Energy Question Goes to Voters

As Climate Change Takes Over the Conscience of a Nation, Vineyard
Towns to Decide Fate of Energy District

By IAN FEIN

When Island residents file into auditoriums next week to conduct the
annual business of their towns, voters in three towns will face a common
question and a possible turning point.

They will be asked whether they wish to take the Vineyard's
energy future into their own hands.

The question comes in the form of a town meeting article seeking
support for the creation of an Islandwide energy conservation district.
The purpose of the district would be to lower Vineyard carbon emissions
and foster energy independence by regulating consumption and promoting
sources of renewable energy.

With growing threats from global climate change and the ever-rising
costs of oil, supporters of the conservation district say it is a vital
measure to protect Vineyard pocketbooks as well as the health of the
planet.

"It's an environmental and an economic issue, and I
think people are starting to see that connection," said Henry
Stephenson, a member of the Tisbury planning board and energy committee.
"One of the great costs of living on the Island is energy, and
conservation is both the first and most effective way to get a handle on
it. We will need to take steps like this, and this seems like a good
place to start."

A first-of-its-kind initiative in Massachusetts, the energy district
proposal originated in Aquinnah, where voters at a special town meeting
last month approved the concept with more than 80 per cent support.

Voters in Oak Bluffs, Tisbury and West Tisbury will take up the
question at their annual meetings on Tuesday night, and Chilmark
residents will consider the district when they convene their meeting
later this month. Edgartown voters will not have the opportunity to
weigh in on the idea at their town meeting on Tuesday, because town
selectmen, acting against the recommendation of the planning board,
decided to leave the energy proposal off their warrant.

Though no town officials have publicly opposed the concept of an
Islandwide energy district, a number of Vineyard selectmen expressed
concerns when it circulated among towns this winter. They said it was
too vague, the process was rushed, and too many questions remained
unanswered. Some selectmen said voters should not consider the proposal
until more information is available and related planning efforts are
complete.

Supporters countered that the article next week would simply begin
the process of consideration, and that any future energy regulations
would still be subject to public hearings and town meeting votes.

They also asserted that we do not have the luxury of waiting any
longer.

"If you listen to what the scientists have been saying, we
don't have much time left," said Kate Warner, director of
the Vineyard Energy Project and member of the West Tisbury energy
committee. "We only have a few years to make some really
significant changes."

Dire warnings about global warming are now being confirmed with
increasing occurrence and weight.

In a landmark case addressing climate change, the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled this week that the Environmental Protection Agency cannot ignore
the threat posed by greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. Because
the commonwealth of Massachusetts was the lead plaintiff in the case,
the decision hinged largely on whether the state could show a risk of
actual and imminent harm from global warming. In the majority opinion
released on Monday, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that sea level rise
has "already begun to swallow Massachusetts's coastal
land."

Meanwhile, today, an international panel of scientists convened by
the United Nations was set to release its second in a series of landmark
reports that will map out the likely effects of climate change. Widely
regarded as the authoritative voice on the issue, the panel is expected
to say with high confidence that emissions from human energy consumption
are already triggering changes to ecosystems across the planet.

Along with global temperatures, the political climate in this
country is starting to warm toward legislation that would curb
greenhouse gas emissions.

A nationwide rally will be held next Saturday, April 14, urging the
U.S. Congress to take action on the climate change issue. The effort,
dubbed Step It Up, will involve more than 1,200 grassroots events spread
out across all 50 states. It is expected to be the largest environmental
gathering since the original Earth Day in 1970.

At least two such events will be held on the Vineyard next weekend.
A group will gather Saturday morning in front of the Wintertide building
at Five Corners in Vineyard Haven, while the Vineyard Conservation
Society is hosting a 1 p.m. walk at Lucy Vincent Beach in Chilmark to
examine effects of the sea on the disappearing shoreline.

Although the Vineyard Conservation Society is not actively
advocating for the Islandwide energy district at this time, executive
director Brendan O'Neill said the concept aligns with the
organization's mission to conserve the Vineyard's natural
resources, whether it be land or energy. He applauded the effort and
said that local attempts to regulate energy use, as well as events like
those planned for next weekend, are indicative of a growing movement
across the country.

"You just see this national mood shifting," Mr.
O'Neill said this week. "It's these cumulative small
events that will signal the seriousness our country has with regard to
climate change."

Cong. William Delahunt, who has proposed a renewable energy corridor
for his legislative district encompassing the Cape and Islands, agrees
that local action will help push through pending climate change bills on
both the state and federal level. In an interview at his Washington,
D.C., office this winter, the congressman praised those on the Vineyard
who backed the energy district proposal, regardless of its outcome.

"That's leadership - that's
innovation," Congressman Delahunt said. "When you
demonstrate a willingness to tackle an issue on the local level, then
the state and federal governments will follow."

Not everyone is convinced.

West Tisbury selectman John Early - a former chairman of the
Martha's Vineyard Commission, and also a general contractor who
builds some of the larger homes on the Island - called the energy
district an intriguing and creative idea, but said that it will likely
be a tough sell.

The energy initiative is based on a regulatory tool called a
district of critical planning concern (DCPC), a designation that 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. Though no energy
district regulations are on the table at this time, one possible example
would establish a household energy use allowance. Homeowners who went
above the threshold would then pay into a fund for energy efficiency or
renewable energy projects elsewhere on the Island.

Mr. Early noted that the energy district would be unlike any other
before it.

"It goes beyond the usual purview of a DCPC. It's coming
into people's houses, sort of, which is not necessarily a bad
thing. I just wonder how the guidelines are going to be structured in a
way that they will be acceptable and workable," he said.
"When you're dealing with setbacks from wetlands,
that's pretty easy to define and delineate. But when you're
talking about energy, it's harder to monitor and regulate."

That does not mean, however, that Mr. Early is not willing to
address the threats posed by climate change.

"It's real," he said yesterday, pointing to the
front page of the Boston Globe, which showed a visual simulation of
flooding from sea level rise that put much of the Boston metropolitan
area underwater. "Unfortunately, it's extremely political
right now."

He agreed with others that any meaningful change in energy use will
have to start on the local level. The Island's longest-sitting
selectman who steps down next after 30 years on the West Tisbury board,
Mr. Early said he is optimistic that the Vineyard will step to the plate
on the issue.

"This is something that's got to be bottom-up, as
opposed to top-down. Because otherwise we're going to be waiting
years for any administration to do anything meaningful on this,"
he said.

"But we can deal with our own side of the street here on the
Vineyard, which we have already shown on a number of other
issues," Mr. Early added. "With the remarkable and unique
tools of the Martha's Vineyard Commission, and our history of
spirit and cooperation among the six towns on the Island, I think we can
accomplish anything."