Page 6 RAIN October 1977 grams is being run by Davis, California, a _small city 12 miles. o.utside of Sacramepto. Almost"four years ago, Davis' City Council convened a committee'of architects, meteorologists, planners and citizens to survey energy use in the city and to make recommendations for reducing fuel consumed in space heating and cool_1ng by 50%. The group drafted a new ordinance controlling building design elements such as window area and orientation (it requires that houses have limited window area on the north, west and east exposures), amount of insulation, building heat storage capacity, and building orientation so as to take maximum: advan,tage of natural heating and cooling. The final ordinance was accepted by the city planning commission and ultimately approved by the City Council. The changes have already reduced the city's electrical· consumption by 10%, and conforming households are netting monthly savings of $10-$15 on utility bills. Springfield (VT), a small city of 10,000 people, is developing a local hydroelectric site to supply the bulk of its electricity, .and several other Vermont towns will likely follow suit. Likewise, the city of Idaho Falls, in cooperation with the federal Energy Research & Development Administration, is jointly funding a "low-dam" hydroelectric study aimed at upgrading the city's hydroelectric SY,stem: the community owns three low-dam hydro plants on the Snake River which ~ere once capable of generating up to 6,000 kilowatts. In Ithaca (NY), Cor;nell University i's considering reactivating a power plant on Fall Creek Gorge that may eventually supply 500 kilowatts or 3% of the university·'s total electrical needs. There are over 3,000 such little used rnill-town dams scattered throughout the country which could provide the energy n~eds of 40 million people at costs lower than other electricity generating sources. In some communities, the impetus for local energy programs has come from private citizens. One of the most successful waste oil recycling programs in the nation was started by Sunnyvale-Cupertino's (CA) chapter of the American ·Association of University Women. The four women convinced the City Council to designate 14 service stations, four fire stations, and the Sunnyvale Recycling Center as collection points. They also arranged for a nearby re-refinery to pick lip the used oil from the collection poin.ts. A~ a result of their efforts, numerous other communities have been awakened to the conservation potential of ~ecycling the 1.1 billion gallons of used oil generated annually in the U.S.; similar waste oil recovery projects have been launched in Minneapolis-St. Paul and Duluth (MN), Cincinatti (OH), and Chittenden County (VA). ' Other local energy projects have been instigated by the nation's Community Action Programs (CAP). About 700 CAPs across the country participate in some form of weatherization program, repairing and insulating the homes of lowincome families. In Cranston (RI), the local CAP created a small business to construct and install solar water heating units in the homes of poor people. The SKV Community Action Program in Augusta (ME) scavenges SO-gallon oil drums <1;nd converts them into wood-burning stoves. Community Action of Laramie County (WY) is building solar greenhouses. Many of rhese small projects are being expanded and inco·rporated into more comprehensive local energy plans. Other cities are also.actively pursuing energy conservation projects. At the time of the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo, Los. Angeles enacted an emergency epergy curtailment ordinance; it achieved a 17% re'duction in electricity within a few weeks without major adverse impacts upon employment or the economy. The town of Worchester (MA) launched a community- .wide insulation co-op in which 25 families joined together and purchased 24,039 square feet of insulation at a discount of 25% - a savings of approximately $52 per family. Minneapolis, Sioux City, Cleveland and Springfield (IL) are only a few of the communities which have used overhead thermographs; householders, businessmen and others thus have been able to view these special aerial pictures of their homes, schools, stores and factories to find out whether poor insulation is wasting energy and costing them money. The city of Hartford (CT) is establishing a program to winterize both public buildings and private homes through a non-profit city corporation using an assortment of federal funding programs. Property owners will be billed through the municipal water utility ; the city's pension funds have been suggested as a funding source ro provide the initial starting capital for the project. With 1 CETA funds, poor people will be trained, first on the municipal buildings which do not require competitive bidding and then on the homes of the poor themselves. -~ . This kind of intense city effort to deal with local energy problems is becoming the pattern and no,t the exception. Recognizing that trend, the Vermont legislature last year passed a law (Act 226) enabling towns to appoint town _ energy·coordinators who "shall coordinate existing energy resources in the town and cooperate with the municipal planning commission and with those federal, state and regional agencies of goverrlment which are responsible for energy matters." More than 40 town·s have appointed energy coordinators so far, with many of the coordinators being assisted by energy committees composed of a cross-section of the town's residents. The coordinators and committees are examining insulation·standards, exploring ways to exploit.wood, water, wind, solar and organic energy sources; advising homeowners on purchasing solar units, wood stoves and windmills; and investigating whether local sanitary landfills are suitable for methane production. ~or example, Burlington is conducting a feasibility study on a new electric generating plant to be power~d by wood, wood waste, and muni~ipal refuse. Elsewhere, new towns and communities within existing cities are being planned on the basis of conservation and renewable energy resources. Sixty solar energy homes are planned for a ne·w subdivision-Sunglade- in Raleigh, NC. The . homes will use roof~mounted collectors to heat water for heating and domestic use. The builder has applied to Carolina Power & Light Company to have the homes participate in the peak-load pricing experiment in which electricity will be expensive in periods of high demand and cheap in periods of low demand. To hold down the electric bills, the homes will have automatic clocks to control devices such as hot water heaters so they will only come on during the low-cost periods. The solar collectors will supply 7 5% of the hot water needs. In Grassy Brook Village, a subdivision of Brookline (VT), 216 solar panels have been in.stalled to provide the first tenunit development in this new community with about 4,500 square feet of coll'ector s:urface. This marks the first' time in
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