EWEB Board of Commissioners — January 3, 2023

0:01 okay I want to call the January 3rd 2023 regular meeting of the dreamwater Electric Board to order agenda item this evening is the agenda check does anybody have any events or questions about the agenda this evening the second agenda item is we both have um I don't know where we go I can come near you you come to me whatever works just go to you all right got done first so please change your right hand to repeat after me all right John H Brown to solemnly swear and I will support the Constitution of the United States and the state of

0:47 Oregon we'll have to support the Constitution of the United States the state of Oregon and that I will well the best of my ability Faithfully respond the duties of Eugene Water elected board commissioner for the city regime during my continuance therein God um I'm Mindy slossburg to solemnly swear I'm Andy swansberg to Solomon Sawyer that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the same Oregon support the Constitution of the United States and the state of Oregon and that

1:32 I will to the best of my ability rest of my abilities Faithfully perform the duties of Eugene Water and Electric Board commissioner for the City of Eugene Faithfully performed in Water and Electric for City of Eugene during my continuing clearance my continuous therein and as I do affirm under pains and penalty of perjury and I do affirm understanding preparation thank you thank you okay as an extended items items for the board members and general manager I'll start with commissioner slotsford

2:26 with the McKenzie Watershed Council um updated them other than our direction that we're having on the Libra canal and it was received quite well it wasn't pushed back most people in the room were were happy to hear it from that advocacy group so thank you Carlos so as the liaison to the elkhog board I wanted to report back that they're trying to have a annual dinner sorts again um some kind of event in March music first and then March and typically those meetings recognize your outstanding specific participation

3:11 elected officials public employees and such so at some point um to love feedback from from the folks around on outstanding outstanding work in the community so I just wanted to put that out there to make sure you all knew that was had that on your radar and if you have some folks you have in mind I'll let you know what categories are here soon but that put that out there think about it one thing I do have a question from Frank and staff is it used to be that when there was a media story about eweb or something we would get a link to it and a lead on it like tonight on the news it was a really good story that Aaron had about the IRP and our ability to serve the electric EV and the Mandate that no more internal combustion engines

3:57 by 2035 and everything and if you didn't see it you wouldn't know about it and if you didn't watch that specific Channel and I was wondering why we have gone away from that we don't do that anymore yeah we have not moved away from that some of these are the people or some of them are after we're made aware of the stories we're going to get the link out to Commissioners because I haven't seen the link in a long time from any media stories so I'm just wondering if we went away from a policy but if we could do that I think it's really good that we all know about different topics so thank you thank you Matt um right uh just um wanted to acknowledge some some staff work we had the opportunity for two specific Mutual Aid opportunities over

4:44 the last couple weeks one of them was to help out um the city of Mapleton water district where we said scent equipment and people including operators to help them and the other one was Portland General Electric who because of the Windstorm at one point had up to a hundred thousand uh people out of power and we had we had recovered um from within this area so we were able to send some some Crews to help PGE as well so I really wanted to acknowledge both an electric opportunity and a water opportunity that we had over the last couple weeks and thanks staff for their response

5:31 Mr Jenna item is going to be public input um and and do we we have anybody signed up in the audience to testify this evening I have not received any requests from folks we have four people on the line the fifth individual has not called in yet okay so I've got five on my list so um beforehand correct yeah the first four are online Josh corn does not okay all right well then I'm gonna public input and I'm gonna read the Preamble when your name is called please come forward state your name and I'll show your address your each speaker will be offered three minutes to present their testimony can you skip chapter Time by watching the time in front of the room or by looking for an audio notification when three minutes has elapsed if you're a participating with my telephone remember to unmute your call press star

6:17 six a calling from a landline or simply use the unmute button if calling from a cell phone all testimonies heard each commissioner will have enough they choose although by policy we do not engage in a back and forth dialogue please note that failure of a permission to speak shall not be construed in support of nor opposition to any speaker's testimony is presented by speaker and the board does not provide an answer May web staff member will contact the speaker so the question can be adjusted a later time first person signed up is Adrian fenneman sorry for the pronunciation Adrian yes hi um my name is Adrian feinman I am the CEO and designer for cedarstone where we

7:03 design and build beautiful energy efficient can you hear me hello yeah we just keep going you're doing fine okay and we were going to build a design and build energy efficient net negative carbon footprint homes and edus we use cross-laminated timber CLT to Simply and elegantly improve housing on every metric including performance Aesthetics and constructability we're based in Eugene and we have an Adu design that's been pre-approved for permit by the City of Eugene and it's on their website

7:48 we are designing homes that support and nurture Family Life by thoughtfully considering the home layout indoor air quality eliminating mold improving thermal Comfort long-term affordability with respect to utilities maintenance and resilience to a changing climate we have put our heart into our work so that we can offer these one-of-a-kind homes that are pieces of art because we understand the impact of housing family life is based in the home we would love if eweb um were joining us in pioneering new ways of achieving Energy Efficiency and we would love if eweb could help make

8:33 more tools such as the passive house planning package the phpp easily available to Eugene designers so that we can demonstrate the energy consumption of different building options and develop renewable energy plans to offset energy use we are inspired by a negative carbon future and an integrated approach to building design we're committed to developing beautiful multi-generational family homes that are Innovative healthy and resilient you can take a look at our approach and our pre-approved design on our website which is cedarstone DB as in

9:18 designbuild.com and we have a selection of pre-designed plans and we also do custom design and we would love to collaborate so please feel free to get in touch thank you thank you very much Mr Speaker is Nadine Scott hi I'm Nadine Scott I'm a homeowner on lieber's Dam Road a real estate broker for Windermere Real Estate Lane County I'm president of the McKenzie Chamber of Commerce and correspondence secretary for the McKinsey Clearwater Coalition tonight I am voicing my own personal concerns as the Lieber Dam bridge ever been

10:05 tested for asbestos if so when and by who there was mention of rerouting lever Dam Road via the good pasture-covered Bridge Ingress egress for the good plastic bridge is very dangerous it is a one-lane bridge which cannot be widened us there is no room for traffic to pull over without being backed up on the highway many abstinence have already occurred there Lee Shore Drive in leeburg Dam Road are currently one lane road will they be widened how many properties will you have to purchase an audit to accomplish this

10:53 there are at least 24 property owners that currently use the Lieber Dam bridge to access their property or their homes there are also many homeowners unleasha drive that have their properties that would be affected and it was also increased hazards tourism is the primary in the McKenzie river valley over 1100 signatures signed on petitions to save Liebert Lakes were gathered from folks who actually used the lake in September that came from many different states and

11:38 from all over the country these were submitted to eweb to the eweb board in time for their October meetings if you take away tourism businesses will be forced to close the holiday fun file is devastating enough to these business owners many have already been forced to close property values will plummet homeowners purchase property on leiburg Lake because we want to live on a lake which is usable water the McKenzie river is not considered usable water unless you're an experienced person many deaths have occurred on the River

12:25 from inexperienced folks the normal family cannot afford to hire God to take them down the Rhythm therefore those tourists will not be coming back to visit the McKenzie river area if the lake goes away there are hundreds if you kind of wrap it up maybe you're up out of time so and yet we do not have a commissioner to rep us represent us regarding what eweb does why not

13:10 thank you for your time thank you next is Dusty wind can everybody hear me okay thank you my name is Dusty Nguyen I am president and co-founder of pure light power uh pure light power is a medford-based solar installation company that is now in Montana Iowa and the entire state of Oregon since 2019 we've installed 4500 homes with solar 2500 being in Oregon and that makes us the largest residential solar installer in all three states the reason I'm on the call today is we've decided to open up Eugene as a servicing area for solar and we were made aware of the change in policy that

13:55 is requiring homeowners to get two bids in order to get solar installed on their home one thing about pure light power is we're a completely vertically integrated Solar Company which means start to finish we handle the project we own all of our own electrical licenses we have all the licenses required to do the installs and all of our sales people are W-2 employees on salary the reason that I'm speaking today is I'm assuming the policy was changed to get multiple bids because of these obnoxious door-to-door companies that are coming from out of state sending 1099 door-to-door sales reps to customers homes what we've seen is pure light power is the problem with these companies is their sales reps are on a 1099 model and

14:42 they do not work directly for the installation company their pay scale is a is called a red line pay scale where they'll contract with the installer and any price they sell above the red line the sales rep gets to keep as a commission sales reps are being advertised to move to Oregon to go door-to-door to sell solar being told that they can make over a thousand dollars per kilowatt by selling solar that leads to the second problem because of these high commissions that sales reps are making going door to door above the red line it is leading to sales reps overselling solar selling two largest systems for customers and ultimately price gouging customers problem number three with these companies is they're using

15:27 subcontractors to do the install in the event of the sales rep being dishonest in the sale once the customer realized it either they call the sales rep to find out he's no longer in the state or they call the installation company and the installation company simply says they had nothing to do with the sale they simply completed the install I do not blame eweb for putting this policy in place to allow multiple to require multiple bids to go solar with that being said it's clear that eweb has put this policy in place because of these companies that have made their way in the state but I don't think it's beneficial to the companies doing it right in the state of Oregon by requiring customers to get multiple bids a lot of times we could be sending customers to get bids from some of these

16:13 outside of the state companies and I can tell you from firsthand experience that it is not the best bid that wins but it sometimes is the best salesman if we allow this policy to go in place it is going to further create problems for e-web these door-to-door companies are very yep my left side is these companies are smart how they go about doing things and it's only going to perpetuate these companies doing soar the wrong way I request that eweb considers other safeguards to put in place to protect customers um from these issues we do have your sorry about that yep thank you so we'll get your full message

16:58 so thank you very much for testifying inside this evening thank you the next uh individual is William Smith foreign Ward one last month I talked about the fiber optic networks launched by the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga Tennessee and more recently by Hillsboro Oregon thereby I'm fully committing themselves to Reliable and affordable and secure and much faster broadband internet service for all homes and businesses uh and schools in their communities

17:43 the uh 2.69 billion dollar return on investment in Chattanooga that I talked about shows that Public Utilities can successfully increase their business model to include Broadband Fiber Optic internet service that generates extraordinary economic and social benefits community-wide not just for the wealthy few foreign has provided reliable Water and Electric Service for generations and has played a key role also in the establishment uh downtown fiber optic Network which is a great start but even in downtown many

18:29 people remain unaware that they can cut their internet bills in half with fiber optic broadband service that's more reliable and more secure and much faster then the telecoms are offering when I was a trainee at IBM back in the 1980s the long-term strategy of that company was based on a vision a futuristic vision of information as a basic utility that anyone can plug into kind of like electricity from a wall socket now decades later that basic Vision has apparently been integrated into the core business model and operations of some

19:14 Public Public Utilities like the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga and the resulting services and benefits to their customers have been extraordinary and for those of us who care about safety and health this proven success is even more extraordinary because it gives families and businesses in schools the ability to opt out of Wireless technologies that even insurance companies will not ensure because they know the real science and data that shows harm from these Technologies on humans and other living beings and that even the FTC is now required to review per Federal Court decision

19:59 20-1025 on behalf of the Children's Health defense and the Environmental Health Trust you can look it up thank you thank you very much um is Mr corn available okay um yes yes thank you um Joshua corn in South Eugene and I um I want to um Echo the sentiment of uh of William Smith and I think there's um there this community that we live in has um a high concentration of health-minded

20:44 individuals that believe in uh in in preserving our safety and with all the research that has been coming out and the legal wins against the industry for um some of which um mentioned by by William Smith um it's this last mile the concept of The Last Mile being dominated by the wireless industry has got to end the era of The Last Mile being being monopolized by Wireless telecoms is is over and Eugene should be a model City

21:30 for for fiber optic technology and for giving people connectivity at low-cost with high-speed internet without being dominated by dangerous Wireless technologies that that you guys are currently renting your polls to these Wireless Telecom WTF transmitters when they are not following the law and they are not uh they are not filling a gap in coverage which is required under the under the law in order to add a new small cell if

22:17 there's no Gap in coverage there's no need for a new transmitter closer and closer to where people live and sleep and that's that needs to be a safe place so thank you for hearing us and and please do the right thing and uh and let's support the fiber optic technology thank you Joshua um we have one additional person that uh you can't lay out if you'd like to approach it do you know the protocol three minutes at about two minutes and 45 seconds watch the timer we won't engage in a back and forth and so this is Grace brawler um very good thank you thank you so much

23:02 for accommodating me good evening everybody um my name is Grace braylor I'm the wild instructor for Cascadia wildlands we're a eugene-based conservation nonprofit and we were to restore and defend Cascadia bio regions wild ecosystems um I appreciate the opportunity to provide comment tonight we've expressed the board before our very strong support for decommissioning the hydro electric facility on Liebert the leeburg hydroelectric facility excuse me and removing the Liebert dam for the multitude of environmental and climate benefits that will follow from that decision so we just wanted to sincerely thank the board for deciding to move forward in that direction by agreeing with the general manager's recommendation at your last meeting removing the damn will offer numerous benefits for imperiled species and other

23:47 Wildlife that rely on the McKenzie river a natural free-flowing River will assist in dangerous Species Act listed fish like trout and Spring Chinook salmon in their recovery as well as support a healthy and resilient ecosystem for generations to come the recommendation specifies that decommissioning the hydro project the dam should and will likely be required to be removed so we would request that the board nature about the plan to decommission the project guarantees that the dam shall be removed and we're still restore the stretch of the river as quickly as it's feasible you're also very thrilled to hear numerous Commissioners express interest in actively pursuing full restoration of the river including by reconnecting tributaries to the main stem so we are a g web to commit to restoring the stretch of Mackenzie in full as expeditionally

24:34 expeditiously excuse me as possible and make a plan for incremental return to pre-project conditions so again do gratitude to the board and staff and all the effort that has gone into this decision we know there's been a lot um and ask for comments from commissioners I would like to jump in and comments on Earth I listened briefly out and say thanks to those who pretended to come in or or call in today and provide testimony we're certainly listening to all of it and your efforts any other comments

25:19 again um president Brown just for the record we did receive um four written testimonies which were provided to the board and those were from Chris daughters Adrian Feynman Jack grisly and Dustin Wynn thank you very much okay um only a couple other items that I've done uh so uh your next agenda items approval consent calendar a I would entertain a motion to adopt them if somebody has wanted something to vote for consent calendar a second second any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye and passes unanimously calendar B

26:12 all those in favor signify by saying I I just passes unanimously next agenda item is uh election of options so there's a I've done this Utah ballot we've done all these other things but uh I kind of like that and so if there's no objection about that we can uh one of the ways to do this is to move a slate so in other words I would just you know somebody make a motion sad I suppose person a as president person b as vice president if it's seconded and if there's no other combinations we vote on it's done or we can do one person at a time is there a will with this group

27:04 yeah well silence is is a message and so uh I'll I'll just move from there and uh I have a slate I would promote and so I'm going to do it and just say I would promote that Sony Carlson be more President John robski be vice president is there a second second any other motions or uh or positions if not I'll call the question all those in favor signify by saying aye congratulations president vice president thank you we don't have cookies next week we're in trouble

27:57 thank you thank you for oh yeah I already broke it already broken it all right um thank you for holding your purpose this year good morning meetings we're getting us out expeditiously every evening so I told you so big shoes to film I guess we'll ride along then appointment of board lays on assignments it was a long list of four liaison assignments explain more process so if anybody one particular item or particular process I'll I'll ask if I hear silence I'll propose something

28:42 myself okay why don't we go uh down the list and we'll just kind of do it one by one I know currently we have certain people in positions and if there is anyone who's desires to remain in the position maybe that's a good way to start well I am on McKenzie Watershed Capital right now and if there's no objection I would I have been on the elkhog board to stay on that one as I'm currently serving as script I've been on opeb um maybe quarterly I don't have a boat I'm just I just listen and

29:27 button I have something to read about that reported and I'm willing to continue to try and do that you have sub I have sub and I'm happy to stay there liaison you know many if you want on the lane Electric customer and I'd be more than that to sit in their meetings or like the second or the second Wednesday of the month I think and I'd you know go to a board meeting or two my business partner's husband's on the board so I could probably give an Insight on what's going on but I I have a pretty good report with some of the board members so

30:12 if you want I could certainly take that said so it's like your potential there yeah president Carlson I would also note that the City of Eugene liaison well it's listed as as John Brown and yourself is typically the president and the vice president so that would just naturally change by the we're going to be the administrative change and we also have a potential new liaison assignment for the City of Springfield that was listed in here if that's something that we yeah I mean that's interesting because I thought there so there's the Springfield Utility Board which that has been but there's

31:00 the City of Springfield which is the potential I'd be happy to take that one yeah because I think with the second treatment plant there's going to be some interactions going on there that might be helpful to yeah if you want to back up I'll do your backup because I've got a pretty good report three people there great and recall was there for Mackenzie watershed councils governing board there was a staff member that wanted to do that that would take over um Carl's Place I I think that would be good yeah I think if if that's the recommendation we we can certainly accommodate that yeah

31:46 and that would be probably it's our no he's he's retiring in March is that correct yeah um and so we would Susan maybe yeah potentially um he's been a worthless you've seen Susan's been attending it with me so I think that that would be a good one so do we um do we need to appoint a person now or can we keep we can keep Carl and then um I can bring back a recommendation for his replacement with this with an alternate different staff person and then that book so there's a there's a there's two there's the McKenzie Watershed Council and then there's the the board that oversees the 5013c and

32:34 that's is that different than the McKenzie Watershed Alliance executive board that's that's what that's the one with Carl's on right now yeah and it was said okay well it sounds like we have a potential plan I think what I'll do for the record is List It All out and then entertain a motion to support that that works for everyone can I just uh ask one question which is about the liaison CVG now have strong feelings about it but I know the previous slide was Mindy myself and you were president at the time but I was not vice president at the time I I certainly don't object to it being the president and vice president but um I also don't want to pile a whole

33:20 bunch onto the vice president and president if they're if that's not the expectation um anyway it might give us more options if we if we have that open to any commissioner but again like I don't have strong feelings I'm not I just want to know that in here I feel like we changed it last week we decided decided that it would just be have the leadership and then we have like the continuity of somebody and then we also kind of tightened it up a little bit by I think next month we talk about what our priorities are so as a board or have some directions yeah okay thanks for reminding me I guess if

34:07 flow that the vice president I go into the president then it does keep some of that continuity over that time so you kind of wait we found it out that's the benefit I see of it but I'm also take the reminder from Mindy and I've got a pretty good relationship with this little leadership of the city I had one-on-one meetings with with Sarah and and some other people through other boards that I'm on SO thank you no other objections then I will move forward with kind of stating it and then we'll see if that works for everyone so Lane Council of governments um Carlson and John barofsky were listed as

34:53 an alternate we did not discuss that okay I've never had have had to go um and I can give that up if somebody else wants it I mean I mean if you've done this whole job on that all right well not hearing any objections that will visit and then I have McKenzie Watershed Council John brosky I have McKenzie Watershed Alliance executive fourth Paul mortenstern we find a staff replacement I have the opeb John Brown Springfield Utility Board crane playing Electric Cooperative John Brown City of Eugene

35:38 himself and John barowsky City of Springfield Andy schlossberg how does it that works then I'll entertain a motion we'll do Dr slate second all right any discussion all right all those in favor say aye motion passes thank you goal number three we work hydroelectric project

36:36 president Carlson that's sort of deja vu let's go back far enough congratulations Commissioners good evening welcome to 2023. this is a follow-up item from our meeting last month where we discussed a lot of the basis for the management recommendation on the future disposition of lieberg so joining me is Karen Kelly our chief operating officer and Lisa Krantz Our Generation manager as well as members of the evaluation team who put in a tremendous amount of work over the last several years to look at different Alternatives and engage in a significant amount of public Outreach and Analysis

37:21 on providing options and exploring what the future might hold for the Liberty electric project just a quick reminder of the time frame and the journey that we've been on and kind of where we are it culminated really about 18 months of a pretty heavy investigation and Analysis with a recommendation um and a and a support package of a significant amount of data from customer surveys to feedback in other forms qualitative and quantitative as well as economic analysis in the 649 page backgrounder last month as well as the summary of the management

38:07 recommendation on the future disposition and so that was where a bulk of the sort of the Pinnacle of work came together with that recommendation that we deliberated and discussed with you last month this month as a follow-up to that we are capturing for the record incorporating the feedback that we received last month in really two items one would be a record of decision and the other one is a board resolution and those have slightly different purposes a record of decision is typically a management tool a mechanism for

38:52 providing guidance not only with the present Administration and staff and management but also for future members of the team to understand the basis for the decision the impacts from the decision and so we use a record of decision for that purpose and in this case our record of decision is really simply to move to the next step which is to develop a Lieber hydroelectric project decommissioning action plan in some cases we just call it a lieberg decommissioner chain action plan and that is based on the document and the details that you received the last month in the management recommendation and then there's a couple other items that I'll touch on as well

39:38 so record of decision being Management's way of capturing the basis and the and the future Direction a board resolution is the parallel mechanism that the board can use to direct the general manager and thus the organization to develop a the Lieber decommissioning action plan so they're they're parallel processes but in essence one is for the board and the other one is for management and they're both Communications tools one thing I will note and this is based on feedback that you all provided last month is that we do feel because of the timelines here it's really important to capture in the action plan uh the

40:25 details on which future boards can provide oversight Milestones opportunities to provide guidance and potentially redirection if necessary and so that will be specifically asked for in the decommissioning action plan that will be developed in 2023 we are in 2023. just a quick recap of the recommendation for the record it was to permanently discontinue electricity generation at leiberg just economically unviable to be able to continue to generate at that site given its cost and overhead and risks and ongoing obligations

41:10 that likely and in fact does Drive will likely Drive the removal of the dam and the development of alternative access across the river we will use where possible and where practical the the issue of looking at the canal and weak portions and at what pace be preserved that to go to a full decommissioning that's that's going to be one that as we get into the further analysis there may be opportunities to use the canal maybe in some cases more practical to actually return some of those tributaries Direct Play To The River and that will be part of the the future discussion decisions and Analysis

41:57 there's also some other opportunities to mitigate and we'll continue to mitigate water rights specifically for hatcheries and then there were two pieces um left one was to do and to commit to do a similar analysis for Walterville prior to 2030 we picked 2030 because the license Runs Out in 2040 and we can continue to operate at Walter bill in its present State it's not in in the same condition or the sink it's it's a much different type of of situation at Walterville than it is at leeburg and then this last item was added based on

42:43 the the board discussion last month to identify opportunities and requirements for the Board review guidance Direction going forward for I'll say a number of boards but not not just this one but for future boards who may come in in 2032 and ask you know what was what were you people thinking and so it'll be opportunities for future boards to provide guidance as well this is uh just just to note um the record of decision and the resolution does not mean the Wrecking Balls come out next week this is going to be a long process um a very regulatory uh driven process as well and so there's going to be a

43:28 number of years and when you look at this construction actually beginning in the early to mid 20s 30s and so there's a lot of Runway here a lot of planning and a lot of administration that goes into this a lot of Outreach a lot of work with settlement parties and other stakeholders so that will all be highlighted it'll be described in the burgundy commissioning action plan of which we're asking for the resolution to drive and for the record of decision to drive so what we would look for this evening from the board is for you to move to approve resolution 2302 which

44:15 um presented initiates the development of the leberg hydroelectric decommissioning action plan to be completed in 2023 with the progress tracked quarterly as a 2023 organizational goal we decided that it would be the best mechanism to add that we did not have that listed in our 2023 organizational goals last month but felt it was important to show the continuance of this process and provide at a minimum orderly updates to the board on where that decommissioning action plan is and eventually complete that um for you in 2023 and so our our asked

45:02 this evening is for you to move and approve um resolution 2302 it doesn't Crossing back to you thank you any discussions questions so uh this is not a done deal I mean we we approved the record of decision and we move forward as we get more detailed information what if that detailed information says don't do this um deadlines because we can't just walk away from it and if if I get we go back and and it was it's just not physically

45:47 possible to do this then what so um I think part of the detail that comes out in the action plan is the various Milestones along the way one of the things that about a record of decision uh is or or the resolution in this case and the management recommendation last month was we believe it's it's conditioned based on what we know today okay if for some reason there's a new piece of information that we discover in the process we have to have the humility to be able to take a step back and look at that in a new light now this is this is also we we don't want to portray this that

46:33 we're going to be wishy-washy we we do believe that we've put together good estimates and good forecasts and we don't want to be changing with every general manager or board but we also recognize that we have to be able to provide opportunities for management in the board to review where we are and does it still make sense to continue down the path foreign one more question I call it the Warm Springs Bill if that doesn't pass and we lose our water right then then we're done is that correct we then decommissioning is mandated the

47:19 the Warm Springs rule that you're referring to about the water rights does start a shot clock that that shot there's there's no way that that will not expire um within the time that we would start generation we would have to apply for a new water right if we wanted to actually generate there again that would be the process that we would have to go through that's that's it yeah thank you one thing I would add to that is that as you know we're working closely with um other utilities and other interested stakeholders we feel very hopeful that we will have a positive outcome on that should that um not have the outcome we're looking for then we would continue to pursue

48:05 other outcomes as feasible thank you so we're approving you to move forward with an action plan once you develop that action plan are we going to have input on that again yes yes okay so when so you you develop an action plan over the next year we look at that part of that will be and served public Outreach would be part of that action plan settlement parties all of those types of things and we at one point will we look at that action plan and approvement I mean is that the next step of this do you develop it and then you'll come back

48:50 and we'll approve it Amendment or just walk me through that a little bit yeah I I do believe it's the next step to develop the action plan um that'll there'll be a number of checking on the action plan this isn't we will go away and all of a sudden you'll see something December of next year this will be an opportunity to have some engagement with the board as we're working through this so it won't just so that you'll be familiar with with what's going into that I would say it's the best for the organization if the board at some point does does at least endorse and in some way I don't know whether that's through an action um

49:35 or or some kind of record of decision process but I do believe that formerly the board for management and staff's purposes should take that next step and and endorse that so and that and that's good I I like that I mean I think that for me having a having the accent plan of being able to look at it is going to help the public understand what we're doing because we're getting these questions you know we got a question tonight you know it's a one-lane bridge what are you going to do about that it's you know is we've had other ones that are worried you know about what what is going to happen up there and hopefully a lot of those will be spelled up obviously a lot of them can't be

50:21 until we until we uh hear from Ferg and some of the other interested parties but as much information as we can get out to the public when we know or have a better idea I think it's an important thing that I would like to see as as a commissioner I'd like to make just a quick distinction between an action plan and what will ultimately be the decommissioning plan an action plan and what we're able to take on this year are is setting out sort of the milestones and the process as best we know them at this point in time specific details of actions that will take place for decommissioning we're a ways out from that because that again is a negotiated agreement with settlement parties and others but what we want to do this year is lay out all the steps that we know we

51:06 need to go through including public Outreach how we engage with the settlement parties how we engaged with with Burke and and others so that you have a sense that we um we're dotting all of our eyes and crossing our T's eventually I do Envision that it will be um we might have some some surprises along the way so it might be a little bit of a living document um you know similar to a master plan that changes over time if you get new information or maybe a permitting process or other process takes longer than you expected it to um I have a question when how long do you think it will take to develop that action we plan to take this year because we

51:51 have a number of things we want to do to make sure that we're we've made as educated of an action plan as we can including having a coordination meeting with the three separate divisions of ferc starting to do some initial outrage Outreach to stakeholders that sort of thing so we've given ourselves a deadline at the end of this year and that doesn't mean that there won't be specific actions that will take place this year because there will be some things that we will do this year as we're developing an action plan including continued public Outreach again some discussion with stakeholders and with the ferc and um you know a number of other things that I think we had spelled out in our draft goals some specific actions that will take place meanwhile we'll continue to focus a lot of our efforts this year on our near-term risk reduction measures

52:37 and that's one of the things we really want to make sure we turn our sites to um so that we can get that work completed as quickly as possible great thanks and then at one missioning plan like is that after 2027 when the Studies have been done or like where does that when does that come into yeah that's the best guess at this point because the decommissioning plan the actual plan what are we going to do with the dam with the road what does restoration look like um that comes out of again a negotiated process so presumably we would do something similar as we did recently with our Carmen Smith license where we would develop a settlement agreement with the various parties that takes a number of years that would have details

53:23 in it of specifics of what we're going to do then that would go to ferc for their formal approval so we would have a a very detailed proposal in that time frame and then there's a ferc approval process after that that would codify what we said we wanted to do um I guess my one request is that um we use some of our scheduled work sessions to to devote to this topic just because I mean I I think it's one of the biggest decisions that we've made since I've been on this board and feeling vague and Technical and so um personally I um get a lot out of the work sessions when we can just focus on I'll think it because it's such a big one I would just

54:09 request that we scheduling a big class several of our work sessions and then I guess my last thing is that does the staff expand like do we hire a lot more staff for a project this size or is it basically the team that's been handling it how does that work we do expect we're going to need um some help we have a lot going on in generation the labor project is not the only thing and so yes we're currently looking at that right now what our staffing or other resource plan might like it's not necessarily just Staffing there's also you know ways we can use Consultants or contractors or that sort of thing so yeah we'll start now that we

54:55 well assuming that the board approves a resolution this evening we have a direction going forward then we'll really be able to to make a plan for that resource list thank you thanks I'll just uh take one moment and there are many people been following conversation as a board and staff and I just want to say that this is not an easy decision that this isn't just an extremely complex project with dozens of moving parts and the options that we've been considering have wildly different impacts on the utility on residents um on residents of whatever rate payers in the river and uh for those who are just waiting just listening in tonight

55:40 um I guess I want to emphasize that we've been discussing this project for over a year learning and debating and listening as we go and I don't take this decision lightly and I don't think any of my fellow Warden offenders do either I think the decision to move toward decommissioning is the right one and there are many reasons for this but for me the primary reason stems from the immense unknowns and economic risks that utility faces if we move to repair the project and resume operation I want to say thanks to that team the incredible work of this project team have done an it's a great job in my opinion coming up with an extremely complex long-term and biblical decision for the boards thank you

56:27 thank you it's your turn I've got a second round once you're done oh okay all right um I I just want to Echo um add on to what commissioner McRae said that I think we've had over 20 sessions on this over the last few years and it is it's just it has so much impact however it does seem like because there's such a long Runway to it that I appreciate the thoughtfulness I know that if staff come up with something that seems like we need to Pivot because we have no information but we'll have the opportunity to be involved in that process this isn't the end of of our

57:12 involvement so thank you so much again for all of the hard hard work it has an immense impact on citizens no matter where you live in our territory because it impacts rates it impacts livelihoods and it's not something to take lightly so thank you again all right quick um have you done any uh comparisons with our proposed timeline and and gold gray and then Little River dams that they tore up um how long it took from beginning to end what the what the hurdles were and things such as that because they they're taking two dams out in the last decade and we also have the Klamath River that's that's in process but about but since the Rogue is oxygen from beginning

57:57 to end and they've taken them out that we learned anything from that do we have a lesson there do we have a timeline there um how close from their predictions to the reality was it that we used a case study or I I can't speak specifically to the gold Ray project um what I can say that is that I hope we can meet this timeline but all of the decommissions that have occurred to date that I'm aware of have taken longer than the initial estimates and uh you know it is it is a long and complicated process and so uh this is this is a hopeful timeline another question in this action plan will there be

58:44 a monetary part of it too will there be a rate structuring in the action plan so that we can look and say okay here's when we're having to start raising rates or this this will be the impact is that something that would be part of this action plan or not is that a separate tract I would think that's a separate tract commissioner and I know that our Chief Financial Officer and myself and aren't some of our customer officer did plan on meeting with the board this year to talk about different Financial options going forward but that's that's a separate tract from the the action plan associated with Peak machine and now

59:29 that I guess the question I would have is get many of the financial things that that we've been put forward it was always liebert's not included paper it's not included once we do this resolution lever going to be included in our multi-year financial plans and those types of things because up until this point we've been looking at all these things and there was always the asterisks they were going to included if we give them resolution tonight I would hope that in the upcoming multi-year Financial plans and after it goes away we will be removing the asteroid and I don't know if I really look

1:00:14 forward to that but I just want to be able to have the reality of what the what this means going forward to our rate payers and to our organization as a whole and a number of the financial considerations um including um how it's treated by our Auditors those discussions are the because about how you classify your assets and how you do your reporting of that so the asterisk will be removed the lieberg decision will be incorporated in our long-term plans and then we will have to have a discussion with the board around the pros and cons of the different Financial options to cover it

1:01:01 and do you think that I mean that I'm supposed would this have something an impact on our bond rating the the amount of that we're going to be indebted to to do this our our amount of debt is a consideration for sure but we have not been given an indication that this will cause alarm yeah financial advisors you will like you will see some disclosure in the audit this year on our intended actions with respect to Lee bird it's generally considered an exception it's not something that we do routinely but I'm sure that it's appropriate for an auditor to

1:01:47 identify that it's a long-term financial obligation and so I think there's going to be a mix of you know the exception piece of it relative to a deep vision and it's not an operating issue for example but it will it will have some importance and and how it's classified and how we're obligated to to finance it so it might be clearer to say we don't expect it to impact our bond covenants and all because we anticipate that it will be treated as an extraordinary item so in that respect uh it will be excluded from our ratio calculations but that's good I'd hate to have moodies come in here

1:02:33 and downgrade us and which would cost us on a lot more other projects thank you doesn't cross okay just one final thing to add I I know that um I know a couple Commissioners have mentioned the multi-year process lots of Outreach um and engagement and we we really appreciate the Commissioners and their participation in this over the last several years we also I think it's important to recognize that not everybody agrees with all the aspects of this and um in fact some people have said that that we you know predetermined this

1:03:20 um that's not true I think you know in working with all of you understanding that that different Commissioners have had different perspectives on this over time is a good indication from my perspective that you're you're weighing the information as you're going through it and that we didn't enter this with a preconceived output or outcome that we were looking for and so I I do feel like the process was a pure one we've landed on a recommendation hopefully you will endorse that here in a minute or so but it wasn't preconceived and it was I think a really good process and a lot of work went into it including by the commissioner so

1:04:05 thank you and I just wanted to add that after we make this decision and we're doing some of that Outreach I hope that we can have some other information prior to having neighborhood communities and such that messages Nursery we've all sat through 20 plus but it's always good to have run through of that sort so okay well we have a potential decision here you want us to do the record and the resolution in separate motions or just in one motion

1:04:50 if you would like so it's vice president I move to move forward the record of decision on the leeward hydroelectric project and resolution number 20 excuse me 2302 that directs the general manager to develop for the board and leadenburg hydro electric decommissioning action plan second discussion all those in favor say aye aye all right passed unanimously that's a miracle thank you thank you that that I think speaks volumes to the process right there

1:05:38 okay next up suppose 2023 strategic goals and organizational performance measure completely yeah yeah thank you good evening Commissioners uh staff and everybody in Virtual land for the record my name's Rod price I'm going to talk about organizational goals this afternoon or the same excuse me uh as Frank noted his name's on this too uh as well as mine but I'd really like to extend a thing to the executive team and the managers for uh collaborating on this process this was not just a

1:06:24 so um along with that so really the purpose uh tonight of this discussion anyway is to get people about the proposed goals as they were good in the background this is just a a reminder that there's some policy out there and tucked away at the end there that the board approves annual budgets so this is just part of the process that we use to operate in between class again a familiar looking slide from uh our previous discussion in December uh this was a uh we continue on the process here of

1:07:12 Drafting and making goals for the year uh and this is then again followed up by our quarterly reports and metrics and to see how well we're involving them so right now we're presuming we get approvals tonight we're in the January phase but um during our discussion uh last month as part of the most session to propose goals discussion and priorities came away with the three beasts that came back from the board one of those themes was around making sure that we incorporate our community the eei discussion as well as focusing on our

1:07:58 Workforce within our community pieces involvement as well um there's also another question around resiliency and how does that fit into volunteer does it some other discussions around having making sure we're checking off the goals and moving them along not just carrying goals forward and so with those kind of uh things in mind recall I said words matter so we sat down and recrafted a handful of the goals to to reflect those that feedback so some of those updates include an operational effectiveness when you find

1:08:43 the language a little bit to include some improvements to our quarterly reporting process again that's that feedback little kpis you know we've heard discussion from the board I would say multiple times about apis and simplifying or getting the right stuff so there's some increased focus on rewarding process the thing is we wanted to do is include a little background why are we asking for a data management so this gives a little more language gives it a more Focus around that excuse me the workforce culture goal a couple things that we find some language around was the employee survey and what the

1:09:30 purpose of that is a little bit more about how we're going to use that why we're doing it and then the other thing was to add some reflection of the Dei resiliency language and the way we phrased it was to develop Dei and resiliency policies to support our work and so that last word there is is meant to tie everything together to our community because our work uh involves our community it involves our staff and involves our customers and all together I was making that sort of Catholic sense I guess you'd say no changes to goal three uh goal four was simply find and structured a little bit if you reflect it's a really a two-particle uh

1:10:15 it's this uh priest and um process now I've come back to the public going through iterations and a lot of different updates to bring back to the board endorsement um that's done though we can start and using that IRP model to follow the objective EPA contract changes to see how we might fit Global live no changes uh and then finally we talked about last time a little bit I think that we were trying to reduce the number of goals last year we had I think eight goals and so the target was to reduce a little bit to help um help move things lots of Minister you

1:11:01 know there's all kinds of reasons to develop that Focus but um we did add a sixth goal to follow presented last time and I don't think I need to say a lot about why since we just spent our 45 minutes talking about it but one of the things I wanted to point out about this goal was the um there's two things kind of going on where people just planned uh this multi-year big thing but there's also an immediate um actions that may need to take place just from further requirements it's outside whatever we do so the last sentence there is an intent is to identify the work needs to kind of

1:11:46 move in parallel so good at the language in these slides here if anybody wants to refer back to that but um all right we will open it up for discussion anybody want to jump into the queue so the resiliency into our work piece on number two it's interesting because when when you pulled it up here again it did make me think each one of these items needs resiliency so how do you how do you

1:12:32 incorporate that in so that we're thinking about you know we have a resilient system do we have a resilient electrification of our system do we have a resilient water treatment plan residency covers all of these um so it's interesting that you put it in the workforce and culture piece because it is really a mindset around how we develop each of our different projects programs assistive implementation so I actually really like it being there although I do Wonder um to commissioner mcrae's you know point about bringing it up is there a place for a policy of sorts

1:13:17 um so I'm so open to that but I do like having it there as kind of the top of the Forefront I also like having the lieberg dish decommissioning action plan in there because it's just it's so much of the work that this team will be focusing on this year I know it feels like it's been so much but this is really just the start of a much bigger project so I appreciate the addition and otherwise I think this is very helpful from my perspective commissioner Carlson I I believe that we should do a resiliency policy I've been giving that some thought and I was a little I wasn't sure I was warming up to the idea

1:14:02 from from commissioner McRae right away um but but I do see that it permeates across all the areas of how we operate how we staff how we plan and I do think that it would be worthwhile um for us to have some discussions around a resiliency policy and I'm going to say that management will bring back some ideas to to further uh fuel some some discussions so I think that's important so that I think that's that's a good idea McCray was just a little bit ahead of me on that one uh which is pretty typical um the other thing I would point out about some of the aspects of the goals is some of these just by their outcome

1:14:49 uh further our resiliency so when you think about the dynamic Workforce model that that part of the the purpose for that is to develop a more resilient Workforce model a working model so many of the outcome that the EES system is designed for that and how we staff that so many of the goals that you see are in support of the strategy which has kind of two or three really big things resiliency being one of those the second treatment plant is all about resiliency so I do think that it's a great idea to to pursue the resiliency policy but also say you don't necessarily see the word

1:15:34 resiliency in here a lot because the outcomes of those are what's driving it is is resiliency I would also love to have kind of a definition a shared definition of what resiliency means do not mean the same to everybody and so if we all have a Common Language around it and goals and outcomes then that's okay yeah I would just say uh appreciate the opportunity to discuss the organizational goals at our last meeting last time so just the process works really well so thank you

1:16:25 I don't know where this would go but I know that over the years we've spent a lot of money on Source protection of the mechanics pure water partnership and and a lot of the work that we've done up there and I'm just wondering when and where will we start doing some of that work on the Willamette if we're if we're going to start pulling water out of the will have it as our Second Source I mean because that's something that to start getting into one of our goals maybe not this year but I mean where and when and then can we take lessons learned from that we've learned over the last 100 years up the McKenzie and start implementing them on the Willamette because I think that that's going to be something that's as important I mean if

1:17:12 it's a second source and we're only doing Source protection of one of our sources and I don't know where and when that discussion might happen but is that a goal that we might want to start thinking about I I do weigh in on that yes I it is something we've been thinking about um planning for the taking it and extrapolating what we've learned and what we've done on the McKenzie into the into the Willamette the the timing of it is something that I'll probably lean into to Karen and and the management team on I don't think it's a 2023 goal whether it's 2024 2025 or at some point

1:17:58 when we get into of the actual construction of the plant we also don't ignore the Willamette now there's a number of things that we do on on both Rivers um but I think it's there's there's going to be a need to intentionally extrapolate from the McKenzie to the Willamette I just wanted to mention that and get it get it out of the on the radar Karen would like to wait with you I'll just add to that with Goal number one you know our operational effectiveness our source of protection is embedded in that already so it's I I foresee it being a part of that once we really get moving on that Second Source like Frank

1:18:43 said there's work already happening now those Partnerships are already built we need to do more with it Susan would tell you the same but it will really be part of normal business because it's part of our regular source to tap model it's important piece to that so I foresee it being embedded in goal one yeah just like a reinforcement John 8 2 has said because to me that well Adam Watershed is a whole different thing we have oil trains we have Urban runoff we have dairies we've got a whole Litany of things that are Way Beyond what we do at the McKenzie we have you know the spill protection trailers up the McKenzie but we've got oil change with 100 cars of wolf crude coming right down that River

1:19:28 and Aries and and sweet treatment plants and so to me it's if if we're spending so much on McKenzie calamities to protect that Watershed or address the issues the threats to that Watershed are going to be many times greater than they are the McKenzie at least in my opinion just knowing what the risks or the threats are to that watershed so I just would like to emphasize that too thank you it will take a adjusting our strategic plan for Source protection for sure as well as you know looking at our actual Source water protection plan aside from the Strategic plan so yep there is more work to be done thank you

1:20:15 just thank you for incorporating the suggestions that we had last meeting um all those in favor say aye all right passage unanimously thank you very much we are now time here at 6 51 um we have a scheduled break and following that we have the climate guide book and correspondence and agendas doesn't even want to take the

1:21:00 break or would we like to keep on following here I'm saying it's not appropriate okay let's take a break okay seven maybe at seven okay great okay thank you

1:29:30 hopefully my first step is to throw the devil drop it's like dropping the mic oh there we go okay are you all ready all right so good evening Commissioners thank you so much for having me here tonight and welcome to those of you who joining us from home and those of you who will be watching the reporting in the future my name is Kelly Hale and I am very honored to serve as uf's first climate policy analyst and advisor I'm here tonight to tell you about an exciting new resource for the utility that we are calling eweb's climate

1:30:16 guidebook I'm hoping today will be an opportunity to provide some information for you all on what to expect from the guidebook and I seek your direction and feedback on the direction that we're headed I plan to cover the goals the outline and the timeline for the guidebook and talk a little bit about the proposed content for the first release as well as then hearing your feedback on some specific questions at the end of today's presentation so what is the intent behind a climate guidebook well the intent here is that this is going to be a reference document to do two things not only will it articulate how eweb is addressing climate change but it will also talk

1:31:02 about where our work intersects with climate related issues and although there's a physical book here on the photo on this Slide the intent is that it will be a electronic PDF but the intent of this picture is to hearken back to the days when you might go to the Bookshelf and pull off an encyclopedia and look up a particular section that might relate to something that you are interested in finding out more about so the intent with this guidebook is not for it to be a document that somebody might sit down and read from cover to cover but it is intended to be a reference document that will have uh different content aimed at different audiences that can cover a variety of different topics um to address how the utility is really

1:31:49 thinking about and relating to climate change so uh it will be based on the structure of the the document will be based on sd15 us climate change policy and so let's just review what's included in sd15 many of you remember uh the five sections that are included um but this was passed um originally in 2007 and updated in both 2018 and last year but it has five main sections where the board has directed the general manager to take action the first is related to climate policy to work at the local state and Regional levels to enact measures to minimize or mitigate greenhouse gas emissions

1:32:34 the second area of focus is on our power supply and transmission and there's a specific goal in the policy that says that eweb will support a low-carbon electric power portfolio that on a planning basis seem seeks to race be resourced with 95 carbon free Power the third area of focus is on customer decarbonization and it says that we will assist our customers in meeting their greenhouse gas reduction goals and the fourth area is related to the topic we were just discussing earlier resiliency and how we minimize impacts to Key e-web Resources like watering the rivers as well as our infrastructure and making sure it's resilient as well and

1:33:20 the last area also has a very specific goal as articulated in sd15 this is related to our internal operations it says we will reduce our internal emissions by certain percentages by certain Target dates we successfully did meet the people of a 25 reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and we have two more ambitious goals on the table to reach a 50 reduction by 2030 to obtain carbon neutrality by mid-century so when we think about this climate guidebook again it's this reference document or this concept of an encyclopedia to articulate how eweb is addressing climate change or how our work uh intersects with climate related

1:34:05 issues it's intended to be a place of strategy coordination transparency stakeholder engagement and I kind of think about it as a One-Stop shop we have a lot of information embedded into a lot of other resources whether it be throughout our website or in other reports or documents and sometimes it can be hard to understand the entire universe of all the things that UAB is working on or relating to and so by referencing all these different concepts in the same document then people can kind of see the full universe of the actions that we're taking as I mentioned before there's a variety of different types of audiences that this is really aimed at because each section could have a different focus and therefore it might have a different

1:34:50 target audience so this is aimed at both internal stakeholders as well as external community members and because it's not intended for that cover to cover reading each section might have a different audience so for example we're planning to include things like studies or reference documents information about current events tables of data certain parts might be targeted you know primarily at for example City of Eugene staff as we seek to outline what our commitments have been included in the City of Eugene cap 2.0 the climate action plan right so it could be you know related to um you know a particular audience of synovusion Staff but also any Community member who's interested in what eweb has

1:35:35 committed to participating in related to that cap process um another potential um audience might be you all um trying to understand or articulate to any of our constituents exactly what our policy is and why it was structured in that way so I'm hoping that there is something for everyone uh in this document and we'll be asking for feedback on what you think would be most helpful at the end of today's presentation um so again a way to articulate strategy tactics and prioritization a variety of audiences and as it relates to timeline um today I'm here before you to introduce the concept of the guidebook throughout the next couple of months I

1:36:20 plan to do some uh stakeholder engagement uh this are primarily small group meetings to reach out to both our activist Community our key Regional partners and and other groups in the community to introduce myself in in my current role and share the concept like I'm doing tonight of what this guidebook is intended to do and hear feedback as to what the highest priority content areas will be to develop first I plan to bring that feedback back to you when I come back in March I have an agenda item there to release the first version and we'll talk about that that will be somewhat skeletal but there's certain content that is already in the works and being developed and then additional content will be developed over the next year this is intended to be a living

1:37:06 document so it will be growing and shaping and um changing over time but the idea is that that annual updates will come probably in April in advance of Earth Day so what can you expect when I come back in March what are the first six areas of content that we have planned for development for its first release first we'll start with a letter from our general manager Lawson explaining the concept and the purpose of the guidebook we'll go through an executive summary that will provide a climate lens for those organizational goals that assistant general manager price was just talking about a moment ago um to to highlight what you know what are those projects that we're engaged in

1:37:52 in 2023 and and make the connections between a number of those areas of focus and how that relates to climate change we'll start in chapter one and again I mentioned before that the structure of the guidebook will be to have a chapter for each of those five areas of sd15 um so we'll have some content developed in in chapter one focused on climate policy we'll be providing an overview of the policy status at the various levels and that will be important as we look at what funding sources are coming from the new federal funding packages the iija and the inflation reduction um and then we'll also be articulating a series of e-web principles what we mean by this is on certain topic areas these are kind of guiding Concepts or ideas

1:38:39 that staff uses to create our programs our policies or advocate for change uh at the policy level and by articulating those um and bringing them before you to make sure that it's in alignment with commissioner values we hope to have a set of um kind of North Star guiding reference points for the community to understand from trans from a transparency standpoint on how we approach certain topics the three topics that we're starting uh in terms of developing those principles are our ghg policy and how we advocate for that at the different policy levels we'll be talking about our principles as it relates to distributed generation uh programs in their service area and we'll

1:39:24 also be talking about those principles as it relates to hydrogen um then we'll move to chapter five where we're talking about e-web operations and we'll be providing you the overview of our 2021 and 2022 ghg inventory results and talking about how we're moving forward towards those goals that we're in sd15 and we'll also be developing two appendices the first one will be providing guidance on GHC emissions factors there's a number of them that are available to use for different circumstances and will be providing guidance on which emission sources exist combining them all into one reference document so members of the community don't need to go searching on other people's websites they can go to One

1:40:10 Stop Shop and get all the information they need and find out how to use those emissions factors in different circumstances and then finally there'll also be an appendix again as I mentioned before reporting out on the commitment to the eweb made as part of Eugene's climate action plan 2.0 the executive summary in um this first version will also again as I mentioned provide that climate lens for our 2023 organizational goals and the intent there is to build those cross-departmental links because there's so much work being done throughout the organization that we want to really bring that climate lens and make those connections the intent is that it will be modeled after the executive summary from the Washington State energy strategy which is the picture that's on

1:40:56 the screen here that shows five areas of action and two to six tactical areas of focus in each of those five areas that will guide the work plan for 2023 so you'll be able to see those things as well so with that I'd love to just end with a couple of questions for you all first question is how do you think you all as Commissioners might be able to use the guidebook the second question would be what value do you think this provides for our community and the third question will be helping us focus in on the prioritization what content as we seek to develop this over time do you think would be most useful so that we can Elevate that in the priority list thank you so much

1:41:41 thank you well thank you for this um exciting project to be working on um so to answer some of your questions how would I use the guidebook I think it would be a really helpful tool and um trying to kind of see the eweb's big picture with climate I know that we focus on different things but maybe all the pieces kind of fit together and also it would be just a great reference like a one and a One-Stop shop um as a reference book um I think that the value that it provides our community is there are a lot of people that have questions about our climate policies or where we're

1:42:27 headed and I think it again it'd be like a nice reference document for that um I think what would be useful in addition to what you've proposed is also action items that customers can take as well so like this is what eweb is doing to get to at least 95 carbon free this is where as customers this is something that you can do to help us get there um I think that those two things are are important to do in parallel because um well we have the most eweb has the most impact obviously if we're looking at um Planet actions I do think it's important to give people

1:43:13 tools that that they can they can participate to so I think that that would be most useful too um and then a question I have is would this also be something that we would use to inform our decisions within the eweb like do you envision like maybe some things will become apparent like opportunities for us because you're kind of compiling all of this together what it would it allow for us to take greater greater actions that's the intent so I'm thrilled to hear that you were saying you know that that's where you think it could go um my goal is that it will help bring things more together make more connections between disparate topics

1:43:58 that some people might not initially at first blush see are connected but actually do have connections with one another and so yes I that is uh the goal I I would hope that it would help clarify the approach that we're taking making sure that that's in alignment with the production we all want us to be going and um and provide some of that guidance in the big picture so that's incredible feedback thank you so much thank you so you're gonna have to educate me on this a little bit so what content would be most useful so I get beat up by the business sector about the double standard perception about you know let's just say concrete for example um b-web's using thousands and thousands

1:44:44 of yards of concrete building uh water reservoirs we're going to use it for building Second Source uh LTD uses it for MX because it because of the weight of the bus and electric buses airports use it for runways and things but yet we're asking the private sector not need to to reduce that and what would content would be most useful is an explanation of why there isn't an alternative that because the technology isn't there we cannot build if we don't build steel reservoirs and we don't build you know um asphalt uh types of things and we're you know we're using the product government's using the product that we're asking the private sector not to use and that would be helpful because getting a lot of people over that learning curve would be helpful at least for me or if I mean if this is a document that's going to go just beyond

1:45:30 us that would be good too the other question I have is uh are you going to get into specific sources I mean because you know to me if we if we're Oregon can't have nuclear gas and we have a increased demand to reduce Supply how we're going to to meet that and not using those because I think nuclear is its Department free but yet it's banned in state and so at least that explanation that that's resource isn't there and and can get into that because a lot of people have this presumption that we can somehow lend our way out of this and come on so sure to me if that's going to work yes so great points I appreciate the

1:46:15 feedback there are a number of connections between the climate guidebook and other work that's happening at the facility so your second point about the specific sources and the impacts there um you know there's a lot of connections between our integrated resource planning project and the climate guidebook and so um there will be a chapter on our power supply and transmission um and the content the specific content and how we navigate those connections between other existing documents are still being worked out but that is the intent that there would be a connection between a number of those other studies that are being done information from a climate perspective on what are the implications of these different sources obviously there's a connection between sd15 which sets the goal that says we on

1:47:01 a planning basis need to be sourcing resources that are 95 carbon free that's one of the parameters that they used in the modeling exercise for the IRP so there is a connection between between that work and we will be working to figure out how to reference those connections in that chapter of power supply um your other question about concrete if there are specific questions that you're getting situents and you would like talking points or you would like an explanation on why we do certain things the way we do that is very much the intent of you know some of the different sections that can be developed so if there are specific questions that you get a lot and you would like to have something to refer back to or that you'd

1:47:46 like to have something in writing that you could direct someone to not only answer their question but then say and you can also refer to this document that is the intent here as well thank you sure thanks uh thanks for the presentation and for giving us a chance to weigh in on the front end though I suspect may have a few of these components already written up in draft form um uh I I personally I can imagine uh looking at the policy section like referencing that regularly I I have a hard time tracking all the different policies state and federal that provide good guard rails that we have to work within and so I think having that at the

1:48:32 ready will be extremely helpful so thank you for uh incorporating that um a couple of things to expand on I'm afraid we're all going to keep our expectations onto this one and do all the things but um asked us to do that um so one of the things you wanted to talk about was The Guiding principles for Distributing collaboration and I assume by that you're also addressing solar that as a part of that directly to me that's by far and away where I get the most questions is why isn't e-web better on solar and I think you know the kind of Five Point description of why it's accessible for us but also for customers will be extremely helpful um and then you mentioned guiding

1:49:17 principles on Extreme generation and green hydrogen I wonder if there are also guiding principles on conservation and demand response that are relevant here that I don't I don't know if we have I mean I know we have guiding principles on conservation and I think yeah that certainly becomes relevant and actually the same for the response so um I think including those would be valuable um I would love to see some portion on Equity as it relates to climate change both in terms of disproportionate impacts of climate and how might eweb support people that are being disproportionately impacted by heat waves Etc but also um you know as we queue up potential Solutions thinking about what are the disproportionate impacts of those

1:50:02 Solutions you know increased rates Etc that we have to think about and options there so anything I think to highlight that as we're as we're thinking about climate impacts but also as our customers our referencing that document and the last one good point about concrete and cement mixes I know I I'm certain that in our greenhouse gas inventories we're paying attention to embodied energy as well is that right in our construction this is so in a baseline inventory that was done a number of years ago uh the calculations for the embodied emissions and purchase goods and services were calculated for the last few years that has been left out um and uh you know our our sc15 does

1:50:47 talk about the goals that in it very appropriately so the goals are tied to our scope one and two emissions which are the direct emissions that we have the most control over and are purchased electricity those embodied emissions in the supply chain uh the purchase goods and services are things that we have an influence over but we don't have direct control over so they are usually not included in goals um such as what's included in sc15 but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be looking at them and part of sd15 also says that we should be taking that triple bottom line approach to any major construction projects and in those instances we definitely include that for example on the lieberg TBL triple bottom line project we did look at an analysis of the embodied emissions

1:51:33 associated with all the construction materials that went into each of the four alternatives about something you'd like to see brought back into that inventory on a regular basis yeah from my perspective it'd be valuable just because I think there are some options for us there not because we necessarily want to weigh in there I think scope and one and two are the right places to focus but on the point of concrete and cement there are lower carbon Alternatives that are available to us to purchase if we want to sometimes they're actually more durable than the higher carbon Alternatives so from my perspective that'd be valuable for us to start bringing into the conversation I don't um I don't know what detail level of detail seems appropriate that I would defer to snap or not but there

1:52:26 thanks for the presentation um I guess how I would use the guidebook I think would be one to help foreign policies when things are brought to us that have an impact that would be affected by this that I would want to refer to it as you said as the encyclopedia I hope it that this doesn't turn into a book that goes on a shelf and just stays on a shelf I've seen many studies and things like that that do that so I when you say it's a living document I'm encouraged by that um for me one of the important pieces to be able to synthesize in here for

1:53:14 what content would be the most helpful would be the electrification study um there's you know a lot of talk in this community um oh if if having to go to electric cars and everybody goes to heat pumps eweb's not going to be able to to handle it you know so being able to have that electrification study summarize and simplify it so that we can direct people and say yes and that kind of goes to cap 2.0 and how how this matches with cap 2.0 because a lot of the a lot of the strategies in cap 2.0 lead towards electrification and so

1:54:01 being able to say yes if if this policy goes forward on cap 2.0 eweb is going to be able to respond and I'm going to be able to respond to carbon carbon free or 95 carbon free um having the ants like like Matt said being able to have an articulatable answer for the solar question is is real important because that comes up all the how can you how can you're not doing solar and we and we see it in the IRP we see how it just it just doesn't depends a lot but being able to articulate that is is going to be an important thing going forward for me I think um

1:54:46 and lastly just started talking about concrete I've I've been there is a there is a method carbon cure where they inject carbon into the concrete there's a plant there's several plants around but there's not one in the City of Eugene and if we could work with some of our major if we could work with Lane County it's an evg and e-web and say this is going to be one of our specs we want this carbon this concrete to be less carbon generated we're three of the biggest players in the concrete business in in the town maybe that's something we can look at

1:55:31 there are like I said there are lower carbon processes thank you I really appreciate that feedback um you know you know commissioner McRae and commissioner barovsky you know bringing up these concepts of Partnerships um whether it be related to how Equity relates to our community and how it relates to climate change or whether it's how can we develop processes whether it's effects or other projects um that's you know an important part of my work as well is to figure out where are there opportunities for enhanced partnership how can we as a community reduce duplication of effort and enhance transparency and progress towards Community goals so that will be part of

1:56:16 this as well I'm going to jump in now um I'm really excited about this and I love that we are going to have a place where we can share content and really be intentional about what we're doing around climate change one of the biggest questions that I get pushed back well you have your simulator they're not at the Forefront anymore and it's like no we're doing all of these different things but I think people don't see it as easily I think having a find shorts where people can look and you know to the extent possible have the big picture messaging that we need around these key topics and points but having the detail

1:57:01 behind how we got to those decisions and how we you know how we see the the plan moving forward I mean I think it's great that we have the different goals but how are we going to achieve those goals what are the steps to get there okay if these are the steps that we're doing internally how far are we along that path do we have any roadblocks um you know here's how far we can get a loan is an e-web entity but what are the things that we actually need to do to push the needle with our partners um so and I love you know what many said about you know what can what can citizens do to get involved and work through it and the having the kind of frequently asked questions the FAQs I've had also noted that solar is one of the biggest ones that I get pushed back on

1:57:48 so in terms of you know for me I would use it for outreach showing intention policy setting um using it to see where we're at with kpis I think it would be very helpful for guidance and coordination helping our partners understand where we're at so that they understand how they fit in that picture I don't really feel like I feel like we're very um we're in a very good position to be that kind of bigger coordinator around the topic we have that knowledge and base in it and so it'll be really interesting to see if this can lead to those collaborative Partnerships with the other groups here that I think are interested but I think we don't have the

1:58:34 you know the skill and the knowledge base in the energy industry to move that forward so those are I mean those are the biggest pieces for me and I know that that is a lot to ask for and if you are one person so do you have a group of people I mean obviously staff feed into this work but I'm just curious how you see this going and what resources can lead to great question uh great question so um one of the things that I am working very hard to do is to figure out how to embed this work in all of the rest of the work that we're doing right I am only one person it needs to be much bigger than just one

1:59:19 person um and it is it it absolutely already is there's so many people throughout the utility that are already doing amazing work and um it's really about um making those connections and addressing some of the um components that you were talking about identifying where the foundational pieces need to be laid and helping support the laying of those foundational pieces and letting people in the community know that hey before we can get to 15 Steps down the road we actually have to do this first but this This is Our intention that this piece that we're outlining in our 2023 organizational goals that we're working on this year is actually required before we can get to this other piece down the road and if we lay that

2:00:04 out and make that connection then people understand oh hey the EES is key to be able to get to these other customer programs that we might want to develop down the road or hey we actually have to Define our diversity equity and inclusion program or make some definitions on exactly what you were saying earlier what does resiliency mean in all aspects of the utility and if we Define that and lay that as a foundation then we can build on that and move forward and we actually contain buy-in throughout the entire utility because now back to that goal number two the workforce and culture we now better know how to bring these Concepts into all of the work that we do right

2:00:49 um schema has so many incredible smart amazing staff that are already doing this work but there are some nuances that are new right how do we bring resiliency into everything we do how do we understand how diversity Equity inclusion relate um how do we bring a climate lens to these things and and that will take some foundational pieces and building and education but um everybody is you know on board and but we also have to work in the areas of focus that we've already laid out for 2023 and not bring in 50 new projects that are outside of the scope of the six organizational goals that you already set our direction to so that's part of the the lens and that's what I hope with the executive summary to do is to say

2:01:34 here are the areas of focus within those six organizational goals here's where those um tactical areas will will be in 2023 and these are what we hope to accomplish by the time we come back in April 2024. I even got a question last couple of days around well the utilities in the area should be coordinating together don't why don't they do that it's like well I mean we get updates from Frank I'm about okay you know I attended this meeting we're looking at this resource you know even some of that how does eweb interact with those other groups thank you okay any other thoughts comments okay um

2:02:20 right time but we're before schedule so one quick question or one quick comment you mentioned that in the next month or two you're going to be meeting with stakeholders and advocacy groups and stuff like that my concern is on the hydrogen I want to make sure that that we put out there that hydrogen is a step moving forward Pat because right now when you imagine hydrogen in the in the City of Eugene with some activist groups it's type of natural gas and we know how contentious that is in this community and for me I see hydrogen as as something that has

2:03:06 potent great potential in the future and so when you're meeting with these advocacy groups if you could find out what their stance is not hydrogen and and see where it's at because I don't I would hate to have us putting forward in chapter one that hydrogen is one of our strategies that we would like to help pursue and then all of a sudden we've got a whole bunch of people standing up over here saying you're in bed with Northwest Natural because because it's a gas at Northwest naturalness again so I'm just concerned about that so if you can lay that groundwork that would be really helpful yeah I appreciate that right thanks

2:03:52 president Carlson I've that I've got a couple of concerns about um the path forward and one of them is the creeping Elegance of this that this can become almost it almost crushes um up for you know the work if it's not approached the way that Kelly has described which is how do we align and integrate this into the normal course of what we're doing that's that's ultimately the intent but what it also brings out to your point um commissioner is is that there are certain policy positions that need that this board will need to reconcile with

2:04:39 and and deliberate on you know we've we've been pretty clear and I'll use your example around hydrogen we've been pretty clear as to what our interests in hydrogen are I'm not going to speak for example for Northwest Natural they may have a different interest but as an electric utility we have some really key interests from the electric sector of why hydrogen has interest to us so we've been careful to walk that that line that has an electric utility not specifically just e-web for that matter but as an electric utility hydrogen can play a role in the future

2:05:25 of energy and this is why we're interested in it so but there's some other topics up there that we want to make sure that that if we go and and I think one of the sections was policy principles that that we all of all of us management staff and the board are understanding of what those principles should be so that we're not one going off this way one going off that way one going off that one and that that may take some work that's not just saying okay here it is we may have to have some discussions about that the other thing that I think that's really valuable about this this work is

2:06:12 that I think it answers some of the questions that come up you know well the real number please stand up because there's so many different complexities to what we're doing you know one of the appendices that she was talking about which was um basically how do you account for carbon you know what what's carbon intensity mean you know what number do you use do you use a regional number do you use ewebs mix when do you use what right so hopefully a reference guide can provide other people with those kinds of resources oh here's how eweb for this application this is what we recommend for this application that's what we recommend and that that does take some some back and forth dialogue

2:06:58 um but I I also know that we have a limited amount of time for this first revision so that we can't it isn't living it has to be a living document part of that is that the requirements that you put forth in sd15 require it to be a living document that that is a policy that doesn't end at the end of 2023 that's a policy moving forward so it's going to have to be a living done it's part of that um the measurement process associated with how are we doing on sd50 so there's a lot here we're starting with until we think we can take on between now and March and then

2:07:45 we'll continue to evolve it and hopefully we I mean we want to make it usable for this for this group okay great thank you so much thank you I just say thank you so much for all of your feedback be patient with us as we develop all the content that you suggested that you'd like to see we'll start with you know where we we're going and then we'll build on it over time thank you so much hey we are at correspondence and board agendas right so I like the thing Kelly for jumping into the deep end of the pool with us uh it's been great um she's been a really great advisor

2:08:31 um seems like she's been here for years already probably seems like years to her as well um but um I'll start with uh correspondence we did one item of Correspondence and this was an updated uh an update provided by our chief customer officer business line manager new business line managers on kind of where we are with some of our green options the environmental product lines expect more in our year-end report on that but it does provide some pretty interesting numbers especially you know our e-bike program where not even through the end of the year I think this was through November 878 rebates provided to customers for

2:09:18 e-bikes which far exceeds any other city that we've compared notes with um and I know some Commissioners in here have already taken advantage of of that but um really a great success there test drive participants and other things but this was just an update for the board kind of a snapshot some of the dates were October some of November expect one of the appendices in the year-end report we'll have an update on on this through the end of the year so you expect to get some more information on that as well as carbon offset credits all kinds of things there so that was the only piece of Correspondence I don't know if the Commissioners had questions on that I

2:10:03 know that Julie is on the home on the line but if there's no questions we can uh the other one was future agendas um we do have a meeting scheduled for January 17th that's an executive session I believe that's virtual is that not and [Music] we hadn't set it up that way I believe it's hybrid currently but we could sure make it virtual um if if the Commissioners are open to it this is to talk about our real estate opportunity um I'm fine with that if Commissioners are fine with that I'll leave that's up to you president Carlson

2:10:49 um we're certainly able to do that virtually if you if you would like to um and the other thing I would like to point out on the very uh top of the future agendas There's the link to the eweb calendar and it that's almost something that I would recommend you put in your favorites links um it shows various community activities for example this later this month when presenting at the City Club on the 20th it has all of these various neighborhood meetings and so you know as well that we're trying to in many cases schedule with you or with them some of them I mean they have continuous

2:11:34 schedules to try to deal with but the that's that's a really good opportunity to kind of see the various pieces of planned Outreach and other than that uh president Carlson I'll just pass it back to you okay Friday there's a IRP presentation to be a gene requirement collaborative can you just say a little bit more of what that is the the climate collaborative is the City of Eugene they used to refer to it as the large liver stakeholders if you're familiar with that group that's that's the same group um La is facilitating that

2:12:21 um she was you remember before for another organization so this was to give them an update on on the IRP I do believe that at least a couple of are you going you know is it well it's listed as a virtual meeting so is it still virtual goodness it's virtual like if any of you can attend that uh RSVP for that I can't remember it would be helpful if the board would RSVP so that we know if there's you know many of you attending we have certain public meeting requirements that are required so if you're planning to attend it would be great to know

2:13:13 yeah and it's just a good place to look out into the future and if you see an event or have a question about something just a great example schlossberg um we'd be happy to respond 10 like the chamber meeting the NAACP was an annual event I mean it used to be kind of in this time frame I don't know if it still is but um are those happening you know last year we missed out entirely because we didn't find tickets in time some some of these the answer is yes some some of these were over the last

2:13:58 couple years very continuous um just because of the environment we've been in our intent would be many of those events NAACP for example will pull the board as as soon as we learn something about those um but but yes the uh our intent is that all of these Commissioners are welcome and then if we find out soon sooner rather than later we'll get information out anything to hang out actually

2:14:45 um so a couple things one is um I don't know where we're at with scheduling the board dinner you know that but if that's something that we're planning to be doing um if so I guess I would request that we started to the plan for that sooner it's hard it's always hard to find a date so just to remember that um and then the second thing is I just really want to thank you John for your year of leadership um you did you're a fantastic president and um so thank you

2:15:30 um about four or five months ago Frank I brought to you from the Springfield mayor Sean was really worried about the shift in the lower McKenzie and I look at it today and that thing's moving and it's moving right towards our water intake if you look at that North or channel is three times wider now than it was a year ago and that Laura River does whatever it wants are we concerned about that and I know it's it looks like in we brought it up and I don't know if you got back to Sean about that but he was concerned about it taking out all that Willam Lane property and and it's um I'll follow the will of its own and it looks like it's moving in the wrong direction

2:16:15 we'll follow up on that Commission because I know that Springfield mayor mentioned to me and I mentioned to you about that and he wanted to know what we were going to do and anything was concerned with the Dyke yeah he was concerned about down by the rainbow's water wells and just below where others are you know the flu and all that but if you look at that North channel it's really just kicking pretty good tributions just wondering if we're concerned about it we're going to respond to Sean thank you I know we've I know we did respond a while ago around opportunities to get people connected but I'll have to follow up I'm just following up because I know that you

2:17:01 know it's good to let him know that we're we haven't just forgotten about him or he just made a phone call at least respond to them thank you um on the point about the pork dinner I think our evaluation and board effective innocence due next Monday so I just want to put that out there because I think that's part of what we do at the dinner is we actually review you know how we're doing this group yeah I was just going to propose if we all have calendars maybe we just stay here at the end and find a date that works all right well we have something else be able to turn

2:17:53 media job president I think your your Speedy meeting