Belmont’s Decarbonization Path Stays Uncertain

By Brian Kopperl and Roger Wrubel

In the 2024 July/August BCF Newsletter, the Belmont Energy Committee (EC) updated BCF readers on the committee’s work to advance Belmont’s decarbonization efforts. The EC is now encouraging the town to pursue Climate Leader Community certification, to give the school department the option to acquire several electric school buses and to apply for a new Mass Save grant to fund a town energy manager to help the town obtain and manage decarbonization and energy efficiency grants to meet the town’s Climate Roadmap goals adopted in 2019.

Climate Leaders Communities

The Department of Energy Resources (DOER) recently created a new statewide program, Climate Leader Communities (CLC). CLC is an extension of the DOER’s long-running Green Communities program, for which Belmont qualified in 2014. Municipalities certified as CLCs become eligible for enhanced grant funding for decarbonizing town buildings.

Each program offers competitive grants. Green Communities grants fund energy efficiency improvements for municipal buildings and purchases of electric vehicles and electric vehicle charging equipment. CLC grants are expected to be larger, funding energy efficiency but adding grants of up to $1 million for municipal solar and other sustainability capital expenses such as electrifying building heating systems.

As we previously reported, municipalities must meet six requirements to be certified as a CLC. Belmont has already achieved three:

1. Green Community status
2. Adoption by Town Meeting of the Specialized Energy Code (now in effect in Belmont as of January 1, 2025)
3. Establishment of an Energy or Sustainability CommitteeIn addition, qualifying municipalities must have:
4. An Emissions-Free Vehicle First (EV-First) procurement policy (the EC provided a draft policy to the Select Board in June 2022, which has yet to be acted upon). The DOER also provides a model EV-First policy.
5. A commitment by the Select Board or Town Meeting to eliminate all fossil fuel use in its buildings and vehicles by 2050.
6. A decarbonization roadmap that demonstrates how the commitment in Item 5 will be realized.

Regarding Item 6, DOER has offered municipalities grants to pay all the costs of a consultant to create the decarbonization plan—approximately $15,000. On October 5, 2024, the EC alerted the chair of the Select Board, the town administrator, and the director of facilities to the availability of this grant with a November 29 deadline. After receiving no reply, the EC co-chair appeared at the Select Board meeting on October 28 and was told that the town would not devote any time to this grant before the November 29 deadline because of the upcoming Special Town Meeting.

We encourage the Select Board and town to allocate $15,000 for a decarbonization study to pave the way for Belmont to become a CLC and thereby unlock much larger grants while advancing the decarbonization policies that Town Meeting has addressed with overwhelming support in 2009 and 2019.

Electric School Buses

The EC has been encouraging Belmont schools to begin their transition away from diesel towards electric school buses. Town Meeting strongly encouraged this transition in 2023, voting overwhelmingly to approve the use of long-term leases and subscription agreements to facilitate the procurement of electric vehicles including school buses.

Recently, the EC alerted the superintendent and the school chief financial officer to the upcoming January 9 deadline for Belmont to apply for $500,000 in federal EPA Clean School Bus grants. The grant would cover a substantial portion of three electric buses while federal money is still available and before the new federal administration takes over.

Sadly, the grant opportunity was not considered timely for Belmont schools, even though the EC had arranged for Highland Fleets to complete the EPA application on behalf of Belmont. Highland also confirmed that grant awardees are free to decline the grant if they choose or to work with other vendors if successful.

Notwithstanding this, the EC will present to the School Board about electric bus procurement in spring 2025. The committee hopes that the board will include electric buses in the fall 2025 school bus service request for vendor proposals (RFP). Adding the EV bus component to the next RFP may well attract additional school bus vendors to compete, especially at a time when the schools are forecasting a $300,000 increase in school busing costs next year.

It is our understanding that Eastern Bus, for decades, has been the only vendor to respond to the Belmont schools’ RFPs. The lack of competition for Belmont’s contract cannot serve the taxpayers well.

The authors recently visited the Dracut school bus lot operated by Beacon Mobility, which runs a large fleet of diesel and electric buses for various towns including Andover, Lowell, and Lawrence. The fleet supervisor and drivers confirmed that electric buses are superior to diesel and have plenty of range to operate across a geographically small town like Belmont. Not surprisingly, we found the electric bus much quieter than diesel buses. Our seasoned driver, Kevin, relayed that students seem much calmer aboard electric buses since they don’t have to yell over the engine, that the buses are easier to drive, and are better in the snow than diesel engine buses.

Decarbonization Staff Resources and an Energy Manager Grant

One of the more challenging aspects of the EC’s efforts is that there is no town staff with a clear decarbonization mandate or job responsibility to engage in efforts to decarbonize the town and follow through on valuable grant opportunities. Without clear internal town staff ownership and reporting authority, the EC believes it will be difficult for the town to advance the Climate Roadmap policies adopted by Town Meeting.

The EC has communicated the availability of several grant opportunities to further the town’s decarbonization goals without success. For example, even though the town is eligible to apply for Green Communities grants every year, the town has not submitted a Green Communities grant since 2017. Other neighboring towns successfully apply for grants of up to $200,000 per year.

The town administrator’s publicly stated position has been that Belmont does not have sufficient staff to manage grant-funded decarbonization and energy-efficiency projects. In December 2022, the EC proposed that Belmont hire a sustainability grants manager, either as a part-time staff position or as a contractor, to pursue energy efficiency and decarbonization grants (belmontclimateaction.org/resources). The proposal was rejected by the Select Board.

There is now an opportunity to address staff limitations. The EC has alerted the town administrator’s office that Mass Save is currently accepting applications for grant proposals to fund full-time, part-time, or contracted energy manager positions within municipalities for three years. The grants are competitive, with awards up to $120,000/year for a full-time position.

Were Belmont successful in winning a grant, it would allow town leaders to see whether this position is financially beneficial and is effective in reducing the town’s carbon emissions as we have committed to do. The energy manager could also relieve current staff of some responsibilities, such as gathering data and writing the annual Green Communities report, applying for Green Community grants, filing for and monitoring federal rebates the town is entitled to under the Inflation Reduction Act and being the go-to person to advise departments on the availability of state and federal incentives for purchasing electric vehicles and charging equipment. We recently met with the town administrator and other town staff and were assured the town would apply for a part-time energy manager position through Mass Save prior to the January 31, 2025, deadline.

One final update: The Specialized Energy Building Code went into effect, in Belmont, on January 1, 2025. The DOER code, which was adopted by Town Meeting, will encourage developers to construct new homes that are all electric and multifamily buildings that meet passive house standards.

Brian Kopperl and Roger Wrubel are co-chairs of the Belmont Energy Committee.