Even if you could do it in either order, it seems like this is a natural first step. If the town can't pass even asking if we can establish home rule legislation, why bother moving forward with all the discussion (however entertaining). This article really only asks the state if we are allowed to make our own (Lincoln) rules, which could be restrictive, or not, or nothing at all. All that seems like it would come up in future spirited Lincoln Talk discussions...
I think there is some confusion because of the lack of specificity. The actual article that we are voting on is this: "ARTICLE 31 To see if the Town will vote to request home rule legislation to establish the authority to restrict the installation of fossil fuel infrastructure in major new construction; or take any other actin relative thereto." [ref: 2022 Annual Town Meeting Warrants <http://lincolntown.org/DocumentCenter/View/72216/Warrant----Final-030122-Signed?bidId=> ] [also, 'actin'? Is that supposed to be 'action'? Not sure if that's a typo or just some legalese I'm not familiar with] What is the current thinking on what constitutes a 'major new construction'? Is it an individual residence? A pool house? A town building? A new housing development? An addition? Belinda, Propane is a fossil fuel though. The article doesn't mention a 'central infrastructure'. Is that part of the plan? Oil is distributed the same way propane is, and I'd assume that would be included. I read 'restrict the installation of fossil fuel infrastructure' to mean any support internal to a project (like a home heating system), not how the fuel is distributed. I think this ties back to the fact that the language is ambiguous. Maybe this all comes in the second phase where we debate the actual language. Was any additional information (or a recording of the zoom call) posted on https://www.lincolngreenenergy.org/? It was mentioned that additional material was going to be posted there, but I couldn't find any (though I may have just missed it). I just wanted to read up and the times of the zoom meetings didn't work for me. Thanks. Andy On Tue, Mar 15, 2022 at 6:33 PM Belinda Gingrich <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Dennis, > What would you do to solve the climate crisis? You give well thought out > ideas and it would be interesting to hear your proposals. > > India and China may be producing more greenhouse gases, as they are > supporting a few more people, but should we do nothing? What ideas to you > have for Lincoln to do? > > If I were building a new home I would want it to be as air tight and well > insulated as possible so that my energy bills for heating would be > minuscule. Who wouldn’t want a Passive House > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house> with minimal heating bills? > Should we be allowed to build inefficient houses because we haven’t heard > about better options? > > Is Gas a right? Massachusetts has very leaky natural gas infrastructure > <https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/10/25/methane-leaks-natural-gas-boston/> > contributing > to global warming and not even heating our houses. It would cost enormous > amounts of money to repair even the major leaks and new leaks are forming > all the time. If we could all switch to electric homes we wouldn’t need all > the leaky infrastructure. I certainly don’t want to pay for a leaky gas > infrastructure. I want the government to legislate it away! > > https://www.wbur.org/news/2021/10/25/methane-emissions-natural-gas-massachusetts-climate-change > > There are options. Propane tanks are an option for people who have a leaky > old house that needs back-up heat, for people who want a generator because > of trees falling on electric lines (not to mention squirrels causing > havoc), and for people who must have gas cooktops despite the health > warnings. This seems a good libertarian option that doesn’t depend on a > central infrastructure that everyone needs to buy into. Just my 2 cents > about a centralized gas system. > > Warm regards, > Belinda > > >
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