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Attachment IIItAIII'" "III "" CFE Meeting Notes Jan 8`", 2018: Richard Whitted Building, 300 West Tryon Street, Hillsborough 7:30 I. Call to Order 7:32 II. Additions or Changes to Agenda 7:35 III. Approval of Draft Minutes — December 11th, 2017 Parry moved to accept the minutes as written. Ward seconded. Minutes approved unanimously. 7:40 IV. Orange County Roadside Wildflower Conservation Johnny Randall updated his presentation from the summer of 2017 on the roadside conservation of wildflowers. Initial actions taken by NCBG volunteers were stopped short due to their finding that so many roadsides were important that it was beyond their capacity. Randall gave a presentation on the ecological history and importance of the area. The mowing along roadsides has replaced the presence of wildfire in the region's ecology in maintaining the open non - wooded space necessary for the rare herbaceous plants to live. The Board of Orange County Commissioners recognized the value of roadside habitats in a resolution in 2012 and encouraged the CFE to work to preserve them. After that, the NCBG and others created surveys listing all of the rare plants that can be found in Orange County. NCDOT already does mostly mowing on roadsides, but the power companies mostly spray herbicides. Gray asked what success looks like. Randall proposed list of possible next steps and his primary request is that the CFE recommend to the BOCC to limit spraying to areas inaccessible to mowing. The County may be better received by NCDOT and the utilities than the NCBG would. Unnecessary to collect additional data, but NCBG would welcome the opportunity to work with the CFE to raise awareness of this issue and potentially to create a "Guide to roadside wildflowers ". The CFE agreed to digest the information presented and will direct any questions concerning this back to Randall through staff. 8:00 V. Citizen's Climate Lobby Colin Maxwell from the local chapter of The Citizen's Climate Lobby (CCL) presented information on the Carbon Fee and Dividend as a federal climate action strategy. CCL is proposing to levy a fee at the location where carbon -based fuels enter the country or economy. CCL is looking for a show of local support for this initiative across the country. The proposed initial fee would be $15 /ton of carbon. This would raise the price of gasoline 8% in the first year and then it would go up from there. The costs of fossil fuel intensive goods would rise as well. This cost increase would create a burden, but this would be offset by a transfer of funds back to households in the form of a monthly dividend (minus administrative costs). Based on their models, CCL expects the stimulus to the economy of the dividend should add 2 million jobs. In the bottom quintile of US residents, most people will be getting more than enough money back in their dividend checks to cover the increased cost of goods. This fee would be easy for businesses to predict and prepare for,