Around Town: Webcast to explore reducing carbon footprint
By Scott Merzbach
Staff Writer
Published on January 25, 2008
Progress toward reducing carbon dioxide emissions in Amherst will be the subject of a panel discussion "Climate Change: Our Global Challenge, Our Local Response" that will be held Jan. 30 at 7 p.m. at the town room at Town Hall.
Sponsored by the Select Board, the hour-long session will precede the 8 p.m. Webcast of the "2% Solution," a nationwide, live, interactive program produced by the Focus of the Nation organization that aims to get the United States to cut its carbon dioxide emissions.
Select Board member Hwei-Ling Greeney said the event is an outgrowth of the board's 2005 signing of the Climate Action Plan, a document from the towns' Energy Conservation Task Force that commits the town, its businesses and its residents toward reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 35 percent below 1997 levels by 2009.
When signed in 2005, Amherst became the first community in western Massachusetts to have completed an action plan, joining 21 communities across the state as part of the Cities for Climate Protection.
Greeney said the session will be an opportunity to put together an inventory of accomplishments and assess the direction the town needs to go now that the halfway point, in terms of time, has been reached. The town is currently 40 percent of the way to achieving the mandated reduction.
"Should I be optimistic? That's a question I'll allow the presenters to answer," Greeney said.
The speakers will be Stephanie Ciccarello, the coordinator of the town's Energy Task Force, and Jason Burbank, an energy engineer at the University of Massachusetts.
Greeney said she hopes this to be the first of a three part series on the status of the action plan. The second part, she said, would look at what Amherst and Hampshire colleges and the public schools are doing, while the third would focus on what local businesses and residents can do to reduce energy consumption.
"I would hope we would complete all three parts by Earth Day, which is April 22," Greeney said.
The 40 percent reduction so far is calculated by the estimated 321,000 tons of equivalent carbon dioxide released in 1997, which has been cut by 43,532 tons so far.
To reach the 112,000 ton goal, Greeney said the Select Board should continue to explore opportunities such as carbon dioxide taxing, smart growth and regional planning.
"We're all trying to focus our attention on this serious matter," Greeney said.
High-tech campaigning
Stephanie O'Keeffe, who is seeking a seat on the Select Board at April's elections, has launched a Web site, www.stephanieokeeffe.org, to keep residents up to date on her campaign.
The Web site features a biography, endorsements and updated blog, as well as a place to post questions to her.
Diana Stein, another candidate for one of the two vacant seats, has already set up an email, electstein@gmail.com, to which people are encouraged to write with questions and comments.
And incumbent Hwei-Ling Greeney has reserved www.gogreeney.org as her Web site, though no information is yet available. The other announced candidates for the two, three-year seats are Aaron Hayden and Irv Rhodes.
Meetings
MONDAY: Budget Coordinating Group, noon, First Floor Meeting Room, Town Hall; Select Board, 6:30 p.m., Town Room, Town Hall.
WEDNESDAY: Regional School Committee Food Services Subcommittee, 8:45 a.m., superintendent's conference room, Regional Middle School; Select Board, 7 p.m., Town Room, Town Hall for public screening of "The 2% Solution."
