INFO-2023-1 : Net Zero Action Plan Presentation

Transcript (~30 min @ 30:08)

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▶ 29:52 Speaker 4: Counselor Eccles. Yes counselor garapay. Yes counselor. Gregoritis. Yes. Council's your melodyne. Yes Council caramshady. Yes counselor McMaster. Yes counsel amigliarelli. Yes Consular. Opbremski. Yes counselor Stewart. Yes president. Oops. Excuse me. Counselor Williams. Yes president. Sonella. Yes, eleven. Yes keeping on your toes.

▶ 30:13 Christopher Cinella: We could just adjourn but I wouldn't do that to you. Floor is all yours, Martha.

▶ 30:20 Speaker 7: right Thank you. Grover new sustainability manager for the city of Melrose and I'm here to present. The results of a two and a half year process to come to create a net zero action plan for the city of Melrose. This is a community-wide action plan that impacts all of us and just to go back a few years to 2016 when mayor Dolan committed. the city of Melrose along with all of his colleagues at the time who serve on the Metro mayors climate preparedness task force to a net-zero future Net Zero by 2050. They this was the big signing ceremony for this commitment. It was signed in 2016 and

▶ 31:16 Speaker 7: we decided a couple years later that we needed a plan to figure out a way to get there and We were selected by mapc the metropolitan area planning Council along with Natick and Arlington mapc had received a grant from the eea the office of energy in the environment to do a planning process with our three communities. And I think they picked the three of us because we all have positions like mine people in these positions who can make this kind of work happen and the idea behind that engagement. I think it was about two years was to use our communities as Kind of a test case to figure out how to create one of these plans without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars like some communities have spent but to do it in a way that solicits feedback from the entire community and do it in a way that that has real actionable steps in it. So we started out on this plan with some Community engagement. We Engage The Energy commission and what we call then the model Rose climate Action Group. We did some kickoff events at the Victorian fair. I think that was 2019 some Community input survey and online open house throughout the process at different steps, which was great. We got some great feedback. The other thing that we did with mapc was we helped them to design a greenhouse gap gas inventory database. They hired a consultant to create a database. Greenhouse gas inventory tool that is now available on their website. So we were the beta testers of this tool and here are the results of The greenhouse gas emissions inventory for the city of Melrose and this is a community-wide inventory the tool collects data from you know, the department of motor vehicles from the utilities from local sources Etc to create a baseline because in order to have a plan you've got to be able to measure it over time. So, this is our Baseline it's based on 2017 data because that was the most recent year that we could get complete inventory using all this data in. I know this is kind of small. It's on your it's in your packets, but the gist of it is that this is no surprise. 60% of our of our emissions come from buildings homes and buildings 36% from Transportation. Very small amount comes from the municipal energy use meaning municipal buildings and fleets and another very small from municipal waste. So these next slides just kind of look at the same data in a similar way, but just breaks it down in different different fashions.

▶ 34:23 Speaker 7: All right. There we go. So again, not a surprise here that in a community. That's mostly residential. that residents are responsible for 81% of the greenhouse gas emissions in Melrose businesses, 17% Municipal and public services just 3% and then if you break it down into emissions by person It's seven metric tons of CO2 per resident which again is that's kind of hard to put that in context, but I can tell you that it's it's average. For the state in the United States. So which fuels are generating these emissions in Melrose given the predominance of Vehicles particularly passenger vehicles, it's gasoline. And then our home heating it's going to be natural gas and oil and some from electricity. So, how do we get to Net Zero and what what does it mean so that the idea here is that over? Our goal is 2050, but we have very aggressive goals for 2030 and the idea is to remove the emissions from all of these fossil fuels that are Heating and feeling our homes and vehicles over time. And so we move from this. To this where we reduce those community-wide greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible and offset. What's remaining By capturing and storing carbon through tree planting and clean energy use another big component from maybe mapc and also for the city is to get their equitably so throughout the development of the plan and through the implementation and actions and their components in every action that takes a look at the equity impacts of each action is looking at who's been historically impacted in our community who would be the most impact impacted in the types of changes in our climate. We expect to see going forward and how will the benefits of this plan in each action be distributed equitably throughout the community. So, how do we get there? I'm going to just you feel free to ask questions, but I'm just going to go through so there's three basic. sectors that we're looking at the blue are buildings the green is transportation and the yellow orange is our is our energy sources. So in terms of buildings the goal is to make our homes and building super efficient and then Electrify everything in those buildings in those homes electric heat electric cooking all electric appliances you Electrify everything after making it is efficient as possible. Then you Electrify your car's trucks buses. And you make walking and biking in public transit the best way to get around get people out of their cars. And then the third the third component is the clean energy. So once you've electrified your homes businesses buildings and transportation you green the grid. So that's getting rid of all the fossil fuels on the system at least in the community like Melrose. And it can be done and this is a goal that's in line with the state. So our NetZero road map. I'm not going to go through this. but we laid out where we are today on these five on these five overall categories where we want to be in 2030 and we want to be at Net Zero by 2050 So what I'm going to do next is just for each of these sectors just pull out a few of the action items that I want to draw your attention to that. I think are important for us going forward so for buildings. For most of our buildings, they're mostly heated with natural gas. We have some on oil and some electric heat. A lot of that electric heat is really old like what's what we have over at the Melrose Towers 1970s very inefficient. some of this data is actually not very reliable because if you think about it when All of our assessors data is based on what was heeding that home for instance at time of sale and it's not updated over time. So as we as homeowner does upgrades to new heating systems currently our our data doesn't capture those those upgrades. So we want to try to figure out how to improve that we don't have it yet. Here are some of the roadmap strategies for Electrifying homes. I'll just go pick out a few number one. We were about to Launch. the new Melrose energy challenge, which is a three-year program probably will go on for 30 years of create an ongoing program to help homeowners and business owners transition from fossil fuels to lower Mission Alternatives in their homes how to Electrify their homes. So there are a ton of new incentives that just came out this year from Mass Save for heating heat pump upgrades for all kinds of Electrify electrification and uses in addition to weatherization, which is a which is a very very important to weatherize your home first and then Electrify all of the all of your appliances and heating and cooling systems. The other thing to note here is that the inflation reduction act that just passed has A ton of money I've listened to a lot of webinars about it. I can barely get my arms around my head around all the money that's coming out over the next few years to help people take this step homeowners renters. And again, our focus of this program is on households that have been missed by these initiatives over the years focusing on renters and landlords low and modern income households multi-family housing and small businesses in town. We already did a big Outreach to all the small businesses in town and we're going to continue to do that. We've got more things coming. We're parting with Malden by the way in a lot of this work helping them do the same thing the other action under building that I what really want to draw your attention to which is one of the main reasons for being here tonight is to give you the context for building code upgrades updates that are happening at the end of this year. Melrose is already a stretch code Community has a green Community meaning our Our building energy code that we have in place. What was the stretch code back in 2010 today? The base code is now has now caught up with the stretch code. So the department of energy resources is is improving that stretch code and it will go into effect at the end of this year and will automatically adopt it. It's in its mostly it's really looking again at Energy Efficiency of Renovations and constructions new construction and weatherization insulation and really pushing Pushing making it making it more expensive really for someone to do a new construction. Using fossil fuels but the it doesn't go quite far enough for a lot of communities. So we will have the opportunity to adopt an opt-in specialized Net Zero code and that is my goal is for us to adopt the opting code at the end of the year that would go into effect sometime in 2023 and there will be more on that more another presentation at some point when that new code is promulgated at doer but it's it's a major tool in our toolkit to make sure that anything that's being built now is going to be all electric and in line with our with our goals another component of our plan is that all new Municipal public buildings and major Renovations are all electric. Melrose Public Library has been is designed to be all electric. It was a originally designed is natural gas, but they changed the designs and when they Last year when they got the got off the list and it's really exciting. It's a great example of what we can do even with an old older building on transportation again, just to reiterate that all the passenger cars that are that are using gas and emitting fossil fuels. There are a number of strategies within that section of the plan here are 13 and 14 which are all about making walking safer in our community and encouraging Everywhere everyone everywhere to you to walk bike or use other modes of transportation other than cars to get where they need to go. Especially if you're just getting around Melrose. We've done a lot of work in this area, but there's still more to be done. Another action is creating is advocating for making it easy or in teaching folks about the benefits of electric vehicles. We had this amazing EV Showcase in June. We'll be doing this again. It was all local. They're like 30 locally owned electric vehicles. I still have people calling me and coming in to show me their cars. I had a guy come in just last week. They're just so excited to talk about them and show show them off and and they're the best ambassadors to encourage others. and we also will continue to work on installing public publicly accessible EV charging and easy to use areas and these pole mounted Chargers which are like the first on the east coast is one great example, and hopefully there'll be there'll be others especially in parking lots at schools or at the library or other public areas. We just adopted again with the city leading by example. We just adopted and put in place. A new policy that all new fleet vehicles will first consider all electric and then last consider ice vehicle. It's really made a difference. We've already got an order in for a F-150 Lightning for the recreation department and we'll be putting in an order. for DPW for an F-150 Lightning and we just submitted a grant for all electric refuse truck to replace number 18. I don't know if the little one that goes around to the parks and collects the trash. Hopefully it would be great to get the funding for that to help offset the cost of going electric and action 14 is just continuing to Advocate as mayor Broder continues to do in his administration for Community Transit needs again, making it easy for people to get around on something other than a car final one is is doing everything we can to Green the grid and Melrose has definitely done its share in terms of rooftop solar. We're up to I'm going to guess that we're up to 550 maybe closer to 600 solar rooftop installations in the city of Melrose we can continue to to do more and more. The federal tax credit now is is set at 30% for the next 10 years. So it's a great investment for people to make who can take that tax credit. We will we're moving towards a hundred percent for our Municipal energy. Supply and also within Melrose Community power I think both will be 100% renewable by 2030. In addition action 28 is maximizing rooftops in Melrose these this is the Hoover and the Horace man. We've those roofs as you know are being replaced. We've got plans in place in a proposal to put Soul around both and we'll do the same on every rooftop that becomes. That's replaced as time goes on in addition to the ones we already have on the Public Works building in the high school middle school. So we laid out a plan for implementation. We've already hit the ground running. We've already done quite a bit and I just wanted to share this with you so you can Encourage your constituents and help the city move this plan forward and all of the action items and as we talk to Residents and small businesses. Send them to me creating a new website from Melrose energy challenge where people can go depending on what sector they're in they can find the information find where to get the resources. They need with me as the backstop and the person who can answer their questions. and speaking of questions if you have any I'm here, I didn't see

▶ 48:20 Speaker 2: any hands go up counselor Stewart.

▶ 48:25 Robb Stewart: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you Ms. Grover for this one presentation of one area that you talked about you talked about building Transportation energy source. What I'm interested in is the energy source for the electricity that's going to charge the electric vehicles you speak a little bit about that because that you know, that's that's the big contention that the naysayers say is. Well you just burning coals so it doesn't really matter right, but can you talk there's one Coal Fire?

▶ 48:52 Speaker 7: Plant electric Generation Plant on our grid in the state of New Hampshire and it's going to be out of business very soon. There's very little oil in our on our on our grid 60% If you if you there's a great app, by the way, if you want to get into my world, it's called ISO to go. And you can get on that up anytime of the day and look at what the Energy Mix the fuel mix is on our grid for the entire New England region. And at any given time it's 40 to 60 usually about 60% natural gas all of which is imported. So and then there's some renewable and there's there's a breakdown of the renewable and Small hydro and other sources so yes today. That electricity is coming from natural gas, but they're you know, we're going to have offshore wind. The first one first big project goes live in 2024 and the plan is that by 2035 the New England grid will be renewable and large Hydro offshore wind and solar

▶ 50:03 Robb Stewart: And do you have an understanding of the mix of where that energy source is going to be with the anticipated shutdown of the Chelsea plant?

▶ 50:16 Speaker 7: I don't that's that's like deep in the weeds policy wise. I mean that's constantly changing about what the Fate is of the Chelsea plant and hearing that they you know For for a number of reasons, they're looking to extend the life of that plant for a couple years just to keep it as back up during during winter Peak demand. Yeah. but it's yeah, that's not where I All right. I was not my area of expertise but I do I do am very interested in that stuff and I don't keep up to date with it.

▶ 50:49 Speaker 2: I didn't see any other hands go up. They miss anybody. councilor Williams

▶ 50:56 Ryan Williams: Thank you. So, you know a big proponent of the Net Zero plan contributed to it. Love it. I'm so glad to see it in action. And the only thing I wanted to throw out there in the

▶ 51:07 Speaker 2: presence of his honor the mayor is that we

▶ 51:09 Ryan Williams: should really be thinking about budget years 2023-24. How are we going to execute this work? Who are we going to put in place to? Drive the project management aspect of it to do the Outreach component of it. You are a phenomenal asset to City of Melrose. You're still just one person and I find myself especially, you know, as a very closely track a lot of The Pedestrian and bicyclists projects in the renewable energy projects really wanting for speedier resolution. I think some of the delays that we have with projects are just a natural result of the market and Supply chains and some of them are capacity issue that we have in the city and I want to see us move forward on these projects as quickly as we can because Melrose is already an example for other communities not just in Massachusetts, but across the country, you know, I'm very well connected into renewable energy advocacy and when people

▶ 52:09 Speaker 2: see that map of the solar panels, it just

▶ 52:12 Ryan Williams: blows them away. You know, how many homes have solar panels in your little Community people who have been working on solar reforms for you know, 10 years or just so, you know excited to see that it's really happening somewhere. So that's my one. That's my one pitch would love to see more.

▶ 52:31 Speaker 7: Capacity in future years in the city's budget to execute this work to project manage it and to really like get it moving at fast clip. And I I completely agree. I mean also, given Paul is here, but I I can tell you that you know, when I was hired 12 years ago, my job was to manage Municipal projects and municipal buildings Fleet Energy Efficiency on the municipal side. And and as as the need has grown and the climate emergency has become more apparent just look at the news in Puerto Rico today. You know, this is an all hands on deck. This is an olive government approach that we need to take and I think that some of it is a cultural shift to think about municipal government playing this role in terms of being cheerleader educator Outreach. We do it in other Realms Health Public Health That's the first one that comes to mind but taking on this role of being of being and putting resources into it because as you can tell I've been toiling away for 12 years in what I've been working on only represents 3% of our missions, and there's so much more to the city of Melrose. So I think that

▶ 53:48 Paul Brodeur: Yes, a couple of points in that there's definitely an opportunity and to your point the market changes fairly dramatically in two ways because of like private market conditions, but also government activity and government subsidy at the state and and at the federal level and the federal level for a little more than four years. There was no activity. So in some respects, I appreciate your your question Council about all right. What about what about the grid Source because you're absolutely right if you plug in electric car here, but it's the powers coming from a coal plant that is topping off Hydro in Quebec. You know, what what's the difference right? It's a good question, but the as an example the the procurement for offshore. The wind off the coast of Massachusetts or the what we're seeking to procure as a state has grown tremendously, but part of the frustration there is the federal government for four years essentially refused to act on any of the regulatory pieces or the lease approvals that that needed to go forward in terms of a certain degree. We are at the mercy of forces beyond our control, but we've seen a lot of action at the state level certainly the inflation reduction act has as Martha said has put a ton of resources into that. We hope we hopefully, you know, hopefully that's sustained over time because unlike some other policies when you're talking about infrastructure like this and I want a boy but stranded costs and long-term Roi and things like that you need consistency of policy over time if we're going to if we're going to make progress it looks like we're going in that direction and Try to estimate imagine take advantage of the changing landscape be it through. Partnering with our state and federal delegations public private Partnerships without a great deal of success with and will continue certainly continue to explore and it's something at some point to Martha's point. We can be cheerleaders and Advocates and things like that. But we do need to transition a little bit the messaging from this is a city thing. This is a community to this is a community thing. This is more of a societal thing. Everyone is going to have to really support the mission because that 3% Doesn't sound that great when you say 3% out of a hundred, but I can tell you we are. Leaders in the Commonwealth but also paints a picture what the current state of play is.

▶ 56:38 Christopher Cinella: Yeah, the questions and new.

▶ 56:41 Speaker 2: There's anybody is Castle Williams. I'm very impressed with your acute knowledge of ocean leases.

▶ 56:47 Ryan Williams: In fact, I wanted to point out that if you're talking about the Exelon Mystic station, that's a power plant. It's a natural gas plant that provides about 1400 megawatts of energy. and the 2022 Bureau of ocean Energy Management lease that went up for sale just six or seven months ago is expected to produce seven gigawatts of renewable energy. All the stuff is happening right now. And so when the grid when the when the RTO in the grid provide or balances all their energy demands, they're looking down the road and all the energy that's coming online as well as the energy that's coming offline. And I think that the the most important point to emphasize with regard to electrification is that the sooner we're prepared in the community for full-scale electrification when the ocean leases go live when the renewable energy kicks in we're there. Automatically instantly the other way around is that we wait for the ocean leases to finish and we wait for the wind to come in. And then it takes us 30 years to transition the The Fleets and the vehicles and so that's why it's so important.

▶ 57:54 Paul Brodeur: It really is a growth opportunity not to keep on keeping on but this is stuff I enjoy talking about so my apologies but you see the state transitioning where Salem had a large coal plant. They were trying to figure out what to do with it. They were talking about national natural gas for a while it is now this is like right in Salem Harbor. It's now going to be a a noble energy a wind offshore wind kind of Hub and great point in Summer Set. I want to say down your New Bedford wasn't old Coal Fire plant that is now going to be kind of the onboarding point for a lot of the power that is going to come from from the art for the size will offshore wind. So the those again it's those big Investments those Investments started. Probably six or eight years ago, but you have to have that you have to have that basic infrastructure so you can bring the power on Shore. So we are we are getting there but it is it's it takes a lot of foresight last thing last thing I want to say to that point

▶ 59:00 Ryan Williams: is that the as the money flows in as the in I always trip with the IRA. The inflation reduction act comes into play every city in town and state in America is going to be trying to procure all this stuff to buy these equipments these, you know sign these contracts and that's why I mentioned having some extra hands on deck to execute because it'll be easy for the smallest city in Massachusetts to get left

▶ 59:33 Paul Brodeur: behind there will be I think you'll find there'll be some tendency or acceleration to the tendency among among municipalities to cooperate to somewhat regionalize to take advantage of some economies of scale and to make sure that you know from again from an infrastructure perspective not allowed to duplication and we get the most bang for our buck both in chasing those dollars and in making the progress we need to make

▶ 1:00:00 Speaker 2: house together

▶ 1:00:02 Mark Garipay: Thank you, Mr. President. I was going to make a motion to place this on file second motion made to place

▶ 1:00:07 Christopher Cinella: on file made by Council Cafe seconded by councilman McMaster any discussion See none all those in favor. Hi, you posed. Okay. Thank you, Martha. Thank you very much. Thank

▶ 1:00:18 Speaker 7: you Martha opportunity to talk to you all of you. Appreciate it.