HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-01-22-CAPAH-minLexington Climate Action Plan Ad Hoc Committee
Approved Meeting Minutes
January 22, 2008
Room G -15, Town Hall
Present:
Rick Abrams
John Huchra
Dan Jones
JJ Krawczyk
Jeanne Krieger
Bob Kvall
Andy McClaine
Charles Moore
Ken Moraff
Adam Sacks
1) One change to the December meeting minutes was noted: the change in the date for the
March meeting to the 18th. With that change noted, the minutes were approved
unanimously.
2) Planning for April 17 Public Meeting
Purposes of the meeting:
- make people aware of the committee and why we exist
- present our baseline data
- present plan for going forward
- engage the audience (find out what people think and what they might be willing to
actually do)
Regarding the footprint presentation:
Need to be able to back up the data we have.
Need to talk about those things we think might have a significant impact but we have no
good way to measure.
Show a breakdown (pie -chart) for carbon sources.
Need a narrative about what the baseline actually means. This might mean comparing
per - person numbers to other communities or other countries (how good /bad are we ?).
Don't present goals yet (we won't have any) but possibly show trend lines for the goals
that are commonly presented in the press (x% reduction by 20YY) to provide examples.
Talk a bit about what this might mean for the average Lexington resident.
We need a strawman presentation ready for the next meeting. Charlie has agreed to pull
this together. Helping him out to fill the gaps in our data:
- Jeanne will be getting the number of houses in town that use both gas and oil and house
sizes in order to do an estimate of oil usage.
- Charlie is meeting with electric (scheduled) & gas (still to be scheduled) utilities, the
goal being to get data from them.
- Dan is still navigating the political maze of getting DMV information.
What he thinks he can possibly have by the next meeting are the numbers of each class
of vehicle (trucks, light trucks & SUVs, autos) registered in town. We will have to then
use an average MPG and likely have to estimate miles /year driven.
- Dan will also think about what sort of PR we can do. We definitely want to get info to
the Minuteman so that we get a front page article the issue before the meeting - that
would be April 10.
Things we might not cover:
- Air travel. There is some frustration within the committee because a high- school class
collected data that would probably be helpful in getting an estimate of air travel by
residents, but it was gathered under the agreement that it would not be shared, apparently
not even in an aggregated form. Perhaps there is data GWAC could share (carbon
calculator)? Charlie or Dan ( ?) will check with the HS teacher who did the data
collection to see if there is any way we could get aggregate data from them.
- Consumer goods, particularly food. Charlie will call Stop & Shop to see if there is
anything they can do for us.
- Lawn care. Could do an estimate of X gallons per year per house. Number would be
very low compared to everything else.
- Commercial waste. Will have to estimate. Jeanne will contact Robert Beaudon.
- Sewage processing (further down the pipe). Is there a source for this data?
3) Future meetings.
February 12, March 18 @ Estabrook Hall (downstairs at Cary Hall)
April 8, May 13, June 10 @ Room 111, Town Office Building
4) The town report for the committee was submitted by Toby.
5) Support for GWAC warrant article. Unanimous approval.
6) Somerset Coal Plant Letter
Jeanne explained that as a committee we cannot send such a letter on our own. It must be
approved by the Board of Selectmen. We would like to pursue this, so Jeanne and Toby
will talk.
7) Adam's warrant article.
The article is a result of Adam's experience with the Economic Development task force
and their unwillingness to consider global warming & peak oil. Some discussion about
whether this made sense before our committee was ready to give input to other entities in
town. Adam welcomes any wording changes or suggestions.