New ‘road map’ to help leaders cut energy use
Jackson Hole now has a skeleton plan for how to reduce energy consumption, and in the next few months leaders plan to start adding tendons, muscle and flesh to those bones.
Jackson Hole now has a skeleton plan for how to reduce energy consumption, and in the next few months leaders plan to start adding tendons, muscle and flesh to those bones.
Tom Osdoba, the managing director of the Center for Sustainable Business Practices and a member of the nonprofit organization Climate Solutions, outlined a broad plan last week that is supposed to help leaders reduce energy consumption in the valley.
“This is an action plan for the next three years,” Osdoba said. “It carries with it a daunting challenge but also a tremendous opportunity.”
Osdoba detailed a three-prong approach that focuses on gradually developing concrete projects, identifying funding sources and cultivating community involvement to cut energy use.
“The best way to develop something is not at the state or federal level and drop it down on local governments,” Osdoba said. “Cities can copy each other very easily. When they see something that works, they do it, and they can implement it much more quickly.”
The plan aims to expand upon local officials’ participation in various energy-reduction programs such as the Wolfensohn Challenge, Jackson Hole 10x10 and the U.S. Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement.
In the next year or so, Climate Solutions will help get the plan off the ground before handing over the reins to a local entity.
“We’re here to help get everything started for six or 12 months,” said Eileen Quigley, project manager for the New Energy Solutions program at Climate Solutions. “Then we’ll start to taper out of things and transition to whatever entity is in charge of it.”
Up to this point, the town and county have taken various steps to reduce their energy consumption but have not had one overarching plan for their efforts.
Osdoba said although investing in energy-efficient projects is a smart business practice, it can still be challenging to change people’s behavioral patterns.
“Building owners are often very sensitive to first costs, they usually don’t have a lot of info and they usually don’t have the time to research it,” Osdoba said. “But we need to get those people to think in the long term.”
Osdoba said one way to do that is to change how people, and especially local governments, think about clean-energy projects.
“Local governments need to tie energy efficiency to the rest of their energy system and look at it like any other form of infrastructure they build, like water, sewer, streets,” Osdoba said. “How do governments build those things? They issue long-term debt and pay it back over an extended period of time.”
Osdoba said the importance of local governments lies in the fact that they are much closer to their constituents than state or federal governments and usually can act much more quickly, as well.
For some town and county leaders, actually putting some of the ideas to reduce energy consumption into action is an issue of money.
“It’s all about money,” Town Manager Bob McLaurin said. “It’s about financing the improvements and finding out how we’re going to do it.”
Town Public Works Director Larry Pardee said those involved with the plan intend to solicit public comments over the next several months as they ready a final product for town and county elected officials.
“We’re just beginning to tell the story and educate and inform people,” Pardee said. “We’ll have some time to let the public look at this and comment on it.”
Pardee said comments will be taken through the end of September and then will be incorporated into the plan.
“By the October conference,” he said, “I hope we’ll have a report out about it.”
Date: July 27, 2009
