okay we are now recording All right Hello This is the uh meeting of the Amoris Energy and Climate Action Committee which was organized to help the town of Ammeris meet its climate goals Um give me one second here I'm actually not as ready as I thought I
was There we go Um the goals and the plan for getting there are adopted from the climate action adaptation and resilience plan or the KARP which was accepted by the town council in 2021 uh it takes 2016 as its base year and calls for a 25% reduction in carbon emissions
by 2025 50% by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050 So this committee has two primary functions One is to advise the town council and recommend or propose policies that will help us meet those goals and the other is to do outreach and promote a just equitable and speedy climate response um through
outreach and engagement And so that brings us to this week's agenda which eventually we will get to talking about the sustainability festival which is a big opportunity for outreach every year Um and I just lost my place again This
is strange Oh there it is Got it All right Um with that the first thing we need to do is get a notetaker Who would like to volunteer this week to be our noteaker anyone should we go back to the
list who hasn't done it in a while find the minutes So let's see Um Michael did it last week Um who's here we have Don I don't know
if you've done it recently or Tony Caitlyn Um you're muted I maybe did it three meetings ago Um pretty sure but
yeah with um we've been short on people lately so it may be that one of you might have to just do it again Um I'll do it again It's all right Thanks Don Uh all right With that I will bring up the If you want to share the go ahead
and share the um minute the agenda the um minutes last time Yeah Thank you Okay Just give me one second Actually I have them right here You want me to just do it sure I don't know why because I had them up minutes Share Okay
there we go Um can you all see that okay Yes that's up here This was just who was there If you see any mistakes say something I think these were short and sweet
minutes So I didn't see anything that I felt we needed to add and I don't see any mistakes So unless anyone has something to add I'll go a little slower because uh since we just got this And that's it
And we'll put off the oped submission again I think because Laura can't be here today and I know she hasn't had time to work on it When you're ready if there's a move to accept the minutes or any changes Lori I'm just
going to make a very slight change just to the vote at the beginning because usually it's um you know yes I'm going to add another 5 0 because it's um yes it's a yes no and abstain So we just
have to reflect abstain is zero But I'll I'll edit that later Okay it's minor Does that change do we have a move to accept i move to accept Thank you Tony Second
Thank you I'll second Michael thank you Okay And in no particular order Allison yes Gner yes Melth yes Yes Lung abstain Davis yes
minutes are approved Okay And that brings us let me just do this again to the first thing on the agenda which is always public comment if we have public which we do not right now So uh we will move on to the
next thing which is the op-ed submission which I think there's no draft yet right this Laura wrote to say she hadn't had time to work on it So I think we can skip that and go right to the elevate debrief which is fun Um Tony you want to give us a debrief of the event it was
fun Yeah Um I think it was productive I enjoyed the the participants were really engaged and I feel like ECAC provided a lot of knowledge that they didn't have And afterwards I've spoken with them um a
couple of times following the event They all had really good things to say and they all actually um showed different signs of interest in getting involved A lot of them will be coming to the sustainability fair to check out the booth as an extension of um wanting to
learn more So it was good It was great Yeah I was particularly impressed by um Christa Harper was there and she talked about the fact that in Holio they had started to establish a database for renters using neighbor to neighbor which
some of us in Amoris know a little bit about um uh that um they were going to be this was going to be um down to individual units where they I think the idea was that the renters come in and enter their data there's some
sort of database and you can basically log onto it open it up and add your information Um and it was similar to a housing thing that was done in Indianapolis by housing activists there So apparently was on pause in Holio because the folks who really
wanted it uh either it cycled out of their positions and nobody was there to push or something like that similar to what happened with PACE the PACE effort here where it started out with a lot of momentum and then people changed positions And so I think that would be really interesting to follow up on and get to
know a little bit more about what they're doing and see if they can if they can doing it and maybe think about doing something like that here I think Christa is planning to come to the fair on Saturday That would be great Yeah
Um there was also somebody now what was the thing about municip MVP about municipal vulnerability preparedness somebody talked about that I have a note here but I don't understand what it was Do you remember that Tony shannon Callahan It was Shannon Um it's part of her research She works with the
surrounding municipalities I know right Wow MVP of the municipal vulnerability preparedness You know I will actually reach out to her and get information on that and then I can send that out to Yeah um the rest of us It was an
interesting project that she's been working on She's working with I think 13 different municipalities um within um Mass area Yeah Interesting Yeah Do you know what the project Do you have a general idea of or what the project was about i'm curious
I do If you give me I know how to Google it So if you give me one sec I can actually Google what it was Um vulnerability preparedness program The municipality v vulnerability preparedness grant program provides supports for cities and towns in
Massachusetts to begin the process of planning for climate change resiliency and implementing priority projects The state awards communities with funding to complete vulnerability assessments That's what her work was She was um looking at comparing the vulnerability assessments between the towns to see if
there was any overlap or if there was any um or how towns were dealing with vulnerabilities and trying to get them to cooperate or at least um cooperate some of their ideas Um and then it also is to develop an actionoriented resiliency plan Communities who complete
the MVP program become certified as an MVP community and eligible for MVP grant funding and other opportunities This is NVP2 by the way So she they did the first round of these vulnerability assessments She is a part of the second round of the vulnerability assessments
which has a very distinct focus on um I think equity practices was what she was talking about and assessments of equity So if I can dive in on this real quick So they are so Ammerst is an MVP community We have gone through the first
round um we are not targeted to do our round two until I think next year So we'll be that's when we will redo an assessment and it will be um as you say it'll be a sort of different focus than the first time Um so it'll be focused on
kind of like housing and equity um as you mentioned So um that is something that the town leads So um so I will be working with DPW because they've kind of when we like I sort of helped lead the
community process the first time we became an MVP community um in terms of organizing you know the the um community gathering and the folks that were involved in contributing to the assessment Um but since we got the you know the
initial funding that's how we developed our climate action plan was with MVP funding and then um what happened was DPW started applying for funding for infrastructure projects mostly covert work and that tended to be where the focus of the MVP
funding went to And I personally had some frustration cuz we had um I think at one point I shared with you all we were applying for a grant for Puffer Pond as a cooling center you know in response for like community resilience
and it didn't even get very far at all Like it just basically got turned down in the initial review phase for several different reasons But um it's the kind of project I would personally like to see us be able to revive and you know maybe include in this next round Um so
anyway all that's to say that um thank you um because you know we are we are aware and DPW will be part of this but I've you know um I've sort of been you know the the point person and as the liaison for the
town So I would be doing that with and obviously with all of you because ECAC members were involved the first time too So just that's just my quick update So and then also you reminded me Shannon also mentioned that NVP2 um is also shifting the leadership to
the community people um as one of the that's one of the things she is gathering this data for is to support community members as they lead these initiatives um in vulnerability preparedness Yep Well it'll be a collaboration
because it's you know the funding that's tied with it You know we would want to you know I mean again it's a collaboration When I say I'm leading it I mean I'm just managing what's happening but that doesn't mean when I say these things I don't want it to sound like I'm in control because it's I'm just coordinating it I'm just making
sure that the right people are you know like at the table and that we're you know making sure people are like well represented And in the end the town probably has to apply for the money and show that it has the wherewithal to support a program whatever it is So yeah
and also we you know we actually did um engage community members in our first round So we and our we had at least I think we had two or three workshops and they were actually led by community members and that was partly our
something we did which was um not a lot of communities were not doing that So we were kind of ahead of the curve I just want to say So um so we would do the same thing this time I think And it sure would be nice to have some money to figure out what the heck's going on with
Pups Pond that it's usable again Yeah I mean we know we know what the issues are There's been studies It's that's like for another conversation because that could take too long Yeah Next I would love to hear about that because I'm not aware of of what's going on there and would love to hear more So
next time maybe or Yeah All right moving forward then Anything else on the elevated event anyone it was just me Tony and Steve was there but Steve's not here today So
um okay Sustainability Festival I sent out an email just before the meeting with the current schedule Um but Don says that he actually has to leave town at 2 so he can be there earlier in the morning So can anyone change spots with Don can anyone be there from 2:00 to
4:00 to help break down this the setup and this would be the anyone we don't have coverage except me from 2 to 4 And I I think Laura said that she would be able to help with the breakdown the cleanup she said So I'm
assuming that means she could probably do the two to four shift so it wouldn't be just you Okay So Don you want to do the one earlier shift from 12 to 2 with Steve sure Understanding you have to leave right at
2 Okay So I will put you in there because we have two for the 8 to 10 and two for the 10 to 12 And if Laura will take two to four it'll be the two of us and that would be that'll work Um and I will just plan on being
there all day Now we do have a problem of course because I keep checking the weather and I'm sure Stephanie is doing the same thing Um it looks like it's going to be a windy drizzly day And uh it doesn't look like it's going to pour from my reading although there might be downpours It looks like it's mostly just
going to be It's going to rain all day Yeah And if it's really going to rain all day what should we are we gonna Are we gonna We don't cancel We don't cancel We are We persevere We've had several events in the rain and it's still fun
Um you know it's still a good vibe Uh but you just have to be prepared The good thing is that it's going to be I think 66 So although it will be rainy it will be a warm rain Um and I don't think the wind is going to be that at least what I've been seeing the wind is going
to be fairly mild I don't think we're going to have heavy winds If it's if it gets to be like you know really strong wind gusts I I won't have an event with wind gusts and rain I mean we've never canled before but if it does get to be that bad because then people's stuff is
getting ruined and we're just you know it just becomes impossible It's not fun So but I won't make the decision till the night before because the weather you know it's New England everything changes like every hour practically So I will check the night before and I will let
everybody know you know if if we're if if you don't hear from me If people don't hear from me it means we're still on I would only contact everyone if we're going to cancel Okay And I will um bring the heat pump help booth but if it is rainy and windy
I might not set it up Um what I might do instead uh is either sit at the you know sit at the table with the heat pump help sign there Um or put it under the side of the tent since we're on an end We're on the end So I could if it fits under the tent
I could put it in the back far northwest corner of the tent Right There might be an extra tent Lori that I might be able to provide It doesn't have sides but you could put it up right next to Let's see because we have one two three Just I just need something to keep it dry I
think I think we will have an extra tent So I'm just going to make a note Okay Yeah because there should be room there for it There was plenty of room last year just for something Oh yeah You'll have room All right Good So I'll bring it and I'll hope to be able to use it It's It's sort of flimsy It won't hold
up in the wind Um it's it's really just you know I made it so I could take it apart It's just held together with pegs and it's an old painting canvas that that serves to keep it upright It's it's sort of funny actually It's hiding under there Um any rate yeah it's it's it's
flimsy but it'll hold if there's not too much rain or or wind Um did we ever get that pace flyer the banner Fly I do have one I will bring it on Saturday It is laminated so it is waterproof as
well Okay Good Good How big is it i was going to say it's 48 by 36 in What is that okay I worked on the other system that's 4T by 3 ft Okay So it'll either sit on top of the ECAC banner or up high somewhere above the above the table I do
have a stand for it if needed as well Oh cool Like in like an easel that it can sit on Oh that's cool Yeah that if we have the extra tent that would also be a good place to put that because the heat pump thing doesn't take up very much space So yeah Okay cool So we'll have that Um
what are we missing i was going to throw some tape in the car Um if if it's if it's raining I think we should skip the monitor and the laptop Maybe we should just cancel that now since it looks like it's going to rain Um if if it's Yeah I think I think if if
the weather changes and it's gorgeous out let's bring it But if if it's raining I don't think it's worth trying to bring a laptop there Um yeah Okay that's good And I'll bring at least one probably two
tables I forget whether I had one I think I had just one last year but I can bring a second one in case we need it And I'll bring at least three chairs unless anyone else has chairs they want to bring I have folding chairs I don't have plastic That's what I don't What I don't have are weatherproof plastic
chairs I have folding table chairs Right Folding chairs for a card table I have two plastic chairs Um Okay Folding plastic chairs that are comfortable that I can bring Cool Oh actually yes I have outdoor I'll probably bring that instead of the heavy ones I have like beach
chairs Like outdoor chairs Yeah But they're chairs They're not like out on the sand They're Right Yeah Yeah Yeah Right Right Okay Good Good So I'll I'll bring I have two of those I can bring as well So uh and I won't bring the if it's going to rain especially I won't bring the metal the metal card table
chairs Um and uh let's see what else Anything else i'll just try to remember to bring what I can A little I'll try to bring some string if anyone has little extra string I don't have good string rope to tie things Thick string or thin rope to tie
stuff off with I can bring that I have some twine Great Great Okay good In case we need it And um and I have all sorts of tape I can bring All right Um I think that's it We're just going to
wait for the weather and see what happens Just warm Well not too warm Not too warm But my experience is when it's in the 60s and raining in Amoris it can be there can still be a chill in the air So wear wear good waterproof shoes You don't want to
sit with your feet all soaked Yeah Boots I highly recommend rubber footwear It only says 70% chance of rain So Oh it went down Lori and I are like "Woohoo it went down 10%." I just looked It's going the right
way It's going the right way This is the time of the year where the rain only intensifies from the forecast in my experience Sh Bring an umbrella It won't rain That's the rule That's the goal Right Bring an umbrella Exactly
And if you don't bring one we're going to blame the rain on you That's right All right So moving on Anything else for the festival and moving on we have um education and outreach We have PACE anything more to say about PACE right
now no I'm going to try to have some things some written stuff to to uh talk about if people actually ask u for pace and I'll try to get that there right at 8 I I'll come up at 8 when people are
setting up um you know and also if necessary bring a table So excellent Thanks Thanks Don Although I we do have I think I'm going to have plenty of tables Well I'll bring two tables with me They're easy Um but I'll
make a note that you might be there for the chairs Bring the chairs Yep I'll bring the chairs Good Thank you Um all right Uh so the next thing on the schedule on the agenda is coordination with local groups We just talked about
that Tony but is there anything else um you want to Yeah Um they are interested in having multiple or having those meetings again So um there will probably be one in the fall if I can coordinate that if everyone is cool with that as
well Yep And we expect a little bit more turnout The first of anything is always you know trial and error It was it was it was okay There there was however infinite and uncount the the there was
um Tony ordered the guacamole Is it yeah nacho for for snacks And there was a bowl of uncountable infinity of avocados Just this this in huge bowl like two gallons of guacamole It was an uncomfortable amount of guacamole It was
for sure I think we'll go with like finger sandwiches next time So all right So next time finger sandwiches Um so also for those meetings sorry before you go on um for those meetings if there's any one of our committee members
who wants to present on a very specific topic that is also um something they'd be interested in This one was more of like a Q&A um process which worked really well But um if anyone's working on anything or any initiatives like if we figure out a way to kind of present
MVP too um we can also bring that up to them and hopefully try to get them involved as part of the community members who participate in things like that So um it doesn't have to be a Q&A If anyone has a topic that they're interested in um discussing with the graduates is totally acceptable It's
another thing to talk about Um okay So uh I think if there's nothing else there then heat pumps I don't think I have anything else to report regarding heat pumps The Northampton Group is sort
of up and running I don't think their website is live yet but they are taking clients Um I don't think I have anything else Anyone else stephanie you have anything to add about the heat pump program i'll
save it for my updates Okay that's fine And climate resilience schools I still have I still have nothing there Sorry to report Um so on to advisory and support Uh okay UMass climate plan I can report a little bit on that I went on a So So so just to sort of let folks know I went
on a the decarbonization tour I sent a um note to everybody about it I went on the decarbonization tour and um you know most of what they're doing on campus is building new buildings that they're trying to get certified as net zero as
as as really you know really net zero And they're working with with scope three as well as scope one and two They're working with embodied carbon um trying to reduce the amount of embodied carbon in these buildings Uh and that's all interesting and good but nothing
they've done actually well not nothing but none of the projects we saw on this tour actually bring down the campus retrofit anything on campus Um they do of course have quite a lot It's interesting They have a lot of solar and they're going to be putting in more
hopefully Um but the solar is mostly installed by a third party and they buy back the energy at a real discount for 30 years or something like that which means they don't get the energy credit They don't get the decarbonization credit that goes
with the solar They don't get they sell the Rex in other words So that doesn't show up in their decarbonization plan It's not a huge amount It's but it does show up in how much it offsets the energy they use from the grid So I just thought that was an
interesting aside Um they really are struggling with you know the more I I'm on this decarbonization committee as well The more I um see what's going on there they're they're struggling with with funding Um it is a big project but I still think they could be doing more than they're
doing So I'm going to keep pushing for that Um I won't go into any more detail but it's it's um you know they're not they're they're not in my opinion they're not doing what they should be doing Um but they're trying right
they're trying and I think everybody's worried about where the money's going to come from Um all right So draft solar bylaw I I don't have anything more to say unless there are questions on the climate plan um the UMass climate planet It's such a
big part of you it's it's a much bigger carbon source than I think all the rest of Amoris is my guess They have a power plant for goodness sake Um so it's a it's a big deal to get them to start seriously decarbonizing
um draft solar bylaws Steve's not here I can just let you know though that the meeting is tomorrow from 3:00 to 5 Do you know if Steve is going to be there i have no idea His um I think his children are on
uh on school vacation week or it's school vacation week for their family So I don't I think they're away Um you know what's on the agenda that we might want to be there for it's the solar bylaw is part is one of the main I think it's the first thing that they will be discussed but it's just continuing to edit as they
have been Okay Just line by line I haven't been up the CC meetings but I understand they're just going through it line by line trying to Yes Yeah All right I will contact Steve and see if he's going to be there and if not if I can I will try to be there I'm not sure I can I think I have appointments
tomorrow afternoon I have to be at Right Unless somebody else wants to try to be there right okay It's recorded just you know Right Right All right Um
onward Uh Tony got anything for transportation i do not No Um and regional estate policy updates Um I know I've been doing stuff and I
can't think of what uh what to talk about here I do have something I'll say under ECAC member updates but it's not really regional or state policy So I think I will skip on this one today too So we're up to staff updates
Um I'll just give a really quick one I had a meeting with um CCT the other day for an update on what's going on with the heat pump program And let's see Um I think they had three manual JS scheduled
uh for the other day and two are scheduled for May Uh they had five households who have done weatherization work Um three manual J's have already been completed One is in design review and one manual J needs to be scheduled
So all in all there are roughly 15 households that are in the pipeline somehow So remember our goal was uh 30 for the program So that's good And these are all um complete uh retrofits So you
know moving to 100% electric heat pump versus any fossil fuels cuz there were some homes interested in doing partials and were asking about funding and we talked about it and I was like you know we really the goal here is to really get people entirely off fossil fuels So so
those 15 households are all folks that are looking to completely get off fossil fuel So which is exciting I'm really um excited And they will be at the sustainability festival they will have a booth space there Um we did talk about
uh and I don't know what the followup has been but they're interested in tableabling at the farmers market through the summer Oh yeah So um I think you know but that's not always easy to do So anyway I connected um I connected
Marina with the uh farmers market manager So hopefully they will coordinate and even if they can only do three events you know that will be you know that'll be at least some some kind of a presence uh over the summer which would be great It sounds like they're still looking for more people then more
they need Well always Yeah I mean the idea is to get as many people as we can into the pipeline So I mean the goal is 30 households but you know we want to keep the momentum going So um and then they we do have that event scheduled We have another information scheduled for
September 9th which will be similar to what we did before which is an online uh zoom meeting in general information session So it'll pretty much be what was already presented last time but again it just gives people the opportunity to ask questions directly So that's fantastic
So I I think this is a request to everyone on ECAC you know reach out to your comm to your communities again let them know this program is there see if there's anybody who's interested in joining it I sent a note to my neighborhood group a long time ago and got immediately back a couple of people
interested I'm going to do that again See if anyone else has joined the club interested in doing this or has had a boiler blow up or something like that since since the last time I wrote Um one one update I want to give to Lori is that the you know the mass save
three-year plan is still not completely finalized So there's still some question around the incentives that are being offered to low-income folks but it it still looks like the idea is like for low-income folks to get like 100% funded
So the installs will be 100% funded So they won't necessarily need the incentive funding that we are providing but um you know we're you know we've still we've just been in communication about that So I they would so CCT still serves
a role in providing information and they're still doing all the support like the basically tech support if you want to call it that the coaching So the coaching yeah what everybody needs I mean a lot of people don't do this because they just don't know how And frankly you know the installers are
still not pulling their weight in this I mean I I hear stories all the time about installers who I just got another one this week who um you know they they want to transition but the installer is telling them that they should keep their their backup uh heat and given no one
needs to do that anymore I I'm a little embarrassed that I did it that way and I have a plan to get off it but um it was because there wasn't it was during the pandemic and the equipment I wanted wasn't available So nowadays with the equipment that's available there really is no reason to keep your gas
on or your oil or your um so yeah So so um right especially with gas prices doing what they're doing expected to do Is is there a
difference in incentives for keeping versus not keeping like are you penalized if you keep your backup if you if you Okay now this was the last three-year plan I don't know how this might change but what they have been doing is if you turn off the gas and I do mean turn it off now it has to be gone Um you can't you know have it there
to reconnect Uh then there's a $10,000 uh incentive You can get a $10,000 rebate Uh if you do it a little at a time as I've been doing it's something like 1250 per ton I don't know if that's changed It's a little over a thousand
you know per ton of heat that you that you put in So um good to know Yeah So up to that maximum I think it wouldn't go over There's some maximum you can see Probably the 10,000 Um so for some for some larger houses it might not matter
but turning the $10,000 incentive is a nice thing to have It's it's most people only need about three tons of heat in their house three or four So Yeah And I don't know how that's if that's changed If it's changed I don't
know about it So and just to be clear the incentive I was referring to a moment ago is the specifically the town's incentive Amoris's incentive additional sorry Yeah that's the mass
save incentive I was talking about right yeah So so whether or not um folks are eligible for the in for the incentive or are going to transition 100% it they still need input from an energy coach from somebody who knows what they're
doing because otherwise like I say the installers are not they're not pick they're not doing it They're not doing what they need to do to make sure people make good decisions Um anything else uh um Stephanie no I am I think hopefully
by the next meeting I'll have an update I have some information that was embargoed that I can't really share during a public session So I will hopefully be able to do it the next meeting Good news Okay good
Good Um okay All right So there's um a couple things I wanted to mention in the way of updates but first does anyone else have any updates all right So one thing I got an email from a gentleman who I believe
probably works for a company that that either leases or sells or somehow provides um electric garbage trucks And he was reaching out to me as the chair of ECAC um to see if there was any interest in Ammeris for leasing
electric or or buying electric garbage trucks I'm not sure which And I tried to explain to him that that in Amoris the trash pickup is all done privately right we we contract ourselves or we bring it to the dump we bring it to the transfer station Um so there is
no municipal anything involved in trash pickup as far as I know Um but he has been pushing on the issue a little and I do wonder if there's something that ECAT can do You know if if electric garbage trucks actually
exist it'd be awfully nice to have a quieter you know a quieter uh less polluting truck uh driving through the neighborhood every week And I just wanted to throw that out there to see if anyone had any thoughts on this He seemed to think
that you know we might have we could write to USA Recycling There's as far as I know there only two trash pickups in town now One of them is USA Recycling I think the other is Republic or something like that There's one other that I looked into and there used to be a dozen
different I I think USA bought Republic All right there's one Um so yeah we're we're pretty much in a monopoly and a lot of us are a little annoyed about that but it doesn't mean that maybe we can't have some effect I'm
not sure how we would pull it off but Well this is clearly something where if the town had a contract with USA Recycling we could have more leverage to negotiate something Exactly And that sort of tied into the other issue of that came up a
while back of you know getting some sort of a contract for doing some sort of a contracting getting recycling or composting in there as well USA Recycling they're going to be at the I noticed they're going to be they'll have a booth at the at the sustainability festival They
were a big sponsor They were a big sponsor So they are they are touting the fact that they do do compost pickup Um but of course it costs and they really are quite expensive I mean prices basically doubled when they took over Um so you know I'm personally
considering just bringing my now that I'm going to be retired in particular I have time to just bring my stuff to this transfer station It's a lot cheaper So it's it's a you know it's what could we do was it worth trying to get the town it it would be nice if we had municipal trash pickup if we had composting if it
all came as part of a package Um and maybe it would save us also money and also get us better service and better more sustainable service So it's just something to think about Another piece of that piece of that puzzle Um I think
you'll find taking it to the recycling to the trans to the city Yeah that center um is is fun actually Um you know you meet all sorts of people there It's
just fun We don't have a contract to pick up our stuff We just I just take it on a Saturday morning Right Right And I I think I may start doing that Yeah But um uh let's see And the people that work
there are really friendly They really are The town employees that work there are extremely easy to Yeah And they they used to have a an exchange thing where you could leave something You could leave stuff you wanted that would still have they got rid of that
You can leave books You know and they have you know and obviously they and they have compost so you can leave compost Um you know and Yeah So that actually brings up one other
thing that I meant to mention earlier Um so so part of UMass's problem right is that they invested an enormous amount of money in this co-generation plant which is 75 76% efficient It's crazy efficient as as power plants go And it
burns methane natural gas which is the cleanest burning fossil fuel if you have to burn fossil fuel Um but it also turns out that speaking of composting um it just brought up uh something with about biogas digesttors that came up this week It
turns out that the only renewable fuel that actually shows up as being better consistently better than fossil fuels and possibly even having negative carbon intensity meaning it in its lifetime
sequesters more carbon than it releases it in its life cycle is bio gas from trash from you know recycled materials from from food waste
Um turns out there's not enough of it So if you wanted to run the UMass plant on bio gas you know this is basically just methane from manure and from food scraps right um if you wanted to run the the UMass
plant on bio gas you would need something like a 60 You'd have to use all of the material within about a 60-mi radius right so that's it's a huge user Um but it did make me wonder and this is just a crazy thing I'm going to throw out there as part of my my update in my
in my own thinking If anyone else has other crazy ideas maybe it's worth throwing them out It turns out that bio gas digesttors on a small scale are something that are really easy to make I mean they're not much more difficult than putting together a rain bucket Um and instead of composting your your food
scraps you make it into methane and then burn it right um it made me wonder why that isn't more widespread Maybe it's crazy idea Maybe it's nobody wants a big bladder of methane hanging out in their backyard You know isn't that just a cow
it's a it's basically a spherical approximation of a cow a bag full of methane Um but it just it struck me I was thinking about it and it might you know I I could if I wanted to make my own bio gas I could probably
turn off my gas pipe burn that much gas anymore Crazy Is the scientific idea that methane released into the atmosphere is more harmful than the products of burning methane really much more harmful Much more harmful Yeah It's it's many
times uh the effect of CO2 right so if you can burn it and make it into CO2 you actually Right While getting some power out of it too Yeah And all that trash ends up as methane anyway I mean that's that's what it ends up as to a large extent right
not to mention cow manure and oh a lot of that of course you need for fertilizer as well so you wouldn't want to use it all Yeah But but but food scraps I mean you know family food scraps Um yeah just a crazy
thought Anyone else have any updates ideas things that EAC should be doing when we come back I don't know if it's things that e ECAC should be doing but on a on a national level um the administration I actually refuse
to say the person's name um has fired the head of FK um and about the only non fossil fuel burning power the administration seems to still be
renewable diesel is nuclear actually Oh nuclear Yeah they they actually seem to be okay with building nuclear plants Not that that excites me a ton but in any event
it it's you know the administration is now in injecting itself even into FK So yeah and and that is something that also came up at UMass tenatively but it did come up Um right now it's illegal to put
a nuclear power plant in Massachusetts Um we're now importing nuclear power but we it's still illegal to build nuclear power in Massachusetts But these small modular reactors which honestly have all the same risks as big fat old reactors
except that they're built to be safer So the risks are the same but they're smaller If you mean by risk if you mean probability then it's not the same risk the same type of risks but the overall risk is much lower because they're designed better They're new The problem has been that most of our nuclear plants
are so old and so badly designed that they have all sorts of you know potential there disasters waiting to happen Some of them um so these have the same issues They make they make nuclear waste and they you know and they they
could possibly release you know if there's if there's a accident they could release radiation but um they are much more cleverly designed They're designed to be passive They're smaller so they're not as threatening or looming They're built in little modular packages and can be
shipped around relatively little still a power plant and um you know one of those then they cut they're about 10 megawatts they they're small 10 megawatts is the size of the UMass plant so one one small modular reactor would
replace replace that plant um so it is something that you know as ECAC we might want to think about uh I personally I I would not oppose these it wouldn't be my first choice but right now the planet is in such a bad state that I would not oppose
these Um so uh you know maybe it's time to think about whether or not folks should be making statements about that Maybe it's time for Massachusetts to reconsider I don't know I'm not a big
fan of them but I like I say uh what's going on now is is is bad It's really bad Um so there's yeah they're they're less expensive You know it's funny They're less expensive mostly because
uh a lot of the risk mitigation that you have to do on the older plants doesn't need to be done So you still have to deal with the neighbors and you know have plans for evacuating and that sort of thing I would imagine that still has to all be
in place And that's expensive too Good luck I mean and justified Good luck getting that past any Ammerst council like Yeah I don't know if what power we have to reject local power plants but I mean that's going to be one that everyone comes out of the woodwork to to
oppose Yeah But I do think it's time that you know I've heard it now discussed Look I I was in a Sunrise meeting last week and they were talking about it and they were not screaming nuclear power they were they were talking about it you know So I think it
might be time to revisit this old idea Um I mean I would still see it as an interim but right now we're we're in such bad shape that just Yeah Any rate it might be it might
be time to start at least whispering about it and see what people think It might be the It's certainly not the cheapest way to make power I mean there are much better ways cheaper ways to do it and I don't really understand what the well I know what the attraction is So at UMass
specifically the problem is they have they have you know it's it costs like billions of dollars literally to not use their steam lines If they have to take out the steam lines that they now use to heat almost all the buildings on campus and they have to retrofit every building
to go from a steam or hydronic system to a low temperature hot water system It's outrageously expensive Um ground pumps don't make steam Yeah Right Sorry Larry I was just going to say the thing about nuclear though is it's not just about the safety issue
It's also the waste And the waste issue hasn't changed It's still a problem and it still lasts for thousands of years Yes And that's for me more been the issue even than the safety Yeah So I I think that's the problem I have with it And I don't think it's a great renewable
quote unquote It's not renewable you know It's not It's not what I would call renewable It's destructive No doubt Yeah Well exactly Destructive in a different way Yeah Yeah Yeah It's like a cleaner destructive It's a It's a non-carbon emitting destructive or almost destructive Yeah
And and in some cases that's the name of the game Yeah Yeah nuclear power isn't uh causing global warming Um Right It's it's a it's a it's a hard Yeah it's really hard to overcome the negative externalities of
of nuclear power However small risk they are they're still present and and the real problem of of nuclear waste Yeah Yeah that's what I mean I I think you just add that into the risk factor like operation and long-term maintenance is
you have to include the waste into that Yeah Yeah Anyway it's uh you know for it's an interesting conundrum Uh all right with that I don't have anything else I just wanted to
throw a few things out there to think about and maybe this summer we'll in the summer I think we should have another retreat Stephanie and um uh you know think about what we want to be doing in the next year and
um maybe hash out some of these things if there's something new or different we should be doing or if we just want to keep we also need to do more outreach I think uh more educational stuff So all right with
that still no attendees Oh items for the next agenda meet for the next agenda Anything for the next agenda that we should include some of these things can come off um Stephanie that we talked about this week OP oped should stay on Elevate
debrief can come off Um sustainability planning recap Sustainability recap can go on right at the top or debrief Yeah debrief Sorry So just those two in addition to the
usual Yeah I think so Unless anyone else has stuff they want to see All right In that case um and since there's no attendees do we have a do we have a move to adjourn
i move Second I second See you all in a couple weeks I'll see you all on Saturday Yeah See you there Thanks everybody Bye Bye