2008-07-09 Cities for Climate Protection Minutes

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July 9, 2008 Reading Advisory Committee on Cities for Climate Protection Program Committee Notes for July 9, 2008 (Next Meeting - July 23`d at RMLD) Committee Meeting 7:00 PM, present were Michele Benson, Tracy Sopchak, Dave Williams, Bing Xia, Ray Porter, Joan Boegel and Stephanie Anderberg. Meeting opening - Chair Michele Benson opened the meeting. Minutes - A motion was made & seconded to approve minutes of the 6/25 meeting. The motion passed. Report on Sustainability - Ray attended a conference on sustainability - largely focused on water and wastewater, but he did attend some sessions focused on climate change. There were approximately 400 attendees, many of whom were high-ranking within their organizations. The chief environmental officer of Arlington (county) Virginia presented info on the AIRE (Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions). Program highlights include having employees working across boundaries on like interests, and a 10% GHG reduction goal. It looks like some of our efforts are similar to theirs. They do have a surtax on residential utility bills to fund their efforts, allowing for the equivalent of 4 full time paid employees. MPO Update - No updates yet on our grant application status. RCAP Action Items Subcommittee Reports - Dave has looked into the bylaws and reported that they can be amended at Town Meeting by a simple majority. This happens quite often - several times a year. There are some interesting bylaws on topics such as waste removal, leaf burning and wetlands, which may offer some room for "green" text. All bylaws are online. Also, the Mass Energy Bill will change some state codes which had previously restricted towns' ability to do things like LEED standards in building/renovation codes. Possibly town codes might also give us opportunities to insert green language. Cable TV Program - (later, at the end of our meeting, John Surette came to discuss production.) Ray suggests that "Chronicle" might be a good model for us - 1 theme per episode, with three stories related to that theme. There was some discussion over whether to trade "polish" for frequency or vice versa. After our first episode, we will have a better idea of how much we can manage. A first topic could be the related efforts around back-to-school commuting and education. Tracy & Ron will meet to begin storyboarding. i' Energy Bill - MTC funding will now be available to towns with municipal power departments and their customers. The cost of joining is high; RMLD would need to raise funds from ratepayers & there is no guarantee that any of the funded projects would be in RMLD towns. RMLD is looking into similar, smaller programs within our communities, or more likely, conservation measures, which are more effective than renewable efforts. Other Business - Dave did an experiment on idling and determined that for his car, he spends about $1 on gas to idle for one hour - .264 gallons per hour. John Surrette stopped by to brief the committee on how RCTV productions are created.