2011-01-19 Climate Advisory Committee Minutes

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January 19, 2011 Reading Advisory Committee on Cities for Climate Protection Program Committee Notes for January 19, 2011. 7PM (Next Meeting — January 26 at Town Hall) Present were Ray Porter, Dave Williams, Ron D'Addario, Tony Capobianco and Stephanie Anderberg. Meeting opening —Chair Ray Porter opened the meeting. Minutes — The minutes of the December 1 and December 15 meetings were approved. Other Business to add to agenda — Mass Clean Energy, Climate plan for 2020, Outdoor wood boilers, 1 Sky, Advising town manager and BOS on new formats for utility /water bills. Also, Tony updated the committee to say that he applied for the Reading representative position on RMLD CAB. Home Energy Efficiency Actions — There was a blower door test party at the Mini home on 1/15. About 6 -8 friends and neighbors attended. The contractor's presentation is getting smoother with each event. One guest thought he had done almost everything already at his own house, but still learned of more actions he could take, so the presentation seemed to be a success. The Mini home fared well in the testing, but some leaks were found, such as in closets. Because the outdoor temps were so cold, the IR cameras worked very well with good contrast in colors. The IR camera screens will be hard for large crowds to view, so we may need some strategies for the Mattera cabin parry, such as dividing the crowds up in different areas so each group can view the screen's read of a different part of the building. Joe Green has some report data on the first blower door party. We need to get copies of this for each event, to keep for our grant reporting. The next blower door party is at the Barrett house on 1/22, with Gina. Then at the Mattera cabin on 1/29 at 9am. Joan will use grant funds to get refreshments. The grant write - up is due in mid - February. Business 1 -2 -3 Pledge — Green roundtable: we have a draft announcement and need to set up a meeting with Reading Coop to confirm the approach and agenda for the business energy roundtable event on March 17 (7 -9 am breakfast event). We also need to confirm Jared's availability and get a speaker from the state. Climate outreach programs — No updates. Actions items progress update — School climate change education: No response from teachers. MassRides: no updates. Green Sense: Some articles are in the works. There was a discussion of whether we need a subcommittee to write some guidelines for article topics, or perhaps topics which may be sensitive could be discussed within the committee meetings. Dave is working on an article about Massachusetts Clean Energy and Climate Plan 2020. The article would tell people that the plan exists and discuss some of the actions in the plan that might also be implemented by individuals in their own lives. Another possible article topic could be the pros and cons of biomass energy — particularly outdoor wood burners. Ray has some magazine articles he could lend to anyone interested in writing the article. No updates for Community No- Idling or Municipal Energy Efficient Buildings /Green Communities. Other Business — The first two topics had been covered under Green Sense, above. 1 Sky: There was a conference call later in the evening regarding house parties to discuss climate action. Ron was volunteering to host a house party on February 2. Utility bills: other towns have some interesting additional information on their electric and/or water bills that Reading should consider adding to theirs. For example, an electric bill could include information about how a household's energy usage compares to an average Reading household. The water bills show usage in terms of cubic feet, but all of the other water conservation information is in terms of gallons — it would make more sense to the customers if both sets of information were in gallons, for comparison purposes. How can the committee effect these changes? We might want to talk with the Town Manager and the Board of Selectmen on that. Also we could include copies of sample bills from other towns, in our communications to them (and possibly to RMLD). We should also look for other opportunities to advise the town on climate issues as that is part of our purpose. We could check'the Town Meeting Warrant for items of interest.