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was to put together a list of internal strategies for climate action that were fully within our <br />control. As they met initially, they also saw lots of needs to advocate for external policies at <br />state of regional level. SO the committee then began by brainstorming a huge list of ideas <br />and then boiled the list down by removing actions that were too narrow or too ambitious to <br />create a more concise list of recommended policies. <br /> <br />Given the pandemic, they also identified a potential opportunity to ask the state <br />government to allow community resilience efforts in pandemic response. The budget <br />picture is constricting all spending statewide. <br /> <br />On the recommended list they shared, the color coding is there to help identify the lower <br />cost items that might still go forward and then set aside items that will likely require <br />partnerships. Another color shows items that depend on political will <br /> <br />The spreadsheet is not complete, and they are open to questions and suggestions, as this <br />committee works for the larger group. They need feedback before they go much farther. <br /> <br />Monast added that Hansley-Mace and Trueblood did the lion’s share of the work to get us <br />to this point. And highlighted the importance of planning given budget constraints. How <br />might COVID relief funding align with costs savings as well as energy savings? <br /> <br />Trueblood added that they see their work as being related to the CARD, and the Policy <br />Committee’s role is to think about what is not being done. They would like to be able to <br />share this list broadly to show all of the things that can be done. <br /> <br />Slade added that the categorization of the low-cost items is not meant for everyone to just <br />do the low hanging fruit and that over time the higher-cost items would need to be done as <br />well. <br /> <br />Marcoplos asked if we could add some descriptive notes beside costs to help with <br />prioritization, and Trueblood agreed saying that time was a limiting factor but more <br />description and cost details are intended to be added. <br /> <br />Kauffman said that the list is great and very thorough. As we deal with pandemic, how do <br />we prioritize these items? How to we recover in a greener and smarter way. Does the Policy <br />committee have ideas on where to start on this? <br /> <br />Trueblood said that prioritizing is the next step in our work. Their committee is interested in <br />hearing from other Council members on this. We need to keep in mind that each local <br />government will make their own decisions. <br /> <br />Hansley-Mace added that there were 8 criteria used to boil down the larger policy list to <br />create the recommendations. One example was if the item already on the CARD. This <br />prioritization was done pre-COVID, so a second look is advisable. <br /> <br />Tiger then asked would the impact of ARRA-funded projects that worked in communities <br />help to inform current efforts. What were the shovel-ready projects that really moved the <br />needle? <br /> <br />Trueblood pointed out that there are many groups in NC working on this type of database. <br />EDF Cities, and League of Municipalities are two examples. The ARRA funds are a great