Energy Conservation Lagging on Vineyard

By IAN FEIN

Climate change has been at the top of nearly every political agenda
this fall.

The incoming Massachusetts governor heralded energy reform
throughout his campaign, and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill have
pledged that legislation to curb global warming will be a top priority
in the coming year. Elsewhere in the world, the United Nations earlier
this month assembled a climate change conference in Nairobi only days
after a landmark British government report spelled out the global
economic crisis that will occur if countries do not control their
greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible.

Here on the Vineyard - an Island more susceptible to
fluctuations in energy prices and where the effects of a warming earth,
such as sea level rise, will be felt quite strongly - government
leaders have been virtually silent on the issue. What little has been
done on the Island pales in comparison to many other communities across
the nation that have enacted local initiatives to reduce carbon
emissions.

In the first such significant step on the Vineyard, Aquinnah
selectman James Newman this September proposed a town zoning bylaw that
would have required new homes over a certain size to include renewable
energy sources such as solar panels or wind turbines. The proposed
regulation attracted some quiet opposition based mostly on aesthetics,
but when the bylaw came up for discussion at a special town meeting last
month, Aquinnah voters failed on three different occasions to attract
enough residents to even debate the issue.

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Mr. Newman this week expressed frustration at the lack of support
and attention the initiative received both in town and elsewhere on the
Island, where he had hoped it would spark a larger public dialogue.

"People out here seem to care, but when it comes to standing
up and voting or acting on something, they're not there,"
said Mr. Newman, who with his wife recently installed solar panels on
their own Aquinnah home. "The indifference to me is mind
boggling."

Dating back to at least the 1970s, the Vineyard has long had its
share of creative homeowners using alternative energy sources to keep
themselves off the grid. Solar panels have seen a slow but steady growth
in recent years, with now more than 160 such systems on the Vineyard. A
residential wind turbine went up in Oak Bluffs last month, and the
Martha's Vineyard Regional High School expects to install a
turbine later this winter.

West Tisbury architect Kate Warner - who founded the nonprofit
Vineyard Energy Project and owned the first hybrid car on the Island
- said the Vineyard as a whole is still addressing the energy
challenge better than the average community in the country. But given
its liberal leanings, the beauty of the Island and the depth of passion
for causes, she thought the Vineyard would have been a leader in the
renewable energy movement.

"On the Island, with such a low elevation and a reliance on
boats, I was sure that everyone would want to jump on board and help
out," Ms. Warner said. "But I've found it hard to get
people interested in the global warming issue because it's too
overwhelming, too depressing, and too long term," she continued.

"All of these things we are doing are steps in the right
direction, but we need to do so much more to meet the challenge. We are
not moving at the rate of the urgency of the problem, which is quickly
going to disrupt our quality of life."

At this point, most Vineyard residents are familiar with the concept
of climate change, also referred to as global warming. The burning of
fossil fuels add gases into the atmosphere that create a greenhouse
effect, trapping heat and raising the overall temperature of the earth.

While the exact effects of the overall warming are still unknown,
large glaciers and ice caps are already melting and will result in a
substantial rise in the level of the oceans. Widely published models of
sea level rise put much of downtown Edgartown underwater sometime this
century, and many scientists also predict that climatic changes will
lead to increased frequency of extreme weather events like hurricanes.
Reports from around the world suggest that the warming effects may be
happening faster than many expected.

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Because of the scale of the problem, the Vineyard - even if it
ceased emitting greenhouse gases tomorrow - would not have any
noticeable impact on the global warming trend. But some suggest that as
a popular vacation destination in the United States - which is by
far the largest contributor of greenhouse gasses - an energy
innovative Vineyard could have a lasting symbolic effect for the
country.

Other energy advocates note that efforts to reduce emissions are the
same steps the Island should be taking anyway to prepare for the
anticipated end of cheap energy era. By improving efficiency and
producing more renewable energy here on the Island, Vineyard towns could
create more stable prices and help ensure adequate supply, with an
overall benefit to the local economy.

Compiled by the Vineyard Energy Project and Martha's Vineyard
Commission, among other sources, the numbers about Island energy use are
startling:

Less than one-tenth of one per cent of the Vineyard's
energy is produced on the Island, with the rest coming from the mainland
- either by boat or underwater cable. According to estimates, the
overall Island energy bill last year was roughly $65 million.

Electricity rates for Cape Cod and Vineyard residents are
almost twice the state average right now. Between 1999 and 2001, Island
electric consumption outpaced population growth. Meanwhile, the Vineyard
is building about 200 houses per year, many of which are increasing in
size. The four cables connected to the mainland approach maximum
capacity each summer and range in age between 10 and 20 years old. When
a cable fails, the electric company relies on five diesel-powered
generators, two of which date back to the 1940s.

While electricity represents less than a fifth of total
Vineyard energy use, transportation accounts for almost half. Public
transportation on the Island has improved dramatically over the last
decade - Martha's Vineyard Regional Transit Authority
ridership increased from less than 100,000 in 1994 to more than 775,000
in 2004, and saw a seven per cent increase last year after four years of
relatively flat numbers - but Vineyard residents are still heavily
reliant on large personal vehicles with poor gas mileage. Between 1991
and 2000 the number of registered vehicles on the Island jumped 75 per
cent (from 12,800 to 22,350), while the year-round population grew only
25 per cent. Gasoline prices on the Vineyard are among the highest in
the nation and account for a third of overall Island energy use.

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When fuel costs rise, so do the prices of most goods shipped
on and off the Island. Between its Vineyard and Nantucket routes, the
Steamship Authority last year burned roughly 2.7 million gallons of
diesel fuel, at a total cost of $4.8 million. As a cost-cutting measure,
the boat line slowed the speed of some of its ferry runs and -
through the first nine months of 2006 - used 96,000 gallons less
than it had during the same time period the year before. But with an
increase in overall fuel prices, the Steamship Authority still spent
almost $500,000 more on diesel than it did during the first nine months
of 2005. Ferry runs represent roughly 10 per cent of Vineyard-generated
carbon emissions.

Since all of the Vineyard town landfills were closed, the
vast majority of solid waste is shipped off Island at a significant
economic and energy cost. The transportation of waste represented one
out of every seven Steamship Authority freight trips in 2000, and the
total amount of solid waste was increasing steadily - from 14,200
tons in 1998 to 18,200 tons in 2002. A regional composting facility on
the Vineyard could reduce the amount of waste trucked off Island by more
than 5,000 tons per year.

In the spring of 2005, voters in all six Vineyard towns endorsed a
nonbinding energy resolution to work toward becoming a renewable energy
Island. Among other things, voters pledged to promote energy efficiency
and the use of renewable energy sources by revising town zoning bylaws
and Martha's Vineyard Commission regulations.

The Vineyard Energy Project later that summer released a ten-year
energy action plan, authored by a professional energy consultant in
Vermont who analyzed Island energy resources and listed detailed ways
the Vineyard could improve its overall energy picture within the decade.
Ms. Warner traveled around the Island and formally presented the plan to
members of the Martha's Vineyard Commission, Dukes County
Commission, and all six boards of selectmen and planning boards.

In the 14 months since, some towns have taken minor steps toward
increasing the efficiency of their municipal buildings, and both Tisbury
and West Tisbury (the only two Island towns with energy committees) are
exploring the possibility of installing municipal turbines. But aside
from the attempted Aquinnah bylaw, no other Island town or commission
have pursued any substantive energy policy changes.

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As a regional planning and regulatory agency with unique powers
granted by the Massachusetts state legislature, the Martha's
Vineyard Commission likely possesses the greatest ability to affect
energy reform across the Island. Ms. Warner in September 2005 gave the
commission 11 specific recommendations to follow up on the energy action
plan, but since then the commission has moved forward on only one
- adopting an energy policy, which it formalized in May. The
commission has still not created accompanying guidelines for development
projects that come before them, however, and only one commission member,
John Best of Tisbury, has consistently asked applicants to address
energy use in their public hearing presentations.

Mr. Best, who did not run for reelection and is set to leave the
commission at the end of the year, said this week that his fellow
commission members support increased vigilance over energy use, but that
someone at the planning agency needed to remind them of the issue. He
suggested that the commission should have a staff member or hired
consultant to advise them on energy decisions.

"Energy should be front and center on everything," Mr.
Best said. "It needs to be on every application, and we cannot
keep letting people off the hook."

He also noted that the commission only reviews the limited number of
developments of regional impact (DRIs) that are sent to the board, and
that the commission should follow up on the Vineyard Energy Project
recommendation that it work more closely with the towns to craft
Islandwide energy regulations. "We need to create energy bylaws
and bringing everybody into the fold," Mr. Best said. "We
can't impose this only on the people who come before us."

Perhaps the most progressive idea in the energy action plan was a
recommendation to establish an Islandwide energy district of critical
planning concern (DCPC). Supporters of the energy DCPC concept believe
that an overlay district would allow the Vineyard to craft initiatives
like those in other states (including California, Oregon and Colorado)
which tax homeowners based on their energy usage, and then transfer the
funds toward renewable energy projects and other efficiency measures.

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Such regulations would likely not be allowed under current
Massachusetts state law, but through the unique powers of the
Martha's Vineyard Commission critical districts allow towns to
adopt zoning regulations that otherwise would not be permitted in the
commonwealth.

West Tisbury selectman John Early, who as a general contractor has
built some of the larger homes on the Island, expressed interest in the
energy DCPC idea when Ms. Warner presented the plan to the town board. A
former longtime commission member, Mr. Early said the district would
allow the Island to address the growing trend of high energy
consumption.

Ms. Warner acknowledged that the critical district concept would be
controversial when she presented the plan to the commission and town
boards last year, and recommended that they simply explore the idea
instead of formally endorsing it.

But in the last 14 months there has been virtually no public
dialogue on the energy DCPC, at either the local or regional level.

For his part, Mr. Newman pledged to present his proposed zoning
bylaw again at the next Aquinnah town meeting, and urged leaders in
other Island towns to follow suit.

"Selectmen need to be agents of change. I really do believe
that," Mr. Newman said this week. "We all have to do
something in the end here, because we're facing a problem that
will impinge on us all."