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Clean Energy Advisory Meeting Minutes 11-20-2024 CITY OF BEVERLY PUBLIC MEETING MINUTES BOARD OR COMMISSION: Clean Energy Advisory Committee SUBCOMMITTEE: DATE: November 20, 2024 LOCATION: Hybrid In-Person Sohier Room, 32 Essex Street, Beverly, MA 01915 and Virtual via Google Meet MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Jordan Stutt, Sarah Cullinan, Fred Hopps, Tom Keeley,Nancy Schalch MEMBERS ABSENT: Amy Smith = c3 i 1. Roll Call and Welcome Chair Stutt calls the meeting to order at 6:38 p.m. 2. Review and Approval of Meeting Minutes iv , a. Approval of minutes from October 2024 meeting. Meeting minutes were unaniWously' approved. 3. Background thoughts &reflections post-election a. Jordan: this is an inflection point, moving from a period of strong support at the federal government to uncertainty. Grateful for local work like this group. b. Fred: Local activism, inspiration from Salem,Massachusetts recommitted to continuing to meet our climate goals,we will keep this spirit alive in Beverly and locally. 4. The Bigger Picture—Bruce Egan. What climate solutions might be favored in next few years? (see slides for full details) a. Potential for new carbon removal technologies; govt is offering credits and incentives. b. New nuclear energy boom—smaller reactors, different potential technologies c. Future of wind? Construction & cost problems, threats from Trump d. Clean Ports program—EPA working to get all funding signed and delivered. 5. State Policy—Kevin a. 2 bills just passed in state legislature i. Economic development bond bill (Mass Leads Act)—$4 billion in new investment authorized, including $1 billion for climatetech. Includes funding for MassCEC, offshore wind, tax credits, all over 10 years. Geared to promoting R&D for new innovation. ii. Climate Bill: siting of projects, rules around gas expansion, creation of Office of Environmental Justice &Equity, advanced metering, EV charging stations, move to include carbon sequestration and nuclear in clean energy. b. Counselor Houseman—national grid gas and electric both have hearings coming up about 3 year forward looking plan for how they will meet Massachusetts climate goals. 6. Specialized Energy Code—Jordan a. Please send any feedback to Jordan directly. b. Counselor Houseman—if the CEAC is ready to put it forward, he is ready to sponsor it. c. Erina—update from DOER that the study we have been expecting by end of the year may take a few more months (with further data on cost impacts). Expecting cost evaluation— stretch code versus specialized cost difference estimates. i. Counselor Houseman—have little confidence that we will get that further information anytime soon. Filing will get sent first to subcommittee on legal affairs, which he chairs, so he can work with CEAC on what we want to do to make presentations to the council. It may take a while to get on the agenda, so may want to move it forward to get on the agenda. d. Jordan—reached out to Councilor Flowers for date for information briefing to the city council. Do not think that we should wait for the DOER report, given uncertainty on timing and content. e. Can do the informational presentation to the city council when we first submit. Then go to subcommittee. f. Building Commissioner—Erina has a sense already that he is neutral on the policy. Biggest change was the adoption of the stretch code, that was the biggest lift in terms of\� new trainingand education. Specialized code is not that different or much of a change. — p g g. Counselor Houseman—suggest to have CEAC vote at December meeting to approve final draft of our resolution, then shoot for the first or second meeting in January to file the resolution with the city council. Potentially do informational briefing (along with informational materials sent in writing) ready at the meeting, show up to that in person. Very common to have a presentation and Q&A for 15-20 minutes at the city council meeting. Good to do this presentation at the meeting where we file. h. Nancy volunteered to help put the presentation, based on Weston presentation, information form Erina that the intern gathered, and Jordan will help as well. Have this ready for review at December meeting. i. Counselor Houseman—expect questions on high electricity rates and the impact of the specialized energy code when we go before the city council. 7. City Updates--Erina a. Approval to go ahead with EV bus order 8. Green Beverly Updates—Dean a. Multi-family coaching project. Green Beverly working with the city to coach multi- family owners and landlords on how to navigate the Mass Save process, electrification, decarbonization for their properties. A little over 1,000 properties. Doing scheduled outreach by email and phone. Looking at data to refine the process. b. Sarah will share work from rate-making working group—breakeven points for different investments, developing recommendations at the state level re: how to get rates to that point. Meeting was adjourned at 8 pm, next meeting will be December 18, 2024.