HomeMy WebLinkAboutJune 4ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES COMMITTEE
Regular Meeting Minutes
Date: June 4, 2020 at 6:30pm
Location: TELECONFERENCE SPECIAL NOTICE
Pursuant to Executive Order N-29-20:
Note: All votes shall be made by roll call and individual votes will be stated in the minutes
1. Call to Order (roll call) (Quorum = 4)
a. Co-Chairpersons: Srini Srinivasan (SrS), Jolie Wu (JW)
b. Members:
April Anair (AA), Peter Evans (PE), Pat Lang (PL), Aileen Lee (AL), Steve Schmidt (StS)
c. Council Liaison: Michelle Wu (MW)
d. Town Councilmember: George Tyson (GT)
e. Residents: Sasha Zbrozek (SZ), Anand Ramachandran (AR)
f. Public: John Supp (JS)
2. Agenda Review
a. Undergrounding topic was moved to first on the agenda due to GT’s time constraint.
b. May meeting minutes review: Draft was not received in time to properly review, will be
reviewed at July meeting for approval.
3. New Business
a. SVCE updates
i.JS of Silicon Valley Clean Energy provided updates on SVCE’s current programs that
addresses reducing carbon footprint and reducing electricity usage by residents.
Housekeeping: Councilmember Courtenay Corrigan is the Primary, but LAH currently
does not appear to have an alternate.
Main topics discussed were residential electric heat pump purchase rebates and SVCE’s
goal toward a virtual power plant concept. Los Altos Hills participates in SVCE and we
get a Board seat. As of today, SVCE customers have save $50M over PG&E. SVCE has
invested $1B in long term Renewable Energy contracts (Wind, Solar, Storage and
Geothermal). Energy use decreased by 10% since COVID. SVCE is in good financial
position with respect to reserves.
a. Customer Facing Programs: SVCE has an electric Heat Pump rebate program.
Resource list is on both SVCE site and BAYREN site. $2000 rebate = 30% -
50% discount off equipment purchase. In LAH, JS answered that only one
resident (StS) has used the rebate program thus far.
b. eHub is a site that promotes education and benefits.
c. Virtual power plant concept
a.SVCE wants to send signals to help residents save money by
recharging at appropriate time.
b.Enables customers to support SVCE's need.
d. MDA for Solar
b. EIC Educational Series
i.JW presented proposal and requested approval by EIC to move forward with
Educational Series. StS seconded. Approved almost unanimously (AA, PE, AL, StS, SrS,
JW. Did not capture PL’s vote as she was not on video). MW informed that Sarah
Robustelli is a good contact to connect to LAH youths for their involvement in Series. If
Series intends to use Town resources, MW advised to request Council consent via
Consent Calendar route.
ii.Discuss potential topics to add to series: Not discussed, to be forwarded to next
meeting’s agenda.
4. Unfinished Business
a. Home demolition fixture salvaging program proposal (AA): Not discussed. To be forwarded
to next meeting.
b. LAH’s Climate Action Plan – City Manager Carl Cahill does not believe or recall Greenhouse
Gas inventory is staff responsibility to perform. MW recommended that EIC revisit the
Town’s archived meeting minutes for the 10-year period up to 2015 to understand any
documentation of formalized support by Town of inventory responsibility. StS will reach out
to Deborah Padovan to request archived minutes. Follow-up action: to bring this topic back
on the table for next month’s meeting.
5. Old Business
a. Undergrounding – GT was appointed last year to lead the Undergrounding study. Motivation
has changed now from aesthetics to safety because of fires. Initially GT considered a small
project ($300,000, focused around El Monte fire station due to high density of power lines in
this area), but is now encouraged and convinced to explore full-scale investment and
implementation. George currently has informal advisory help from StS and PE, but would like
to have more people to help him with the study and project development.
i. Understanding costs and financing options: The smaller, IceBreaker project (c.a.
$300,000 budget) involves 500' undergrounding at El Monte Rd. GT will start design
study. Longer term, big vision is currently being planned, involving aspects such as:
Engineering design, Utility Tax to find part (many surrounding cities have it), and
Public support. GT revealed that there are Matching funds from PG&E of $2M/year
to tap into. PG&E is coming up with an alternate proposal. If UT is the source of
funding, the undergrounding project will pass the 2/3rd vote requirement. As of
today, newer residential areas are undergrounded.
6. Topics of Interest / Open Discussion
a. Comcast/AT&T fiber optic cable lay (SZ): Will be put on next month’s agenda.
7. Next EIC meeting:July 2, 2020 Thursday
8. Adjournment