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Town of Reading
Meeting Minutes
Board - Committee - Commission - Council:
Climate Advisory Committee
Date: 2016 -05 -11
Building: Reading Town Hall
Address: 16 Lowell Street
Purpose: Bi- monthly meeting
Attendees: Members - Present:
Time: 7:00 PM
'NG. MASS.
Location: Conference Room
Joan Boegel, member; Ron D'Addario, member and chair; David Zeek,
member; Jeff Everson, associate member; Laurie Ann Sylvia, member; Gina
Snyder, associate member
Members - Not Present:
Ray Porter, member
Others Present:
David Williams
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Joan Boegel
Topics of Discussion:
• Review and Approval of Meeting Minutes.
o Minutes of the April 27th meeting were reviewed and approved with minor
revision.
• RCTV
o David Zeek and Gina left the meeting to represent the Climate Advisory
Committee at RCTV "Meet your Committees" night.
• Council on Aging
o Ron stated that Gina will provide Jane Burns with a short paragraph
describing the program of assisting Senior Citizens with energy audits for the
Council on Aging newsletter.
o Ron will be the contact person for this program.
• Future Meetings
o Presentation to Board of Selectmen - May 17
• Presentation will be done by Ron and David Zeek due to Ray's business
travel conflict.
• The Committee reviewed presentation slides prepared by Laurie Ann using
photos and other input from committee members.
• Ideas for Action Plan and Collaboration with RMLD
• Jeff Everson provided a hand -out about Solar in Brookline, Wellesley and
Belmont.
• Ron suggested that we should invite David Talbot from RMLD Board of
Commissioners to one of our meetings to get their input.
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• Laurie Ann explained that the RMLD Board sets policy and instructs the RMLD
Integrated Resources department on direction.
• Jeff asked whether RMLD has any plans to divest from oil -fired power plants. -
Currently, the RMLD website states that source of RMLD electricity is 27% oil.
• Laurie Ann noted that RMLD decided not to join the Renewable Energy Trust
(RET) because once in, the commitment is permanent. RMLD is concerned about
keeping costs down for its customers.
Note: At this point Gina and David Zeek returned from RCN.
• Gina described some of the history of the Green Communities program. The
four -town issue was one of the barriers to RMLD joining the RET.
• Gina mentioned that RMLD is planning to build a 2 to 2.5 MW gas peaking plant.
• There was discussion of battery technology, e.g. Tesla battery, that could help
with peak demand reduction.
• Gina stated that David Talbot was interested in communication of peak demand
days so that RMLD customers can respond by limiting electricity use during peak
hours.
• The Committee discussed and agreed on the following strategy.
• Ron, David Zeek and Jeff will get together and develop 3 - 5 bullet points
for discussion. These points are likely to include: (1) Green Community,
(2) Solar - Residential and Community Shared Solar, and (3) Batteries for
peak demand reduction
• Invite David Talbot and current Reading representative to RMLD Citizens'
Advisory Board (Laurie Ann will find out who that is) to attend a Climate
Advisory Committee meeting.
• Make a presentation to RMLD Board with proposed actions
Administrative
• Joan plans to step down as member and as Secretary at the end of June.
• Ron will step down as Chair at the end of June.
• Election for new Chair and Secretary will be held at the June 22nd meeting.
The meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m.
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• Administrative
o Ron announced that he will step down as Chair when term expires in June and
Joan will step down as voting member /secretary. Others should consider
stepping into these roles.
o The meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m.
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