13:10:56 From Chris Carrick : This group may be very interested in the Stand Earth coalition which is working with municipalities to pass policies like bans on fossil fuel infrastructure and fossil fuel use in new buildings: https://www.stand.earth/page/fossil-fuel-free/what-are-safe-cities 13:12:03 From Evan Hughes : Examples of policy to switch existing residential and business to all electric, no natural gas? How fund low incomes to do this? (New construction is easy, but retrofits are expensive.) 13:13:01 From Chris Carrick : Here 13:13:27 From Chris Carrick : Here is a great compendium of policies to decarbonize our energy system from Pace Energy and Climate Center: https://wfs.pace.edu/browse/KMigFwLlxkSwwS_4RCdwvg/ 13:13:40 From David Kay : Evan see https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/04/ithaca-is-first-us-city-to-begin-100percent-decarbonization-of-buildings.html 13:15:14 From Chris Carrick : To Bob Perry's point about schools, New York just authorized 300 million to renovate schools in Syracuse but I don't think there are any plans to use geothermal (as an example) - just new gas boilers. Any advice on how to intercede? 13:16:43 From David Kay : TO Bob and Chris's point on schools... In NYS at least, general purpose local governments have next to no influence on schools as governments except in limited circumstances. 13:22:25 From David Kay : Comment: Just because municipalities can do the little things doesn't mean they DO do them. We have about 1600 local governments in NYS. There are 348 communities "registered " with the state program, fewer that have taken actions to qualify as bronze/silver etc. See https://climatesmart.ny.gov/ There is also an accounting for the number of municipalities that have (officially) taken which actions. 13:26:29 From James Orenstein : What policies have been proposed that can overcome the financial hurdle when a city does a solar feasibility study for on-site generation and finds that the simple payback is 30 yrs due to a low-cost 100% renewable electricity agreement they negotiated with their electric provider? 13:29:25 From Robert Perry, Synergistic Solutions (he/him) : Over what distance is that energy being delivered? The greater the distance, the lower the relative resilience. I'm also assuming that feasibility relates to those critical loads and not the entire load profile. Payback may be shortened if only critical loads are considered. 13:29:57 From Stephen MacDonald -- TeMix Inc. : Nice comment James. Would echo that sentiment and add has a Transactive Energy Market which uses subscriptions and dynamic 5-min pricing been considered? Being that SCE is the LSE/DO of the Clean Coalition MG project(s) and they are implementing a TEM. 13:31:19 From Chris Carrick : Here is a breakdown of different types of municipal policies can be enacted which the Stand Earth SAFE Cities initiative is promoting, including restrictions on FF infrastructure and electrification policies - with examples that can be used as templates: https://www.stand.earth/SAFE-resources/types-and-examples-successful-safe-ordinances-bylaws-and-resolutions 13:31:59 From David Kay : Another approach for some municipaltiies is partnering with their major institutions on specific initiatives like those being discussed. Cornell is a big player in our area, for example, as a local energy user and in other ways. There are many things that the university does as an institution, not just as a research facility, to pave the way, pilot solar approaches, etc. One example of work underway now is on the viability of deep earth source heat. THis is still in the research phase, but Cornell is banking on it and is one of many things underway that could benefit the municipality too https://earthsourceheat.cornell.edu/ 13:32:48 From Baird Brown to Sierra Dall(Direct Message) : You need to enforce your time limits. 13:34:35 From Chris Carrick : Pace Energy and Climate Center did an analysis of how feasible the SAFE Cities policies are to implement in New York, based on municipal authority and jurisdiction: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p_No2LfcyC09hE78b_Bc4hMQGCfzdU2p/view 13:35:47 From Stephen MacDonald -- TeMix Inc. : Agree Baird 13:38:48 From Chris Carrick : Baird, the magic bullet for our Solarize campaign was to get the municipality to include our flyer in the water bills they sent out 13:41:11 From Rick Reibstein : In support of Baird's vision, check out the example of pollution prevention technical assistance programs, which provided the kind of outreach he talks about for reducing waste and toxics use, but also energy. https://www.csu.edu/cerc/researchreports/documents/AnOunceOfPollutionPreventionIsWorth2003.pdf 13:43:36 From Evan Hughes : To Chris: Is not an electric mandate easy on new construction? Retrofit tough because expensive but not so for new construction. 13:43:47 From Baird Brown : Thanks Rick. 13:45:13 From Chris Carrick : Evan: we suggested that as a "fall back" position but the developers pushed back hard with myths about heat pumps not working in our climate zone. But our state's Climate Action Council is likely to recommend something like this to the legislature next year, so it'll be interesting to see what happens. 13:47:28 From Chris Carrick : me too David Kay! 13:49:11 From Chris Carrick : yes Jeff - first do no harm 13:51:49 From David Kay : City of Ithaca Green New Deal policies: https://www.cityofithaca.org/642/Green-New-Deal Another story on Ithaca's 100% building decarbonization plan by 2030: https://www.npr.org/2021/11/06/1052472759/to-fight-climate-change-ithaca-votes-to-decarbonize-its-buildings-by-2030 13:53:01 From David Kay : One of the keys of the Ithaca policy is innovative financing see notes above. 13:53:15 From Chris Carrick : Folks may be interested in replicating NY's Utility Energy Registry which requires the investor-owned utilities to report aggregated data on electricity and natural gas usage in municipalities. It's very helpful for planning purposes: https://utilityregistry.org/app/#/ 13:53:28 From Moneer Azzam : I have started a series on why and how communities must play a pivotal role in energy transition by piloting smart climate technologies. https://www.beaconclimate.com/post/racing-with-climate-change-speeding-the-energy-transition 13:53:47 From Rick Reibstein : Thanks, Chris. 14:00:24 From Baird Brown : I have to drop off. Thanks all. 14:00:38 From Chris Carrick : here's a 2018 report from the US Conference of Mayors on what local government policies: https://www.c2es.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/mayors-leading-way-on-climate-2018.pdf 14:01:50 From David Kay : Do any of you know much about the Vibrant Clean Energy Modeling tool? Some of the modeling I've read about highlights aspects of high cost of transmission in important ways.... See https://www.utilitydive.com/news/want-a-more-distributed-and-lower-cost-power- system-try-this-new-planning/593108/ https://vibrantcleanenergy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/WISdomP-Model_Description(August2020).pdf