 Great. Well, welcome. Thank you for joining us here at the Burlington Electric Department. We're in the loading dock area where we've had many updates on our climate efforts over the years. I'm joined today by the Burlington Electric Department General Manager, Darren Springer, who I'm proud to have served with for many years now and who has led our climate efforts in many ways. We will also be hearing today from Ben Edgerly Walsh, who's V-Purkish Climate and Energy Program Director, Amy Dimitriwitz from the Champlain Housing Trust, and Chip Petulo from... I forgot if I should get you from... Also Champlain. Okay. I didn't want to make sure I got that right. Sorry. I will start things off with some remarks. We'll hear from each of them, and then we'd be happy to answer questions. This is an exciting announcement to be able to share with you. It's been five years since we announced the most ambitious climate policy of any city in America, something we call our Net Zero Energy Roadmap. Lots happened since then. We've seen 100-year storms, warming winters, early frosts, and, of course, a multi-year-long global pandemic that threw families and businesses into crisis and ultimately cost the lives of over 1,000 Vermonters and then years of economic volatility that followed that. Through all of that and more, Burlington has stayed focused on our climate goals and is making great progress towards them. The report we are releasing today demonstrates that with generous incentives, pioneering policy, and collective action across the community, we can end our reliance on fossil fuels and save Vermonters and businesses money at the same time. Five years into the plan, we are on target with transportation emissions reductions, and in 2023, we made substantial improvement in our thermal sector as well. Overall, we are now 18% below our 2018 emissions benchmarks, a reduction of about 40,000 metric tons of CO2 annually overall. All of those progress are shown on these charts here in different ways. In the upper left, you see the total fossil fuel consumption, and then it's broken out between the thermal and ground transportation sectors, natural gas, and gasoline. Each one paints a little bit of a different picture. Darren can answer detailed questions about them, but I did hear one question before. Is this just the Burlington Electric Department or no? This is representing the progress that we are making as a community because the goals that we have in this net-zero roadmap are community goals. We are trying, anchored here in our 100-year-old public utility, we are trying to electrify everything and push the whole community, assist help the whole community towards reducing the emissions in the ground transportation and thermal sectors as well as in the electrical sectors. I want to point out we made all of this progress even while building hundreds of new homes and before the new financial incentives of the Historic Biden Inflation Reduction Act have fully kicked in. That's very significant because we started here in 2020 with these very generous local incentives. We called it a green stimulus at a time. What the Biden Inflation Reduction Act does is in many ways it doubles down or triples down or more in some cases on those same strategies. We started here first in Burlington when the Inflation Reduction Act incentives fully kick in. It should just put more wind in the sails of the progress that you're already seeing here. In short, we are proving here in Burlington that by electrifying everything, our cars, our homes, our bikes, our lawn mowers and more, we can end the climate emergency and achieve a future that is more affordable, that is more equitable and that is healthier and in many ways more awesome than the present that we are living in today. I will always be grateful to the BED team, some of whom are here, but it's a big team that can't all be here, that five years ago not only embraced the big, audacious goal of net zero energy, but envisioned a path to achieving that goal that is equitable, that is affordable, and that is actionable. Let me share some stats from the report that I think make bring that to life. Since the launch of this effort we have now installed over 2,300 heat pumps in this community, which is an uptake of our heat pump installations in this community by 25-fold. We have helped over 700 families switch to hybrid or electric vehicles and each of those families can charge their new cars with 100% renewable electricity at the equivalent of about 75 cents a gallon. So think about that, even during a period where we've seen gas prices getting over $4 a gallon, BED customers can recharge their vehicles at about 75, the equivalent of 75 cents of a gallon. 20% of the electric vehicle rebates that have been given out in this period have gone to low-income customers at BED. That's 144 cars going to low-income households. We have implemented new weatherization standards and renewable heat ordinance and on-bill financing with VHFA and these strategies are saving businesses and renters money on their monthly heating bills and on their electric bills. By electrifying our city fleet with 25 new EVs and 16 new hybrids since 2020, we're saving taxpayers gas money as we are down as a city fleet by 19% in terms of the amount of fuel that we were consuming pre-2020. And through dozens of consumer incentives, we're helping Berlin-tonians electrify everything, as I mentioned before, from lawmakers to bikes. It's really an impressive, long list of incentives that are available to BED customers and I encourage everyone to check it out on the BED webpage. Our first in the nation voter-approved net-zero energy bond is funding investment in the new modern EV fast chargers and a more resilient and powerful grid infrastructure and technology systems to enable innovative new electric rates and programs for the future. So, in closing, the net-zero road map was just a few years ago this was really just an idea. It is no longer just an idea. It is now proof that with thoughtful policy and collective action across the community, among residents, businesses and non-profit partners and institutions, we can end our reliance on fossil fuels and save Vermonters families, save Vermont businesses money at the same time. If we can do this here in Burlington, this is proof that cities across the country can do it. Cities around the world can do this. It is proof that we can be doing more and achieving more as a state. Not only that, I think what is starting to take shape here is making good on this idea that by electrifying everything, you can achieve this vision of ending the climate emergency, not through austerity or through drastic dramatic cutbacks and our quality of life, but through turning into reality a future that is healthier, that has better air quality in the community, better air quality in homes, and that has devices that just work better and are more effective than what we have today. Again, it is very exciting to share this all with you. Although this will be the last time that I get to share this annual update on the roadmap with you, this is a process that is intended to continue, and the work that Burlington has started here in many ways is just getting started and can expand in many ways into the future. So with that, thank you, and I'd like to welcome Darren Springer to the podium. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everybody. We're really excited to be here. It's been an honor to work with Mayor Weinberger on this initiative over the last five years. We launched the Net Zero Energy Roadmap in September of 2019. So here we are with 2023 data and a couple things that I'll add to what the mayor summarized that's represented here on these charts. What we saw in 2023 was the second largest year over year emissions reduction other than the 2020 data, which was obviously the pandemic year where we saw a dramatic shift in the economy both in Vermont and nationally and internationally. So 2023 was a year of progress. And in particular, and this is really good news, it was a year of progress in our buildings and our thermal sector. We have seen in 2023 our natural gas consumption in the city of Burlington at its lowest point since the roadmap was launched in 2018 with 2018 data. 2018 is our benchmark. So natural gas use is lower by about 19% in 2023 compared to 2018. And I saw today that the Energy Action Network said that over the same timeframe, natural gas sales were down 9% statewide. So we're actually seeing quite a bit more progress here in Burlington than we're even seeing statewide in terms of these types of reductions. The 2300 plus heat pumps that we have installed is definitely helping. The primary renewable heating ordinance that was passed is helping and the carbon fee ordinance that was passed in November of last year and is just taking effect in 2024 is going to further accelerate the progress as well as the Inflation Reduction Act incentives. So we have really good progress in 2023. We have more work to do. The Net Zero Roadmap is the most ambitious trajectory really anywhere in the country. We have more work to do on transportation. You know, we're here today. We've got our electric vehicles, electric trucks, electric bucket truck. We have more work to do to get more Burlingtonians into plug-in hybrids into electric vehicles. So we have some new announcements today, new programs, new incentives that we're also putting out to go alongside this new data with the roadmap. One of those is a first of its kind in the country, as we understand it, a utility incentive for what we call super users of gasoline. These are folks who drive two or three times more miles per year than the Burlington average. And you can go on our website today at BurlingtonElectric.com and check out these new incentives. So if you drive about 2X the average of a Burlington driver on top of all of our EB incentives, which can add up to $3,000 in rebates for income-qualified customers, you're going to get an extra $250. If you drive three times the Burlington average, you're going to get an extra $500. This is the first time any utility in the country, through our knowledge, has put forward this type of incentive. And we were authorized to do so in Act 44 passed by the legislature last year. So Burlington is going to lead the way for Vermont and really for the country in piloting this approach and showing that it can work to help people who are, you know, more burdened than typical in terms of the amount of gasoline they use, save money, reduce their emissions and switch to electric. In addition, we're excited today to talk about the switch and save program where we have $400,000 from a state grant program that we're going to work with, hopefully, Champlain Housing Trust and other partners to implement that's going to provide income-qualified residents with a no or low cost switch to a heat pump water heater. Water heaters' second largest use typically of energy in a building. They don't get as much attention as, you know, heating does. But we're going to have the opportunity to help perhaps over 100 residents in Burlington who are income-qualified save on their bills, reduce emissions with that program. We also have a number of other changes. Our e-bike incentive is going to go from $200 to $300 starting today. We are going to have a new program to help drivers who do ride sharing and food delivery switch to electric vehicles. And we also have new charging incentives, including workplace charging incentives and retail charging incentives for areas of the city that are just as 40, which means they're areas that are impacted in terms of federal environmental justice criteria. So we're really excited to announce these new programs. And then last but not least, we're also really excited to announce that we're going to be starting a regulatory process that will culminate, hopefully, over the next three or four months, to offer customers a heat pump bill credit through a pilot program. So if you're a heat pump customer and we have 2,300-plus heat pumps installed in Burlington, you're going to be able to enroll through a federal grant that we got here in Burlington. You're going to be able to get devices to help monitor your energy use of your heat pumps, to help you be able to control your heat pump right from your smartphone, and then Burlington Electrics can be able to send a signal to your heat pump to say, hey, it's a peak time. We want to adjust the thermostat a couple degrees and help save money, reduce peak energy. And as a reward for enrolling in the program, we're offering a $5 per month bill credit, and our hope is over an 18-month period we'll learn enough through this pilot to be able to have a heat pump rate, just like the Mayor mentioned, our EV rate. That's hopefully going to be a similar benefit for customers that have a heat pump. So a number of exciting announcements for people to visit BurlingtonElectric.com. Check out our new rebates, our new incentives. I want to turn it over to our guests who have helped with these programs, and I want to thank Ben Walsh, Ben Edgeley Walsh from VPurg for being here. VPurg was a supporter of the Super User Incentive Program and the Switch and Save program, and Ben, please come up and save your work. Thank you. Thank you for coming today. I wanted to start by thanking Darren and Mayor Weinberger and the whole Burlington team for all the hard work they put into this roadmap and plan over the last several years, and for making the new incentives that you just heard about possible. When you're looking at the climate crisis, it's incredibly clear we need to do far more than we're doing today, and it's also very clear that we need to make every dollar go as far as we possibly can, which is why we're so excited, especially about the gasoline super user incentive you just heard about from Darren. This is a concept that research has been done on nationally, research has been done on here in Vermont, and the data is abundantly clear that if we do more to help drivers who have to burn more gasoline today get into electric vehicles, the dividends, the benefits of that are going to be enormous, both for those drivers and for our society as a whole. So when you hear about these new incentives that are going to help Burlingtonians that drive two or three times as much as the average Burlingtonian get into an electric vehicle, what you should be hearing is these are incentives that are going to dramatically reduce the energy burden that those Burlingtonians have. These are incentives that could dramatically accelerate the transition away from gasoline, and these are incentives that frankly should be available to every American in every corner of this country. But right now this is the first time that to the best of our knowledge a utility or a state or a city has put these kinds of incentives on the table for these high consumption fuel users. That's an enormous deal and really what we have to thank for that is a city that is not afraid to lean in to action on the climate crisis and leadership here that doesn't feel the need to wait to do right by their citizens. We certainly hope to see super user incentives like these expand into the rest of the state and ultimately to the rest of the country because helping drivers who through no fault of their own have to drive more than the average get into electric vehicles is a common sense idea that really should be available everywhere. So thank you so much for inviting me today and thank you so much for all the work that you're doing on this and so many other great initiatives. Thank you very much and also we have our partners from Champlain Housing Trust working with us on the switch and save program. I think we're going to hear from Amy. Thank you. Hi, I'm Amy Dimetruits with the Champlain Housing Trust. As the city and BED continue to move the city forward to meet the goals of the net zero roadmap, they're not leaving low income and renter households behind. Energy equity is embedded in the work, including at BED, Itamino, who is equity analyst at BED, looking at all programs and making sure how they can be equitably rolled out. As societies move towards sustainable energy sources, it's crucial to recognize that the benefits of this transition should be accessible to everyone regardless of their economic status. Energy equity addresses the disparities in access to clean energy technologies, affordability, and the burden of environmental impacts. The switch and save program that Darren's talking about with water heaters is one example of assuring that incentives flow to low income residents so everyone can participate in the move to clean energy. The heat pump water heaters are an excellent technology to replace older gas fired equipment. We'll be helping to get the word out to CHT homeowners and through our home repair loan program. We've also begun work with BED to replace water heaters in our rental properties, especially in the old North End. We've also worked with BED to install a public EV charger at the old North End Community Center on North Street and we've worked through state grant programs to install chargers at various rental properties in the city. We want to be sure that low income renters are not dissuaded from purchasing electric vehicles and using the various incentives and tax rebates that are available for EV cars because they don't have access to chargers. Doing electric vehicle charging in large apartment complexes is different than having one installed at your home and we want to make sure that folks have access to those regardless of where they live. By prioritizing the needs of low income households, we can create a more inclusive and resilient energy system that fosters social justice and economic empowerment and mitigates the impacts of climate change. Thanks. So thank you all again and now we'd be happy to answer questions if you have any. So what is the effect on it? Yeah, the rate story is a great story. Darren knows it in more detail than me and can speak to it but it's another sign of success. So for 12 years, we remarkably were able to hold rates completely level, which was a great story. It happened while we became the first city in the nation to be 100% renewable in 2014. When the pandemic hit, it really impacted sales and we did have the first rate change that we'd had in 12 years back in 2021 and that was a 7.5% rate change. It wasn't related to electrification, it was related to the pandemic and we had a follow-up rate change that was also pandemic impacted. Now we're at a point where we're seeing electricity nationally rising even faster than the rate of inflation in terms of prices and in Burlington we've been able to keep changes in the low to middle single digits annually which is a better trajectory than we're seeing in New England or nationally. The great piece about electrification though in terms of rates is as we have more drivers driving electric and charging off peak, as we have more customers using a heat pump and enrolling in the bill credit program we can actually use energy in a smarter way and we can actually have a beneficial impact on rates, all things considered from these types of initiatives. So these types of initiatives, all things equal, are going to be a benefit to us from a rate standpoint over time and lower the rate pressure we might otherwise see and really you can think of it, the grid is like a factory and we're not utilizing it 100% of the time efficiently as we could. So if we're able to fill in some of those off peak times with more usage and use the grid more efficiently and get people off of fossil fuel at the same time that's kind of the win-win from a rate standpoint and a climate standpoint. Yeah, well the net zero bond, the 20 million is intended to help the grid be ready for all the electrification and boost our incentives and really we saw in the projections for that that the additional sales from electrification are going to pay for a large portion of the bond, just as one example. Yeah, so we actually, one of the things that's also kind of part of our suite of announcements is we have started to, through the revenue bond, put in these level three fast chargers. We have one right here at 585 pine, we have another that's going to be energized, we believe this week, down at the marketplace garage. Those are important because those are the ones where you can stop for 15, 20 minutes, get a quick charge and really fill up and be on your way. We also have the level two chargers which are going to take several hours and we have a pilot program that's going to help with on-street parking. Amy mentioned importantly that we have areas of the city where you may not have access to off-street parking, you may have more multifamily residences and rental properties. So we have programs to help get charging at rental properties but we also now are going to have a new program where there's going to be pole-mounted chargers. So you're going to have a charger that's on a pole, you're going to pull up, have a street parking space, you're going to be able to say, okay I'm ready to charge, it's going to drop the charger down to you and you can plug in. So that's another way that we're trying to address that issue because really the vision is ubiquitous charging everywhere for everybody, no barriers to accessibility. If you want to drive electric, we want to help you whether it's workplace, whether it's rental, whether it's on-street, whether it's off-street, we want to have a program to help everybody. Thanks. Any other questions? Thank you all for coming and thank you again to the BED team. Thanks for making this happen.