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02/08/2016 11:00 PMCutting 20 percent of town buildings’ energy usage by 2018 was the promise when First Selectman Noel Bishop signed the Clean Energy Community pledge in 2013, but Town Hall inaction on some pledge obligations—including the commitment to start buying 20 percent of the town’s energy from clean energy sources—means the pledge promises may be unfulfilled.
The slow Town Hall progress spurred former selectman and Energy Committee Chairman Chris Ehlert to speak at the Jan. 25 Board of Selectmen’s budget meeting. Ehlert criticized First Selectman Noel Bishop’s lack of commitment to the pledge and his failure to direct town staff to make sure the town complied.
“I’m looking for the town to be supportive and cooperate with commitments that were signed up for in 2013,” said Ehlert.
The town’s Energy Committee has worked over the past few years to fulfill some of the pledge’s commitments such as promoting energy-efficiency in the community and, through participation in the SolarCT program, encouraging residents to install solar panels to heat water and/or make electricity.
But the other commitment is that the town will shift toward clean energy sources for its energy needs and reduce energy consumption in its buildings. To confirm the amount of savings, however, a baseline year must be established.
To assist towns, Eversource and consultants from the firm ICF launched a benchmarking project that, in part, provides an intern to collect information about historical energy usage for all 12 municipal buildings and then enter the data into Portfolio Manager, a software program. This work is conducted at no cost to the town beyond town employee and volunteer assistance.
At the Jan. 25 Board of Selectmen’s meeting, both the selectmen and Finance Manager Andrew Urban appeared to resist actions that the letter of commitment promised the town would take.
Urban stated that neither he nor Schools Business Manager Lesley Wysocki had the time to enter three years’ worth of historical energy usage data into Portfolio Manager. Ehlert clarified the intern’s responsibility to collect and enter historical energy use information. When the data is up to date, town staff would only enter new billings once a month.
After learning of this expectation, Facilities Department Coordinator Jill Brainerd agreed to do the town’s monthly billing data entry.
Ehlert also said that Bishop had failed to assign a Town Hall staff member to participate in in-person training workshops or biweekly conference calls with consultants and Clean Energy Communities program administrators as required.
Selectman Mary Labbadia agreed to attend the next Municipal Bench Marking Initiative in-person training workshops when her schedule permitted.
The final Clean Energy Communities pledge requirement that Ehlert said the town had failed to take action on was a requirement to begin making clean energy purchases for town buildings’ needs. The town had promised to buy 20 percent of its energy from clean energy sources by 2018, but no one in Town Hall had been asked by Bishop to investigate how to meet this goal.
Selectman John Hall in frustration finally asked that Ehlert provide the Board of Selectmen with a written list of actions the town needs to take and answers that must be found to fulfill the pledge and participate in the energy use benchmarking project. Ehlert agreed; a detailed memo with this information was sent to the selectmen’s in-boxes later that same evening.