HomeMy WebLinkAbout05032012 Energy Study Committee MinutesDRAFT Minutes for regular monthly meeting on May 3, 2012, 2 Fairgrounds Road, 5PMNext scheduled regular monthly meeting is on June 7, 2012, 5PM, 2 Fairgrounds Road
In attendance were Committee Members Anne Kuszpa, Zach Dusseau, John Stover, and H. Flint Ranney,
constituting a quorum. After approval by the members, Ian Golding listened by telephone but was not allowed to vote. Ken Blackshaw’s resignation was accepted by the BOS on May 2. Others in attendance in the audience were: Lauren Sinatra, Whitey Willauer, Sandy Welsh, Carol Dunton, Mary-adair Macaire, and Bob Patterson.
The meeting was called to order by Chairman Kuszpa at 5:10PM. The agenda was approved, as were min-utes of the meeting on April 5, 2012. Whitey suggested that we discuss the timeline of the NESC efforts. what led to defeat of the the Wind Turbine article at Town meeting, and the unvoted 5/3/12 BOS decision
to place this committee “on hold” until another committee is appointed to decide what this committee
should be doing, if anything. Whitey pointed out that a year ago the BOS said that among Town priorities, alternative energy was not in the mission. Anne in 2011 entered an application for state funding for de-velopment of a 1.5 megawatt turbine in Madaket and the Town won a grant of $390,000 for this purpose. The BOS accepted this award. The NESC went through the process of hiring consultants, developing a
plan, obtaining HDC and Land Bank (abuttor) approvals, and finally going before the ZBA, where sudden opposition from Common Sense Nantucket and their paid attorney derailed the process. NESC asked the BOS for an attorney to counter the opposition but were denied. In addition, Town Administrative assis-tance to the NESC was reassigned to other matters, leaving NESC with no Town support. In January at a
contentious meeting, BOS voted 3-2 to place the issue on the ATM warrant. Meanwhile, NESC appointed
subcommittees to study potential turbine health issues, finding that there were none, and performance risk, found to be minimal, estimating 45% capacity due to tested wind speeds at the proposed location. The Finance Committee had a list of 16-20 questions for the NESC, which it was member Peter Morri-son’s task to answer. The Fincom voted against the project. The Capital Committee decided that this was
a “marginal project”. David Worth said that no private investors would engage in this project as the fi-
nances wouldn’t work on a capacity that would be less than our consultants estimated. Whitey suggested that this project and in fact all of the NESC’s supererogative work had been caught in a crossfire between national issues and non-resident politics.
John said that our purpose was to develop and present information, but that we were considered to be ad-vocates. Flint asked why shouldn’t we be advocates having worked so long on a project that appeared to be feasible. Carol Dunton said that the BOS was positive in reaction to every report NESC made to them. The BOS apparently doesn’t want NESC to continue, but leans toward establishing yet another committee
composed of stakeholders, whoever they are. Anne presented a Memorandum to BOS summarizing five
targets for BOS action on the Nantucket Energy/Climate Action. It was voted 4-0 to present this to BOS.
Lauren Sinatra said that signage for the Electric Car Charging Stations goes before the HDC next week; that 176 MassSave energy audits have been conducted; that there is no progress on Net Metering; and that
the HDC will review the Madaket Wave Test Site pole.
Adjourned at 6:13PM.
Respectfully submitted,
DRAFTH. Flint Ranney, Secretary
Nantucket Energy Study Committeehttp://www.ackenergy.org