Jan 18, 2023 Meeting Minutes
Meeting Held in Ambler Borough Hall Conference Room from 7-9PM
Attendees
Members: Hannah Lloyd, Wes Pipitone, Nancy Roecker-Coates, William Nassau, Kirsten Puskar
Visitors: Jill Sanchez, Rick Denzien, Daniel Downing, Mark Setman, Judy Baigis, Dennis Rowan, Rob, Matt, Bridget
Absent: Shelly Grinar-Boyd
Quorum met
Call to Order / Introductions
Introductions made
Presentation: CCA for PA
Dennis Rowan: presenter
Community choice aggregation
‘Choice to use aggregated buying power within a community to pursue their values’. This in reference to renewable energy.
Renewable electricity supply for all residents : goal
Use market and demand power
Climate benefits from shifting away from fossil fuels
Residential power = 31% of greenhouse gas emissions
CCA for PA focus
Goal: develop and produce more renewable and affordable (stable priced) renewable power for residents and local businesses
Hope is to have PA as a state a CCA by end of year
Default energy supply is currently determined by the state of PA
Community choice: borough can choose
Mix choice(state default): ‘one pound of carbon per kilowatt hour’
CCA does not change your utilities or where you pay your bill through
Eligible residents are enrolled in CCA unless they choose to opt out (no penalty to opt out)
Energy offerings are chosen through a bidding process
If Ambler enabled a CCA, residents would get a notification explaining the process, benefits and the ability to opt out.
This also benefits those who don’t have access to or understanding on how to switch their power.
This is not a pilot program
Joule community power (COMPANY)
Educated communities on the program
Collaborate to craft and negotiate green energy supply
Ambler as a community chooses and drives the adoption of a CCA
Democratic energy
No cost to Borough to adopt a CCA
Flow of electricity supplies remains the same process
Utility grid still transports power
Municipality provides new default energy: choice
Power to choose a provider who will negotiate a fair contract.
Self generation (of energy) is also still a choice.
The future intent is to build / add local energy sources (such as solar)
Environmental benefit along with added local jobs
Locations for potential local solar: Roof tops, parking lots, brown lots
At the beginning of the CCA local green energy sources would be used, the intent over time is to build new sources on local areas.
Inflation Reduction Act: also allows municipalities and non profits to take those tax credits and use them as reflux
Solar panels do not stop working after their guaranteed 25 years, they just lose some efficiency
Can designate certain areas (grocery store, important local businesses) for resilience to get funding for battery back ups
Link to slideshow presentation from tonights meeting
Questions taken (and final comments made) at the end of the presentation:
Guest question on price: is this guaranteed to save us money? A: Yes, this happens in phases and gives you the power to save money through the community choice (one person shopping versus a whole community).
How does Joules make money? A: Similar to a broker.
Initial cost of building infrastructure offset by discounts and lack of maintenance cost for green energy versus fossil fuels.
Do you lose bargaining power when you create more internal products for energy production? A: supplier can benefit from new infrastructure versus sourcing the energy from out of state. Extra power not needed can be used to supply other neighboring towns etc.
What qualifies as green energy? A: choice of community.
For further questions you can email: drowan@rowanenergyintegration.com (484) 716-6183
baird@eco-n-law.net (215) 586-6615 (legal questions)
Ways to Get Involved
Come to the Earth Fest steering committee meetings.
All dates on EAC website event page.
Next meeting is January 22 at 7pm in the Ambler Borough Hall Gym, 7-9 PM
Add soil, splash rock and perennials to downtown downspout planters
Table for Spring.
Paint a rain barrel for Mattie Dixon - Mattie Dixon to supply paint that matches their building.
Table for Spring.
Formal approval of minutes
No December meeting was held.
EAC Updates
EAC Membership updates (2)
Nancy: Has been sworn into Ambler Borough Council. There are no rules against serving on council and the EAC. As of now, Nancy will remain on the EAC and if this has any updates she will let us know.
Jill: Chose not to reapply for membership this past December.
Tree planting program:
If the EAC chooses to continue this program: EAC has marketing material, will need to handle the checks and fill out the PHS application for trees.
Social media is the best advertisement method.
Need a champion for this.
If no champion for this is found, we could table this and try for fall, which is actually a better time to plant trees.
Could forgo the volunteer planting day and have residents plant their own trees. (to save time and effort for whomever champions this).
Tree orders are due in for Spring soon. Suggested to put in application 4 days prior to make sure we get all the trees we want.
Other programs Jill headed that need championship: Tree pruning days (love your park days), Adopt a Tree program and Tree Checkers.
Upper Dublin invitation to table (& present?) at Environmental Open House at the Upper Dublin Public Library
Upper Dublin invited us to table at this event.
Date: Saturday March 4. 9:45 am - noon
Speakers (short presentations), tables and vendors
Wes & Hannah are interested
Nancy & Kirsten are maybe’s
Residential Request - Rain Garden issue.
Updates: none
The email was forwarded and the EAC will follow up. (Wes)
Idea: could the EAC compile a list of contacts that people could get a hold of for professional advice on their previously installed rain water infrastructure.
Salt Watcher Update - Wissahickon Trails.
Webinar on measuring salt in the Wissahickon creek and how to prevent road salt from entering waterways. Also spoke about road salt alternatives (sand, hydrogen peroxide).
The Borough will salt strategically in major areas of concern and try to hold back in areas where it is needed less to try to use less salt.
PRISM: Kirsten shared information on this.
Funding for PA
“partnerships for regional invasive species management”.
Held legislature first hearing which led to the idea of creating a PRISM fund bill.
Looking for residents to contact their legislature in order to create a bill.
Ask: Will Ambler write to their legislature and ask them to approve this?
This targets problems such as spotted lanternflies and weeds etc.
Committee Chairs No new updates from Climate Action Committee, Open Space Committee, Creek Monitoring on Rose-Valley Creek.
Education and Outreach Committee (Shelly - has missed 14 consecutive monthly meeting)
Treasurer (Wes)
Please be sure to add any and all EAC expenses to the reimbursement sheet.
Keep Ambler Beautiful Committee (Nancy)
Cell phone Recycling Program
Collection boxes (2 at both branches of Wissahickon Library)
Collected 25 cell phones total over the last few months
Partnership with Whitpain EAC
Whitpain EAC will make new flyers and Nancy will help them with marketing
Phones are sold to a recycler and the money from these sales goes to Laurel House for domestic abuse victims
$25,000 raised
Plastics Ordinance education
March is the first roll out for the single use plastic bags
Ban of plastic bags takes place first in March
Social media posts and education will be prioritized in March
March of 2024 polystyrene containers will be banned
Ambler is the first municipality in PA to ban polystyrene!
Signage for Ambler Borough Park
Wes, did we get the budget for this signage? Please follow up.
Sign will talk about park history, riparian buffers, wildlife, importance of litter removal (and not littering in general).
MLK day of service
This past Monday bags and gloves were available for anyone who wanted to do their own self guided litter pick up.
Families and kids were primary attendees.
Professor from West Chester previously spoke at an EAC meeting and she is studying local townships in watersheds who do and don’t have plastic bans to look at the effectiveness of the ordinances.
No follow up since this meeting. Nancy will follow up.
Shade Trees Committee (Jill)
No new business
Looking for a new champion for this committee (or adjacent committee).
Climate Action Committee
No new Business
New business
Hometown News deadline is Feb 6, if anyone wants to submit anything (we will discuss submitting something for Earth Fest at the meeting on Sunday).
Public comments
EAC network conference being held on Saturday February 25. This one is being held virtually from 9:30-3:30. EAC Network Conference through we conserve PA.
Fines for plastic bag usage?
Yes. Focus is not as much on fines and more so on issuing warnings and educating businesses on how to make the change.
There will not be someone going around checking for this and issuing penalties.
Is Ambler making any coordinated efforts for education on this?
Unsure as of now, possibly in the future.
Recycling within businesses, has this come up? (checking about whether or not they do it).
Nobody is actively checking in on this. Possible future topic to look into more.
Updates from Borough Council:
none
Closing Thoughts
None
Next meeting: Wednesday February 15th, 2023 at 7:00pm
Adjournment