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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-03-06 Climate Action and Sustainability Committee Summary MinutesCLIMATE ACTION & SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE SUMMARY MINUTES Page 1 of 7 Regular Meeting March 6, 2026 The Climate Action and Sustainability Committee of the City of Palo Alto met on this date in the Community Meeting Room and by virtual teleconference at 2:00 p.m. Present In-Person: Veenker (Chair), Lu Present Remotely: None Absent: None Councilmember Burt arrived at 2:19 p.m. Call to Order The call to order was not captured by the recording. Technical Difficulties Public Comments 1. Miriam G.'s comments were not captured by the recording. Technical Difficulties 2. Krystal R.'s comments were not captured by the recording. Technical Difficulties 3. Claire E. thanked the Committee for their work and asked for more focus on the non-local energy uses, including banning single-use or disposable plastic. Claire E. recommended further education and asking city-level purchasers to avoid unnecessary plastics. For example, plastic carpeting for sports use is problematic for carbon footprint and exposing children playing there to microplastics. Claire E. noted the dangers of PFAS and asked the Committee to encourage other councilmembers and City decision-makers to get the Natural Grass Pilot going as soon as possible and stated the 2027 estimate listed by Parks & Rec is not soon enough. 4. Magdalena C. urged the Commission to ask the City Council to follow through with their agreement to initiate and complete a natural grass playing field that will be well designed, managed, and maintained in order to show that natural grass is as good and better than plastic- covered playing fields or City Park. Environmental warming is related to plastic turf and natural grass parks and playing fields can keep life cooler, reduce plastic use, and minimize non-recyclable garbage. Magdalena C. encouraged Palo Alto to lead surrounding cities by example and move forward with the Natural Grass Turf Pilot Project. Verbal Report A. Staff Comments SUMMARY MINUTES Page 2 of 7 Climate Action and Sustainability Committee Meeting Summary/Action Minutes: 3/9/2026 Public Works Director Brad Eggleston announced that the City soft launched the new Electrify My Home Program the previous week. The program adds full-service, direct-install electrification for all home gas appliances, which was previously only available for water heaters. The program had 24 sign-ups in the first week. The City's contractor, Franklin Energy and its subcontractor Fuse, will be providing fixed-price services to help people with their home electrification projects. The City's rebate programs are still in place for those who want to hire their own contractors. They will wait until the first few projects are completed to ensure processes are smooth before marketing the project more widely. Public Works Director Eggleston also announced the third annual Earth Day Festival will be on Sunday, April 19, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Palo Alto Art Center's sculpture garden and lawn area. The festival will have information about various resources for Palo Alto residents to make an impact and take climate action to support the City's 80x30 S/CAP Plan goals. Offerings will include library story times, a zero-waste trivia game, crafts, local-use sustainability networking, and appearances by Sequoia the bald eagle and Animal Control's gopher snake. B. Committee Member Comments and Announcements Chair Vicki Veenker expressed excitement for the Palo Alto Earth Day Festival, which had huge attendance the previous year. Chair Veenker mentioned the Natural Grass Pilot Project is moving forward for 2027, with FY 2027 beginning July 1. The project is dependent on growing season timing, and the start date will be double checked. Chair Veenker shared the NCPA General Manager search continues and is on schedule. Councilmember George Lu shared the Natural Grass Pilot timeline with construction completion estimated for 2027-2028. The Committee will approve the plan and funding in Q2 and have a better timeframe estimate at that time. The pilot is among their Group 1 priorities. Councilmember Lu reported that the Council endorsed the Bay Area Transit Measure on Monday and noted this is an opportunity for VTA and a lifeline for many other transit agencies. Director Eggleston responded to public comment by sharing that City Council approved the upcoming 2- year S/CAP work plan. The plan includes assessing compliance with existing foodware ordinance requirements, identifying key challenges and barriers to reducing additional single-use disposals and requiring reusable alternatives, and developing a new comprehensive plan to effectively expand and strengthen the foodware ordinance. They will continue to adapt and evolve the plan and there will be opportunities for public comment as it moves through the process. Agenda Items 1. Review and Discussion of 2026-2027 Climate Action Program Goals and Work Plan Timelines; CEQA Status - Not a Project Assistant Director of Public Works Jonathan Abdenschein expressed thanks for approval of the 2026- 2027 S/CAP work plan. Goals for 2026-2027 are to introduce more services in the multi-family and non- residential sectors based on recent studies, pilot cost-efficient program designs in all sectors with a focus on financing and repayment assistance, and develop a range of actionable policy options for the pace and timeline of community-wide electrification. Existing single-family residential programs include the recently launched full-service program. The focus in 2026-2027 is piloting cost-efficient programs, financing, and adapting to changing conditions such as regulations coming into effect around water SUMMARY MINUTES Page 3 of 7 Climate Action and Sustainability Committee Meeting Summary/Action Minutes: 3/9/2026 heaters. In multi-family, the focus has been on EV charging and over 10 percent of buildings in Palo Alto have had a shared EV charger installed. The goal is to enhance this program with a range of solutions including mobility hubs, on-street charging, on-site individual chargers where there is high EV adoption, and financing over incentives. Other multi-family programs include pushing building electrification after completing studies, continuing the Affordable Multifamily Grant Program, and giving resources to landlords and condo associations in market-rate buildings. Non-residential sector goals include advancing the HVAC program and growing experience in working with commercial water heaters and boilers. There has been success working with the City, PAUSD, and the hospital on electrification but a goal is to work with and find financial solutions that work for major commercial campuses and smaller real estate owners. Most study work was completed in the 2023-2025 S/CAP work plan. There is an effort to develop actionable policy options on pace and funding for community-wide electrification and carbon neutrality, finish the gas transition study, and continue grid modernization at an appropriate pace with cost-efficient strategies. A Mobility focus will be active transportation, especially enhancing the City's bike infrastructure and improving safety, looking at other last-mile solutions like micromobility and continuing to help transit operations through traffic signal management. Work continues on electrifying the City's vehicle fleet and buildings. Goals and timelines were reviewed with the working group, who expressed general support and acceptance. Conversations included questions about how these goals will be incorporated into the budgets, how single-family goals were developed, and discussion of mobility goals and building performance standards. Program goals were viewed positively but there was interest in dashboards that track progress toward these goals. Councilmember Lu appreciated the thoughtful and reasonably aggressive metric goals and asked how the tracking process works. Assistant Director Abdenschein responded that these metrics are regularly tracked for program operation and will be made into a dashboard format and brought to meetings periodically throughout the year. Councilmember Lu expressed thanks for the work and variety of goals and predicted the 2027 metric tracking will help calibrate goals for 2028. Councilmember Pat Burt expressed confusion about S/CAP sustainability actions listed in the packet. Assistant Director Abdenschein explained that goals and key actions are very high-level efforts over a 10 to 15-year time horizon and work plans have more specific goals on a shorter timeline. The packet has a matrix tying each work plan item back to the goals and key actions, shown in Attachment G. Councilmember Burt noted the work plan items do not seem categorized correctly and agreed to note them so they can be reviewed and aligned. Councilmember Burt requested clarification on language around timelines, metrics, and goals and agreed to follow up with Assistant Director Abdenschein to further clarify. Councilmember Burt noted public comment around Scope 3 Emissions and suggested a refresher on what is included in the methodology used for GHG emissions and Scope 2 versus 3. Councilmember Burt and Director Eggleston discussed what is within the scope of S/CAP and this ad hoc committee. Councilmember Burt asked for clarification around technical support and advice for multi-family. Assistant Director Abdenschein responded that multi-family differs from non-residential and single- family, so having someone who can speak to those specific challenges with landlords and condo associations is the goal. Assistant Director Abdenschein clarified that the focus has been on EVs but is shifting to include building electrification. Chair Veenker expressed a desire for a mechanism to talk about whether, when, and to what extent to look at consumption goals with respect to Scope 3 emissions. Chair Veenker suggested it could fit into SUMMARY MINUTES Page 4 of 7 Climate Action and Sustainability Committee Meeting Summary/Action Minutes: 3/9/2026 the sustainability piece in terms of consumption goals for reducing packaging and single-use items. Director Eggleston agreed with this perspective but highlighted a difference between discussing one item versus establishing overall consumption-based goals and inventories. Chair Veenker noted it would be nice to explore how it fits into the overall plan in parallel with executing the current plan. Chair Veenker asked for more information about non-residential program goals, what has been done, and how Council or others can assist. Assistant Director Abdenschein shared that the utility account has its key representative program and relationships with facility and sustainability managers for about 60 key account customers. Engagements with sustainability managers have been productive but the pandemic put a temporary crimp in the appetite for these projects. Those relationships need revitalizing and reassessment to find an interested partner. Assistant Director Abdenschein offered to provide updates in case there are opportunities where a connection would be helpful. The HVAC program is still being defined but they will look at what gas equipment is nearing end of life, corporate sustainability goals, and what assistance will help them commit to those sorts of projects. Another resource is the third-party program consultant who provides technical assistance and has been expanding their capabilities. Chair Veenker suggested a pilot in which buildings could be retrofitted, which would provide information about what is realistic in terms of timeline, types of changes, and challenges. Assistant Director Abdenschein shared that the current program includes a range of equipment including packaged HVAC units, hydronic heating systems, and smaller commercial water heaters. The value of working with larger campuses is to understand the diversity of equipment involved. Chair Veenker requested more information on electrification as a service. Assistant Director Abdenschein responded that more work needs to be done about what administration would be required, what terms are acceptable, and how to pilot it simply, which is currently being worked on. Chair Veenker noted figuring out financing is going to be critical to making progress on electrification. Councilmember Burt asked how incorporating mandatory programs may fit within the goals and work plan. Assistant Director Abdenschein explained that CA-14 is focused on regulatory measures and there will be a discussion in April on potential opportunities and what types of things the Committee prefers to focus on, and then resources and timelines will be worked out. Item 1 Public Comments: 1. Miriam Gordon, Reuse Director of the Story of Stuff Project, addressed the goals of the City's Climate Action Plan and noted its focus on transportation and the built environment fails to address consumption-based emissions, which have contributed to a 90 percent increase in global carbon emissions since 1970. San Francisco's climate plan focuses on reducing emissions through sustainable consumption and includes targeting a reduction of 15 percent total waste generation and 50 percent landfill disposal by 2030 and transitioning to reuse in food service. Other cities doing this include Denver, Minneapolis, Vancouver, and Eugene, OR. Miriam Gordon offered to forward resources on consumption-based emissions reduction strategies from the U.S. Sustainability Director's Network consumption toolkit and the West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum. 2. Claire Elliott learned on the City website that 42 percent of carbon emissions are coming from the manufacture of things and wants to see that fact higher on the website so people understand it and realize their purchase choices make a big difference. Claire Elliott noted presentations have been made on stormwater and biodiversity but they do not appear to be in the 2026-2027 plan. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 5 of 7 Climate Action and Sustainability Committee Meeting Summary/Action Minutes: 3/9/2026 3. Stephen Rosenblum had difficulties with Zoom and was not audible. Sending written comments was suggested. Chair Veenker invited staff to respond to the public comment about why sustainability is not shown in today's topics. Assistant Director Abdenschein replied that while sustainability and climate action were addressed Monday, this meeting is a supplement focused only on climate. Chair Veenker reiterated that sustainability is still part of the plan but this meeting's focus is on climate. MOTION: No Action Taken 2. Grid Modernization Update; CEQA Status – Not a Project Utilities Chief Operating Officer Terry Crowley noted this presentation was provided to the UAC in January and earlier this week to the Climate Action Working Group. The Grid Modernization project replaces existing utility facilities to improve system reliability and prepare to meet demands of electrification, which are likely to increase from the historical level of 1 to 2kW to a range of 8.5 to 19.5kW. The pilot Grid-Mod increased capacity for around 900 homes, which cost $10M or $11K per dwelling. Future work includes reconstructing legacy 4kV systems, upgrading sub-transmission capacity, strengthening feeder ties between substations, and modernizing the Colorado Substation. To questions from Councilmember Burt, Utilities COO Crowley clarified the intent is to frame the presentation around which benefits are delivered by each program, whether safety, reliability, capacity, or some combination. The sub-transmission system project is reliability work and expected completion is at the end of FY2029. The conversion of 4kV systems to 12kV will give the City the ability to quickly restore customers if there is an equipment failure. The project affects 2,900 customers and completion is expected by FY2028 for one section and FY2032 for the other. The benefits of 12kV are less line losses resulting in less energy wasted and matching the rest of the 12kV City system so load can be shifted if needed. The life expectancy of this equipment is around 50 to 70 years. Substation reconstruction will increase capacity and improve reliability. The modern equipment will have better design and maintenance cycles. Councilmember Lu recommended laying out the substations with space for the future possibility of adding containerized, local batteries for resiliency. Chair Veenker asked for clarification on the timeline for this project, which will be in design work within months but completion lands in the 4 to 5-year range because of long lead time for materials. The Colorado 115 and 60kV improvement plans to reconstruct legacy equipment from the '70s. The new equipment will be sized according to expected future peak demand. The 12kV distribution improvement is the largest monetary portion of the work and will rebuild the entire distribution within the residential area to allow for additional capacity. The project also involves strengthening the feeder ties between substations to increase capacity and better facilitate transferring load around the system, which helps restore power after outages and plan for maintenance. This work focuses on strengthening feeder ties first and replacing transformers as customers electrify and is expected to be ongoing beyond FY2034. Utilities COO Crowley explained that the AMI or smart-meter data featured in these improvements will help gauge whether customers are on the correct transformer and address overload situations. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 6 of 7 Climate Action and Sustainability Committee Meeting Summary/Action Minutes: 3/9/2026 Utilities COO Crowley gave an overview of the timelines for these projects side-by-side and noted the 12kV reconstruction ramping up over time as adoption rates increase creates a $118M reduction in debt financing versus the previous approach. The debt financing process is happening now, and the term is likely to be a 20-year bond for roughly $100M. Councilmember Burt noted that presenting the overall price in terms of what it costs per payer per year could be a more palatable number. Feedback from the Climate Working Group included positive comments about a financial charge for capacity beyond an expected normal and suggestions of reward or incentive to those at undercapacity. The working group asked for more data to help affirm peak demand numbers and wanted to seek ways to save money on Grid-Mod. Questions were raised about how mixed-use areas will experience electrification and whether property owners will share cost. Chair Veenker highlighted programs around the country where a city or utility subsidizes batteries a customer installs if they agree to let the city access it in times of need, which adds resiliency to the community in a different way. Chair Veenker wondered whether this type of program has been considered. Assistant Director Abdenschein replied that this falls under long-term resiliency discussions because these programs require staffing and incur costs. Considering different incarnations of this type of program was recommended. Chair Veenker asked if there are other ways, in addition to the slower rollout, to adjust the plans along the way. Utilities COO Crowley replied that other ways are to extend the timeframe from 5 to 10 years and incorporate technologies as they mature and come to market, such as vehicle-to-grid. Councilmember Lu wanted to understand the impact per dollar and which parts of these projects depend on each other as reassurance and talking points about the reliability and benefits received and why things are being done in a certain order. Councilmember Lu expressed curiosity about ways to save money on these projects. Utilities COO Crowley responded that near-term cost savings include bidding all substation transformers at once and staggering delivery times to meet the plan of construction. Another piece the City can look into is the difference in cost between internal staff labor and external, such as filling vacant positions within the lineman department and in order to be less reliant on contractors. Councilmember Lu mentioned ideas from the working group around rate setting, such as monthly fixed costs for different panel sizes. Councilmember Burt noted vehicle-to-grid is potentially transformative and questioned how much of it is gated by vehicle manufacturers. Utilities COO Crowley replied that there is a big dependency on the vehicle manufacturers allowing for vehicle-to-grid within their software and onboard charging systems. Councilmember Burt asked if scenarios involving vehicle-to-grid were being modeled so the City has the option to pivot. Utilities COO Crowley shared the internal engineering staff is discussing power control systems and batteries, how customers can be enabled to have that choice, and what is realistic with how these batteries operate. Item 2 Public Comment: Stephen Rosenblum stated the first thing residents need to understand about the electrification process is that the 80x30 carbon-neutrality goals are impossible without it. Stephen Rosenblum stated the priority of batteries locally needs to be brought much higher in the planning and cited a project in New Orleans where the utility helps customers install batteries in their own homes and provides a huge reliability improvement. The City should try to maximize the amount of solar power it generates, which allows them to recharge batteries when the transmission network is down so hospitals or people with oxygen machines requiring electricity will not be without power when they need it. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 7 of 7 Climate Action and Sustainability Committee Meeting Summary/Action Minutes: 3/9/2026 MOTION: No Action Taken Future Meetings and Agendas The next meeting has been moved to Friday, April 17, at 2:00 p.m. Planned items are an update about communications and the items discussed today about financial strategy scoping and regulatory options to explore this year. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 3:55 p.m.