HomeMy WebLinkAboutSeptember 3ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES COMMITTEE
Meeting Minutes (Approved at the October 1, 2020 EIC Meeting)
Date: September 3, 2020 at 6:30pm
Location: TELECONFERENCE SPECIAL NOTICE
Pursuant to Executive Order N-29-20:
1.Call to Order (roll call)
Attended: Srini Srinivasan, Peter Evans, Steve Schmidt, Aileen Lee, April Anair, Vrinda Bhandarkar
Council Observer: George Tyson
Resident: Anand R, Les Earnest
2.Approval of Minutes
a.Committee voted unanimously to approve Minutes of August Meeting of EIC
3.Topic: EIC agenda for 2021:
Three topics: (1) Undergrounding; (2) GHG inventory; (3) Seminar format for relevant
topics
Steve: Time to update our Climate Action Plan? (Last done in 2015)
Peter's ideas: (1) Resilience microgrid? (2) We are surrounded by mid-pen open space...
should we engage on forestry maintenance practices?
i.Fire district has money (everyone's trying to take it); maybe it could be used for
this? (Note Alan Epstein's op ed!)
Action: Follow-up with Peter on Alan Epstein’s op-ed
4.Topic: Air Quality (Anand)
Air has been bad. Broke record for 17 consecutive days with Spare the Air alerts. This
could be the new normal.
Places where people could go (with air purifiers)? Supplies of masks?
At AirNow, the closest government monitor is in Redwood City. Also have PurpleAir,
crowd-sourced.
Discussed PurpleAir.com and IQair.com maps of local air quality
Srini encouraged Anand to join committee
ACTION: EIC to put up helpful information about AQI tracking links on EIC Website
5.Topic: Undergrounding
Les Earnest: Consider DC network! Proposed 50 volt system. Would be innovative! AC is
old.
i.Steve: Lots of issues with DC safety & cost, but supports fiber optic.
ii.Vrinda: DC works for buildings, but not for distribution over long distances.
iii.George: Interested in DC distribution... looks like China is making great progress
in this area. But his Undergrounding effort is already on shaky ground so not
excited about adding risk.
iv.Les: He's running on DC at his home: Solar PV + batteries. His basic system is DC.
v.Peter: Network will be operated by PG&E. Maybe a pilot project to add DC to
the joint trench...?
vi.April: Key issue is support by PG&E... they would not support a small DC
network.
vii.Peter: Include Les' message in the meeting minutes.
George: Two projects -- two responses to ice breaker project RFP! We have funding to
do initial design of town-wide project. PG&E may redesign the funding of
undergrounding (matching up to $2M per year!).
ACTION: Srini to include Les’s brief in the minutes
6.Topic: What's happening with PSPS notifications? Why did we have outages?
George: Several explanations of the recent outages -- people pick the one that matches
their world view.
Srini: How do we educate LAH residents?
Steve: Correct falsehoods on NextDoor.
Srini: Will ask Jolie to include SVCE on a public education seminar.
George & Aileen: "Tone" of Nextdoor gets really nasty... maybe there's no way to win on
that system?
Peter: Don't comment on Nextdoor by saying "I'm a member of the EIC and...". The
council expects us to be advocates to them.
Srini: We are only advisors to the council "at their pleasure". We have no power. What is
our liability...?
ACTION: Srini to follow-up with Jolie on status of EIC Seminar
7.Topic: GHG Inventory update
City staff is looking for contractor.
Steve: Not a big job.... 40 hours per year... need to find someone to do it long term.
Srini: How do we make sure this gets done?
ACTION: Srini will request copy of RFP
8.Topic: Utility Users Tax
Vrinda: Against a general tax -- needs to be for a specific purpose
George: Higher % vote required for specific purpose taxes
Peter: Also against general fund, should be for a specific purpose and should sunset.
Anand: His big takeaway from Bruce Karney's presentation was that an increased tax on
natural gas wouldn't have much impact on gas use.
Steve: But natural gas is our biggest issue for GHGs. What other options do we have?
We need to take the "all of the above" approach.
ACTION: Srini to drive discussion to resolution
6.Topics of Interest / Open Discussion
7.Next EIC meeting:October 1, 2020
8.Adjournment