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Home My WebLink About2013-09-25 CAC MinutesJefferson County/City of Port Townsend Climate Action Committee Meeting Minutes September 25, 2013 Cotton Building Port Townsend, WA Members Present: John Austin, Stanley Willard, Laura Tucker, Ewan Shortess, Cindy Jayne, Deborah Stinson, Barney Burke, Brian Goldstein, Michael Tweiten, Tammi Rubert, Al Cairns (for Steve Tucker) Absent: Valerie Johnstone, Scott Walker, Pinky Feria-Mingo, Richard Dandridge, Steve Tucker Staff: Judy Surber, City of Port Townsend Guests: Elaine Bailey, Kevin Scott, Pam Adams Scribe: Brian Goldstein Topic Recommendation/Action Call to order 3:35 p.m. Approval of Agenda & Minutes Laura Tucker started the meeting. Brian Goldstein agreed to take minutes for the meeting. Barney Burke moved to approve the May 22, 2013 minutes. Deborah Stinson seconded. The minutes were approved unanimously. Barney moved to approve the meeting agenda. Deborah seconded. The agenda was approved unanimously. Officer Nominations Laura resigned as Chair, due to other obligations. Brian resigned as Vice Chair. Barney nominated Cindy Jayne as Chair, and she was voted in unanimously. Brian nominated himself as Vice Chair, and he was voted in unanimously. As the new chair, Cindy facilitated the remainder of the meeting. Report from Resource Conservation Manager – Brian Goldstein Brian presented the results of the 3-year RCM program, which finishes on October 31, 2013.  The RCM program includes five partner agencies: o Chimacum schools o Port Townsend schools o City of Port Townsend o Jefferson County o Fort Worden State Park  The program goal was to reduce energy from stationary sources and water use by 10%, solid waste cost by 10%, over 3 years  The 10% savings goals were met for energy and water, narrowly missed for solid waste.  Resource cost savings to the partner agencies was $244,000 over the three years, at a cost of $162,000.  Electricity savings were 2M kWh, equivalent to a reduction of 600 tons CO2. Judy: With the loss of the RCM, the CAC will lose 1) major monitoring abilities and 2) leadership in “government leading by example”. How do we backfill? Barney: PUD would like to invest in better monitoring tools in the future; for example, surfacing meter information on the web. Elaine Bailey: How do we get access to the RCM information? Brian: There is an RCM website that contains this presentation and all RCM status reports. The partners will all have a CD containing their utility data and all pertinent documents. Action Item:  How do we backfill the loss of the County RCM in monitoring the County’s stationary energy and water use? CAC Outreach Subcommittee Report – Cindy Jayne A County fair booth was staffed, in conjunction with Local 20/20. The booth included posters and a handout with L2020 with the graphic showing community connections. “How can I make a difference” flip chart captured data on what folks were doing, and plan to do, to address climate change. Next year we plan to put the booth in the non-profit section to save money and have a smaller table. Here are ideas people posted at the booth to address climate change: Individual Actions • walk, don’t drive • eat veggies, not animals • growing my own produce; I don’t have to drive to the store to eat! • support Governor Inslee’s initiatives in the legislature Community Actions • local butchering • solar power! City / County Actions • increase barge traffic for moving goods • more conditions that are conducive to using bicycles (protective laws; better bike lanes) • localized green energy replacing energy bought from other places • create a ‘no idle’ ordinance • public transportation to Marrowstone, Cape George, etc. • transit schedules that are more frequent Maybe someday • more useful and economic train travel, like Europe • train from Tri-area to Port Townsend Cindy was at the County picnic and asked picnic participants if they knew about CAC or the climate action plan - answer was generally “no”. It would help if we could educate folks on the relative scale of their conservation choices. Cindy handed out a summary of the Local 2020 Outreach committee (CAC members participating on this committee include Cindy, Barney, Valerie, Laura and Pinky) with suggestions for getting the word out; included as attachment Appendix A to these minutes. Ideas for community projects include putting barnacles on garbage cans to illustrate sea level rise, creating and posting a "PT 100 years from now" sign, etc. Brian: How will this outreach work be funded? Cindy: Funding sources have been volunteered to date, hopefully other sources will surface, could align with L2020 funding. Report on the Students for Sustainability plans/actions - Ewan Shortess and Laura Tucker Ewan is the president of the Students for Sustainability group at PT High School. They have around 20 members, most of them seniors. Ewan is hoping to recruit more sophomores, and groom the next president, before he graduates in June. The group has added additional recycle bins at the High School, pushed to digitize the school bulletin, and worked with cafeteria staff to reduce disposable items. He would like to work with Brian on other ideas before the RCM program ends in October. Laura will be one of the adult chaperones when 10-12 SFS students take a train trip to Washington DC on spring break. The students are going to take signed petitions to DC to present to their congressmen. They plan to finalize the petition topics by October 16. Ewan was thinking that 3 issues would be the goal. The students will plant trees with Jefferson Land Trust and NW Watershed Institute as a carbon offset for the trip. Students looking for topics to lobby on. Laura has idea on acidification of oceans, due to fossil fuel burning. John noted that Governor Inslee has strong feelings about this topic; perhaps a trip to Olympia would be warranted. Tammi can help with public transportation information if that topic is of interest to the students. Action Items:  If you have a lobbying topic idea, please send to Laura or Ewan.  Brian to meet with SFS in October to discuss conservation ideas. Feasibility of updating Climate Action Plan inventory – Cindy Jayne A. There have been two requests to update the carbon inventory in the climate action plan (CAP) 1. Count the carbon from burning biomass at the mill and residential woodstove burning 2. Reduce the carbon from our electricity use, with the transition from PSE to PUD 1. Biomass burning A recent EPA biomass ruling suggests that carbon from biomass cannot be ignored and needs further study. At the time of the CAP development, the ICLEI suggestion was to consider biomass burning as carbon neutral. In 2005, CO2e from PTPC was 488,952 tons of carbon (91% of county emissions of carbon) and 12,015 tons from woodstoves (2%). Sequestration of carbon in biomass is a complex subject. There have been a number of discussions around whether to consider biomass burning carbon neutral or not. In reality, the truth lies somewhere between carbon neutral and releasing all biomass carbon due to burning. This is a complicated issue that needs to be reviewed. Dilemma is how much effort we put in amending the CAP. Judy - When the inventory was done, the group agreed to note the biomass emissions but not count them. The CAP inventory work was a huge effort. If we count this in the inventory, all that does is increase the scope of the issue. Deborah – I’m not in favor of redoing the inventory, since it reduces our momentum to take action on the things we can change. It also disincentivizes the public in doing anything since the mill would be 91% of the inventory. 2. PUD transition from PSE Cindy - Another comment that came up in potential inventory updates is the change due to PSE to BPA power. I started looking into that, and it may be possible to do that analysis based on information in the existing CAP docs. However, do we want to do this now? We could do the same thing as above, do the calculation, and put it in the minutes. Note that BPA power generation has a significantly lower carbon footprint than PSE, so it will reduce our footprint; we need to be careful that this doesn’t send a message of not needing to conserve. Options to handle the carbon inventory update request  Do nothing  Update all items in CAP  Generate the two impact numbers for biomass and PSE/PUD change and document Judy: We could acknowledge we are aware of the two sources; the biomass number shows how much more important our work is to the BOCC and City Council, and how this would make our job that much harder; helps us ask for resources. Barney motioned that we present data on these two items at upcoming BOCC and city council meetings. Seconded by Brian, passed unanimously. B. Discussion on updates to City and County comprehensive plans Cindy: How do we educate City and County staff to make them aware of the CAC efforts? Barney: Citizens just want to know how climate change is being addressed in the comprehensive plans. John: The County process is to have the comprehensive plan reviewed by the Planning Commission, with public hearings and present to BOCC for approval. Judy: The City’s 2016 plan deadline is June, so we should being work in early 2014. However, there is not enough staff to work on this, so it could be delayed. Deborah: Recommended reviewing the two plans and seeing where they intersect with CAP. Laura - suggestion to table topic and revisit at next meeting Action Items:  Cindy to produce PSE reduction number and have it peer reviewed, use 2005 PTPC number, bring recommendation back to CAC at November meeting.  Judy, John, Cindy and Deborah to meet to talk about next steps on comprehensive plan review and present at November CAC meeting. Managing Information to and from the CAC – Laura Tucker If anyone has a link to good information or an idea to share, they should send to the Chair (Cindy) who will gather and disseminate to the CAC email list, as appropriate. General information on the CAC meetings is posted on the Jefferson County web site, under Community Development. Next Steps & Agenda Planning See action items above. Agreed to move the next meeting to November 20, 2013, to avoid the Thanksgiving holiday. Action Item:  Other suggested topics for next meeting should be emailed to Cindy. Public Comment Elaine commented that it is important to hear from the public, and to allow comments on the issues being discussed. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 p.m. Next Meeting Next meeting is scheduled for November 20 2013 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m, at the Cotton Building. Appendix A: Climate Action Outreach FrameworkGeneral Plan: Plan out a calendar of outreach activities for the next year, utilizing a range of methods, and focused on what people can do. Means of Communication:city/county newsletters, PT Leader column, PT Leader articles, utility bills, community meetings/picnics/fairs, neighborhood emergency prep meetings, radio, libraries, Movie Theater ads or shorts before regular film, ads on transit buses, Local 2020 event email and website, Port of PT newsletter, county chamber, PT blog, Jefferson CAN website, farm to school newsletter (including Quilcene), farmers market, community centers - bulletin boards, senior newsletter, PT TV, PUD newsletter or flyers, social media (including Facebook, Twitter, video clips, etc.) Some specifics:  PT Leader: They have themes: have something ready for each theme. Lawn/garden, health, etc. many are separate pullouts - finance stuff/solar, home improvement/insulation/etc., smart thermostats. We can brainstorm on ideas after see theme, then meet w/ Patrick Sullivan from leader and see what he thinks.  Possible Events: Kinetic race parade, Rhody parade, etc.  Radio - KPTZ: Dave Cunningham is news director, and more magazine format. Can do story on something. PSAs - KPTZ does this - Pinky or Barney could draft these. Also community calendar meetings can be announced there. (KPTZ - 379-6886.)  Ads on transit buses (internal ($11) and external (cost more). Maybe put JeffersonCAN.org on bus ad? Target Audiences: General public, but don’t try to convince those that don’t believe in climate change, focus on the rest Other Methods:  Low Carbon Diet  NWEI courses  Community engagement: o Have a large public display, such as a blue line showing expected sea level rise in PT and engage local artists o Geocaching relay to get people moving on alternative transportation. o Encourage direct participation such as Ecology’s King Tide website: ww.ecy.wa.gov/climatechange/ipa_hightide.htm Key Topic Areas for Outreach:  What CAC is, CAP plan, goals, action items that are being done (RCM, etc.), what is coming down the pike. (Make it interesting - tell a story about why one would care).  What you can do to reduce your footprint significantly (try to quantify some so it is clear what are minor improvements and what are major)  Major topic areas for GHG reduction: o Residential (PUD: info on rebates, etc. (some info on website now, will be more programs starting late fall). Olycap and their weatherization program. ) o Commercial o Agricultural o Transportation Possible Partners:  Schools, 4H, master gardeners, WSU water watchers, Olympic National Park, Recyclery, maritime center, wooden boat center and marine science center  From CAP list of potential partners: PDD, PUD, L2020, County Health Green Bus, Jeff CO Home builders, WSU Jefferson County Extension, RCM Current Plans:  Initially planning around PT Leader article in the Fall related to student trip to DC, and in the Spring related to Student Planting event o Around the same time have an Earth Matters column in the Leader that describes CAC and CAP