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Home My WebLink AboutAir Quality Advisory Board - Minutes - 06/21/2021 AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR Monday, June 21, 2021 5:30 – 8:00 pm via Zoom 6/21/21 – MINUTES Page 1 1. CALL TO ORDER 5:30pm 2. ROLL CALL • List of Board Members Present − Matt Tribby - Chair − Karen Artell − Wayne Chuang − Jason Miller − Greg Clark − Dan Welsh • List of Board Members Absent – Excused or Unexcused; if no contact with Chair has been made − Jim Dennison − Emily Bitler • List of Staff Members Present − Cassie Archuleta, Staff Liaison − Tracy Ochsner - Senior Facilities and Fleet Manager − Annabelle Phillips - Project Manager, Transfort / Parking Services − Lindsay Ex - Director, Environmental Services • List of Guests − Julie Pignataro - City Council AQAB liaison 3. AGENDA REVIEW a. The board discussed and agreed that they will explore meeting in person in a hybrid manner (with a virtual option) going forward, starting in July. 4. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION a. Alan Braslau - member of the Energy Board and was listening in to observe the AQAB proceedings. He mentioned the Energy Board has prepared a letter to Council that states it is not comfortable with the new one-year appointment limits for board members. They feel two years is more appropriate. AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 6/21/21 – MINUTES Page 2 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES a. Karen moved and Wayne seconded a motion to approve the May minutes as amended. Greg abstained. 5-0-1 6. PREVOUS BUSINESS 7. NEW BUSINESS a. Council Priorities - Julie Pignataro − Julie has been Council liaison for the AQAB for several years and is very interested in air quality issues. She is also now the City's liaison to Platte River Power Authority (PRPA). − Council had a retreat May 7 and 8 where they determined 99 items to consider as priorities for the next two years. They will evaluate and finalize the list at another retreat on June 29. Initial priorities that would fall under the AQAB's purview are: − Transportation and Mobility, including better bus service, joining bus forces with PSD, and trash districting. − High Performing Government - including collaborating regionally on transportation and air quality. − Environmental Health - including improve air quality, mitigate impacts of oil and gas development, green electrification of homes, end idling and new drive-thrus, tree planting subsidies, and focus on climate emergency. − Discussion − Electrification (technology and behavior) was noted as a key focus of the AQAB as a way to respond to the issue of climate change. − Q - Has Council had any conversations about making carbon footprint be part of the design of new buildings and also retrofitting of existing buildings to have less climate impacts? A - There are many factors around equity and affordability of new development and affordable housing. Council has not discussed them in the detail being requested here. Lindsay - This is a country-wide issue The City's "Our Climate Future" plan is investigating how to develop a roadmap to address these issues going forward. Also, the City does offer an Epic Homes program for energy efficiency upgrades. AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 6/21/21 – MINUTES Page 3 − Q - Working regionally is important to address oil and gas emissions and transportation. Why have there not been recent or proposed discussions on oil and gas regulations? A - This is a controversial issue and Julie will be investigating when the appropriate time to discuss them will be. − Q - How can the AQAB best support the interests and milestones of Council? A - Julie and many Council members do carefully consider all recommendations and comments from the City's advisory boards. She generally goes through staff liaison Cassie Archuleta regarding AQAB discussion of timely and pertinent issues when they come up on Council's calendar. She asked that AQAB memos to Council be short and to the point and not too technical. For most topics, a formal memo on a particular subject being considered is appropriate. − Appreciation was expressed for Council looking at diverse issues because there are some issues around electric vehicles such as end-of-life management plans that create concerns EVs should not be the main focus when there could be other meaningful measures. − For potential alignment, AQAB's work plan pinpoints three topics for deep study with the following measurable goals: − Electric Vehicles (EVs) - The City's goal is 100% light-duty fleet vehicle purchases be EVs by 2025. The AQAB will keep track and make recommendations on the path forward to meet that goal. − Oil and gas production - The AQAB will keep an eye on oil and gas production issues and provide Council regular, formal communications regarding recommendations of regulations by the City. − Energy efficiency and indoor air quality - The AQAB will gather information and develop formal communication to Council on progress of energy efficiency and air quality measures in alignment with the City's 2019 Air Quality Plan. b. Municipal Fleet Electrification Update - Tracy Ochsner − The City's Municipal Sustainability and Adaptation plan specifies that City transportation systems, energy production, and municipal facilities will lead the nation in sustainable performance resource efficiency. − The City has had a Vehicle Purchasing Policy for several years that replaces AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 6/21/21 – MINUTES Page 4 current city vehicles with alternative fueled vehicle (preferably electric). − The 2018 EV Readiness Roadmap Vision and Goals are to increase EVs in the City fleet by making 100% of light-duty vehicle replacement purchases plug-in electric by 2025 and incorporating battery electric transit buses (subject to the availability of suitable technology). − The City continues to install electric vehicle fleet chargers. Currently, there are 37 of them at various city building locations. The city operates 94 electric vehicles, including 65 staff cars, 44 Parks vehicles, 3 mowers, 1 ice resurfacer and the first electric street sweeper in the area. − The City is doing a 2-year pilot project with the Department of Energy in the Clean Cities organization called EVWatts to examine fleet characteristics of charging, including mileage, kilowatts and location of vehicles. − Transfort will take delivery of our first two battery electric buses and chargers in October, 2021, with a third one on order, and 5 coming in 2022. Currently, Transfort operates 50 compressed natural buses. The goal is to replace all buses to electric by 2040. − Q - What is current status of wireless induction charging? A - We are looking at the cost and viability of that technology, especially their performance in our type of climate, but currently we are not planning for it. − Q - Can you address any plans to expand Transfort's area? A - The City is also looking at that. − Other actions the City is doing to advance EV use include EV training for mechanics, purchase of tools and personal protective equipment, first responder EV safety training, and investigating possible use of EV semi trucks and light duty pickups when they become available. − The City has gotten two awards for its electrification efforts: The Green Fleet Award and the Leading Government Green Fleet award in 2020. − Discussion − Q - Are you considering hydrogen fuel in the future? A - The City has been interested in hydrogen for awhile. However, the fueling infrastructure costs are high and the capacity of use is unknown. The City will continue to investigate the best types of fuel for the City's fleet use. AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 6/21/21 – MINUTES Page 5 − Q - Are there storage issues with hydrogen? A - It is safely stored higher than compressed natural gas. Not sure what the safety issues of hydrogen are onboard a bus. − Q - When evaluating investments in EVs is there any weight given to the social cost of carbon and retiring CNG buses earlier and purchasing EVs? A - Not at this time. Retiring federally-funded buses early may cause some issues. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS a. Karen - is surprised to see the monitoring site near Platteville registers high ozone. Dan - The Denver "cyclone effect" weather phenomenon creates a stagnation point near Greeley and it pulls Weld county emissions into that area. The RAQC is trying to get more monitors in that area. b. Matt - Q - How is the ozone season going so far? A - Dan - It has been a rough start to the ozone season, partially due to hot stagnant air and smoke from out-of-state fires. c. Wayne - ETRP (Employer-based trip reduction program) is being sent through a rule- making process for later implementation. How to implement the program needs to be determined. d. Matt - Shared a PRPA link showing a website that breaks down the real-time energy breakdown of their production from coal, gas and renewables to provide transparency of production (https://www.prpa.org/energy-production/) e. Matt - Senate bill 200 to implement a state carbon tax died but was revised into House bill 21-1266. If signed, a carbon tax of $36/ton will be established in the state of Colorado (https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb21-1266). 9. OTHER BUSINESS a. 6-month calendar review b. Agenda planning − July - budget update, Oil and Gas overview of operational standards, discuss work plan goals communication routes 10. ADJOURNMENT − The meeting was adjourned at 8:14 pm