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Town of Lexington Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of Meeting of October 20, 2020 A meeting of the Sustainable Lexington Committee (SLC) was held by Zoom conference. A quorum of nine was present. Members Present: Cindy Arens, Celis Brisbin, Paul Chernick, Archana Dayalu, Marcia Gens, Rick Reibstein, Todd Rhodes (vice-chair), Dan Voss (chair) Members Absent: Charlie Wyman Other Attendees: Stella Carr (Sustainability Director), Joe Pato (Select Board), Mary Hutton (Mothers Out Front) The meeting was called to order at 6:12 pm. 1. Proposed Letter to the Department of Public Utilities • The letter was drafted by A. Dayalu and a team of residents. It is intended to be signed by the Select Board and transmitted to the Department of Public Utilities to encourage the investigation of approaches to transition away from natural gas and to assess the implications of the transition. The letter supports the petition filed by the Office of the Attorney General on June 4, 2020. • A. Dayalu provided an overview of the letter's objectives and its content. • The committee discussed the approach for reviewing the letter with members of the Select Board prior to the expected presentation at the Board meeting on November 2. ■ A. Dayalu and team plans to meet with each Select Board Member individually to answer questions and collect feedback. ■ R. Reibstein recommended that the issue of"stranded assets"be described more clearly in the letter and that the team be prepared to provide more detail on that and "asset transformation"when they meet with Select Board Members. ■ Some Select Board Members may confuse this request with a separate activity that the Town Manager has discussed involving a regional approach for transitioning away from natural gas. The team will need to be prepared to clarify the differences. • The introduction to the letter identifies that several buildings in Lexington are all-electric. D. Voss clarified that each of those buildings have at least some fossil fuels on site. That line should be revised indicate that Lexington in moving toward all-electric systems. • The committee voted unanimously to send the letter to the Select Board with the recommended edits. The meeting was adjourned at 6:35 pm. Respectfully submitted, Todd Rhodes 1.