HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-09-25-SLC-min Town of Lexington
Sustainable Lexington Committee
Minutes of Meeting of September 25, 2018
A meeting of the Sustainable Lexington Committee (SLC) was held at Cary Hall. A
quorum of five was present.
Members Present: Mark Sandeen, Marcia Gens, Rick Reibstein, Todd Rhodes
Members Absent: Dan Voss
Other Attendees: Charlie Wyman, Celis Brisbane, Joe Pato (Board of Selectmen)
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm.
1. Electric Cars in Lexington (M. Sandeen)
• 60% of full EVs are Tesla or Chevy (Bolt/Volt)
• 60% of Hybrids are Prius Primes or Chevy Volts
• 75% of EVs are Tesla or Chevy
2. Board of Selectmen Meeting (M. Sandeen)
2.1. Sustainable Action Plan, Getting to Net Zero Emissions Plan, and 100%
renewable energy for municipal buildings (12m kWh) was approved.
o Renewable energy results in savings of$240k/year for the town.
3. Community Choice (M. Sandeen)
3.1. Agera Energy has attempted to raise rates unilaterally. The contract is coming to
an end and the Town will not continue doing business with Agera.
3.2. The Committee agreed that the new procurement should increase the proportion
of Class 1 RECs as much as possible while keeping the rates at or below the
Eversource basic service rates.
4. Charging Stations (M. Sandeen)
4.1. M. Sandeen is working with the Parking Management Group and the Center
Committee to select spots to add EV charging stations in the Center Lot, NStar
Lot, and Depot Lot.
4.2. Eversource will pay for infrastructure for 6 spots. The Town pays for the
chargers and will plan to put in two spots in each location—this will provide an
opportunity to expand in the future.
4.3. The Committee should work to establish plans to put chargers in place at schools
and Town buildings. Zoning changes could be made to require multi-family
dwellings to install chargers.
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4.4. Shire is "christening" it's chargers in October. They acquired them from the
same Eversource program. The chargers are public.
4.5. Other potential locations for chargers are: DPW, Community Center.
5. Gas Leaks Meeting
5.1. Attendees: BOS, Mike Barrett, Jay Kauffman, National Grid, Mothers Out Front,
HEFT.
5.2. Reporting out the results of the pilot program: ability to detect high volume
leaks, 2 of 15 leaks could be fixed.
6. Mark led a discussion of opportunities to improve conditions in Lawrence (e.g.,
centralized hot water steam to replace gas lines).
7. Joe mentioned the National Grid strike and BOS consideration of a moratorium on
work in Town with the exception of Class 1 (dangerous)leaks. The Committee
recommended putting super emitters in the same category.
8. Sustainable Climate Action Plan
8.1. At the BOS meeting, the BOS discussed merging the Energy Conservation
Committee with SLC, and also discussed adding members to the SLC to address
the 10 sectors of the Climate Action Plan.
8.1.1. The Committee discussed adding members to the committee and
assigning responsibility to be the point-person for each of the sectors. The
number of committee members working in each area will vary based on
the level of activity in the sector. One person could be the point-person
for multiple sectors, or one sector could involve multiple committee
members.
8.1.2. The Committee discussed what's the right structure for the potential
Sustainability Director to work in. We will need to make the reporting
structure clear so that the Director is a valuable implementer of programs.
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