Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016.08.17 CEAP Minutes Minutes for the Climate and Energy Action Plan ad hoc Committee August 17,2016 Page 1 of 4 MINUTES FOR THE CLIMATE & ENERGY ACTION PLAN ad hoc COMMITTEE Wednesday, August 17, 2016 Siskiyou Room, 51 Winburn Way 1. Call to Order Councilor Rich Rosenthal called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. Committee members Rich Rosenthal, Marni Koopman, Louise Shawkat, Greg Jones, Stuart Green, James McGinnis, Roxanne Beigel-Coryell, Jim Hartman, Cindy Bernard, Isaac Bevers, Sarah Lasoff, Bryan Sohl and Claudia Alick were present. Staff member Adam Hanks was present. 2. Approval of Minutes Sohl/Jones m/s to approve the minutes of July 6, 2016, as presented. Voice Vote: All Ayes. Motion Passes. 3. Public Forum Ken Croker— shared thoughts from previous meeting and is concerned with how targets are being set and why, especially with the goal/target changing from one meeting to the next. Stated that he feels it is important for the targets to be based on science and feels that the committee's targets were based on fear of acceptance/approval by Council rather than by science. Morgan Lindsay— stated her view that this is an urgent topic given the heat and air quality issues, which is toughest on the community's most vulnerable citizens. Reminded the committee that the Eugene target included an annual 7.8% reduction by 2050 and City operations carbon and fossil fuel neutral even earlier. She also supports the draft ordinance for goals/targets Hannah Sohl—Requested the committee to pass the goals/target ordinance as soon as possible, get the ordinance discussion out of the way to be able to work on the plan to achieve it. Robert Block-Brown—Appreciates the work of the committee and re-stated the urgency of moving the ordinance forward as quickly as possible then continuing to work on the plan. Suggested that the ordinance be made public for better understanding in the community of the criteria and the broad array of current GHG impacts/emissions in the community. Allie Rosenbleuth— Supports the work of the commission and supports moving the ordinance forward as soon as possible. Huelz Gutchen—Informed the committee that he thinks 7 megawatts of solar locally is possible, stated that the recent presentation from the City Electric Director shows that solar issues/programs should be in the Community Development Dept not in the Electric Dept and that the City needs solar trained employees. Minutes for the Climate and Energy Action Plan ad hoc Committee August 17,2016 Page 2 of 4 4. Recap of Council Presentation Chair Rosenthal provided a short recap of the July 19 committee presentation to the Council, adding that he thought it was well received and suggested that anyone who was interested to go to the City website and see the presentation materials and watch the presentation video if they were interested in the details. Rosenthal also provided a brief update on the recent Council discussion/direction regarding the recent ballot measure that directs the City to approve an ordinance that requires the City to produce 10% of the community's electricity from local and clean sources by 2020. Rosenthal outlined the state ballot measure process and directed interested committee members to the August 16 Council meeting agenda and video for more information and informed them of the official Council vote for acceptance/approval of the ordinance on the September 6 Council meeting. 5. Discussion of Goals/Target Ordinance Koopman advocated to the committee that the goal and target should be science based. Rosenthal asked for a definition of science based and Koopman stated that a science based goal/target(roughly an 8% reduction per year) is one that meets the per capita carbon reduction required to restore the carbon intensity of the atmosphere back to 350 parts per million (or less). Koopman added that the goal ordinance that has been worked on by others in the community contains a science based target and was based on the Eugene ordinance, which also doesn't exclude consumption based emissions from the goal/target. Rosenthal referenced the staff memo in the meeting packet that identified two key questions for the committee relating to the goals/target ordinance issue. One question is whether to recommend that the goals/target ordinance be forwarded to staff with the intention of having the ordinance adopted by Council as soon as possible. The other option is to recommend that an action be developed in the plan to adopt the goals/targets via ordinance concurrent with the adoption of the plan. Beigel-Coryell noted that she was one of the committee members who was originally reluctant to push the ordinance before the plan, but now feels like it should be re-evaluated and made a motion to recommend the adoption of the draft goals/target ordinance as soon as possible. Second made by Sohl. Sohl explained that he feels that approving the ordinance first keeps the committee honest in response to community requests, tells the youth of the community that we hear them and also noted that the Council make up could change between now and when the plan is presented. Sohl also noted that he felt that Eugene in retrospect would have done the ordinance earlier rather than later if they could do it over again. Koopman added that forwarding the ordinance for adoption now would assist the committee in being able to move forward and would help focus the committee. Minutes for the Climate and Energy Action Plan ad hoc Committee August 17,2016 Page 3 of 4 McGinnis noted he was originally resistant to advocating for the ordinance before the plan was completed but now sees value in moving it forward, but still wonders if Council would be receptive given they would not have an understanding of the implications of the ordinance since the plan wouldn't be in front of them. He added that he feels there are adequate checks and balances in City and the ordinance puts a responsibility on the Council to communicate back to the public. Shawkat added that she likes it being a challenge and is concerned with the potential Council changes. Lasoff and Alick advocated her support of advancing the ordinance now. Bevers added that he feels the Council can't make action decisions without a goal in place. Bernard stated that she originally opposed the idea of the ordinance going before the plan, but now thinks the timing could work fine by moving it forward for staff to work on and prepare for Council consideration. Jones added that this is really just a timing question, not whether or not the committee supports an ordinance for the goals/target and is in support of moving it forward now. Rosenthal agreed with Jones. The committee voted on the motion and it passed unanimously. The committee asked about the next steps for the ordinance. Hanks responded by explaining that both he and the City Attorney would need to review the draft ordinance document. Hanks also suggested that the committee formally endorse the draft ordinance that has been circulating around but never formally submitted as the working ordinance template. Alick motioned that the draft that the committee had been sent from Rogue Climate should be accepted by the committee and used as the working ordinance template. McGinnis second. Jones clarified that the document would be the baseline not the finished document. The committee voted on the motion and passed it unanimously. 6. Focus Group activity on initial draft actions list Rosenthal turned this agenda item over to Jeff Golden, part of the Cascadia consultant project team. Golden stepped the committee through the planned activity and referenced the materials in the meeting packet. The committee then broke into their assigned focus area groups and worked on initial sorting and prioritizing of the initial strategies and actions, including adding additional actions. Minutes for the Climate and Energy Action Plan ad hoc Committee August 17,2016 Page 4 of 4 7. Follow up for next meeting At the conclusion of the multi-step process, Golden requested that the small groups meet again outside of the regular committee meetings to continue with the exercise if they hadn't finished and to submit final notes to Hanks by August 31 so that the process could be continued at the September 7 committee meeting. Rosenthal offered to assist in coordinating and distributing the informal meeting times for the various groups in case others wanted to participate in more than one focus area discussion. 8. Adjournment Meeting adjourned at 7:35 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Adam Hanks Administration