. Equivalent to MPG sticker in a new car. Kotur: Couldn't building inspector add to work? Anders: Radon inspection, mold inspections are all optional, but people complete this work. POS energy audit could be voluntary. People would want this work. Could charge $400 for the audit as voluntary. Real estate industry adds to standard checklist. SWMBIA would like to build relationship with realtors to get this added to checklist. Pohl: Mayor Krauss? Krauss: I will mention it at GARR. Anders: Only homes with checkmark on energy audit will appear in a search for homes. Baker: Voluntary or Mandatory? Pro /Con list. Ammons: What is required? Anders: Lender requires certain pieces. Baker: Advantage of voluntary? Pohl: Politically easier, market determines value, affordable. See spreadsheet Kotur: Opportunity to educate homeowner on efficient operations. Advantage. Krauss: Gives buyer more leverage to negotiate lower price. Lewendal: Owner can acknowledge that he will get a lower price w /out work. Murdock: Audit should not be mandatory. Stevenson: Give buyers relative idea of what they are buying, like MPG for a car. Immediately, not encouraging upstream action. Eventually, people will pay attention to what is happening with their house. Anders: Gives far more information than info provided through utility bill history. Ammons: Can't get a second free audit if the house has received an audit. Le Roy: No disadvantage to seller because they can get one audit for free. Kotur: Some restrictions. Can't do it for new homes or if you have had one since 1992. Adrien: Have index/ range mandatory. Lewendal: What percentage of real estate transactions already involves energy data? Estimate it is already high. Gannon: POS advantage -cost fluctuates during negotiations. Amortize the cost of energy savings. The savings realized by owner means more cash in pocket to spend on local economy. This is an advantage to the City. Have energy audit so aware of energy use in house. Adrien: Seller or buyer pay for it? Gannon: Could be either. Baker: Period of voluntary? Mary Cloud: Could be great adopted and gradually recognized as a great tool and becomes standard practice. 6) Thermal Imaging -will not discuss tonight 7) PACE Legislation: Low interest loan attached to property tax. People, who can't afford the upfront cost, can afford. Anders: asking County or state to participate in recommendation. Krauss: Couldn't do it through General Fund. Would need a district, like lighting districts or SID Anders: We can get you literature. It has been done. Krauss: in MT? Pohl: Need State legislation. Lewendal: Energy efficient mortgages already out there. Otto: not attached to individual, attached to property Naumann: We are simply stating support to State. Murdock: Is our goal to vote on which to include? Baker: Exercise to discuss ideas and prepare to vote 8) Support Architecture 2030 14x legislation: 9) Resource Energy Conservation Ordinance: Boulder made it mandatory for POS energy audit 10) Include refund in net metering program: Anders: Currently encouraged to build down PV systems because they can never recoup surplus energy generated. NW Energy will not pay users back if there is extra energy. Murdoch: Isn't this regulated by the PSC? Kotur: Yes. Adrien: Feed in tariff used in other countries. Kotur: There has been a lot of pressure, no sign of change. Murdoch: If purpose is just to decide whether to keep, then just keep and we will work out implementation later. 11) Energy Conservation Code: 12) Support 2009 IECC Codes 13) Consumption Tax: Taxes always increase, but this would give advantage to those who conserve. The net tax income for City /County would stay the same. Murdoch: Will never vote for this. Krauss: Don't confuse energy costs with costs of government services. Voted to keep for now, will require further discussion. 14) Promote Alternative Energy Communities Murdock: Reference to Fountainhead, Ayn Rand? Anders: Community Solar currently not allowed in park. Adrien: Lots of roof space, why use green space? Mary Cloud: Incentivize the house, not the neighborhood. People will pick climbing boulder over PV systems. Krauss: Some retirement communities may prefer community energy. Murdock: promoting this for new development, not retrofits? Krauss: Would vote for this tomorrow? XXX: Are we currently not allowed? Stevenson: Smart Planning, some measures don't require costs, allow passive solar to happen, orientation on house, Mary Cloud: Confusing phrasing. Difficult for established community. Murdock: Yes, need to say "for new development Krauss: Have affordable housing and impact fees available. 15) Encourage passive solar design in planning 16) Promote Bulk Installation through NCC's Cut deals in bulk. Could be done right now. Installer gives 15% discount if done in single day back to back. Naumann: Want to prioritize list? Murdock: Homework, everyone prioritizes 1 -10 and give to Hattie. Baker: How about High, Medium, Low prioritization. Decided to have everyone take home and rank, then return to Hattie. Later decided not to do homework. Wait until implementation strategy defined. D. Unanimous Consent Discussion Last Climate TF used unanimous consent. Mary Cloud: No Krauss: hard to argue against a diverse group that includes budget driven people, versus ideologically driven people. It is more powerful if all agree. Ammons: Democracy. If someone wants to dissent, then the majority should still be able to move forward. Chris: People should dissent, but then agree to disagree if it is the best decision for group. Le Roy: Agree to disagree. Stevenson: How about a super- majority? Pohl: We figure out the compromise. We iron out the problems and iron -out any political issues. Krauss: Get this group to agree, then more likely to get community to agree. Biggest chance for success is to show you all agree. You have already marginalized the "extremes Ammons: Will agree, but doesn't really believe unanimous consent exists. Baker: Aim for unanimous consent. If it becomes a problem then we will re -visit the issue E. CAP Review V. Meeting A. Actions for Next Meeting (5 minutes) 1. Full Cost Accounting- Gary Gannon Will discuss details at next meeting. Could be of interest to economic development board. Make a decision using only fiscal impacts without evaluating social and environmental then there are ripple effects. Murdoch: Would like a PowerPoint. 2. Education Outreach Anders: One of five states that have adopted the 09 energy codes. Will take re- training for entire industry. Stevenson: Commercial must improve by 35