Understanding energy options is an exhausting task

CORNWALL — If anything has become abundantly clear in the effort toward a wholesale embracing of clean energy by the American public, it is that people still need to be sold on it.

There is still confusion over the state’s deregulation of power distribution in 1998, and how consumers can choose their provider and seek grants and tax credits for energy-saving improvements to their homes and businesses.

What most people seem to say is that they aren’t moving forward because the changes aren’t making enough of an obvious impact on their bill. And in a bad economy, not everyone has the will or the means to make potentially costly changes as an investment toward the future.

Congressman Chris Murphy (D-5) expended some energy ofhis own toward explainingsome of the options at a forum Aug. 17 in Cornwall, in the school gym.

A wide variety of questions and comments were asked in the two-hour forum; taken together, they illustrated just how convoluted it has all become.

An expert panel consisted of Dave Ljundquist, associate director of Project Development for the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund; Jessie Stratton, director of Government Relations for the nonprofit Environment Northeast and a former seven-term state representative from Avon and Canton; and Cynthia Greene, manager of the Energy and Climate Change Unit at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Boston office.

It was a rather daunting two-hour discussion that included everything from global warming to global terrorism.

What Murphy called the “great unfinished business†of the last legislative session in Congress is the federal Waxman-Markey energy/climate bill. Murphy supports its cap-and-trade approach to allowing the market and energy investors to decide which technologies are worth investing in.

“It’s better than letting the government decide,†he said.

Some positive change has already been accomplished. Murphy cited new vehicle emission standards that will force carmakers to produce vehicles that are 40-percent cleaner burning over the next five years or so.

There is also an increase in grant funding aimed at making old homes more energy efficient.

There are countless ways to move forward, Murphy said, but not until the U.S. gets itself on the right track.

“Every other country in the industrialized world has figured out clean energy is the emerging economy. Countries like China have captured much of the market. Connecticut is the leader in the world right now for fuel-cell technology.

“The problem is, we’re not buying the technology here. Ninety percent of that business goes to Korea, which has an incentive program to buy it. They are not far from the point of demanding the manufacturers move their plants there.â€

Speaking even more passionately, Murphy said it comes down, also, to national security.

Stratton, of Environment Northeast, said, “When the economy is bad, people say we can’t afford to work on energy. They are missing the message. Every dollar you spend on efficiency saves four dollars for customers, and those savings are spent here, not in other countries. For every job created in clean energy, five or six jobs are created elsewhere.â€

Several audience members asked about the option of nuclear power.

Nuclear absolutely has a role in our energy future, Murphy said, but nuclear waste is still a problem to be solved.

There was some discussion about global warming and whether it’s really occuring.Murphy said he does believe in it but reiterated that a main reason to conserve energy is because terrorists are plotting against the United States with the oil money that is paid to them.

He also warned that there are geographic challenges to getting government support for clean energy.

“Politics are driven by geography,†he noted. “In some parts of the country, the economy is very dependent on coal and fossil fuels.â€

On a more immediate level, Ljundquist from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund said municipalities could make a big difference if they embraced energy efficiency for their town offices and buildings. He also warned that the bidding process for building and construction can eliminate energy efficiency if towns automatically accept the lowest bid.

Energy expert Roger Liddell of Sharon suggested that people need to be more aware of the rate they are paying for energy, and not just the bottom line on their monthly bill.

“Bills are what we pay, not rates,†Liddell said. “We are paying a rate times use, and its that second thing that is often overlooked. We need to realize that putting a higher price on energy, so that people are more conscious of how much they use, can help us drive consumption down for a major societal win.â€

Cornwall Energy Task Force members Katherine Freygang and Nick Xatzis said that billions of dollars are spent on clean energy; perhaps some of that money should be paid to teachers who can explain energy options in a way that’s easy to understand.

Xatzis, a “green†builder, urged the Clean Energy Fund and the EPA to simplify the incentive programs they offer.

Ljundquist said the problem has been recognized and those efforts underway.

He recommended dsire.use.org for a compendium of all state and federal programs.