How green was my city?

April 8, 2007

WHEN IT comes to achieving the twin goals of curbing greenhouse gases and reducing demand for the globe's limited reserves of fossil fuels, energy conservation beats out wind turbines, ethanol, or nuclear power. That's why efficiency improvements will be the focus of the ambitious energy plan for Cambridge that was recently unveiled by city officials and the non profit Cambridge Energy Alliance. The plan, which could be a model for Boston and other cities, deserves the support of those who will make it work: the city's employers and residents.

The slogan for the program is "saving money and the planet." It will do both by making it easy and affordable for the universities, hospitals, businesses, and residents of Cambridge to take advantage of low-tech improvements such as insulation and more efficient lightbulbs and air conditioners.

Financing for the $70 million revolving fund that will pay for the improvements will come in part from conservation fees on utility bills and from a statewide utility rate increase whose proceeds will go toward either efficiency gains or new power generating units. Most of the money will be borrowed from lenders who know how reliable the payoff in efficiency is, especially at a time when the cost of energy is steadily rising. The program will need no local or state tax money.

The alliance and Cambridge officials are negotiating an arrangement with NStar, provider of both electricity and natural gas in the city, that would permit customers to pay off efficiency improvement loans through their utility bills. NStar is a partner in the program even though conservation will cut its sales.

In its first phase, the city and the alliance hope to reduce the city's total greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent and its peak power load of 350 megawatts by 14 percent. This decrease in demand would come at the same time that new electric devices in homes and businesses would otherwise be pushing up power usage. If the same electricity savings could be achieved statewide in the next five years, it would eliminate the need for two new major power plants. Beyond efficiency improvements, the alliance envisions installation at large energy users of cogeneration systems, in which one unit supplies both electricity and hot air or water for space heating or industrial purposes.

Focusing energy conservation on a city makes sense because any community presents so many opportunities for efficiency gains in one locale. There is another advantage as well. The program is voluntary, and it will be much easier to build a consensus in favor of participation if businesses and residents see their neighbors taking part and benefiting. Once the program is seen to work in Cambridge, it will be the city's neighbors -- especially Boston -- that should line up to duplicate its achievements.