Sustainable Belmont Monthly Meeting
Assembly Room, Belmont Public Library
November 5, 2008
Attendance: Tony Alcorn, Dorothy and John Herzog, Heather Tuttle, Ron and Gisella Guger, Paul Solomon, John McAlpin, Caroline Huang, Heidi Baram, Hank Thiedeman, Jeff North, Jan Kruse, and Will Brownsberger (guest speaker)
Chair Jan Kruse opened the meeting at 7:05 pm.
Welcome and Introductions
Announcements: Alerts
Ballot Question #4 – 80 % reduction by 2020
Nonbinding but passed in every house district it was on the ballot (11 in total?)
Ballot Question – lots of Cape Wind support – south shore went yes – no Cape communities actually voted
MCAN conference – car pooling
Bill McKibben speaker – Nov. 21st – at Concord Church
Caroline Huang- Presentation for basic feedback on Sustainable Belmont website
Gathering feedback on content primarily – not layout/looks
Heather volunteered to record comments
Original Menu Items/ notes form Heather & Jan
Content window/ menu items
Projects
Partnerships
About Us/History/Vision 21
Contact Us
Form Filling pages (for address etc.) or e-mail info
Search Bar
Add items and links to pages
Home Page? – some discussion about its necessity – a convention we should probably keep
Tool bar travels with page
*Climate Action Plan
*Healthy Homes- Anti-Idling, for example
Other Projects
Calendar of coming events
Meetings – dates/time
Work on sequencing of events
Distillation of minutes or post the minutes on site – pros and cons- town committees are required to post minutes on town website – will need to do as long as we have a town connection – continue to post on town site from SB website as link (both sites?)
Listserv address – add to item menu
Grouping of the Projects –
Single heading ? or Individual headings?
Links to resources (energy efficiency, green power, BMLD etc.)
Hot tips for reducing you carbon footprint
Hot tips for greening you home
Other ideas….
Four principles of sustainability
Add a “what’s new “section
Link to previous articles from the newspaper
Photos of group
Mandate of the Vision 21 committee
Discussion of hierarchy of layers – all on front page/ - how deep do we need to go to get what we want – can it be done quickly
Host Site - Site Five is the likely site
Action items – volunteers to take responsibility for different sections/content
8pm:
State Representative Will Brownsberger discussed “green” legislation passed this session
Climate change legislation is his top priority/ looking for a comprehensive approach – Speaker DiMasi created an energy bill early in 2006 – Secretary of Energy and the Environment Ian Bowles got involved and Senator Jim Marzilli, many good ideas made it in i a pilot small form/ ultimately passed in June 2008 – looked at power sector 1/3 each sector electric/transportation/burning fuel in buildings
Shift to growing renewable sector and switch to conservation – least cost planning-conservation first before adding capacity by supplier – decoupling – utility can make money through delivery and conservation – add on to bill creative a fund for renovations etc. – electric power (gas sector possibly too) to improve efficiency – authority is in the hands of regulators to work with utilities to make this possible
Presenting not much in the transportation sector at present
How are heat pump/geothermal considerations handled? Unclear?
Net metering considerations intact for small residential solar
Code improvements in bill, improved design requirements for all construction, cellulosic ethanol
GREEN COMMUNITIES ACT
Global warming solutions act (2020 goal to 2050 goal)
CO2 10-25% reduction by 2020
Will is working on a transportation bill to reduce fossils fuels –focus on this sector
How will the session go after this priority
Will’s exhibit/working groups to craft a position
Meeting adjourned at 8:55pm.
Minutes submitted by John McAlpin.
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