Energy DCPC Gains Support

Annual Town Meeting Initiative to Create Islandwide District for
Energy Conservation Moves Ahead Slowly

By IAN FEIN

A first-of-its-kind initiative that would allow the Vineyard to
regulate its own energy use is slowly gathering steam.

The proposed Islandwide Energy Conservation district of critical
planning concern (DCPC) gained a vote of confidence from the Edgartown
planning board on Tuesday, and also this week secured spots on the
Tisbury and West Tisbury annual town meeting warrants, ensuring that
voters in those towns will weigh in on the concept in the coming months.

It is unclear at this point whether selectmen in every Island town
will allow voters to consider the energy DCPC this spring, but Aquinnah
selectman James Newman, who circulated the proposal among colleagues in
mid-December, expressed hope that the concept would get a full hearing.
Aquinnah voters will take up the energy initiative at a special town
meeting in March.

"I'm very excited that people are recognizing that there
is a real need for us to come up with regulations that are going to
mitigate our consumption of fossil fuels," Mr. Newman said this
week. "It is my sincere wish that this will be a joint endeavor by
all of the towns, because this is a real problem that impacts upon all
of us on the Island, as well as the environment."

With climate change and energy independence dominating the political
agenda at the state and federal levels, a number of Vineyard officials
this week said they felt it was their responsibility to move for action
on the local and regional level.

"In this time and era, anything we can do to conserve energy
is certainly a desirable thing," Edgartown planning board chairman
Alan Wilson said on Wednesday. "We still have some questions about
the DCPC, but Edgartown does want to be part of it."

The Island faces a particularly severe energy situation because
nearly all of its energy comes by boat or underwater cable. Estimates
put the overall Vineyard energy bill last year at roughly $65 million.

The purpose of the energy overlay district would be to foster Island
energy independence by regulating consumption and promoting sources of
renewable energy. Though no regulations are on the table at this time,
some examples of possible steps would be adopting a more efficient
building code and requiring solar panels or wind turbines on homes over
a certain size.

The critical district designation allows Island towns -
through the enabling legislation of the Martha's Vineyard
Commission - to adopt land use regulations that otherwise would
not be permitted under state law. Current Massachusetts building codes
and zoning laws do not afford individual towns much room to regulate
their own energy use.

Since they received the energy proposal from Mr. Newman last month,
the initial response from Island selectmen has been tepid at best. Some
were notably silent on the initiative, others expressed a concern that
it was a power grab by the commission, and many said the concept was too
vague. At least one selectman conceded that he does not understand the
general DCPC regulatory framework.

Because the energy DCPC would be first of its kind - both on
the Island and in the commonwealth - a number of procedural and
legal questions have been raised, many of which remain unanswered. Chief
among the concerns is a provision in the DCPC process that calls for a
moratorium on construction permits if the commission formally accepts a
district nomination. It is unclear how that provision would apply in an
Islandwide energy district, but some town and commission officials are
researching the issue and have suggested that the moratorium could be
limited or even avoided altogether.

Supporters of the concept say there will be time to address
outstanding questions in the coming months, and that selectmen should
not preclude an opportunity for voters to discuss the concept at town
meeting. Even if approved by voters this spring, the energy initiative
would still need to go through a public hearing at the Martha's
Vineyard Commission, and any regulations would have come back to the
towns for more consideration and another round of town meeting votes.

With a lack of support from selectmen, however, it is not clear
whether the proposal will make it onto every town meeting floor this
spring. Just last week it appeared as though Tisbury selectmen were
going to leave it off their warrant, prompting town resident Peter
Cabana to circulate a citizen petition that guaranteed its
consideration. The town's representative to the Cape Light Compact
and a recently elected member to the Martha's Vineyard Commission,
Mr. Cabana took some heat from selectmen at their meeting on Tuesday,
but maintained that his efforts were in the public interest.

"All we're doing at this point is saying we're
going to talk about this in April. At least now we know it's going
to be discussed," Mr. Cabana said on Wednesday. "This will
provide a forum where the public can ask and answer questions."

Despite the support of the town energy committee, West Tisbury
selectmen also appeared hesitant to place the proposal on the warrant.
Town resident and Vineyard Energy Project founder Kate Warner approached
the board on Wednesday with a revised article that incorporated some
feedback from town and commission officials. Under the new language, if
voters approved the concept this spring, selectmen from each town
- instead of proceeding directly to a nomination - would
appoint three representatives to an Islandwide advisory group that would
draft guidelines and proposed regulations for an official nomination.

West Tisbury selectmen agreed to put the revised article on the town
meeting warrant, and the new language - with its added round of
town involvement - might also assuage concerns of Chilmark
selectmen. Board members in Chilmark so far have avoided placing the
proposal on their warrant, but suggested they might be willing to
support the concept if regulations came from the towns, and were not
imposed by the commission.

Despite the vote of confidence from the town planning board this
week, the energy initiative at this point appears to face its greatest
hurdle in Edgartown. Selectmen took no action on the issue when it came
before them earlier this month, passing it on to the town land use
boards instead. Town administrator Pamela Dolby said it was unlikely
that the proposal will make it onto the warrant this spring, although
she would not rule out the possibility.

Oak Bluffs selectmen will discuss their town meeting warrant in
mid-February, when town resident and Martha's Vineyard Commission
member Richard Toole will present details about the energy proposal to
the board.

"The whole idea is to save energy, save environment, and save
money - it seems like a win-win-win all the way around," Mr.
Toole said of the energy DCPC this week. "Considering that even
[President George W.] Bush talked about the need for energy efficiency
in his state of the union address this week, voters would probably think
we were remiss if we didn't have something about it on the town
meeting warrant this spring. It's time to take a pulse - to
get a straw vote from townspeople to see how they feel."

Gazette reporter Rachel Nava Rohr contributed to this story.