Our pal Rachel Hare from UMD for Clean Energy tells us all about a Town Meeting this Friday on Campus. Stop by and say hello to Ben.

It’s easy for America to be green on Earth Day.  It’s easy for us to support energy efficiency, encourage sustainability and demand emissions reductions on Earth Day.  The entire world is watching, and it is exactly what is expected.
But what about the other 364 days of the year?
Can America truly commit to strict environmental standards that will reduce emissions, create green jobs and promote renewable energy?
This Friday, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), will take up this question during a town hall meeting at the University of Maryland, College Park.  During the discussion, hosted by student group UMD for Clean Energy, Cardin is expected to address recent progress of federal climate change legislation that is making its way to the Senate.

The current climate bill is an important piece of environmental legislation that could solidify America’s commitment to a sustainable future and set a precedent for other countries to take further action. It must put in place strong, binding standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote renewable energy and create green jobs.
The current emissions reductions standards enumerated in the bill – 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 – are far too soft.  America also has the capability to develop many potential renewable energy resources, and this should be reflected in a strong Renewable Electricity Standard.
Ambitious standards for emissions reductions and efficiency would make America a leader in emissions reductions and give our country the necessary leverage to pressure other nations to further their own commitments.
As a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Cardin has demonstrated his support for a strong bill and will have an important role in drafting the Senate bill.
This town hall meeting is an opportunity for us, as constituents, to show our support for a strong climate bill with strict sustainability standards; a climate bill that could work to solidify America’s commitment to innovative energy solutions.
It’s easy to be green on Earth Day, but Earth Day will come and go.  Will America commit to a strong bill that will reduce emissions, create green jobs and promote renewable energy for the other 364 days of the year?

[guest post from Lisa Piccinini UMD for Clean Energy Media Director]

In just a few weeks Maryland legislators will hold hearings for House Bill 1014 and Senate Bill 720 –  the Clean Energy Loan Programs. Introduced by Delegate Sue Hecht and Senator Thomas Middleton, the bills hold tremendous potential for Maryland’s business owners, residents, and for our environment. If passed, the bill will go into effect June 1of this year.

The bill calls for a program providing loans to residential property owners for the financing of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. Basically, its aim is to help residents save money by providing means to obtain a loan for the upfront costs of increasing home energy efficiency. The bill also applies to commercial property owners.

The cost-effective upgrades or retrofits that these loans would provide for include things such as insulation, water heating, and appliance efficiency. Potential upgrades would be identified by an energy audit performed for every property prior to loan approval. The audit identifies energy-efficient and cost-effective projects for the property that would generate yearly energy cost savings. Through this program the loans will be repaid by the property owner via a surcharge on the owner’s property tax bill, over a period not to exceed 15 years. The loans could be provided by banks, non-profits, or through the Maryland Clean Energy Center. This innovative way to finance loans encourages home owners to consider becoming more energy efficient.

The bill is a perfect opportunity for the state to encourage jobs, economic spending, and show national leadership. Because each potential loan begins with an energy audit, the bill encourages energy auditing companies operating within the state. Once a loan has been approved and retrofitting begins, the installation requires manpower; again, a source for jobs. The state would show strong support of auditing and retrofitting companies, as well as of renewable energy businesses, by allowing loans for residents to obtain their services.

Jobs, of course, spur spending in the economy.  But so do increased savings.  A resident who saves money on heating and cooling in their home, for example, can spend that money elsewhere in the economy. In fact, the average U.S. resident spends $1900 per year on utility bills, with 43% of that money going to heating and cooling systems. Just having ducts thoroughly sealed can save a home as much as 20% in heating and cooling costs.  Leaking ducts are just one example of what an energy audit would locate as a source for an increase in energy-efficiency. Residents can easily calculate estimated energy savings through the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy savings calculator.

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Student Advocacy Group Coordinates Energy Audit for College Park Residence

On-campus student group UMD for Clean Energy coordinates energy audit in an effort to educate the public about energy efficiency

The student advocacy group UMD for Clean Energy is coordinating and observing an energy audit for a home in College Park.  They seek to educate the public about energy efficiency and to provide students an opportunity to partake in experiential learning.  The Howard County-based company GreenNEWit, which was founded by Columbia-native and University of Maryland class of 2006 graduate Josh Notes, will conduct the energy audit.  It will take place from 11am-3pm this Sunday, December 6 at a residence on 4612 Amherst Drive, College Park, MD 21042.

The student group is particularly interested in providing a concrete example of how College Park residents can save energy and money.  They hope this will bolster the home energy loan fund policy they have pushed all semester long for the city of College Park.  This loan fund would be a pool of money that can be loaned out at a low interest rate to finance energy efficiency upgrades and home improvements for residents of College Park.  Borrowers could then repay the loan fund with their energy savings, and reap the savings once they have paid back the loan.

Such a loan fund policy would also provide green jobs, because after the energy audit, a contractor must come in to make the requested retrofits, employing a whole team of workers in the process.  In fact, a lot of stimulus money is going to PG County Community College to train people in auditing, retrofitting, and weatherization.  However, there currently aren’t enough businesses in the county to employ the people who are certified.  While a Howard County business will likely do this particular retrofit, UMD for Clean Energy would like to see these green-minded companies in College Park.

The group has been proactive on this front as well.  To try to incentivize green business to come to the city, representatives from the group presented a tax credit program to the College Park City Council at its November 17 work session.  UMD for Clean Energy Campaign Director Matt Dernoga and Political Liaison Hilary Staver, who made the presentation, proposed that the city provide property tax breaks to businesses that feature energy-efficient goods and services and to those that minimize their ecological footprint.  While this initiative was also well received by the city council, a legal hurdle stands in the way which has temporarily delayed the conversation.

Moreover, even though UMD is determined to pass the loan fund and tax credit programs in the near future, they believe this event will also provide a good experiential learning opportunity for architecture, environmental science, engineering, business, public policy, and other interested students.  Groups of people will be ushered in and out of the house during a live home energy audit throughout the four-hour time block this Sunday. Everyone is welcome to attend.

In response to Robert McCartney’s Op-Ed yesterday in the Washington Post, I decided to throw together the following as I continue to ruminate over the massive amount of debate surrounding the proposed development (also see savethehillock.com) of 9 acres of the 22 acres “Wooded Hillock” behind the Comcast Center:

As an environmentalist and former land conservationist, I mourn the proposed loss of trees as much as the next person. Also, I’m usually less than inclined to side with the University on most issues related to development in College Park. These two things being said, I continue to see no better alternative than the Wooded Hillock for the relocation of facilities on East Campus. I don’t understand how McCartney can say UMD’s examination of alternative sites for these facilities was an “apparently insufficient study”. Somehow studies always seem to be insufficient if the conclusions they reach aren’t in accordance with your own.

UMD did plenty of research and determined the Wooded Hillock  was the cheapest to prepare for construction  and one of the least visible places close to campus  to put these facilities of all the alternatives. The employees in these facilities will constantly be coming back and forth between the (relocated) facilities and buildings that they work on all over campus. Do we really want to have them constantly deploying from across town by M Square (the Golob Property) or up Metzerott Road thus increasing local traffic?

The Wooded Hillock is an ecologically insignificant isolated forest that lays inside the beltway and is itself bordered by several roads. It has little importance for water quality and next to no habitat value. If the property were privately owned, the State wouldn’t even consider purchasing it for ecological reasons with Program Open Space money. The best argument against the destruction of this forest is its educational value as a second-growth, tornado-damaged ecosystem. Unfortunately for UMD’s opponents on this matter, just a portion of the on-campus forest that exhibits those characteristics will be destroyed. Indeed, the 2001 tornado ripped the forest apart all the way up to the Denton Community. If research groups want to go further afield they could look at much larger tornado-disturbance areas north of campus where the county owns thousands of acres of protected stream valley land along the Paint Branch Trail.

Let’s put the sentimentalism aside and focus on much more significant environmental issues in College Park like ways we can cultivate smart, dense infill development and reduce carbon emissions from transportation by promoting biking, walking, and transit. It’s ironic that activists were fighting these facilities being relocated to the Wooded Hillock when they should have focused their efforts on FP-Argo’s proposal to put a whopping 5,500 parking spaces under and around East campus: a move that would have forever cemented the development as a car-oriented suburban mega-development masquerading as a new urbanist “smart growth” success story. At least one benefit to the delay of  East Campus is that we may never see quite that level of parking as it would rely on unheard of amounts of public money. Activists should set their sites on the University’s 2-year intransigence when it comes to the Purple Line alignment on Campus Drive. Better yet, they could demand a near term closure of Campus Drive to private automobiles as the UM Facilities Master Plan envisions (see RTCP’s proposed resolution).

College Park’s environmental community can achieve much more and should get out of this small-bore moral fight over 9-acres of forest. They would be wise to extract themselves from their standing up for the trees against the big evil University position. There are much bigger fish to fry.