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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClimate Council Meeting Summary - 9-17-2020 Orange County Climate Council Meeting Summary September 17, 2020 3:00pm - 4:30pm Online Meeting Attendees: Mark Marcoplos (Chair), Brennan Bouma (staff), Ray DuBose, Robb English, Tyrone Fisher, Laura Janway, Kathy Kaufman, Adam Long, Melissa McCullough, Jonas Monast (joined late), John Richardson, Donna Rubinoff, Owen Ryerson, Sammy Slade, Mary Tiger, Stephanie Trueblood Presenters: Norma Safaransky, Sharon Bagatell Public comments received by advertised deadline: None I. Call to Order, Land Acknowledgement - Marcoplos called the meeting to order at 3:06pm. Bouma gave a native lands acknowledgement for Orange County, recognizing that Orange County sits on the historic lands of the Occoneechi, Saponi, and Tutelo people, and historically the land where Orange County now sits was also home to the Tuscarora, Sissipahaw, Eno, Shakori, Saura, and Catawba. II. Additions or Changes to the Agenda No additions or changes were suggested. III. Approval of Meeting Minutes from August 20, 2020 Bypassed due to the lack of quorum at that the time in the agenda. IV. Presentation from Citizen’s Climate Lobby on Carbon Fee and Dividend Policy Safransky from the Citizen’s Climate Lobby gave an introduction to their organization and efforts. They support the Climate Caucus in the House of Representatives which is structured to be bi-partisan. Bagtell then gave the main presentation on the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act which is currently a Bill under consideration in Congress. This Act would place fee on carbon emissions at the source or point of entry for all fossil fuels. The rate would be $15 per ton of estimated carbon emissions to start, going up $10 each year. The money collected would then be distributed equally among households as a monthly dividend. So while fuel prices would be expected to rise, this dividend would offset those higher costs while encouraging a low carbon lifecycle. There are currently 82 sponsors in House of Representatives including David Price, the City of Durham, Durham County, and Chapel Hill. They then asked the Council to express support of the Act through a resolution or a letter. Bouma asked Bagtell to help explain the difference between this proposal and a carbon tax. Bagtell responded saying that a carbon tax would leave the money for the government to use. This proposal sends all the money back to households. This will help to protect lower wealth consumers. Kaufman then asked whether this was the time to make comments or discuss potential objections. Marcoplos said that there may not be time for a full consideration of this at this meeting, and we don’t have quorum, so maybe we can review documents for now and then be prepared to discuss it at the next meeting. Slade encouraged members to review Kaufman’s written comments and objections, particularly on the need for comprehensive climate policy and the danger of passing a pause on further climate regulations. Rubinoff said that this is one of 7 different bills presented to Congress each with pro’s and con’s, and we need to be able to respond to this in comparison to the other policies which may require a longer time. Bagatell said that she knows that the 10 year regulatory pause is a sticking point and that this is a first step. This will ultimately be part of a package, and it doesn’t preclude a green new deal. It does include a regulatory pause that they feel is narrow so that it only applies to GHG emissions so that there is not both a fee AND regulation on the same emissions. It doesn’t take away from the Clean Air Act. It effects 3 mechanisms: 1.) The Clean Power Plan that never was adopted. 2.) New source performance standard for new industrial plants that emit GHGs, 3.)Permit modifications for new plants. It would have no impact on CAFÉ standards and other legislation. They feel that this solution can achieve the emissions targets. Kaufman made the point that similar prices on carbon in the Northeast is not getting the results. This proposal would preclude a national clean energy standard. Safransky added that that should the federal government shift party power in November, this bill may undergo some changes. Marcoplos suggested that a small subcommittee be formed to take this up and bring back a recommendation at the next meeting. Marcoplos asked if McCullough could lead this subcommittee and she agreed. Other volunteers for this committee were Kaufman, Rubinoff, and Ryerson. Tiger asked for whole council to be invited to join the review committee and Bouma agreed to email the whole council and see if additional volunteers are interested. Trueblood renewed the conversation about how we manage these types of requests for advocacy or support from external groups. It will be important to decide how we manage these types of actions so that we feel comfortable that we are not getting ahead of the local governments. Marcoplos agreed, and said that we are learning as we go. Trueblood said that she would be interested in hearing options on how we approach these actions because this is especially important for governmental staff. Bouma called back to a previous Climate Council conversation that offered one example which was to have the Council make recommendations to the member governments instead of acting as the entity that is advocating or making the policy recommendation. Janway agreed. V. Update from Climate Action Reporting Committee Bouma reported that the committee had carried forward the changes that were discussed at the last meeting, summarizing results quantitatively and qualitatively, and preparing for the Community Update Event. Bouma expressed the committee’s openness to further analysis suggestions or key takeaways that the Council had from the CARD that they wanted to present at the event. Bouma mentioned that the committee had not yet met with the Policy committee to consider alignment of the two lists and would reach out to invite them. Tiger and Janway said that we were also working on a written summary with visuals to provide at the event. Long reiterated that the committee was open to other ways of summarizing the CARD data. Slade thanked the committee for the work and said that it would be important to align with the Policy committee, especially given the urgency of the needs we are facing to take further action and the potential to take advantage of a potentially changing political landscape. Rubinoff agreed and asked if the actions could include further links to details or websites, similar to what Carrboro has done. Tiger agreed that it would be a good idea. Trueblood offered that if there are multiple actions in one cell it can be complicated to figure out which website to send people to. They may be able to add more links and it may also be helpful to add contact information for who might provide more details. Richardson agreed. Bouma agreed and called back to a previous conversation saying that contact info would be helpful for journalists as well. Long offered that links could also be included as footnotes. VI. Update from Policy Committee Trueblood reported that for her group, which was focused on low hanging fruit, that they were still looking for feedback from the larger Council before moving forward. This may make more sense to continue after the Community Update Event. Richardson said that the other group, focused on larger actions, had not yet met. Trueblood said that the committee could get together with the CARD committee and align before investing further effort into policy research. Some areas from the policy list are not areas that anyone is working on right now and might be important to include in some way. VII. Update from Communications Committee Marcoplos summarized that the committee had met and fleshed out the format for the event. Marcoplos provided that overview and highlighted Tiger’s idea to produce a video introduction with 15 seconds from each member. Bouma and Tiger confirmed that the deadline for video submissions was going to be Monday the 28th of September. Marcoplos said that Kaufman would be the moderator for the panel. Bouma said that the main panel would represent each of the committees with pairs of presenters. These presentations would deliver information on what we had completed in our first year. Moving from CARD, to Policy, and to Communications. Bouma confirmed that there would be a 15 minute live Q and A as well as an opportunity to have people submit questions at registration and a follow-up survey after the event. Marcoplos said that at registration we should give people the opportunity to sign up for the interest Council list as well. Trueblood said that there needs to be promotion for the event. It would also be important to get questions ahead of time and that the moderator should create questions as well for a backup. People might not know the Climate Council yet and what authority we have, and may not know what questions to ask. Trueblood then asked if there was a list of invitees that had been created to assist Council members in reaching out, specifically to elected officials. Slade agreed. Bouma said that the Communications Committee will prepare an announcement that elected officials can deliver at their meetings. He also charged each of the committees to identify their speakers and let him know, showcasing the diversity of our membership if possible. Ian Chrisafis a reporter with the Daily Tar Heel, then asked to speak and Marcoplos granted that. He offered to help get the word out for the event. He asked if there was anything that the council would appreciate being included in this or other stories about the Council. Bouma confirmed the date and time for the Community Update event and offered to work with Chrisafis separately. He would create a registration link for Chrisafis to include. Trueblood then asked about what technology platform would be used for the event. When you have over 60 people, some platforms work better because you can shift to a webinar style format. Zoom can work well. McCullough said that Chapel Hill likely had access to good platforms as well. Kaufman said that it would also be important to build in security for the event and we will need a technical person for the event. Richardson agreed and offered to provide a backup if needed. The Zoom webinar platform has worked well. Trueblood agreed, especially since the on-the-fly surveys are good for engagement. Bouma said that he would reach out to colleagues in the County who have access to several platforms. If we do not have access to the Zoom webinar platform or a technical person, then he would reach out to Richardson. Kaufman said that we might consider having a Facebook Live as a backstop as well if needed. The Communications Committee closed saying that they would meet again soon and get promotional materials together including a press release about the event. McCullough asked when the next meeting would be and Bouma confirmed that there would be the need for a normal meeting on October 15th the week before the event. VIII. Discussion of Public Event This discussion is merged with the update from the Communications committee above. IX. Adjournment Marcoplos asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting and this was provided by Slade and seconded by McCullough. The Council voted unanimously to adjourn the meeting at 4:31pm.