we're now going to turn to the motion to reconsider article tat as i did on monday night i will recuse myself and so with the consent of town meeting i will turn over to the temporary moderator martello thank you wait a moment for folks to get settled thank you michael before i recognize sugarman in regards to this motion to reconsider that she filed i just want to point out and i think you're all aware of this that a motion this motion to reconsider we only need to discuss you only required to discuss the merits or reconsideration so that's what's under consideration not the merits of article ten so we're not here to debate the merits of article ten if this motion to reconsider prevails this evening as the moderator indicated we will take up article ten the main article on the time moderator term on monday so please keep that in mind i know it's going to be difficult and challenging to sort of separate the two it's a gray area but i'm not going to allow discussion of article ten which is the merits of article ten but simply to allow discussion of the merits of reconsideration which is what we're considering tonight based i'm not going to take a lot of time but i have standing to be up here now asking that we reconsider our vote on article ten the change to the moderators term of office because on monday night i voted yes on that article and yes one despite being on the winning side i believe there are reasons why we should reconsider that vote and i'm going to add that because of the discussion earlier this evening here one of those reasons is not necessarily that i think the decision that was made was wrong i start from the fact that the deliberation of article ten on monday night was unusual in many ways it was messy and it ended with incorrect information at the very beginning the moderator took the  although in this case appropriate step of recusing himself because the article was about his office on the motion to terminate debate on the article we voted not the usual ones but one and a half times because the electronic vote was stopped partway through and then restarted initially the winning side of the vote on the article was no not yes and by just two votes then on the roll call vote we had the unusual situation of the winning side switching to yes also by just two votes next  an usual motion was made that we reconsider our vote and when we all left here monday night it was with the understanding that that motion to reconsider was valid and that it would be taken up at a later session of this an meeting but very late monday night the town clerk sent out an e mail saying that in fact that motion to reconsider was not valid after all there are angles to article ten that were not discussed on monday night early tuesday morning when i became aware of the town clerk's e mail i also became aware of multiple to facebook posts in which people stated why they voted as they did on the article both pro and con and many of those reasons were ones not mentioned in our debate on monday night since i had voted against terminating debate on article ten that too is a piece of why i am standing before you now asking for reconsideration finally our vote on article ten is one that we as a town and a town meeting will need to live and work with this motion of mind to reconsider may or may not obtain the two thirds vote it needs to move forward whether it does or does not though i believe that we will benefit from the opportunity this motion provides for us to discuss things thank you thank you m thank you michael winner tom moderator i rise to support this motion for the very reasons that michigan man laid out not only was it a close a switch in the two votes from two in favor of well to opposed to the motion then two in favor was really unprecedented and that alone i think is a strong argument for reconsideration though town meeting voted to terminate debate i think and one has to live with that or the town meeting has to live with that i think there's a skosh in the pros and cons was only beginning i think there were a number of very important points made by those who wanted to stay with the one year as well as those who supported going to three years and i think it's if we're going to make a change like this in governance it's important to have a full and fair discussion and one that is clear at the end with an outcome so that we as a town feel that we can live beyond that behind that i think that's particularly important when we carry this proposal to the legislature if if it passes and therefore i think that i mean if it in other words if we vote reconsideration and consider the article and then it passes i think the process by which we do that is important because we're asking the legislature to rule on a home rule petition and i don't think it's good for the town or for ourselves to come to the legislature when we've had this kind of confusion and this kind of co close vote so in summary  last point i put this before a town meeting yes because i thought it was obviously i stated the other night to go to one of yours but i really put it before a town meeting my major motivation was because people had been asking the over the years why is it a one year term when everybody else all of their offices or three and i thought i had a responsibility to put this before a town meeting or legislative body could decide that was my principle motivation and i don't feel that that has been fulfilled in a way that we as a body can feel good about that we've had a fair and honorable debate we've come up with whatever the outcome is and then we can move on so i think we should reconsider thank you thank you discussion th murder for supporting it i to support reconsideration like half of the most of the people who walked in monday night i expected this to be dealt with quickly  routinely just like all the other articles that had been done before immediately before it and i was surprised at the concerns raised by some people and i changed really on such a matter of such significance we really didn't go into all the pros and cons and and i think we need to do that so whether you were for or whether you were monday night for it or against it i hope you will vote reconsideration and so we can take it up later thank you thank you yes hi there lot of precinct i also rise support as the him changed my mind i'm one of the people who voted not to terminate debate because i felt like there were open questions that had not been addressed i also noticed when we were leaving and i would say that the primary piece of information that i think was missing was a fuller explanation of the full duties of the moderator i think some duties are very clear to us and i think in particular the duties surrounding appointments for committees was mentioned and is relevant and what i found is when i was leaving it was clear to me that people had come away with that from that with different understandings from each other that there was a misunderstanding where some people thought it was just the weren't committees some people thought it was fifteen committees some people and so i think that there is germane information that did not get out and so i support a continuation of  two person difference it means that if one person voted differently it would have changed the outcome but it also means that if these clickers didn't it a technical error that is relatively rare actually have flipped the results and i had problems yesterday last time we met and today i got this channel error so i had to click multiple times i think maybe if i might propose something from  article but even if we reconsider and the vote is once again to pass the article i will feel better because what i want tell meeting to know i want every single one of us to know that we have a vote it accurately reflects the wishes of town meeting and i don't need to to recount what happened on monday night but i know there was some confusion in the room in the various votes and i want there to be a substantial discussion and clearly people knowing what the vote was about and i will be happy with that for the results are so thank you please support this this this the role of a roll call vote no pun intended and the effect so i'm wondering if someone could educate me made that be moderate with no time council we took three times one which was the moderator vote and two other times we took yes or no votes and the results were displayed then there was a call for roll call roll call passed using these clickers and then the results especially illustrated by the moderator vote changed so i'm wondering that when we vote yes or no on a roll call does the roll call vote automatically invalidate and undo what was displayed as a legitimate vote and i'll give you an example and i'm not saying it to be pro or klein but it's  valid vote then we took a roll call vote to take a roll call and then as we've now see the results were different so my basic question is when we vote for a roll call is it just so that we record the names of a vote that has been taken or are we now doing a whole new new revote is that dow undoing what i think is a legitimate vote that was taken ten belated and recorded in the minutes whether you like it whether you don't that was done a recall at least to me is ok we'll just now have people put their names in so you can see in congress it's the green of the red light but in this instance it it on all three votes you'll see that the the results were different yes they all understand that this was all what is when we actually  actually doing so i will i will ask town council to confirm my understanding the roll call vote was the results is the final action on any article so therefore the roll call vote is the prevailing vote george electronic voting if if a request was made by thirty five dollars voters that roll hall that would be taken and that's always been another round of voting i think the spirit of that has been that people would get up when their name was called and register the vote that they had cast but that's never been enforceable as a practical matter any meeting any town meeting member could change their vote when voting on the roll hall and that's that last round of voting that is the final vote on the matter when we amended the byelaws a few years ago to provide for electronic voting we didn't change that procedure and we in fact the idea was to to change the existing rules of town meeting as little as possible so even though it would be possible to to reach back to the prior to the original electronic vote and see how people voted the procedure is still that we do another vote that is the vote prevails so the message to town meeting is that voting yes or no on a roll call is not simply voting on putting your name that's correct to a yes or no but it's twenty four no with one abstention so we all can do the map there are five additional people voted during the roll call vote thank you one more i guess it's a technical question on on our capability here so when we vote that has already been no no it's you and i was the initial vote that you've taken to take the time moderator explain this on monday even though you do see people voting and then we see the results that is not subject to public  so i think to me it's very clear we want transparency and you should stand by your vote it looks like some people when the when the roll call was called switched and that's fine you're allowed to do that i would say however particularly on this i want to allow more debate because if people flipped maybe they were confused and really want to know more i feel like we should do that and i also feel like it would be a lot easier if we just had all the votes be automatically electronic and local no issue they want sorry they might have made up their mind of the last minute maybe that's a point in favor of reconsidering but i do want to make the point that people change their minds for all sorts of things many of you know i'm perfectly willing to get up here and say things that i know  not in the prevailing opinion but many people are uncomfortable with it and so i think that can also reflect why some of those votes changed if you know you're on a very unpopular side you know some people aren't as willing to stand up and say hey yeah about inadequate discussion of this issue do we have a record of how many people testified on monday night and how many people were in line when testimony was cut off end debate how many people were still in line or how many people came to the town clerk and said they wanted to speak how many people were in line at each issue i don't i don't remember that well whether we have or have a record of how many people who testified i would as well when you say testified that ok just over five hundred people got up and spoke before in favor of how many people spoke i understand your question no sir i'm sorry how many individual time meeting members spoke before debate was ended yes we have a record of that we do just a moment this goes to the issue of whether he issue was adequately discussed or not so i want to brian cushman according to my records which are if you can see handwritten and many people in line were in line when testimony when their discussion was terminated the same as i you know i'm not going to speculate there were individuals online i just don't remember how ok thank you thank you for your questions for further discussion thank you mr you know just for the record trucks one hundred and ninety four people voted yes to terminate debate fifty four voted no just to share information any further discussion ok know that means it's a town meeting body of the people that were there on monday and thirty six weren't but of the people there on monday there might have been one hundred and twenty dollars plus reasons for voting yes and one hundred and twenty dollars plus reasons for voting no and i would like to hear more of those reasons so that we can all come together get on the same side yes or no and as mr moderator something to the the state house that we can melissa mcintyre time meeting in precinct eight thank you very much to all and for moving this forward i did not get up to speak on monday i might have gotten up to speak i got to speak just now because of the conversation that was taking place just now conversations and people's decisions to get up and speak in favor or against an article take place while we are considering what's being said so i don't know if what would have been said by those two or three people in line could have gotten me to get up and speak on monday maybe for those reasons i am in favor of reconsidering this thank you very much thank you any further discussion well thank you very much ladies and gentlemen you're really stuck to the discussion of the merits of reconsideration i greatly appreciate that so that we're going to go to electronic vote eleven for years for to reconsider oracle turned into  not to reconsider in a and then when you're ready p so it passes seventy two percent to twenty eight so in fact we will reconsider oracle ten on monday thank you very much arose and a lot of down and discussions among town meeting members about in this motion it was referring to a road map which had a draft and so the question came up  is a draft is there a final and in discussions with mr coleman a couple of town meeting members town clerk and myself and mr col agreed as the author of this citizen petition that we would include in the language a specific reference to the september road map september two thousand and eighteen road map the concern had been of course that if it's a draft that there would be the road map would be changed over time and so we're asking as a town meeting to vote on a road map that might change and if people felt that wasn't fair mr colton agreed so you will see a dislike change the reference to a specific road map of september with a specific date in two thousand and eighteen and that was belmont energy committee moved that the town vote to adopt a non binding climate action plan has a listen as follows we're ask lima changes real caused by humans in affirmed by overwhelming scientific evidence whereas belmont's two thousand and nine special town meeting approved a resolution establishing the goal of reducing carbon emissions in belmont by eighty percent by the year tw and authorized the creation of the bellman energy committee to implement that objective whereas belmont's energy committee in its two one thousand and sixteen dollars update of the belmont carbon emission inventory reported that belmont is now reducing its carbon emissions but not at a rate that is sufficient to achieve the town meeting approved goal whereas belmont's energy committee has set forth in the document entitled achieving our climate action plan a belmont road map for strategic the carbon is ation dated september th two thousand and eight pretty eighteen addressed how to achieve the town meeting approved objective of reducing carbon emissions by eighty percent by the year two thousand and fifty through a process of strategic electrification whereas belmont's energy committee has set forth in the document entitled achieving our climate action two thousand and eighteen reported that the quote the lek tricity grid as a whole will need to continue to move forward toward carbon free sources in order to support the transition to a carbon free  moving its electricity consumption to carbon free sources as quickly as possible dominant can and should be a leader in this transition whereas belmont's energy committee has set forth in the document entitled achieving our climate action plan adama road map for strategic d carbon is ation dated september th two thousand and eighteen proposed that the carbon free goal can be achieved by having quote the fraction of carbon free electricity increasing handily and tell this goal is reached whereas dominance energy committee has set forth in the document entitled achieving our climate action plan a belmont road map for ation dated september th two thousand and eighteen reported that quote the carbon free nature of belmont's electricity will be ensured through acquisition of the necessary clean energy credits under the massachusetts clean energy standard this standard allows credit to be claimed for low carbon electricity either produced within new england or directly delivered to it acquisition of such credits is an essential mechanism to ensure that carbon free electricity is properly accounted for and not counted twice by different consumers whereas this is almost done whereas dominants energy committee as set forth in the document entitled solar could also play a role in satisfying some of belmont's demands for carbon free electricity provided that the clean energy credits arising from that generation are retained by the town or its residen whereas belmont lights power supply policy last amended in november two thousand and eighteen provides that quote regarding particular power sources in our e c s called rex belmont light should seek out competitively priced renewable and non carbon emitting energy sources in new england in surrounding regions to add to its supply portfolio consistent with a layered standard stagger policy approach to now therefore be it resolved that belmont town meeting endorses the energy committee's document in titled achieving our climate action plan roadmap for strategic dated september th two thousand and eighteen recommendation for pursuing strategic electrification with its goals in timelines regarding electric vehicles and heating system replacements be it further resolved that dominance town meeting further endorsers a belmont lite goal of one hundred percent carbon free electricity as soon as is feasible consistent with a modest made impact does moderator roger called in town meeting members precincts six and co chair of the bomb and energy committee and thank you for many me speak tonight on behalf of article eight last fall at the special town meeting you heard me say that the energy committee would be back this spring with a resolution and here we are let me briefly recap some of what i said last fall and explain where we're going at this point last fall you saw this emissions the bad news is represented by the dotted line in the bad news is that despite that st time ever mission decline in a mess and the decline in emissions is at a rate that is insufficient to meet the carbon emission objective reduction objective that was adopted by town meeting in two thousand and nine that town meeting approved goal was to reduce emissions by eighty percent by two thousand and fifty when we saw these results the energy committee realized that we cannot continue what we've been doing and simply hope to do it better we have to redefine the rules of the game and indeed we have to redefine what the game is all together before we decide where we want to go however what we need to do is to find out where we are and when you look at this slide you should draw three me you can draw three major conclusions from this line actually you could draw a whole bunch of conclusions from the side that let me talk about three of those if you look at the bar on the far right that bar is the amount of residential emissions in the community of belmont by far not simply a small majority but a huge majority of the carbon emissions in the community of belmont comes from the residential sector unless we address and missions in the residential sector we will never obtain or achieve the town meeting approved goal of reducing our emissions by eighty and fifty number two this computer has different colors than my computer does but if you look at the green part of this bar the green part of that bar is transportation emissions those are the emissions from your cars your trucks your ass uvas and what that tells us is that unless we address the missions from residential transportation in the community of belmont we also will never achieve the town meeting approved goal of reducing emissions by twenty percent by eighty percent by the year two thousand and fifty finally if you look a let me call it purple and brown parts the next two parts and the bar down those are the emissions from home heating sources in belmont those are the emissions from homes that are heating with natural gas in homes that are heating with few oil in again we can tell that and less we address we as a community address the emissions that arise from home heating and belmont we will simply never achieve the meeting approved goal of reducing emissions by eighty percent by the year two thousand and fifty ultimately the energy committee found that we have to address residential emissions we have to address transportation emissions we have to address home heating and measurements and we went back to work and we developed a road map on how to do that and tonight is about how about that road map that road map sets forth three different recommendations number one as i said as i said we have to address transportation and what we must do not need do not should do but what we must do is to electrify are transportation drives electric is the energy committees campaign and there are more people involved in the energy committee campaign to address the part of the emissions that comes from our communities transportation sector belmont drives electric has been place for a year and a half since a year and a half and threw them out drives electric the man has become a leader in the purchases of electric vehicles throughout the community throughout the commonwealth of massachusetts here's why that's important if you want to find out there or decide how this effects achieving our goal you should look at the brown line what the belmont drives electric campaign does in what the road map calls for is two things it's to move that brown line to the left and it's to increase the slope of that line what one needs to recognize is that the average life of every automobile in belmont is eleven years and every time a belmont resident buy a gasoline fired automobile it embeds the missions from that automobile and the communities carbon footprint for not merely years but for decades to state to pursue heat smart through heat smart not we are promoting the conversion of natural gas and fuel fired fuel oil fired i'll get that out fuel oil fired heating systems two electric heat pumps that campaign just kicked off last week and again i wanted to show you what the impact would be and again if you if you look at the means we're moving to a carbon free economy more quickly when we increase the slope that means that we're obtaining more and more carbon free sources with the average life of a home heating system in belmont being between twenty and thirty years every time somebody replaces one of their heating systems with either a new fuel system or a new natural gas system however  then we are embedding carbon emissions in our economy for not simply years but for decades to come the only way that these two strategies make sense that we've identified in the roadmap is  through the rd recommendation and the two strategies again being to electrify or transportation and to electrify or home heating and the only way that makes sense is for belmont may to move as fast as possible in any mission free supply of electricity we are in effect by moving to an emission free supply the lector city replace in emission intense gasoline for our automobiles in emission intense fuel oil and natural gas heating for our homes with a carbon free or an emission free supply of electricity belmont light is actually fully onboard with this goal and light not only helped the energy committee prepare the road map but help the energy committee prepare the resolution and fully and indeed enthusiastically endorses the resolution so graph shows you what the impact of the resolution will be the blue line it's still blue the blue line is the point at which we achieve the  town meeting approved the objective of an eighty percent reduction in emissions and we ask for your approval of the roadmap tonight for two reasons st if we do not meet our goals the energy committee can be held accountable because we're the ones who you gave the job to to achieve these goals you can reasonably ask if we don't achieve our goals what went wrong and nd if we strayed from our road map we can be held accountable as well henceforth whenever the energy committee advances a prepare a proposal and we will you can ask how does it fit how does that proposal advance the roadmap that you presented to town meeting the road map is important not only to town meeting members but it's important for the energy committee as well we have set forth specific action steps that we believe we cannot and we will not in other words wait until two thousand and forty to say what bunch of things do we need to do in that last decade to finally get to our to the town meeting goal of two thousand and fifty in this regard as with any other strategic plan the road map is a living breathing evolving document and it will never be final but what we're doing we as the energy committee is doing through this resolution tonight is we're giving you can meeting a role in deciding how to achieve the climate action object is because once you approve this resolution if we change those goals then we will come back to town meeting and inform you and ask for your permission and we believe that it's appropriate for the community legislature to have that role if we're doing what we said we will do in the coming years and we miss our objectives and we miss o benchmarks we need we will know that will have to do something different so in sum i asked for your approval of the recommendations in the energy committee's road map and i wish that i could say that the journey forward in following the road map is simple but in it isn't i wish that i could say that the journey forward in following the road map will be easy but quite frankly it won't be and i wish that i could guarantee success that by following the road map we will achieve the town meeting and tourist object i can't say that what i can say and i do emphatically tonight is that the the option of not creating a road map and not following that road map is not an option i would ask your approval of article a thank you the economy of our constituents i'm sure and i think there's an important component to know here if you go back five years green energy and green initiatives who was the virtuous choice as it is today but it was more expensive that's no longer the case if you take electric cars for instance people who own them save a lot of money in new york city had a report recently published on the cost of operating their fleet cars and the chevy volt the blue c just now was two hundred and eight dollars per year including fuel and all the gas cars were six hundred in above if you look at the heat pumps i went to that meeting the installer and learned that i would cut my fuel costs in half  pump and they cost you know they start at five thousand dollars so i think it's important that we just everybody here understands that this isn't a choice between you know spending money and doing the right thing like  you know a whole wheat brownie which you know it's not quite the they're the real thing but you do it because you think it's good for you this this is actually what you call the dominant solution and that will help our citizens financially and it will it's the right emission and i apologize again because this is probably information i could on home work on and i haven't had time are you measuring this data with the cars that are currently owned in town and a formula based on that or is this actual traffic in  eco businesses that are going to probably flourish it might be a good idea for belmont to get in on the ground floor here the more we do maybe the more a green business want to move here saying you know what they practice what they preach and i feel like there's a benefit or ultimately an opportunity in a capitalist system like ours to benefit and to build the next wave of free energy china is already doing it a lot of other countries india are doing it japan a lot of different the countries and we can be we can be the big thing we can be moving the ball forward so i would suggest we should i want to rise whole of it that it is something that if it was a binding vote would you get a yes vote and i question that i'm glad it's not binding and i can see all the reasons why it can't be no but the problem is over time all of a sudden he gets referred to back like you've referred back five or six times to the two thousand and nine approval of the cole that too in my memory was non binding so that it's the norm binding aspect of even ask town council to tell us the obvious this is non binding which means this is a goal which i'm sure we all agree on and as we vote for it let the record show that it's a goal we all have wonderful goals in life but there's a two sides of the goals we achieve what's it going to cost what's the downside what's a on what's the unknown consequences it's a goal it's not binding mr h any future decision by the town meeting or binding legal effect on any town officials or boards or departments but it is a reference point for future discussions by the town meeting and by those things one is that the road map calls for carbon free by two thousand and twenty two however nobody is suggesting that we move to a carbon free supply of electricity here respect of the cost and the decision the ultimate decision lies with light and i saw chris roy light will decide what is consistent with a modest impact and that is their responsibility and that's their authority ok and along those lines how does this align with the belmont light power supply policy because they're david chris roy the general manager of belmont light and so to address your question about the power supply policy so you're correct that the policy referred to a november referenced in the slides that is the most up to date and so the process that would follow depending on the vote taken today as we could then bring it to the white board for alignment with the new date when you're ok and then just the final is any economic impact optimistic to hit fifty percent and so we've done studies as recently as this week about what that rate impact could be going forward to reach one hundred percent and in the interest of being all right quick point marty banerjee tommy member precinct a co chair of the energy committee so there's two sides of this one is of course greening up the electricity supply and that the concern about what is the rate impact there the other side is when we electrify everything increase the adoption of ease and heat pumps we're all in this room shareholders of some odd light and so when we generate more revenue for them of light that has direct economic benefits and electric vehicles themselves when they're charged off peak overnight represent a significant amount of revenue increase for the town and if you were to if you could just capture that for the town of the much light and if you'd capture that revenue and use it towards purchasing this wrecks we could get a long way towards in a sense funding this if both of these things sort of happen in concert so i think that's an important point to know and that's because i struggled with a good bit of this because let me read a statement that tries to explain my thinking here bellman understands that climate change is one of the critical issues of our time we devote substantial time effort and expense to reducing our carbon footprint we've insulated homes and buildings switched to energy efficient lighting and appliances and installed solar panels we are adopting electric vehicles and heat pumps we are planning a zero energy school light as obtaining more and more power from renewable sources our efforts are paying off as a town we use less electricity now that in two thousand and ten we are poised to reduce carbon emissions significantly this is happening because we study the issues carefully each step of the way we learn about specific alternatives weigh the actual economic and technical tradeoffs and have a clear understanding of the decisions we're making i think about article eight from th perspective this is a situation where merely voting yesterday no is not sufficient for a town meeting to carry out its responsibilities or discussion of this article which becomes part of the official record will be as important as the vote itself in any future interpretation of what town meeting intends and authorizes by adopting it this discussion is the one opportunity we have to clarify what the article is calling for and how it might be referred to in the future the article goal of one hundred percent carbon free electricity from belmont light conditional on a modest rate impact but there's something else as roger colton made clear tonight that the resolution asks town meeting to improve the road map as a whole the article therefore implicitly endorses the entire draft road map the timelines are just two bullet points and a much larger document the road map states the energy commission committee has mapped out actions for a range of town boards committees and departments unquote does town meeting know what these actions are for example one would discourage traditional central ac systems this town meeting agree with that what else is in the road map how many members have even studied the road map to know what they're voting on suppose the timelines are not met what then even if an affirmative vote is non binding why would we vote on a resolution that had no consequences the vot could be interpreted in the future as a major policy recommendation we need to consider how future town meetings and town boards should understand that affirmative vote in article eight the nd resolution includes a condition of a modest rate impact on belmont light which reflects policy already developed by belmont light and the light board advisory committee but the road map instead calls for obama on to have completely carbon free electricity by two thousand and twenty two with no mention of a rate impact town meeting  being asked to adopt both the political draft road map and resolution number two when really they contradict each other what is the point of introducing such confusion we should exploit i progress on our climate action goals there is widespread agreement on that but progress should be based on thoroughly discussed that it and well understood policies article eight is not up to the standard we've demonstrated on many prior occasions ordinarily i would expect town meeting to postpone artic indefinitely that still may be the wisest course under the circumstances but as a nonbinding resolution we have another option i would support article eight with the understanding the town meeting is not recommending or endorsing any specific action by our town boards committees or departments only on this basis what i vote yes on the article and that is the reason for what for putting my comments on the record for other members who are troubled by article eight yet like me also support our climate action plan i suggest they also put their comments on the record before voting yes having a clear record of town meetings intent on article eight is a key part of what we are doing tonight and as essential for any future to because there's the regenerate facilities are not available and so this you know in this few words as possible the direct market is that financial incentive to get more generating facilities built so the theory is we buy wrecks today and over time these facilities are built which we then buy actual lecture on from the so the transition so will measure progress through the reduction in need for rex and the increase in actual power supply contracts but otherwise the forces of supply demand there but as more built more wrecks are generated and so hopefully that supply keeps up so is there and have you considered a cap all and so the cap question so as we are doing even as early as next week we bring all the power supply opportunities to the light board and all back for consideration and that's where right now you may or may not have noticed in march we did implement a two percent rate increase that wasn't i don't want to make sure that that's not necessarily tied to this though is this a rate increase there hasn't been one since t h but through that study that's to carry us through two thousand and twenty one at which point there are a lot of variables that go into that that are both operational transmission dash were you trying to get my attention yes go ahead no vice chair of the for now board of selectmen meeting member at large i want to know that this is aspirational it's aspirational we can do this and in fact we actually are as you've heard a little bit of the purchase power policy that we passed fairly recently has been requiring us to get more green energy in fact we are way ahead of schedule in that regard and on monday night we're going to be talking about even getting more ahead of the ahead of schedule you've got the zero net energy high school we've got the heaps more program bel drives electric we voted to put the solar and battery storage on the incinerator site it's not all just belmont lite there are a lot of things that are going towards this and it's all sort of going in that direction this is nonbinding but we don't do polling i don't have any idea as a general like from moment to moment what the sense of the town is here in the sense of town meeting tonight i think would be extremely helpful for me to know what all of you would like to do and what you would like us to do for instance  recently had a survey done by belmont light of the rate payers by a company and it turned out which was partly driving this is that people said that they would be willing to have a modest rate increase to get greener energy and so that whole while non binding as well has certainly been keeping in our mind sort of where people want to go and where we want to go and how we want to get there i'm tom meeting to vote to adapt that climate action plan two thousand and nine and now it's ten years later the problem of climate change is even more acute technology is improving massively the cost of it has come down considerably and time to keep sort of update where we are because we're moving in a more accelerated pace towards this goal keep in mind the board of selectmen sits at the light board which runs it which is that's the policy for belmont light and we do keep rate increases in mind at all times that's one of the reasons why we have these meetings and talk about this the li board advice committee which is a group of citizens but expert in the field advise us as the light board and what they think and then we use the resources about more like chris roy and becky and others and then we make a decision what is the modest rate increase the we think people would undertake and willing to get greener so i would ask all of you to let's be bold tonight let's make a statement the month serious about this problem and willing to act on it and vote yes you martin plus town meeting member precincts we st of all i'd like to congratulate the energy committee i think this is an excellent strategic and tactical plan that really can get us to the goal as we have seen the goal that we have adopted ten years ago we are only halfway on the slope to where we need to be all these energy changes heating our home with electric heat pumps switching to an electric car all are very time delayed and i want to consider that we here in belmont have very big causes we often drive because we have a very high c footprint individually and so i consider that a responsibility as citizens that we really do the most we can to those as carbon footprint and cleaning up the energy supply of light is supplying us is a very low hanging fruit and can create an immediate effect on how much carbon we emit as a community here and i think it's very important as a town meeting to set says goal and this directive for the belmont light department to get us there and then we as citizens can follow up over the next several years when we do our next and heating system replacements to do our part in this thank you thank you i think courage i see a lot of people online of course while obviously making your point try to be as focused as possible most of you have i'm not being critical member precinct one and in full disclosure former co chair of the energy committee for the st six years that we had one i rise in support of this roadmap i think it's a very elegant and implementable plan which is very very rare in climate change action among local communities and i just want to offer my perspective on this which may be slightly different from everybody else's i spent more than twenty years advising e p a and state governments on climate action with energy efficiency and transportation is my focus and we are at a unique inflection point we human kind but the catastrophes of climate change bearing down on us those catastrophes are going to happen not everywhere and not all at once but they will happen and they may hit belmont so we should weigh that costs against the costs of doing something like this having said that the nature of climate change is global as we all know and i just want to say that over the past twenty years with my experience working with different administrations in washington d c is that climate action solutions trickle up from the local level through the state level to the national level so we have an opportunity here to think beyond belmont whether we achieve the goals of this climate action plan or not that is probably going to have a very very very very very minimal impact on global climate change impacts but our ideas as in so far as they can be propagated throughout other towns in massachusetts through the massachusetts climate action network and up to the state of massachusetts which is a leader in the northeast the northeast is actually a leader in the country that can have a real impact and i can say from my experience that the voluntary energy efficiency and transportation efficiency programs that belmont has implemented are not just creative but successful and have in fact lend themselves to becoming models for other communities and at the state level and in turn on up so i encourage everyone here to think beyond the implications of just what's going to happen in our local community and to look at this as a tool that can really have an impact at the state level and perhaps nationally  george howell town council the vote is what was in the four corners of the motion and if the motion didn't read the caption then if the caption wasn't part of the motion then it's not part of the vote and i so i think the answer your question is no the no which way that it is you asked is the is it not is the title of the motion part of the town meeting action and i think it was not part of the read the motion that was read so it is not part of the town meeting at what makes the motion non binding is that the language of the resolution itself but it never says non binding it's a binding as you said you were asking town meeting to adopt the entire road map but the resolution that we're all you adopted the part dealing with electric vehicles before you get to the next question i was incorrect as the slide indicates the words non binding are in the motion so it is part of the motion ok can meeting is being asked to to do what's electrification with its goals and timelines regarding electric vehicles and heating system replacements in the nd thing is that town meeting further interest isabel my goal of one hundred percent carbon free electricity as soon as  feasible consistent with a modest rate impact the be it resolved clauses do not endorse the road map as a whole as a document town meeting is being asked to  endorse two is being asked to take two very specific action steps so it's ok for me to fly to oakland to visit my daughter and i can still eat hamburger there  in our recommendations and i actually expected there to be conversation tonight about that where does energy efficiency fit into this where does composting fit in to this  i had a person come up to me at one of the precinct meetings and asked what you asked where do you airplane flights fit into this but the resolution calls for if you go back  fast so everybody knows that we're not indorsing the entire document but just the part dealing with getting replacement and beaut you saw the bar on the right hand site  the bar on the right hand side of the graph and the component parts of that beef is not in their plane flights are not in their heating system replacements are electric vehicles are the last  addressed a fair amount of my point and can you get close mike my concern was more with respect to the electricity being carbon free by two thousand and twenty two which is in the roadmap whereas the resolution as you say makes clear that to be carbon free as soon as feasible consistent with a modest rate increase but i've heard you say earlier and i've heard in several of the presentations now that we are proving the roadmap and that's what gets me because i just want to make sure that especially with respect to the cook the electricity that we're not approving the roadmap that it's the resolution the nd resolution that we're focused on roger coleman co chair of the energy committee can meeting is being asked to adopt two very specific be it resolved closets and concern is that to get to the goals of on vehicles and on home heating there is a very there would have to be a high degree of coercion or regulation to get us there because these are individual choices that people make for many reasons the rd is that there are certainly because renewables are more expensive there are going to be tradeoffs between this and other goals in town keeping the town affordable attracting new attractive businesses to the and finally the reason i'm while most concerned about these things i believe that we should do our part on climate change even if others do not necessarily do theirs but in looking at the tradeoffs we're prepared to make and the costs that we are prepared to bear we should keep in mind that in this area as in some others leadership has passed from the u s china has over three times the carbon emissions that we do it's growing at a faster rate india is approaching us growing at three times the rate so while we should do something we should do what we can we should be appropriately modest about how much we should trade off for this and how much difference it can make thank you ralph ralph jones how meeting member precinct three and a member of the light board advisory committee i support this resolution i support article eight and although i understand the concerns that have been raised to seeding about some elements of this i see it in a much more simple way the white board has already adopted a rate increase that will get us through two thousand and twenty one and the light board has also adopted the power supply policy that will get us farther along toward the goal of being carbon free in the near future that is already done and in place i think therefore that one of the three elements of this proposal is already done the other two in terms of automobiles and home heating and air conditioning i think follow directly from this basically what we're saying in this road map that two elements of vehicles and heating and air conditioning is we should buy local  energy locally from belmont light rather than from mobile exxon or anybody else need to keep the dollars here in belmont instead of sending them out of dhamma and that's essentially what this is  exactly that so why urge you to vote in favor of this article i think it has not the non binding and that is very important st step they've already taken if there are any other steps that need to be taken future it will require another decision not by town meeting one but most likely by the select board acting as a light board and i would urge you if you are concerned about where life board of the like department is going you need to attend hearings of the light board you need to attend particularly great hearings if that's your major concern you just had a great hearing not too long ago that was not widely attended by everyone in town meeting but i think you need to look at those as the next steps and the next decisions that get made and go to the place actions are made and make yourself h heat pumps my family decided in two thousand and eight before the climate action plan before i was a town meeting member to take a risk and buy one of the newest electronic electric key pumps in the state when the technology was very new since then we've gotten rid of our oil one hundred percent in other parts of the house and gotten more modern heat pumps we are now one hundred percent on electric heat pumps we also have solar panels so that for almost half a year we are not buying power from belmont light in the winter we don't make enough sun at the rates climate action is going maybe the ballots will be different but hopefully not but it is a very sustainable way and it is a very comfortable way we save money i wanted to also give a sense we save money every single month that we're not buying oil compared to what we're spending on electric thank you we have a policy about anybody's spoken out an issue doesn't speak until a nd time tell everybody spoke mr becker so that's why i just wanted to be clear yes ma'am sound money that was devoted to that promotion on the other hand we applied for a state grant to promote curbs on composting and did not get it but at least we applied for it electrification of the vehicles but he said it's an eleven year period i would think that there is something he can do in the interim to also address between the eleven years or even consider decreasing the number of vehicles in the household or at public transportation advocating for biking walking decreasing idling other steps that could be done in a much easier way during that interim we clearly support the increase use of mass transportation we clearly support increased bicycling in wa walking we clearly support it's against the law for one thing the  the idling of vehicles however and it's a big however if you remember the st bar on the right we are not going to buy can walk in and try idle ourselves out of that bar that was on the right out of the brown part that was the transportation and that's why i said you can't continue to do what we've been doing but do it better we have to change the game the rules of the game itself  to mclean precinct's one st i want to thank you for this very important and full disclosure i was a member of the municipal light advisory board back when we were the midst of a light advisory board for thirteen years and i did have one technical question which is about the limitations of heat pumps in new england you know the common literature says that they don't function very well below tw and thirty degree fahrenheit and i want to know if that's something that you found a way to overcome my program for example but keep drawing heat out of the air all the way down to minus thirteen so there's been a really a quantum change in the last last decade on that front so it's really only the very cold the states of the winter that that will have to have some large incentivization programs through belmont light and if we are already at a five percent rate increase by electrifying our power system i want to make sure that when we come in with rebates or subsidies that we're mindful that we do have a large percentage of the population that doesn't have the option of investing in a lot due to either financial limitations or otherwise or implementing solar due to financial or otherwise and as mr colton knows we have a substantial number of people in our low income rate so i would like to see rates developed if we're going to use this as a electric vehicles released today is that even for people who don't own an electric vehicle like you say there are some people maybe feel they can't afford one or don't drive a car at all those folks still benefit by the fact that their neighbors about electric vehicles because when electric fields vehicles charge overnight the cost to the town is low and they're generating more revenue for the town and so it's essentially beneficial to all of us when people b that that does not go into the thinking of town meeting members deliberations as they vote which is that you know china and india are catching up to the u s because now on a per capita basis there is no country on this planet that is going to come close any time in the near future to where we are as a country right now and what it's taken to get us here so i just want to make sure that on the last you know we as a town of homes where we live in  hundred to two thousand square foot homes are willing to get behind a marshall plan to help the countries in the global south catch up to the countries in the global north that should not be a factor in now whether we decide to prove or not i've heard the discussion i support these goals but i'm concerned that down the road rather than being hortatory that this is going to be compulsory that there will be not motivation but it will be regulatory enforcement measures if we don't meet these the emission standards so that you won't have the option to convert to that people could be compelled to buy electric vehicles at least a local level there is no way that the town of belmont could go to somebody and say you must replace your be compulsory well it could be done with fees things like that not not at the local level i one of the things that we are seeking paying your money to light rather than paying it to a multinational corporation every time you buy an electric vehicle your pain your money to belmont light rather than painted to mobile or standard or doing each of those the town of bellemont or the community of not the town is a town but the community about mt is insulating itself against the day that either the commonwealth of massachusetts or the federal government imposes a carbon tax and so in the long term we believe that that this is in essence a strategy to avoid those costs that are bound to come cove founder of the stormwater working group months to my working group as such the flip side of this is how do you plan for the costs of not doing something like is proposed here i rise in support of this motion very strongly and i want to add to the conversation that with all the concern about costs there's also the factor of uncertainty and the uncertainty that's coming with climate change makes planning and things like a aaa bond rating much more challenging and so if the more we can do to not to contribute and lead to influence other towns to do some similar things the better off we will be i second the comment about the per capita usage in the us being greater than china and the moral obligation that all the filling of the carbon sink has resulted is another factor why a rise in support and i'm very excited about the aspirational goals of this completely voluntary with no coersion  program that is proposed here and finally i wanted to correct the record on renewables being at cost parity today and not more expensive for energy sources thank you that when we vote i mean so yes vote presumably does not include his approach so do we ban have to vote no i think i think now you have to make your own personal decision i think what he was suggesting mr  wanted to be on the record so how do any of the rest and by scott ourselves on the record that you're supporting and i guess just i guess you could just say you support mr epstein's indeed take action but just a quick point is asking people are recommending to people to replace their existing heating systems with electric pumps without having information on cost it's going to incur for people who wish systems are gas or you know i don't know where that discussion would take place but i think it needs to be brought out there if you have an existing system you have existing radiators have baseboard heat this is roughly what you're looking at if you move to what i know you're doing great work but somebody has to address that that if we're going to change basically what is the cost economics of it so i think it's just something needs to be worked out so where if it's not here at least do some study on us the people have some information thank you thank you yes ma'am no they have both talked before so you are entitle to speak valuable things but they won't get us to where we need to be so we should be doing those in parallel to these to these more targeted goals and then the other bit in particular with electric vehicles is the demand side management there is  like currently incentivizes people getting charging overnight two o'clock in the morning three o'clock in the morning so that helps to mitigate us increasing the peak usage of the town which is financially beneficial as well as environmentally beneficial because you're less likely to turn  dirty peaking power plants and so so that's one thing you know sometimes people express concern if we start using more electricity and people get all these electric cars or we can have a problem and so we are thinking about and then what right is thinking about how to mitigate that sort of thing taking shorter showers actually helps the earth where is infinite spin compared to a nail in the difference of a nail for it is a skyscraper the skyscraper educate us on that please and also the trickle up effect is is an excellent absolutely excellent and spot on benefit but i was wondering if there were others as well thank you and thank you so much for your work on th i really appreciate it marty james booth energy committee i would just i guess refer back to the graph roger show that belmont it's a town of homes it's the vast majority of our emissions are coming down not to and any industry that's in town but to to our households and then the so the decisions being made by thirty five thousand or however many you know by belmont residents i think  particularly a case where where that that's true just by the nature of the town decisions right because if if individuals you know want to do what they can on their own that's wonderful but it's much more powerful if there are no if individuals electrify their home and their transportation and they know that they're backed by their community on utility and those two  like to conserve some energy by getting the light shut off in this room to move the question we will do that but that i don't take more than we probably need to get through town meeting and do it at that time in through this angle town meeting but it will be on our collective agenda in some fashion is scrolling i hope we get through article nine tonight but i think you would agree that we should not including the sponsors so  selectman town meeting member precinct to move that annual town meeting be adjourned and continued to monday may th two thousand and nineteen immediately following the conclusion of a special town meeting at belmont high school a