HomeMy WebLinkAboutAugust 12ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES COMMITTEE
Regular Meeting Minutes
Date: August 12, 2021
1.Attendees: Pat, Steve, Anand, Aileen, Sasha, Vrinda
a.Missing: Srini, April
b.Public: Jolie
2.Approval of Minutes:
a.Anand moved, Steve seconded for July 1st and Special Meeting minutes -- approved
unanimously
3.Agenda Review: Approved as is.
4.Discuss and approve Annual Report Presentation to the City Council
a.Vrinda included all suggested edits from initial review but fully approved (unanimous).
Some feedback,
i.Aileen--Where does LAH stand in relation to the neighboring towns?
ii.Town of Mathews needs to be added to the presentation
iii.Review the presentation with Stan
iv.Anand--refer to the IPCC report to convey the urgency
5.Steve presented proposed CAP Measures. Measures informed by the GHG inventory which the
sub-committee has presented to the EIC before. Anand continues to refine it--he will present it
to the council in September. BAU -- business as usual if nothing new is done by the council.
Largest contributors to GHG--air travel and natural gas use. Since council has no control over air
travel all the measures relate to reducing and eliminating natural gas use--target 2045
a.for the community (C1-C5)
b.for the government (G1-G6)
(Vrinda: Don't use BAN unless the topic is well understood!)
To get off the NG, EIC will work with Staff to work on what it will take to do that--work with
PG&E, providing incentives on top of state and federal incentives. Half Moon Bay is working on
such an initiative
Sasha: Distant shut off date is good. Inability to reconnect may be a problem? Carrots better
than sticks, bureaucracy and red tape needs to be reduced.
Steve: San Mateo county is working on reducing the or streamlining permit process--piggy back
on their work.
Each house is different--affects the sequence of electrification --hiring (subsidizing) a company
to do the walk through to evaluate the path to electrification. Very few do it. Palo Alto is doing it
with Clear Result. CPUC is promoting the use of heat pumps through a program TECH
throughout the state--live energy advisors on state run website SwitchIsOn.org
Sasha: Should be a SVCE program
Steve: Electrification requires capital investments--there is a group Benefits of Electrification (BE
Smart) working towards giving zero interest loan tied to the meter from the utility. SVCE is
dragging their feet on it. PCE is working with San Mateo to release a $1M loan pool to give upto
$10K for electrification.
We need to get a better grip on Air Travel--need a survey--can be done separately and not as
the CAP measure.
6 Measures for the town.
Anand: not a significant portion of GHG only about ½%--Important to set an example.
Electrifying the town fleet will take longer
Sasha: It is possible to do that Caterpillar is interested for sound reduction, to widen the hours
for operating heavy equipment.
Pat: Foothill College? What kind of energy to they use?
Anand: Would like to find out--no data available.
Steve: The pool at Foothills is heated by a Cogen system. They have a NG electricity generation
system (30 years old), the waste heat is used to heat the pool.
6.Champions for the suggested CAP measures
a.Sasha is most interested in C1 or C2 (electrification)
b.Aileen is willing to be voluntold
c.Pat willing to help Anand with Foothill College
7.Water Subcommittee--Next Steps
a.Vrinda: Idea is to get a student / volunteer to analyze MELO data
Anand:Purissima has the data and the Town can request the data. The data has to be
anonymized and there are not too many people to work on it.
b.Subcommittee: Vrinda, Srini, Aileen (and Jolie) to work on this. Maybe take it to the
Youth Committee or Schools committee.
8.Next EIC meeting: September 9, 2021 at 6:30pm
9.Adjournment at 7:50pm