Monday, May 24, 2010

BP OIL DISASTER

While not directly relevant to Sherborn, as a former resident of New Orleans, I am very interested in this issue. In graduate school, I was heavily involved in studying impacts of offshore oil and gas production. The title of my master's thesis was "The Fiscal Impacts of Outer Continental Oil and Gas Production on State and Local Governments in Lafourche Parish, LA." I also worked on a couple of other studies of the industry as a graduate research assistant.

The most interesting project I was involved with was commissioned by the Conservation Foundation (since merged with the World Wildlife Fund) through a contract with the Fish and Wildlife Service of the U.S. Department of Interior. I co-authored the report with a professor. The report is called "Environmental Planning for Offshore Oil and Gas, VolumeV: Regional Status Reports. Part 3:Gulf Coast Region." As the name implies, this was a national report on offshore oil and gas and we covered the Gulf Coast, which, of course, is the site of almost all offshore oil and gas activity. The President of the Conservation Foundation at the time was William Reilly, who later served as EPA Administrator and was just appointed by President Obama as Co-Chair of the commission investigating the BP disaster.

Among other things, the report covered some of the challenges involved in deepwater drilling, which was then in its infancy. In discussing technologies involving accident response, the report cites four main problems as  "reestablishing control over wells that have blown out, containing and cleaning up oil on water, salvaging marine life and birds, and cleaning up beaches." Not that these are not obvious issues! The report also discusses the impacts of offshore oils and gas activity on living things and the socioeconomic impacts.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

GREEN COMMUNITIES ACT

In 2008, the Massachusetts Legislature adopted the Green Communities Act. This act provides funding for designated communities to implement alternative and renewable energy projects. The funding comes from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI, pronounced "reggie"). A system has been established by which companies can buy credits for their greenhouse gas emissions at an annual auction. The proceeds of those auctions are then used to fund local energy projects.

In order to become designated as a Green Community, a town must meet five criteria. These include the following:

1. Provide for the as-of-right siting of renewable or alternative energy generating facilities, renewable or alternative energy research and development (R&D) facilities, or renewable or alternative energy manufacturing facilities in designated locations.

2. Adopt an expedited application and permitting process under which these energy facilities may be sited within the municipality and which shall not exceed 1 year from the date of initial application to the date of final approval.

3. Establish an energy use baseline inventory for municipal buildings, vehicles, street and traffic lighting, and put in place a comprehensive program designed to reduce this baseline by 20 percent within 5 years of initial participation in the program.

4. Purchase only fuel-efficient vehicles for municipal use whenever such vehicles are commercially available and practicable.

5. Require all new residential construction over 3,000 square feet and all new commercial and industrial real estate construction to minimize, to the extent feasible, the life-cycle cost of the facility by utilizing energy efficiency, water conservation and other renewable or alternative energy technologies.

In my opinion, we could achieve 4 out of 5 of these relatively easily. Since we do not have any industrial zoning districts in which energy manufacturing or R&D facilities could locate, we would have to achieve #1 by allowing energy generating facilities by right. We could do this by allowing solar facilities within or adjacent to our electrical transmission lines. Solar panels (even one sized for commercial quantities of electricity) are relatively benign.

Similarly, we could achieve #2 by adopting an expedited permitting process ensuring that a permit would be granted (actually "decided," it could still be denied) within a year. Rarely do any permitting processes take more than a few months now so this would be very easy to comply with.

#4 is also easy. Heavy duty vehicles and police vehicles are exempt. The policy only applies to administrative vehicles. However, we would need to commit to energy-efficient police vehicles when they become commercially available.

#5 may be a little controversial. It would require adoption of the currently-optional "stretch code" component of the State Building Code. It simply requires more energy efficiency in new houses and other buildings. This increases up-front costs but saves money in the future since the building would use less energy. As energy prices increase, the payback period decreases.

The one I see as the most difficult is #3. First, it requires that we establish a baseline for total municipal energy use (including schools, town buildings, town vehicles and streetlights) and then commit to reduce this usage by 20% within 5 years. There is a free software program provided by the state to help with the inventory and the utility companies can provide usage information. However, some effort is needed to document square footage, number of employees using the space, etc. to complete this task.

Once a community earns the "Green Community" designation, it becomes eligible for the grants mentioned above that can be used to build alternative energy facilities in Town (and help meet the 20% reduction). Therefore, it is similar to the Community Preservation Act in one respect because the early adopters get to maximize the financial benefits. However, the primary benefits are simply the cost savings that result from reduced energy use as well as the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Monday, May 3, 2010

TOWN MEETING RESULTS AND COMMENTS

The two Planning Board zoning articles failed to gain the required two-thirds majority at Town Meeting. The article to allow  accessory apartments for rent-paying nonrelatives was favored by an 86-70 vote. The 55% majority was 19 votes short of 66.6%. The vote in favor of creating an adaptive use special permit for properties on North Main Street across from the Business General district was 85-57, or 60%. It fell 10 votes short of the two-thirds super-majority required.

Neither of these articles were critical to the future of Sherborn. They both would have resulted in small changes. However, in the view of the Planning Board and the Advisory Committee, they would have facilitated incremental but positive improvements in the quality of life of Sherborn residents. As happens throughout Massachusetts, a minority is able to block progress because of the requirement for a two-thirds vote to change zoning.

This raises the question of whether the two-thirds requirement is appropriate. Apparently, in Connecticut, Planning Boards have the authority to change zoning on their own. While nobody is suggesting such a change in Massachusetts, there has been a debate about changing the two-thirds vote requirement. One suggestion is to allow each town to decide on its own whether zoning changes should be by simple majority or two-thirds with the proviso that reducing the requirement to a simple majority would require a two-thirds vote. I doubt that the minority with power to block changes would be willing to cede that authority in very many towns (if any).

I am not entirely opposed to the two-thirds requirement but I have considered variations that could be beneficial. One thought I have is to allow towns to set the requirement at anywhere between a simple majority and a two-thirds vote. In other words, a town could set the requirement at 55%, 60% or 53.7% if they so choose. Of course, how that would be set remains an issue. Requiring a two-thirds vote for the change would likely render it moot since few, if any towns would be able to make the change.

Another thought I have had would provide more authority to the Planning Board, but stop well short of the authority in Connecticut. That is, a zoning change endorsed by the Planning Board would require a simple majority while one that is opposed by the Planning Board would still require a super-majority. A variation with  checks and balances might be that in addition to the Planning Board, the article would need to be supported by the Advisory Committee, Warrant Committee, Finance Committee (or whatever a town calls its body that makes recommendations on warrant articles) in order to qualify for the simple majority vote.

My final comment reverts back to the specific Planning Board articles defeated at this year's Town Meeting. As stated above, the two articles that failed were not the foundation for a successful future for Sherborn nor the seeds of destruction for the Town. They were both minor in scope.Well-meaning residents can have honest disagreements about their value to the Town and there are good and legitimate arguments on both sides. However, it is disheartening to hear residents knowingly make arguments opposed to the articles that have no basis in fact. It is a well-known tactic to defeat an article by inventing unintended consequences, phantom conflicts with existing rules or other such measures in order to raise doubt and the prospect of scary problems in the future if the article were to pass.