Brian Messenger writes about the regional energy manager in the Eagle Tribune story “Green team: Valley communities working with energy consultant“. The story mentions a group I had not previously heard of, the Merrimack Valley Mayors and Managers Coalition. This project is important, so I hope to see more information and viewpoints in the future.

Haverhill’s cost in the project is $15,000, and the funding was made possible by all the Haverhill citizens who opted to buy clean electric power. Eventually we will see if this one-time project leads to a more permanent energy manager for Haverhill, a position the Energy Task Force recommends. The Eagle Tribune story mentions helping “the six participating communities monitor energy use”, and someone will have to do that on an ongoing basis.

Hopefully great things will come from this. Congratulations and thanks to the mayors and organizations who made it happen.

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The latest newsletter from Mayor Fiorentini has very good news on the energy front. The Energy Task Force is pleased to see another of it’s recommendations, in particular recommendation #1 “Have a city energy manager”, become reality. And energy audits are the first step toward recommendation #4, which is about building energy efficiency.

City Works To Conserve Energy, Save Money

ABOVE: Principal Larry Marino, Mayor, State Rep. Brian Dempsey who assisted in obtaining the audit grant, Superintendent Buchanan, facilities manager Jeffrey Dill with energy auditors [center and far left]

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Paul Tennant writes in the Eagle Tribune about efforts by Mayor Fiorentini to close the Merrimack Street public parking garage overnight so that the lights can be turned off. It’s all in the name of saving energy, but the proposal has stirred controversy. The story, “Flipping the switch? Mayor wants to turn off late-night lights at parking deck” does not state how much energy or money might be saved.

The mayor said he would be willing to have the council table his request until a better solution can be worked out.

“All I care about is being able to turn off the lights,” said Fiorentini, who mentioned driving by the deck late one night and seeing the place “lit up like a Christmas tree.”

The Haverhill Gazette ran a story by Joni Quinn last fall about the new, energy-efficient lighting installed in the garage. The new garage lights cost about $12,000 per year to run. Depending on the on and off times, shutting them off overnight might save at least half of that.

In Federal aid boosts energy efficiency at Citizens Center Cara Spilsbury writes for the Haverhill Gazette:

Thanks to money secured by Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, the Citizen Center will be the first city building to sport solar panels.

Tsongas brought a check for $237,875 to Mayor James Fiorentini on Friday morning. The money will be used to install solar panels on the Citizen Center and to upgrade energy delivery in the building.

The Citizens’ Center currently budgets $45,000/year for electricity and $34,000/year for heat, giving an idea of the annual savings if the building could be converted to use zero net energy. But enough solar panels to offset just the electric use alone would cost much more than the entire federal grant, and might not fit on the roof area anyway. They will have to choose the upgrades carefully.

The third global Earth Hour action begins this Saturday, March 28, at 8:30 pm, and Haverhill is participating! Mayor Jim Fiorentini has declared:

Earth Hour is the largest environmental event in the world, and Haverhill is proud to be a participating city. On March 28, we will be turning off all electricity, when it is possible and safe to do so, in all city and school buildings. We will be lowering flags and turning off the illumination of all flags and monuments for that one hour.

We ask all of our citizens to join with us in turning off all lights for that one hour to demonstrate their concern for global warming and for our environment.

Earth Hour is only a continuation, not the end of our efforts to turn off lights and save on energy. We will use Earth Hour to examine every building and every monument to see where it is feasible to turn off all lighting all weekend long, every weekend.

The videos from previous Earth Hours show cities going dark as people prove they can work together to cut energy use, even if only for a symbolic hour. You can register your support for Earth Hour at http://www.earthhourus.org/main.php.

In the Eagle Tribune story Governor’s gas tax gets cool reception in Haverhill, Joni Quinn writes:

Gov. Deval Patrick visited Haverhill Public Library last week to pitch a 19 cent-a-gallon gasoline tax increase. More than 200 area residents gathered to hear the governor’s explanation.

Unfortunately I could not be there. If I had I would have spoken in favor of the increase. But maybe I would have been alone, according to Quinn’s article:

Many residents expressed concern regarding the fact that many Massachusetts residents are already going over the state line to purchase gas in New Hampshire and that this hike will hurt business even more.

It’s true that border communities are more affected by taxation differences. And of course the problem with a fixed gasoline tax is that it cuts even deeper when gasoline prices go up. Increases are predicted for this year. But the number of people who do not own cars is significant, and they tend to feel that subsidizing “unsustainable” transportation from general funds is unfair. The other side of the debate, however, is the fact that public transportation uses the same roads, as do the trucks that deliver products to all of us.

This might be an interesting topic of discussion for an Energy Task Force meeting.