18 members in attendance.
Notes from August 27 meeting were reviewed.  There were no revisions necessary.

Tom Webb shared his thoughts on Fayetteville Plan.  Main points included fact that Fayetteville does not have a stand alone climate action plan.  Instead they are seeking to become A STAR demonstration city.  STAR is a new joint initiative between ICLEI and USGBC to create a standardized sustainability rating system for communities (similar to LEED building certification process applied to communities).  Currently seeking a 500K EPA grant to help with this initiative.  University of Arkansas appears to be playing a significant role in pushing sustainability efforts, probably due to their Applied Sustainability Center and fact that the University population is fairly large compared to the town’s population.

Dave Freibert and Nina McCormack presented their thoughts on Gainesville.  Some of the main points are that Gainesville has a municipally owned utility which allows them to be fairly aggressive in promoting renewable energy since it is in effect a policy decision, they derive approximately 60% of their power from coal, they have a purchase of development rights program similar to Lexington’s PDR program, and they have an aggressive demand side management program locally.  Rob Rumpke mentioned the high number of LEED buildings in Gainesville and Chris Tyler expressed need for high performance building standards in Kentucky.   Some discussion of Kentucky’s energy mix ensued.  Hydro discussed briefly.  Noted that the prime hydro locations in Kentucky have been taken already.   Dave mentioned potential waste to energy project in western Kentucky. Nina emphasized the amount of electricity lost due to transmission grid inefficiencies “line loss.”      

Since she will not be able to attend the October meeting, Sara Sheetz provided her insights on Louisville’s plan, which she was very familiar with since she helped develop the plan.  Some main points are that: Louisville’s used a consultant for their emissions inventory and got their energy information for emissions modeling from Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reports; the report on emissions inventory results is a separate document; the big three green city partnership members (U of L, Jefferson Co Public Schools, and City of Louisville) were main drivers but entire community involved in developing plan; some sections of plan are geared directly to the big three; Air Pollution Control District staff helped develop plan; there were seven subcommittees established (140 members total) as well as a steering committee; process took almost 2 years to complete.  Lessons learned include: reviewing other community plans like we are doing now is highly recommended; need to provide more guidance to subcommittees; recommendations should be prioritized; and someone needs to be designated as the keeper of the plan. 

Lexington’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant application status was updated.  Noted again that Lexington submitted our application on June 19 and DOE has 90 days to review.  Grant based on population (not competitive) so we anticipate award shortly.  Tom stated that DOE required that we delete both our proposed urban forestry study and the community garden project. 

Jim Embry noted Council of Churches meeting will be held October 14 and 15 at Natural Bridge State Park.  Part of Kentucky Power and Light initiative.

Bernadette Dupont mentioned there will be a Climate Change Livability Conference held April 3.  Will provide more details to team.

Next meeting will be 2:00 October 22 at McConnell Springs.