One. Good afternoon, everybody. It is Monday, September 23rd. Welcome to the Transportation and Environment Committee. Today, we only have one item on our agenda. And it is the continuing conversation about the building, energy performance standards regulations, otherwise known as BEPS. This is actually the sixth committee work session that we are having on this critically important regulation and topic. We've been having these oversight and review hearings for the last nine months. And during that period of time, we have met with hospitals and our healthcare sector. We have met with life sciences and biotech companies with affordable housing providers, with developers and representatives from common ownership communities and multi-family housing and HOAs. And just last week we had a conversation with entities that can help pay for all of the investment and upgrades, and that was with the Green Bank, with Maryland's Department of Housing and Community Development, Maryland Energy Administration, and even the U.S. Department of Energy. So we are looking at everyone and everything that would be captured under this regulation and speaking with those that can help pay for the regulation as well. It's a holistic approach because that's what we need in order to improve our infrastructure and our buildings which comprise of 52 percent of the carbon emissions in Montgomery County. And if we're to meet our climate goals and eliminate all carbon emissions by the year 2035, we need to improve our infrastructure and our buildings. That's what all of this is about. And so I will now invite a number of our guests who are here to talk about the faith community. Because we know we also want everyone to pray and find solace in a, we're praying, but that's the side of the point. We want everybody to find solace in environmentally sustainable buildings and leave those buildings on our planet for future generations better off than they are now. And so that is the underpinning of today's conversation. So I'd like to invite up Jill Feezley with to come apart Presbyterian Church, Maryl Goldsmith with a dot-chalone reconstructionist congregation, Adama Mausa Haruna with the Islamic Center of Maryland, Walter Weiss of River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Bob Simon from St. Camille's Catholic Church, and Joel Novi with Interfaith Power and Light. And as always, we have our Department of Environmental Protection who is here listening to all of these conversations, taking copious notes so that we can hear concerns and recommendations as we move forward. So thank you to the DEP team for being here in every one of these conversations. I will start with Ms. Fisley and then we can work our way down. Here we go. Good afternoon. I'm Jill Feezley and I'm a member of the Property Committee at Tacoma Park Presbyterian Church and we are thrilled to be here to speak out in support of the BEPS regulations. We have a relatively small congregation in Tacoma Park of about 200 members, but with a vibrant and diverse group of building users in addition to our church congregation. So it includes a daycare where over 100 children are coming into our building every weekday. We have a community commercial kitchen and dozens of other community groups and organizations that are in and out of our buildings all the time. Our church complex is three buildings. The oldest was built in 1922 and the youngest, the newest, it was constructed in 1965, right about when I was bored. And as you might imagine, let's call them our vintage buildings, have complicated systems for water and space heating and cooling, and a variety of energy efficiency challenges. Our oldest buildings, the sanctuary, and the education buildings are covered under BEPS. Our separate gym building is not. So that made things a little more challenging when we did our first energy benchmarking. But despite the challenges of older buildings and complicated reporting requirements and very limited financial resources, we've had a commitment to energy efficiency and sustainability for nearly three decades. I like to joke that in Tacoma Park we're not just green, like we're a dark green. And so we had our first energy audit in 1993 and over the years we've replaced old and failing systems with more efficient ones. We found creative solutions and external funding to seal leaky single pane windows. We signed a very adaptation, adventurous power purchase agreement for our 81 panel solar on our rooftop. And to be honest, our commitment to energy efficiency and solar energy is driven not only by environmental concerns and stewardship of God's creation and the comfort and health of our building users, but financial considerations. Our utility bills are a big part of our annual budget, and we're always looking for ways to reduce them. And so for us meeting the BEPS is just a logical extension of our work there. The good news is with very substantial and outstanding support from the Montgomery Green Bank, we were able to complete our first two energy benchmarking reports and even better. We learned that we have already met our targets, which is kind of frankly surprised and delighted us. So today, I'm here to tell you and other faith-based institutions like ours that BEPS are achievable and beneficial. With technical support from the Green Bank and financial incentives from the federal, state, local, and other sources. It's possible to make and execute a plan for building maintenance and improvement that will ultimately save money on energy bills. And we believe that building energy efficiency makes perfect sense for our budget, our building users, including all those little beautiful children. And I'm glad that you're going to be hearing from tenants who attend our congregations today and urge you to attend to their experiences as well. Because our faith also calls us to lift up the needs of people who need healthy housing. But most of all, we feel like working with BEPS is a great way to care for creation. And I urge you to pass the BEPS regulations. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Feezley. We'll come back because I got questions on how you were able to achieve the milestone so quickly, you know, or at least before even the regulations recognizing it's been decades of work to get there. So we'll follow up with that. Next Ms. Goldsmith. And there's a button right in front of you. Thank you. I'm Mira La Goldsmith from a Dutch alone reconstructionist congregation. Right now, Jews are getting ready for the new year and Yom Kippur the day of atonement. When we reflect on the mistakes of the past year, ask forgiveness of those we have wronged and commit to make amends. I am grateful for this opportunity to testify beginning the New Year by supporting our community's commitment to repairing relationships with our neighbors and the earth. A Dutch Alombs physical home was built 23 years ago. At this time, we did all we could to make the facility reflect our commitments. We reused an existing building to reduce waste, use the safest and most efficient materials, and installed a rooftop solar system to reduce our need to rely on dangerous fossil fuels. But now we must do more. We are only halfway to where we will need to rely on dangerous fossil fuels. But now we must do more. We are only halfway to where we will need to be to meet the final BEPS standard in 2035. To meet that standard, we anticipate that we will need to install sector controls tied to the HVAC system. Because of the assistance of the Montgomery County Green Bank, our first benchmarking study in 2023 cost exactly zero. And in 2024 we paid only $400. We have been advised that an ASHRAE level 2 audit will cost $8,000 to $12,000, but it would be subsidized, possibly to 50%, by the Green Bank's technical assistance program. With this support, we are eager to move forward. A Dutch alum actively supports action in Montgomery. I will share my remaining time with a representative of another congregation that is part of this coalition Lucille Vazquez from St. Catherine, LaBore in Wheaton. She will speak in Spanish. Please refer to the English translation in front of you of nitrogen dioxide. I am here as a member of my congregation, as a resident of the Montgomery County and as a member of the community to join me in my colleagues' voice and of those who do not have it. And to ask them to apply the law of standards of uniting energy to our communities, we have measured nitrogen dioxide in many places and what we have found for our innovatorsader. The alarm says that contaminations of our places obliges us to insist on the competitive authorities that listen to our voice and complicate their obligation to protect residents, the people and especially children who live in these places pass in a firm in chronic ways. The doctors know the causes and normally attribute to a virus or more without knowing their as an enfermo de maneras crónicas. Los médicos de conocen las causas y normalmente atribuyen a un virus o haz más instable su origen. Nos hemos encontrado con familias que nos compartieron que debido a que sus hijos enferman de manera recurrente, no los pueden enviar a la escuela de manera consistente y pierren muchos días de clases. El porcentaje de ausencia de las escuelas por enfermedades respiratorias son altas. The percentage of the school's absence by the high-speed respirators, date of chronic autism defines as 18 or more days absent without permission during a school cycle the 10% date of chronic autism for the school year 2018-2019 was of 3349 students absent in a chronic way 19.55% and the school is Thank you. Thank you for your testimony this afternoon and appreciate that. Just want to remind everybody that the council has passed the building energy performance standards and right now we're working through the regulation and toward the testimony that was just provided. We have also passed in the previous council an electrification bill so that moving forward at a certain period in time new buildings will only allow to be electric. So now, no natural gas and other fossil fuels. And so that's a different conversation, but it all works towards the same goal of making sure that our community, our schools and our homes are clean for now and the future. So thank you for that. Next, we will have Ms. Horuna. Thank you. Is your button? Yeah, your button, too. Good afternoon. My name is Adamah Musa Haruna, and I'm here with Jamilaba. We both worship at the Islamic Center of Maryland in Gidesburg in addition to hold prayer services, ICM operates a school, a free health clinic, and fed our neighbor. The beautiful ICM building is covered by the proposed building energy performance extended and is already closed to meeting the standard. I'm proud that ICM has been exploring a solar panel project with interfered power and light that would be financed by the Montgomery County Green Bank. And putting up those panels will be one part's way for ICM to comply with PEPs. When we are not saying our prayer at ICM, my family and I live in SIDERMILA apartment where I'm the chair of the TENA Association, safe places at SIDORMILA. I'm the PTA president at South Lake Elementary School and I'm also the climate organizer for Action Mungo-MilA. Has a mother of a son who has asthma, has a renter for 23 years, has an organizer that tested more than 300 low income apartment with a high level of nitrogen dioxide. Worse indoor air quality more than what the EPA recommended outdoor. Imagine the health impact on us. Studies show that 12% of kids in low income apartment are likely to have asthma and some respiratory problem. Imagine going to bed after two, three jobs and knowing that you and your family are breathing the worst indoor air quality. Imagine thinking about explosion, fire, high bills. We, Tina, want the same right as the home owner that has choice. As a tenant, we cannot choose whether or not to electrify our apartment. We call home. We need our landlord to do it and so we have to organize to make it happen. Our landlord must follow the K management example. Tina like us. All of us here want to be part of the climate change solution and we don't want to be left behind like governor was more say. No one left behind. The console must help us make it happen by having a strong energy performance standard for building. If Maryland went to meet the goal of clean energy by 2035, we would like to thank Consol Mumber Dan Ludke and Consol Mumber kids to work for participating in our NO2 testing at SIDORMIL on September 12. We would like to invite Consol Mambar Mary Malkom and Consol Mambar Even Glass to join us for the NO2 kitchen testing. I gave my colleague Jamila my remaining time. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good afternoon, Council Member. Thank you for having us. My name is Jamila Tuba, and I also worship at ICM, and I live in Montgomery Village in Gettysburg. I work with Action in Montgomery for economic justice. I have worked with them to get a new elementary school building and improve the safety of our community. Last fall, I joined a team doing NO2 testing in apartment and single family home. NO2 is created when you burn methane or natural gas. It causes asthma and respiratory illness and affect brain development in children. We have tested more than 325 home with gas stove. Many home with tested has NO2 level 3, 4 or 5 times higher than the EPA recommended for the outdoor equality. Wish is 100 per billion and we usually have like three, four times more of that. We also find in one out of three households, kids as asthma or respiratory problems. We also find dangerous metal lake in some of the appromance. Natural gas is not at all safe for our community. We need to get off gas appliances and move to cleaner safer form of energy. I also have a message from my community. We want to be part of the climate solution and we do not want to be left behind when it come to energy improvement and green infrastructure. We want a strong energy standard for our building and we are here to ask our council member to help us make it a reality. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much for that. And I know we all agree that we all have to be part of a solution. So thank you. Next we're going to hear from Mr. Weiss. Perfect. Hello. My name is Walter Weiss and I'm delighted to talk to this committee about my congregation and BEPS. I belong to the River Road, Unitary Universalist Congregation in Bethesda. Our congregation has 400 members who understand about global warming and the importance of reducing fossil fuels. We are financially stable with the early budget of about a million dollars. We have a very active environmental committee of which I am a co-chair. Our main building was constructed in 1965 and a smaller wing was added in the year 2000. The total is 28,000 square feet so we are covered by the beps and the energy benchmarking. However, because we feel strongly about reducing our carbon footprint, we have already started making changes. In 2010, we had an energy audit, and our energy start score was 25. So we were at the bottom quarter of churches for energy efficiency, which is not surprising, because most buildings built in 1965 had very little cause to be built with efficiency in mind. In 2015, a 50-year-old gas boiler in our main building needed to be replaced. And we now have a highly efficient HVAC system with gas backup. This was done without financial help or technical help because we were not aware of energy efficiency subsidies. The new system dropped our gas use by 90%. In 2020, we needed a new roof on our own main buildings. It was discovered that there was no insulation, so this was added. However, because we did not know about any subsidies for installation, we paid for this work ourselves. We then put on solar panels with the assistance of the Montgomery County Green Bank and Interfaith Power and Light. However, this required a large amount of work by our Environmental Committee and our Board. We installed the panels using a Power Purchase agreement, which would no cost to us. In the first year of use, we saved $10,000 on our electric bill and supplied about 50% of our electricity from solar panels. In 2022, we should have started energy benchmarking, but our building manager was not aware of the requirements and had not used the portfolio manager app With the help of the River Road Environment Committee and the Montgomery County DEP she was able to learn how to enter our energy use and we are now in compliance with energy benchmarking Our current energy star score is 67 which is much improved from where we started at 25, but short of what is required by BEPS. In 2024, the Montgomery County Beam Bank is paying for an energy assessment and planned by Spectrum Energy, which will guide us in our remaining energy-saving tasks, replacing our gas water heaters with heat pumps, replacing our gas kitchen stove with an induction electric stove, replacing the HVAC system in our new wing and putting solar panels on the roof of our new wing when it needs to be re-roofed. The major challenges River Road faced were lack of knowledge about Montgomery County Energy Benchmarking and BEPS and lack of knowledge about Greenbank, Maryland, and Federal financing programs. The critical assets we brought to bear were a very active and knowledgeable environment committee, a board that understands global warming and wants to act, and a building manager who was able to learn the portfolio manager program. Since we are financially stable, we could also pay upfront costs for insulation and HVAC replacement. I think if any of these assets were missing, we would not have been successful. I am confident that with continued help from the Montgomery County Greenback and DEP and access to county, state, and federal funding, we'll be able to meet our BEPS energy target. Thank you. Thank you very much for that testimony, Mr. Weiss. I have a number of questions, which I'll hold off until we hear from all of our speakers. Thank you. Mr. Simon. Thank you very much and good afternoon. My name is Robert Simon. I'm a prisoner at St. Camillo's Catholic Church and Silver Spring. I'm here today with my fellow parishioner Anna Argueta. I'll talk for about three and a half minutes and let her have the remaining balance of my time. My professional background is in energy policy. For the last seven years, I've been benchmarking the parish's energy performance to comply with county regulations. I'm appearing here today, today though in my personal capacity. I'm not speaking officially on behalf of the parish or the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington to which St. Camille is belongs. As shown on this slide, St. Camille has reduced the greenhouse gas emissions associated with our facilities by 43% since 2014 through implementation of energy efficiency measures and purple maintenance or HVAC equipment. This progress, though, is not enough. My analysis of the draft BEPS regulations shown in the next slide is that the two main interconnected building clusters at St. Camille are still far from meeting the proposed standard. I'm going to have the next slide. One building cluster that would have to meet a composite EUY standard of 33.72 is currently at an EUI of 50 and the other building cluster with a composite EUY standard of 41.32 is currently at an EUI of 53.7. I strongly support the current proposed regulation. St. Camille's parish is taking it very seriously. We're already working to replace the HVAC system serving our main church with a flexible set of heat pumps that will be powered by our purchase of renewable electricity thus eliminating all use of natural gas in that building. The parish is also undertaking engineering studies to see if we can replace the gas-fired HVAC system for our school with a geothermal system. Both of these projects would likely bring us into compliance with the BEPS standard. In our efforts, we have received invaluable help from the Montgomery County Greenback, which is Greenbank, which has provided our engineering consultants with grants that made the needed engineering studies affordable to the parish. We're an active discussion with Greenbank about other financial assistance that we may be able to use to bush both of these projects forwards. I don't think personally that Catholic parishes in the county sufficiently appreciate the breadth of programs offered by the Green Bank. So I encourage continued outreach efforts. As we've heard today, I'm going to put on the number of my fellow witnesses, congregations are by their nature, thinly staffed on the facility side. They're very dependent on member volunteers such as myself, such as the Environment Committee at River Road, to navigate facilities management, and they need help. The proposed best regulation mandates that non-compliant congregations, complete audits, and facility compliance plans, for these, in my view, technical support from the DEP and the Green Bank will be vital. St. Kimos was approached by one firm a few years back that promised to do a level two ashray audit for free. If we would subsequently contract with them for the installation of energy efficiency measures. While this sounded attractive, the firm ultimately presented us with a $7 million facilities plan that we could not afford. And when we bulked it proceeding, they then refused to share any of the details of their ashré audit or analysis. So having technical experts at the Green Bank who can steer congregations to more reputable energy efficiency consultants will be necessary, in my view, when the BEPS regulation goes final. St. Camille's purchase carried out only about parish billings, but also about her home. And for more on that perspective, I'll turn to Ana. She, her English translation, is on the flip side of the piece of paper that you are given. Buenas tardes, miembro del consejo. Soy an arteta y vivo en orgo para Parment, cerca de San Camilo, desde hace 15 años. honor. nitrogen and methane flow in our apartments. The levels of NCO2 in many Oskar in many houses are 2 or 3 or even 4 times higher in the limit safe. We use gas caliphaction in the winter, which increases humidity and causes the black moon. If some of you live in these conditions, they will also Viviera en estas condiciones también estarían exigiendo por un cambio. Las familias eligen vivir en orgo espar. Para que sus hijos puedan asistir a la escuela primaria y o en lele y son nuestros hijos los que más sufre por la quema de gas se enferman y faltan a la escuela. No aprenden adecuadamente. Estamos condenados a vivir así solo porque vivimos en apartamentos. We are contented to live like this, only because we live in apartments. We deserve the right to a healthy place, just like you. Help us to have electric, solar panels and hot bombs so that our families can breathe air clean. Help the environment and pay less in the energy factor. The Montgomery Condado needs to be a strategic energetic, strict environment for multifamilial apartments as a north-western area so that our children can grow healthy. Thank you. Thank you, Ana, for that testimony. And just I'll note for the public record that Representative from the Archdiocese had reached out to us and wanted to testify they were invited to, but they never followed up. So, final speaker today is Ms. Novi and I will say that I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Novi when we both went to an event at the Prince of Peace Church in Gathersburg when they unveiled a beautiful solar panel array. Let me share some solar cake. That was it. It was a wonderful day to celebrate. I'll turn it over to you. Thank you. I'm Joelle Novi from Silver Spring with Interfaith Power & Light, through which county congregations of many faith traditions are working together to respond to climate change. The voices you're hearing today are only a few of the thousands of people of faith we're working with in Montgomery County who understand that we need to shift away from fossil fuels and are eager to do our part. I want to say three things. One, faith facilities want beps and we want to be covered by beps. Opt us in. Our houses of worship are beacons in our communities, setting an example for others, and we want to be held to a systematic standard as we strive to green our facilities. In anapolis, at the state level, when the Climate Solutions Now Act came to the floor, a legislator introduced an amendment at the last minute to exempt houses of worship from the state beps. And we spoke out loudly to defeat the amendment. We want to be covered by these laws. And we want to be held to the same standard as all the other buildings in our communities. Two. Montgomery County's resources are going to make it easy for faith facilities to comply. Interfaith Power and Light is devoting significant staff capacity to coaching congregations through the process of energy benchmarking and BEMPS compliance in both Montgomery County and in DC. Now I don't want to speak ill of any other jurisdictions, but because of our experiences in the field this year, coaching 60 D.C. congregations through BEPS. The BEPS process, I can speak directly to how the tangible resources available to Montgomery County congregations are going to smooth the way to compliance for county congregations. First of all, the Montgomery County Green Bank is providing technical assistance dollars that in many cases entirely cover the cost for congregations to benchmark and will also finance the upgrades necessary to comply. I know you heard from Steve last week, but I want to tell you from the community side, these funds from the Green Bank are a huge deal. The Green Bank is our superpower and our secret weapon here in the county. They are why I'm not worried about our faith facilities being able to meet the challenge of maps. Finally, and you opened us, great council member, which is Congregations Love Going Solar. Like Congregations Love Solar panels. I've been at this for 16 years and every multiple times a month, somebody starts the conversation with us about whether their congregation could go solar. We have a map on our website of all of the congregations that have gone solar so far. We get increase every few days from congregations about this. And we meet with our colleagues at the Montgomery County Green Bank every week to move a pipeline of congregations through the process of financing no money down power purchase agreement solar projects. I predict many county congregations will be excited to go solar as their pathway to comply with BAPS. Big picture of course, as you've heard today, our faith communities affirm that everyone has the right to breathe clean air, not only when they are at prayer, but when they are at home. And so I'm going gonna hand off my remaining time to my neighbor, Sergei. Good afternoon, Council members. My name is Sergei Yango, have been living at the end-class apartment for 12 years. I am a member of the NN association have been living at the NCLEP apartment for 12 years. I am a member of Tenen Association and also a volunteer organizer for M since 2014. In 2022 with the M, I joined the N02 testing team to check the indoor air quality in our apartment. We started to do testing in my community and we tested more than 100 apartments and collected some data. We found the NO2 level was always higher than what the EPA recommended outdoor, which is 100% per billion. After that, I started to advocate for the empower bill to pass. We went to an appolice at the state house with more than 100 people for our congregations and turned in, M, IPL and Sierra Club, several times, on their call and ran early in the morning. Talking with Senators, delegates and the chief of staff, wearing for them outside of the building before their sessions, having a meeting with them to explain the reason why we wanted empower Bill to pass showing videos, photos of the testing's result. Letting them know that we are real tenants, not lobbyists affected by the worst indoor air pollution with our hard-hurt the bill passed. Now we are working on the implementation of the bill in our apartment. We want to be part of the climate change solution. We want our apartment to be electrified. We then want to make sure that we are not left behind. We want powerful energy performance tendence for our departments and you, the Council, can help us make this happen. Thank you, please. Thank you very much, Ms. Nango. Okay, thank you all for your comments this afternoon. I have a few questions before I turn it over to colleagues, but I want to start with Ms. Novy. You reference the work that you do in DC, and I'll presume that's primarily the jurisdiction where a lot of the work is being done right now. Well, that's correct, right. Right, right. So that's a place that we're both in the care. Right, and so can you just share with us how the district of Columbia works with you and works with the faith community to enable that the infrastructure projects that you are speaking about. Because again, ultimately, what we're trying to do through this conversation is figure out how to help you all, right? We know you all need help. We know you want to make these investments, but between the Green Bank and other financial leveraging, how does that happen? So right now, most of our work is about supporting congregations and complying, you know, benchmarking their usage and then complying with BEPS and validating, they have to validate their data this year with a third party. So we're mostly coaching congregations through. And I need to give a shout out to my colleague, Maddie Smith, who would be testifying today, but works remotely from the West Coast. So he's watching somewhere giving them a shout out. We are getting ready. It's a great, the work we've done with BEPS has prepared us really beautifully to take the next step with each of those congregations, to coach them through figuring out possible possibility for significant energy upgrades, electrification projects, going solar. We are a partner with the Solar for All Award to the DC government and our active conversations with all of the partners that were awarded those funds, financing partners, technical partners, other nonprofits to try and make our hope is that we are seeing this year that it feels like the BEPS process is building relationships and creating the data and the starting place that we need to then do really systematic work about what are the congregations that would most benefit and be most cost effective and most climate impact to do holistic energy upgrades and holistic renewable energy projects. So that's kind of the place we're in right now. Yeah, so that's a really good level set. Yeah. So let me ask from a different perspective. What are the conversations like with congregations that are hesitant to or or lack resources and are just quite frankly worried about being able to meet those benchmarks. The absolutely game-changing thing in Montgomery County is that the Montgomery County Green Bank doesn't only offer financing, it offers technical assistance funds. In other words, it physically is willing to pay if you need to hire a firm to do your benchmarking. And we also work with some wonderful firms who give discounted rates to congregations to make sure that the Green Banks Assistance Funds meet their meet the cost, but you know because we have The thing I would say to congregations in addition to the fact that we will help you you won't be in this by yourself there This this can be a positive experience of taking in accounting and doing better. You know, now that we know better, we can all do better. This can be a fulfillment of your own values and commitment to being green building. So I think those are some of the things I would say, but at the beginning and the end of the answer, I think, is really that because the Montgomery County Green Bank can truly address some of these expenses directly that come up in the at the beginning of the process, before you see any of those savings, before any of those long-term things, that the building being healthier doesn't happen up front, it happens over time. So I think that the fact that we can tell folks, you know, they're not going to be these surprise and obstacle expenses right from the outset because we are so lucky to have them like Emory County Green Bank's technical assistance funds. I think that's where I'd begin to address concerns. Thank you. And that's exactly why last week we had a conversation with the Green Bank and all the state and local and federal entities about financing because that is usually the largest concern. So thank you for that. The other question I have is from Ms. Faisaliy and Mr. Weiss. You talked about the work that your congregations have done for decades and years, much of it without the knowledge that there were outside entities that could support you or in advance of those entities even being created. How did you go about doing that? And even more specifically, the funding for those programs and infrastructure projects, was that mostly or entirely just from do's and donations within the congregation trying to figure out how you how you were able to save for those investments? And you can look at each other. Just make sure you touch the hit the button before you speak. of variety of things for our heating, for example. Unfortunately, our ancient boilers gave out right before heating season started and like we needed to have new boilers and for the daycare to keep the kids warm. So, you know, that came out of the congregation. But to do the insulation window inserts to, you know, help our single-pain windows, the city of Tacoma Park had a sustainability grant that we applied for and were able to use that. So those, and then it really is just asking around and trying to find out what is available, what are our options and luckily there's a deep base in our congregation and in the community. We might hear more about the City of Tacoma Park and their partnership with you in a few moments, but yeah, Mr. Weiss. Yes, so at River Road, we really were just self-financing. I mean, I think there may have been, you know, for the major H-AC replacement, I don't even know. I was not directly involved in that, but I'm sure I'm very expensive and dealt with. Traditionally, we, although we have had a building committee that is very concerned with keeping our old building. In one piece, they sort of go from urgency to emergency. And when they basically are working constantly with the board, trying to get the funds they need. But we really didn't get any outside help. But I think it's more recently, I mentioned that we had to insulate the roof because when we took off the old roof, we said there was no insulation at all, which was not unusual for something from 1965, apparently. So at that point, it was unclear and complicated enough for us to that we didn't even bother going asking the green bank or whatever. And I think it was, again, we have a building committee, we have the environmental committee, these are not the same people. They don't always talk to each other. So, you know, just within the church we have sometimes communication problems between the people who are doing the work and the people are trying to plan the work. So, I would say we're very fortunate in having enough financial stability to be able to do this. I do worry about other congregations that have more financial instability. That brings the point home, right? Not every congregation has the internal means to do the work or supportive municipality to be a partner, which is part and parcel of the question that I asked Ms. Novy. And when we talk about the Green Bank, the Green Bank reality of it is it only has $17,18 million and BEPS is not even part of its official portfolio or exclusive portfolio right now. And we all recognize that if we're, as we move forward, we need much more resources. I just last week for everyone's awareness, had a meeting with the county executive, and we explicitly talked about BEPS and the ability to bond the green bank, and we're still trying to work through some hurdles. And there are hurdles there, real hurdles. And so we're continuing the plow forward, but appreciate you all sharing your insight. And I'll turn it over to former Mayor of Tacoma Park, District 4 Council Member, Vice President Stewart. Lots of titles. Yes. Well, thank you all for being here. I guess a lot of the questions have been answered already, but I want to say I really appreciate thank the chair for this panel, I think it all of you bring something different to this conversation. I think it is really important. As we said, we're going to do this in partnership with each other with our Green Bank, with the EP, with our nonprofit and members. And it's not a one-size-fits-all. Each of you have different buildings, buildings that do different things, and bring community together. And we need to figure that out and figure out the resources. And some folks, because of resources that were available are a bit ahead of the curb, and already in compliance, while others are continuing to do that work. In addition to what the chair said about the looking at the bonding and making sure that we can keep the green bank doing that work, what else is there that you all think is needed as we move forward to either help some of the other faith communities to help you meet those benchmarks. What else would you want? Yeah, this device. I'm not sure there's yet a good answer to this, but it is very complex and confusing for us to know about the federal programs that are being funneled through the state down here. And that confusion, it would be wonderful if there was some way out of that confusion so that we clearly know that, well, when we put in a heat pump water system, we will be able to get exactly this kind of rebates, we will get exactly, you know, right now it's very hard to get those answers. So if there's some way that we could have a central place for this sort of information, it would be great. And I believe we heard last week that that's coming at the state level very soon and hopefully by this winter. I think they didn't want to promise January, but they said this winter hub is gonna be created to house in one place all that information. So that was, yeah, no, V? Yeah, I mean, absolutely continued funding for continued Montgomery County Great Bank Technical Assistance is the thing my colleagues sent to me in all caps to make sure to say. Right now, but the other thing I just want to say about what we've found doing this grassroots work, we're working with congregations with whom we've had relationships for many years, literally on the phone or on Zoom with church volunteers, board members, sometimes not so tech savvy, actually figuring out the renewable portfolio, the benchmarking software, helping them understand what the corrections language from the benchmarking software that is automatically generated actually means about what they need to correct, you know, things like that. So, you know, and I'm not aware if in other sectors there is an organization like ours that's filling that gap literally doing almost social work, you know, right? Really like counseling, coaching. We call our person in this role a clean energy shepherd. I mean, really standing with congregations through these processes and aware of available resources and explaining and connecting. So I think the more we can understand this is not primarily about buildings, but about people. And especially when you get down, but you know, that's the 25,000 square feet we found. When you get to that size, you're starting to have a lot of volunteers completing these requirements, not professional building managers. And so anything down in the smaller sizes, just to be really provide lots and lots of human support. And I think we heard that also from some of our building owners as well, especially those that are smaller and don't have a sustainability manager or somebody that's doing this work. And I like the idea of having shepherds for people across different sectors to carry them through. Yeah, I'm just busy. Yeah, I would say that to do our energy benchmarking, I am a well-meaning volunteer. I do not have a master's in environmental engineering from Stanford, but the Green Bank got me in touch with someone who does. His name is Bruno, and I love to talk about Bruno. Because he absolutely helped me, you know, the first time we did our energy benchmarking and we're only at 26,000 square feet. So we just are required. You know, it took hours and a lot of hand holding. But and everyone of these gray hairs. But he also, I think, helped me give better data. Because, you know, I didn't know, as I was filling out the forms as best I could, but he was really knowledgeable and he really helped provide better data so that the data going in was better. I would also say he helped us realize that we had a broken gas meter. So Washington Gas was really pleased to have Bruno on their side to say you need to get a new gas meter. And I should have also mentioned our solar panels that we put in. We got them through community purchasing alliance, another group in the area that works with churches, synagogues, schools, but they had a standard contract that we were able to use and they did the RFP for solar installations. So that was also incredibly helpful to us. Great. Great. And then I'll just say thank you again to AIM and all the folks who are doing the NO2 testing. I know there's a parallel path here to look at how you know we meet our energy goals and we ensure that we have safe homes and wellness in that and I'm glad that you brought that to this conversation today. Yeah. I'm just going to be going. Well, I just, you know, I, council member, guys, ask us how do we address congregations that have concerns. And we listened to that building owners listening session where lots and lots of building owners had a lot of billy aches about, about BEPS. And I, that's one of the reasons we were so, it was so important to us to bring the tenant voices with us today. And I guess I'm wondering what you think is the most important ways we can address building owners concerns about, this is a really important and good thing. Yeah, so I would say lifting up the concerns and the work aim has been doing. I know there's been ongoing conversations with a number of the buildings like K Management that has really come to the table to hear the concerns of their residents. And I would hope that through their example and the example of other building owners who are willing to come to the table and really listen and see what they can do, we can move this forward. I think one of the things that for me has really been helpful from having all of these conversations are the examples in the case studies of how people have been, you know, the challenges that people have faced, but then also the opportunities and how we have overcome those challenges. And I think as we're moving forward and looking at electrification, it's going to be the same thing. It's going to be figuring out like what are those case studies where we making the strides and how that was done so that we can share that information with people who may be more hesitant or may not have the staff or concerns about the resources available to them. And I'm looking forward to doing that work with all of you. And I appreciate that question. I appreciate your questions. And let me just elaborate a little bit more on that before turning it over to Councilmember Balcom. All of the listening sessions that we've had have been helping us figure this out so we can implement it full stop. We recognize that not all your buildings are the same, just like not all apartment buildings and commercial buildings are the same. There are residential buildings here in Montgomery County that are already electric that don't know how they can increase their capacity to enact and enable some of the environmental changes, structural changes they need. There are other buildings that are master-metered that don't know how to change that in order to make the electrification work. These are all real challenges, and then probably the biggest challenge that people are experiencing or concerned about is how to pay for it, which is why the financing is so critically important. And I have pledged that we will do this when we have the financing in place, so no congregation, no homeowner, no commercial property owner has anxiety with it because we need it. And that's why the conversations about the Green Bank are important and I'll just note last thing I'll say is the conversation about that we had last week. The Department of Energy has been offering support to the State of Maryland. It was only until we had our conversation just last week that the State of Maryland said, oh, you're offering support, we'd like to work with you. Really important and it was the result of this conversation where they were all at the day is together. So we're making progress. Councillor Mourn. Thank you all for being here and thank you for sharing your stories as Councillor Mournbristore mentioned. It is the case studies that we look at that we get the most information. And I do want to say and I appreciate everyone in the panel saying that you're committed to BEPS. At no point in our work sessions did anyone say that they did not want to move forward with BEPS. And I want to make that clear that every industry and every group that has come to the table is supportive of BEPS. It's just a matter of how to do it, and I wanted to be clear about that. And I think that the timing of having the funding session last week really helps in that so much of what we talked about today is the technical assistance and the upfront assistance that the Green Bank and others can provide the state and the federal government. So I think that that's important. And as the chair last mentioned, it's not a matter of just the technical assistance and the benchmarking. It's how can we pay for this. So I think we're in a good spot, and I really appreciate everybody being here today. Appreciate the summation. Council member, welcome. You're right. We all know the direction we want to go. It's just the technical challenges in getting there. And I'll just elaborate a little bit more, particularly with regard to the life sciences biotech sector. Some of them have facilities that already meet the standards. Others have facilities where their basic science and technology are dependent on other fuel sources which skew their benchmarking. And they've told us that the science and technology for their particular call it pharmaceutical or whatever their industry specialization is, needs a little more time to be able to make those changes. And so we're trying to figure all of this out. But that's what this committee has been devoted to. We are getting ever closer, especially because of last week's conversation. And let's all stay in touch. And I know we will, we can follow up offline about all the congregations that are listening to this discussion, how they can utilize already existing resources. And I think the best thing from your perspective is speaking congregation to congregation. And it's that level of fellowship and communication that I think is really needed right now because we can get through this. We just gotta learn the ins and outs and thankfully you all have figured that out to one degree or another. So thank you for taking time out of your day. Thank you to Action Among Gumray for being here in our climate champions as well who've been at every listening session. And then last but not least, the Department of Environmental Protection, who, I'll say this is last comment, are actively reviewing the state regulations for BEBS which came out a few weeks ago. Because we want to make sure that we as a state move forward together. So with that, this work session is concluded. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Good luck. What's your name?