Attending

SAMI Members

Kathy Beckett, Steve Ewald, Jake Gilmer, Andrew Goldberg, Ray Herring, Krishnan Kandasamy, Gary Miller, Ira Silverberg, Kevin Snape, Mark Steele, and Chris _______?

Summary

The meeting was called to order on November 21, 2000 at 1:05 P.M. in the Cooper Room of the GreenTree Hotel in Charleston, SC.

SAMI Website

Jake Gilmer updated the PAC on the changes that have been made to the SAMI website since the May 2000 Stone Mountain, GA PAC meeting. The PAC approved of the site updates and commented that the site was in much better condition. There was brief discussion as to whether “draft” data should be available on the site for review by SAMI membership; the PAC concluded that such data would need to have limited access and be password protected. However, the committee agreed that once data (graphs, maps, etc.) was finalized and approved internally that it would be suitable to post on the website for full public access. Several PAC members commented that as SAMI comes closer to a final report that the website would become increasingly important for public outreach and that staff should encourage all SAMI stakeholders to post a link to the SAMI website from their individual sites. They also noted that SAMI should register with at least the most visible internet search engines.

Incentives Contract

Jake Gilmer noted that the last time that the PAC officially met was by call on July 27, 2000. During that call, the PAC and ICF realized that there were several significant data management issues that must be resolved before the incentives work could move forward. First, ICF informed SAMI that the baseline data provided to them by Pechan was not suitable for building sector analysis. Second, ICF and Pechan determined that emissions estimates originally to be provided by ICF Consulting would not be comparable to the emissions estimates completed by Pechan for other SAMI strategies. Since PAC’s last meeting, the SAMI staff has spent a significant amount of time attempting to resolve these basic issues. Staff held several conference calls between ICF, Pechan, and Georgia Tech, which resulted in the following data management proposal:

Baselines. For transportation analysis, ICF will use VMT (Vehicle Miles Traveled) and transportation emissions baselines provided by Pechan. For building sector analysis, ICF will create custom energy use and emissions baselines that closely resemble current SAMI baselines and qualitatively state the differences.

Energy Use Data. ICF will provide to Pechan annual average electrical energy use data at the state level of detail; for non-electric energy use they will provide annual percentage change data (from baseline) at the state level of detail.

Emission Estimates. Emission estimates, which may be used in the integrated assessment, are going to be created by Pechan from the energy use and VMT data supplied to them by ICF. ICF will roughly calculate annual state emissions for the PAC and PC to use in evaluating incentive strategies and a project enhancement option described later.

Mr. Gilmer also reviewed some preliminary emissions estimates that ICF created for the PAC and the PC to use to evaluate a possible enhancement to the ICF contract. He noted that the preliminary data was completed to give SAMI a sense of the magnitude of potential emission reductions resulting from incentive strategies. The PC viewed this data at their November 8, 2000 meeting and had many questions regarding the baseline and assumptions that were used in creating the numbers.

Several of the PAC members noted that the preliminary emission reductions were interesting, but were concerned that, if they were to be run through the atmospheric model, the reductions may not produce substantial results. The committee had lengthy discussion as to how the incentives contract results will be used by SAMI, and many members agreed that to run the results through the SAMI integrated assessment would probably not be worth the effort, especially since the baseline data for the building sector is not comparable to the SAMI baselines. It was noted that the incentive results could serve as possible implementation approaches to reach the reductions envisioned in the SAMI strategies: “Bold With Constraints”, “Bold”, and/or “Beyond Bold”. Also the SAMI states could use incentive programs to count towards their Supplemental Improvement Plans (SIP’s).

Several future actions steps resulted from the incentives discussion:

· Clarify with ICF the units of measurement for the electrical energy use data

· Have ICF prepare a summary, for review by SAMI, of the structure and assumptions of the energy use and emissions baselines that has been created for the building sector.

· SAMI reviews and approves the building sector baseline

· Talk with ICF and Pechan regarding similarity of assumptions between SAMI and ICF baselines.

· Ask ICF regarding new EPA appliance/HVAC regulations that may impact proposed incentive strategies

· Ask ICF if cost of incentive programs will be estimated

PAC and the SAMI Final Report

The members discussed what role the PAC should have in the formation and distribution of the SAMI Final Report. In particular, they noted that the Final Report should be accessible to a variety of audiences and there should be some form of ongoing education and outreach. Other ideas included:

· Review report for content and readability

· PAC coordinates press releases and Final Report brochures & factsheets

· Attend PC/TOC to advocate for SAMI public outreach

· Upgrade website to publicize SAMI data, findings, and recommendations

· Help SAMI define Final Report target audience

· Create public service announcements for SAMI

Several committee members noted that the SAMI strategy names (Bold with Constraints, Bold, Beyond Bold) should be changed to something that will be more universally understood. Jake Gilmer agreed to draft a memo to the Operations Committee stating the possibly role that the PAC would like to have in the preparation and distribution of the Final Report.

PAC Chair Vacancy?

Jake Gilmer announced that the present Chair of the PAC, Danielle Droitsch, will probably no longer be able to serve in that capacity and that the PAC will need to find a replacement. Many members suggested that SAMI staff contact Ms. Droitsch and see if she will consider keeping the chair’s position. If she declined, staff should contact Pam Earl and Lucy Cabot-Smethhurst to see if either of them is interested.

Future Action Items

· Contact SAMI stakeholders regarding links to SAMI website

· Register SAMI website with most visible internet search engines

· Clarify with ICF the units of measurement for the electrical energy use data

· Have ICF prepare a summary, for review by SAMI, of the structure and assumptions of the energy use and emissions baselines that has been created for the building sector.

· SAMI reviews and approves the building sector baseline

· Talk with ICF and Pechan regarding similarity of assumptions between SAMI and ICF baselines.

· Ask ICF regarding new EPA appliance/HVAC regulations that may impact proposed incentive strategies

· Ask ICF if cost of incentive programs will be estimated

· Staff send a memo to the OC regarding PAC’s role in the SAMI Final Report

· Contact Danielle Droitsch regarding the PAC Chair position

The meeting was adjourned at 3:30 P.M.