 Good evening and welcome back to Byline. This is a public affair show here at Amherst Media and it's co-sponsored by the Amherst League of Women Voters. And those of you who have been following the series know that this is our weekly visit to try to help you understand how our new town government is coming together and we bring people from the staff and people from the town council. But we also bring people from some of the committees that have been created by the council and some of the council committees are only members of the council. But today we have a special treat because we're going to do the first interview with a committee that was created by the council that is a majority of townspeople and only a couple of town counselors. And so this is a form of committee that is authorized by the charter. And as you know, the charter has a bunch of committees that are only committee members, town council members, but they also have the authority to create special committees. And today we're going to be speaking with the chair and the vice chair of the Energy and Climate Change Committee. And the chair we're going to start with you is Laura... Drocker. See, we planned this. I've tried to figure out how to say this so I'd get it right and don't you know I got it wrong. Laura Drocker is the chair and Andrew Rose, which is also another interesting name. Andrew, where did Andrew come from? My mom had a student who had that name and we have no idea what the origin was. And so Andrew Rose is the vice chair of the committee. So let's start with you. And I like to start with a little bit of background so folks know where you came from. And so tell us a little bit about your background, how you got to town, and how you get on this committee. Sure. Thanks, Dan. So I moved to Amherst almost five years ago. It'll be five years on September 17th to take on the role as director of sustainability at Amherst College. I moved from the D.C. area where I was working for an NGO called the World Resources Institute. And I was working on greenhouse gas accounting standards and goal setting for corporations. Our team also did work with communities and other groups. Before that I was working at the EPA doing some energy system modeling. So I was really sort of excited to come to Amherst to take on a role in higher ed where I could work on both operational sustainability, but also work with students directly. I really see students as sort of a scaling impact of what we can do with them here. They can take out into the world. And we're seeing a lot of that right now with all of the youth action around climate change, which is really exciting. So you have a lot of background in energy and you're going to put that to work. Yes. Yeah. And so I'm happy to be able to sort of engage with the town in this way. Great. And Andrew, you have been involved in climate change and energy stuff for a while. I know you from a number of different places in that regard. And you have a pretty deep connection with not only the subject matter, but the effort to actually create this committee. Why don't you give us a little bit of your back story? Sure. I've been in Amherst since 2002 and also moved from DC. And I've been involved in a lot of climate activism, helped start the mother's out front chapter here in Amherst. And we were instrumental in passing the 100% renewable resolution and the zero energy municipal building bylaw, which passed in 2017, 2018. And but I also work on energy efficiency promotion with energy save a nonprofit that does education and referrals and helps residents to reach their energy saving goals and move closer to our clean energy future that we want. And wasn't that started by Harold Grinspoon, the philanthropist from Hamden County? Yes. Yes, that's a Grinspoon funded project. Great. Well, and it's interesting that he took such a strong interest that he decided to help start this nonprofit and support it. Yeah, it is really great. So you folks are not in this alone. You've got let's see how many three other community members plus two counselors. So okay, so who who are the other community members who are part of this? So Jesse Selman, who's an architect in town whose work is is, you know, very close to our our mission, zero energy, highly efficient buildings. And Ashwin Ravi Kumar, who's a professor at Amherst College in environmental justice. Steve Roof, who's a professor at Hampshire College in the area of environmental studies and earth studies. Nikki Rob, who is a teacher and the farm program director at Hartzburg School. Dwayne Brueger, who's the director of the UMass clean energy extension. I remember working with him when he was in the state government. Yes, that's right. And then he came back to the university. Yeah, for 15 years, he was in the Department of Energy Resources working on clean energy. That's his thing. Good. Yeah. And and Oh, well, no, resident. Yeah. Yes. Two more residents or one. Okay, nine total. You'll remember. So and there are two town counselors. Yeah. We have Evan Ross and Darcy Duman. Yeah. So Darcy was the lead author of the enabling legislation for the committee to form. And Evan was the co author. Terrific. And you were part of those conversations as I remember as they were talking through what the mission and the charge and and all of that would be. Laura, why don't you tell us a little bit about the charge of the committee? Sure. The charge of the committee. I mean, really, what we're being asked to do is help develop and then help make sure we're implementing goals to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and to be resilient. And there's lots of really the charge is very comprehensive and it lays out some really important things that the committee needs to do, including but not limited to stakeholder engagement, focusing on particularly under usually typically underrepresented communities and communities that are most vulnerable to climate change either through not natural impacts or through cost increase and other things that will happen with energy costs and food costs and things of that nature. You know, I think we are have been tasked to work with other groups, both inside the government, town of Amherst government with other residents and businesses, as well as other towns and communities in the state government and, you know, help to enact some of the bylaws that that Anders mentioned, like the 100% renewable resolution. So, yeah, we are really, I think our committee is really great. We all have a focus on that larger goal. And I think we all have an ambitious interest in really seeing how Amherst can thrive as a low carbon to zero carbon community into the future. And we have really healthy debates on how we get there and how quickly we can get there. But it's really nice to be able to step back and say, OK, we're all sort of going towards this same same goal. So this is a brand new committee. How many meetings have you had? So we've been meeting since late May, twice a week. Of course, the summer was a little challenging with people being out. But we have been able to meet for about every meeting. And we have been meeting twice every two weeks. So quite regularly to get kicked off. And I think the committee in some ways, it's a bit of a unique committee because we don't I think only Nikki has been involved heavily in committees in the past. So we have a lot of people that are new to town committees. And we have a few people myself and Ashwin, in particular, that are relatively new to the new to town, to town. Yeah. And so the meetings and discussions so far have been trying to sort through what it is you all understand to be your responsibility. And then what steps, presumably, you're going to have to take in order to implement it. So one of the concerns in the charter is transparency and another is civic engagement. And so there's a big focus in town on making sure that efforts that are established by the town basically find ways to be as transparent as possible. So people know what you're working on and how the decisions are going to be made and then to also engage them in those processes so that they have a meaningful voice. Can you talk a little bit about what the committee is doing and how they see both of those aspects to ensure that the intent of the charter is being carried out through the work of the committee? Yeah, exactly. I can see, you know, specifically to stakeholder engagement and transparency with our community. I mean, I think that's a part of the charter. That's a part of the charge. And that's something that we all take to heart, particularly, I think, ensuring that we can reach these groups that otherwise aren't usually represented or don't typically come to some of the town forms and meetings that we have. One of the things we're doing that I think is a bit unique is we're hosting a table at the block party next week, where we're going to be trying to collect info from residents about their level of knowledge of climate change, introduce them to our committee, just get a sense of where they see barriers and opportunities to our transition away from a fossil fuel system. You know, what would they need to be able to cut their emissions from driving in half? What would they need to be able to cut their heating systems or transition them to a renewable source? So I think where the challenge lies a bit is that I think that intention is we also have to back that up with with funding to do to do some of this work. I think we actually, Stephanie Chickarella, who's the town coordinator, has done a really great job with the MVP program. So this is, I'm going to mess up on the acronym. Municipal vulnerability. Planning. Planning. Yeah. And so we've done the first phase. So this is about what, how is climate change affecting our community? So things like water, rivers, brooks, etc. that could overflow and create problems, flooding, insect-borne diseases, which we're seeing in the state. And so lots of things that are happening in nature as a result of climate change can impact our community. And so part of what you're trying to figure out is what are those vulnerabilities in our town? Exactly. And she was able to, through funding from that, host events that included childcare and food and translation and ways to reach a larger population. So we're thinking through that as well into the future. You know, how can we as a committee get other grants to support that sort of even deeper outreach into our community? And how I am a question I have is how the council will actually deal with that into the future, because I think that traditionally committees don't have funding to do outreach. But I think if we really are dedicated to that, then I think we need to think about how we make that happen. And so are there other things other than having a table at the block party, which, by the way, the date is? Yes, thank you. It's the 19th. The 19th of September. So we're not sure when the show will be broadcast, but if the show is broadcast before the 19th, you know there's a block party. If it's after, you know what you might have missed. And but they're going to be other opportunities. So what else might be happening in the nature of outreach? That the community should be watching for? Well, we're going to be doing outreach. We hope it never ends, really. But we're starting out with two two phases. And the first phase is just starting with the block party and with interviews that we're going to be doing with as diverse a group of people one on one or in small groups. And that something we'll be doing in the next month. And then we also have two forums scheduled and they are October 2nd at the Bang Center at 7 p.m. and October 5th at the Jones Library downstairs at 10 a.m. And the purpose of those forums is and the format will be? We don't know yet. But it will be very information gathering or the information giving. Definitely gathering. It will be very interactive. This is an opportunity to provide input to the committee. Yes, that's right. Exactly. And at the community block party, if folks can see this before then, that's more in the nature of making people aware of the committee. Yeah, some of your outreach will be making people aware and some of it will be capturing their ideas and their vision. We actually have a fun sort of pop quiz that's going to be electronic. Jesse Selman has set this up where people can answer, you know, five or six questions and then it'll be visualized. You know, how many people were in different, you know, answer the same way or different on a big screen on the table. So we'll actually be out there in the street with people testing your knowledge. It's not just, not just. Yeah, well, you're not going to get what you're interested in. Yeah, find out what you know. Yeah, great. And other things. So we've got some forums and some public exposure. And yeah, as Andra said, this is really just phase one. So what we're trying to find, we're trying to make ourselves known. We're trying to make it known that we want to be actively engaging in outreach and transparency with our community, as Andra said, throughout the process. You know, there's going to be, we kind of have a sense. You know, the science tells us what we need to know. So in some ways that our job is easy. We know what our large overarching goals have to be to be in line with science. What's going to be the challenge for us is figuring out what that, how does that translate into action in town? And how does that translate into what we can do as Amherst to lead? But also, how do we lead by engaging in collaboration and collective action with other towns with the state government? Like I think specifically about public transportation funding. Constantly a challenge. But that's going to be a huge part of any town in Massachusetts, particularly in Western Mass, to make progress on climate action goals. And climate does not stop at town boundaries. Exactly. These problems and these issues cross boundaries. It's their boundaries are irrelevant from the point of view of those kinds of problems. And the solutions will require a lot of collaboration. And that means cooperation and collaboration, not just from the government. So you're going to be trying to engage the citizenry. Yes. Businesses in town. Absolutely. We want to have developers and small business owners, realtors in on these discussions right from the beginning. That's clearly going to be an important part because Amherst town government has already reduced their emissions and their buildings a lot because we've been a green community for a long time. And those funds have in the past always gone to decreasing municipal energy use. And so now we not including the institutions. It's all the residences and businesses that we have to find solutions that are both just and financially feasible. And that's one of the reasons that the committee is interested in this other work that's been going on with community choice aggregation. It's sort of right now two parallel projects. For those who may not be familiar, give two sentences on choice aggregation. It's a state based program that allows us to combine our electric use and purchase the supply so we can choose our source locally. And the Amherst Northampton and Pellum have begun. I was a part of starting this. And there's a task force working on, can we do this together? And that will both influence and support the work that the committee is doing to come up with solutions. And in the nature of small world, I actually was the author of the provision in the utility deregulation bill that allowed communities to aggregate. Municipal aggregation. I'm so excited because I've been trying to, I had been when I was in office trying to encourage more communities to do it. And it was being done through our county government, which as you know has fallen on hard times and is in the process of going out of business. But that was one of the brilliant things that they did was they did some aggregation and it was going very well. But we needed more communities to engage at the community level. So thank you for doing that work. That's fantastic. So in the few minutes that we have left, let's focus on a couple of more ideas of the kinds of things just so that the people who are watching can understand the nature of what an individual community could do, either together or with their neighboring communities. You mentioned public transportation. There must be other areas that communities can do to make a difference so that they can reduce their carbon footprint. Well, one thing, we know that Amherst's actual emissions are dropping the bucket. What's important about this work is the potential to come up with innovative programs and solutions that can roll out to other municipalities can affect the state and as goes Massachusetts. So goes the nation. So we feel like it's our responsibility to can get out and be creative because we have these amazing resources in Amherst. So the community choice aggregation is an example that's already possibly feeding into the work. But we have research happening at UMass on storage, which is going to be a big piece in the future. So if you have your own power generation capacity, whether it be solar or windmill or anything that generates power, but you can't use it all, it's got to go somewhere. And right now, if you can connect up to the utility, you can feed your excess power into the utility grid. But storage is another option because you'll be able to keep it on site. Be able to keep it and use it later when you don't have enough coming in from your alternative energy source. Other examples? I mean, I think we're seeing the colleges and other community members and businesses look to heat pumps and ground source heating. I think heating is a real challenge. And so I think identifying and partnering with organizations that are providing the rebates and the opportunities for transition of heating systems. I think another area we flagged as being an area of challenge for us is landlords and renters and making sure that the renters are not being burdened, which many are, with high heating costs because landlords aren't motivated to necessarily keep buildings up to the best energy efficiency standards. So looking at ways that we could support that or help drive action there. So really thinking about, you know, there's globally what we need to do. And then there's things that are specific to Amherst, what makes Amherst unique, our student population, our location, our partner communities. And the energy and climate action committee. Our job is to recommend and to provide resources and ideas. And so, you know, I think that but also take ideas from the community. For instance, the high school students have already been promoting the idea of having solar canopies on the parking lot. You know, like we have at the UMass parking lots. And, you know, who doesn't like to have their car parked in the shade? We could integrate it with electric car chargers. And I think the idea of integrating systems. So that we have solar where it's being used when the sun is shining and can reduce our overall draw from the grid with clean energy instead of the, you know, pretty dirty energy that's on the grid right now. Yeah, just imagine X number of years down the road. Every parking lot in town, public colleges, churches, shopping set, every one of them having solar canopy and storage on site and using the power that's coming off those canopies to power the buildings next to the parking lots and storing the power for the times when the sun is not out to continue to power the buildings. So a lot of imagination. A lot of visions can come together through the work of the committee. Do you have some key milestones we should be watching for? Are there going to be like multiple reports on some schedule that you're working out? One big report by some date certain. I'm going to assume we're going to have some public policy debates at the town council at some point. So give us some thoughts about the milestones in the final minute and a half. Yeah, so I mean, I think, you know, we don't want to get to ahead of ourselves. Our first milestone is really, we are going to be going back to the council at some point in November or December to report on our first phase one of community outreach and to sort of kind of present our initial high level goals. And again, we're really thinking about these being based in science. So half 50% reduction by 2030, looking to carbon neutrality, but we have to be very flexible because you can just see in between the time the charge was created and our committee started was the Green New Deal. So we don't know what will happen. So I think that's an interesting challenge of our committee to stay on top of. But that's the biggest milestone to start. So these events, the block party and the forums on the second and the fifth of October, we will have those up to date on the town website and the Facebook and things like that. And then from there, yeah, we will need to set some specific goals and targets, which may come in the form of a report. They may be small policy briefs. We haven't gotten that far yet. Great. Well, and the good news is that the state is in the process, the state legislature and governor are working on legislation and they're looking at trying to put in excessive a billion dollars into play for helping communities set up their resiliency and adaptation implementation, not just the planning now, but now going to implementation. So the grant that Stephanie got that set the stage and created some baseline understanding of what's going on in town that we should be trying to impact. It will soon be money available from the state to help our community do that kind of work. And we'll be applying for that. I'm sure you will. And so we have a lot of people to thank for this. Darcy and Evan are two counselors who took the lead, the rest of the council that supported it. And you, Andra and you, Laura, who have taken the leadership of this nine member committee and all of the other committee members. Thank you for doing this work. And so those of you watching, keep keep your eye out for opportunities to participate in forums and hearings and discussions so that you can have your voice heard as this important work goes forward. And so thank you for being with us and thank you. And we'll see you again soon.