First Cool Congress set for Saturday
October 2, 2009
BY JOHN RICHARDSON
Portland Press Herald
Activists who are fighting climate change in communities around Maine will gather in Augusta on Saturday for what’s being billed as the state’s first Cool Congress.
More than 50 towns and cities are now working to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions at their town halls, public works garages, schools, firehouses and other facilities. Twenty-five of them — so-called Cool Communities — have signed pledges to cut global warming pollution as part of a statewide program coordinated by the Maine Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Maine Council of Churches and other partners.
“The Cool Congress is really bringing all these people together who have been working in their communities over the past several years,” said Anne “Andy” Burt, environmental justice coordinator for the Maine Council of Churches and one of the organizers of the conference.
More than 100 participants are expected to hear from each other and energy efficiency experts about ways to save energy and money, and how to get help and funding from the state and federal governments. Smaller groups will participate remotely at interactive television at gatherings in Presque Isle and Fort Kent.
Maine Partners for Cool Communities began building its network of cities and towns in 2005 as part of a national movement. Cool Communities are those that have signed on to the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement and pledged to reduce emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from municipal sources by at least 7 percent by 2012.
“People are beginning to understand that climate change is here and that we are responsible in some part, and people are starting to act,” said Joan Saxe, a Cool Communities coordinator for the Maine chapter of the Sierra Club. “Also, it’s saving money.”
Yarmouth, for example, created an Energy Savers Committee that has reduced energy use at all municipal buildings, including a 20 percent drop at Town Hall. The town’s schools expect to save $50,000 a year, according to the committee’s co-chair, Rep. Melissa Walsh Innis, D-Yarmouth.
The committee is now working on a plan to turn off some streetlights — a $100,000 annual expense to the town — and will hold a community forum on alternative energy sources such as wind and geothermal, Innis said.
“If people aren’t in it for the environmental changes, people are in it for the money changes,” she said.
Innis plans to attend the Cool Congress to gather more ideas. And, as a new state legislator, she plans to introduce a bill that would somehow encourage more communities to create energy-saving committees like the one in Yarmouth.
“We’re saving the town thousands of dollars a year. Why not have every town be able to do that?” Innis said.
Higher energy prices a year ago clearly added urgency to local energy conservation efforts. But the recession has made towns even more cost-conscious, and there is now much more government funding available to help pay for efficiency improvements and alternative technologies such as wind and solar, according to Saxe and Burt.
Efficiency Maine, for example, is offering towns $10,000 grants to set up energy conservation plans and as much as $85,000 for conservation or renewable energy projects.
“People right now, instead of operating out of a crisis or fear mode, are really learning more about alternative energy and conservation,” Burt said.
“Not only is this right thing to do and (something that) can save money and energy, but there is funding available to do this.”
