Green Guru Network

Date: March 8, 2012

Attendees:

Dan Welsh (Vice Chair)Mike Gordon (Dir. Programs) 

Heather Flournoy

Frank Maricic

Herb Oringel (Chair)

Katherine Daniels (Secy)

Vince Salvatore

Maria Fields

Leo Wiegman

Steve Wolk

Victoria Gearity

Mark Reisman (Treasurer)

Jeremy Doxsee

Brian Kaminer

Michele Rudolph

LULA: Five week program starting on April 23. Seats are still available. Supervisorsshould send Herb names and addresses of additional candidates.

Grants: Herb met with Larry Simpson of Blue Springs, a consulting firm, to see if thecan help us find and manage grant opportunities.

Solar: Our RFP yielded 11 responses. Full scope responses due March 23.Respondents will visit municipalities to assess opportunities. State legislature isexpected to act soon on legislation that will open up opportunities for solar in NY -- bothresidential and commercial.

MicroGrid: Will be called an NWEAC project. Maria is looking for a foundation sponsor. Mike suggested putting out an RFP for an engineering firm. Maria and Mike will draft afour pager on the project for the Exec Committee.Mike Gordon announced that he has secured $25,000 commitments from two investors(Miles Slader and Jim Diamond) and that he is personally willing to invest an additional$25,000 -- for a total of $75,000 -- to cover the cost of installing smart meters for a pilot project to demonstrate the efficacy of a local micro-grid and eventually a municipalutility. If possible, the investors would like to see a return on their investment of approximately 18%. Mike would like this to be an NWEAC project but is concerned
that his participation might create the appearance of a conflict of interest since he isNWEAC’s Director of Programs.

The committee discussed the potential conflict andhow it might be managed. One idea was to give NWEAC towns a mechanism for taking over Mike’s interest once he has recouped his investment. Another idea was to lookfor a private equity company to invest (or offer the opportunity for others to invest) so Mike does not have to. A third idea was to form a separate corporation to manage the project. Katherine will do some legal research on the potential conflict and report back at the next meeting. If possible, Mike wants to announce the pilot program at the March29th conference in Ossining.

CCA: Maria reported she is in the process of evaluating the impact of a CCA policy inour area. She is using Bedford for the basis of her work and will get an actual quotefrom the energy supplier on the cost of cleaner energy. The RFQ will go out tomorrow using Bedford’s KW hour assessment. Maria also reported that Dan Tishman (NDRC) is very interested in CCA. He has strong contacts within the Cuomo administration thatwill be helpful if we decide to push for legislation. Mike Gordon is writing a paper for Kate Burk on CCA and other energy issues – everything he would like to see in state energy policy.
Mid-Hudson Regional Sustainability Planning Process: NYSERDA has offered $1million to set up a process to integrate seven counties into one program. The directors will be at our March 29 conference. We will meet with them at 3:00 in the Ossining Village conference room.

March 29 Conference: Each person on the call was asked to send an invite to 15 people. Maria and Mike will send out an invite link.

Quarterly summary: Proposed as means to keep the Supervisors/Mayors informed of NWEAC activities. (To be scheduled)
Adjourned: 6:03 pm

Here is my question: "What is the life-cycle greenhouse gas emission impact of a nuclear power plant?"

I am tired of hearing that nuclear power is zero emissions or carbon free. That is just not true. We cannot ignore the entire uranium mining, milling, and refining process, nor should we ignore plant constuction/maintenance process.  After all, cement is a huge emissions source and nuclear plants require lots of cement.

Nuclear power may produce lower emissions per unit of electricity produced than coal or natural gas, but is not zero.

With your help, we can locate good, reliable research on the life cycle emissions impact of the nuclear plant, more specifically, the pressurized light water type nuclear plant, e.g. Indian Point 2 and # in Buchanan. See this blog post on nukes-emissions I wrote just to get the ball rolling.

Or leave a comment or research lead here. Thanks!

More than 100 Westchester residents attended the Southern Westchester Energy Action Consortium (SWEAC) Sustainability Forum on January 28 at Sarah Lawrence College.

SWEAC is a consortium of municipal officials and volunteers from different communities who have joined together to address energy and other sustainability concerns on an inter-municipal level in southern Westchester. Bronxville, Dobbs Ferry, Eastchester, Greenburgh, Hastings, Irvington, Tuckahoe, Tarrytown, White Plains, and Yonkers are currently participating. 

Their mission is to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save money for municipalities and taxpayers.

Break out groups on transportation, municipal energy efficiency, waste, and models for municipal collaboration followed opening remarks by Nina Orville, executive director, and Peter McCartt, chairman of the advisory board.

Croton Mayor Leo Wiegman, who is part of Northern Westchester Energy Action Consortium (NWEAC), a group of communities that applied together and recently won a $3 million grant from the federal Department of Energy said, "The time to act is now." Yonkers City Council President Chuck Lesnick, who also gave opening remarks, discussed how municipalities have to do more with less. "This forum provided an excellent opportunity for our county's municipal leaders to discuss ways to save the taxpayers' money while promoting environmental policies. In these difficult times, all levels of government must go beyond our traditional boundaries to create new efficient and effective opportunities that benefit the people of Westchester."

Attendee Brad Tito, Yonkers environmental and sustainability manager, said, "Under the leadership of Mayor Mike Spano, Yonkers is undertaking a number of energy-saving initiatives to save taxpayer dollars, protect our environment and make Yonkers an even better place to live and work. The Southern Westchester Energy Action Consortium (SWEAC) is an exciting forum for regional collaboration on energy issues." 
Transportation was big on everyone's minds as they discussed the concept of complete streets or roadways designed and operated to enable safe, attractive, and comfortable access and travel for all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and public transport users of all ages and abilities.

Tarrytown Mayor Drew Fixell is a big supporter of the concept which was discussed during the breakout session on transportation. "We need to invest in the infrastructure of bus mass transit to improve the environment and to help the lower income population who use mass transit in greater numbers in Westchester than higher income residents." He is also still very interested in developing a mass transit option on the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Groups also discussed municipal energy efficiency, transit, leaf mulching, reduction and recycling and identified models for collaboration. 

Click here to read the local news story.

Here's an abbreviated list of some of those initiatives:

* Bronxville installed geothermal heating and cooling in their Village Hall.

* Dobbs Ferry is replacing existing street lights with LED and generously wrote the contract so other    municipalities can purchase from it.

* Eastchester shared information about the results of its streetlight audit and resulting savings.

* Greenburgh is co-managing the Mid-Hudson Valley Cleaner Greener Communities Sustainability Planning   Grant that includes seven counties.

* Hastings is the only participating municipality that has successfully reduced from a twice to a once a week   trash pick-up schedule.

* Irvington, one of our smallest municipalities, has developed a leaf mulching program that could ultimately   help save the county and its municipalities millions of dollars.

* Tarrytown engaged its merchants to get recycling bins on downtown streets.

* Tuckahoe runs its sanitation trucks on vegetable oil.

* White Plains has generously shared its innovative, smart practices related to energy efficient municipal      fleets with local governments throughout the   country.

* Yonkers is embarking on substantial energy efficiency retrofits of many municipal buildings.

Photo: Leo Wiegman, Chuck Lesnick and Nina Orville. Photo credit: Mel Goldstein

The rationale for why we should study IP energy replacement study is as follows: 

1. Our New York State Energy Planning Board is in the midst of preparing the 2013 State Energy Plan; 

2. The electricity load in the metropolitan New York City area, including Westchester County, has grown historically at about 1 percent per year; 

3. The Indian Point Energy Center nuclear power plants provide a significant percent of the electricity for Southeastern New York region; 

4. Uncertainties exist over the future of Indian Point’s continued operation; 

5. The State does not yet have a detailed, independent analysis of how electricity generated by Indian Point would be replaced should Indian Point cease to operate for any reason; 

6. Several options exist that, collectively and in conjunction with other actions, could replace the need for Indian Point’s electric generation capacity. 

So, let's ask the Governor to initiate a study immediately by an independent professional agency or commission to examine concrete steps to replace the electricity currently generated at the Indian Point Energy Center. Read the full article in the Croton Ossining Patch..