Mayor: Bill Haslam
Date of Adoption:
2006-12-13
Primary Contact:
David Reister
Why My City is Cool
Friday, August 31, 2007
Energy group should be open to all ideas, mayor says
By Hayes Hickman
Austin, Texas, a city comparable in size to the Knoxville metro area, imposed a new building code last year requiring all new homes to be built to net-zero energy capable standards after 2015.
That means all homes would supply the local power grid with an annual output of electricity that is at least equal to the power purchased from the grid.
The seemingly audacious goal got a bit of a chuckle when Robert Hawsey mentioned it to the city of Knoxville’s new Energy and Sustainability Task Force at its first meeting Thursday. But his point was well taken.
“We ought to put things like that on the table for public debate,” said Hawsey, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy and Electricity Delivery Program.
Mayor Bill Haslam told the 16-member panel that he expects the city’s new energy efficiency effort to offer feasible and cost-effective ideas, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t think outside the box.
“I’m sure once we start talking about implementation of energy reductions, we’ll have some people who say we’re not being radical enough, and we’ll have some who say we’re too radical,” the mayor said. “Hopefully, that’ll be the beauty of this group.”
The team includes a wealth of local expertise on the subject, including representatives of ORNL, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the U.S. Green Building Council and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
“We’ve got a unique group of people to start attacking this,” the mayor said.
Step one already is under way, with an inventory of the city’s overall energy usage, including electricity, water and gas, as well as greenhouse gas emissions and waste.
A separate tally of all buildings, vehicle miles traveled and solid waste produced within the city as a whole also will be totaled, said Madeleine Weil, the task force’s chairwoman.
Technical assistance in the tasks will come from Local Governments for Sustainability, an international effort with some 800 members that now includes the city of Knoxville.
The city has signed on to the group’s flagship campaign, Cities for Climate Protection.
The task force is expected to select an energy performance consultant to recommend options for greater efficiencies among the 74 buildings owned by the city, which cost taxpayers about $10 million in energy bills last year, Haslam said.
All of that work is aimed at delivering concrete goals and timelines for both reduced environmental impacts and cost savings, he said.
A yet-to-be-scheduled public meeting also should be held next month to promote the task force’s work and take suggestions, said Bill Lyons, the city’s director of policy development.
Yet he, too, stressed that the goals ultimately must be couched in the political and economic realities of costs versus benefits.
“We’ve got to be very straightforward about what we’re doing and what the constraints are,” Lyons said.
Ideally, however, the effort could prove to be a model for changing behaviors in the community at large, he added.
“This is just good policy any way you look at it,” Lyons said. “It’s worth all of our energy.”
Hayes Hickman may be reached at 865-342-6323.
E.W. Scripps Co.
© 2007 Knoxville News Sentinel
New energy panel urged to 'aim big'
Haslam appointees will first focus on audit of buildings
By Hayes Hickman (Contact)
Thursday, August 9, 2007
The Sunsphere was built as the centerpiece of Knoxville’s energy-themed World’s Fair in 1982, and City Councilman Chris Woodhull says he’d like to see that symbolism become relevant again.
Woodhull, one of 16 appointees to Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam’s new Energy and Sustainability Task Force, said he hopes the panel will aim for the sort of “big goal” that could establish the city as a leader in energy efficiency.
“I’d like to try to do everything we possibly can to get back to 1982,” he said. “Maybe like a net-zero Knoxville kind of brand. You have to create a big idea.”
The task force, scheduled for its first meeting Aug. 30, will initially focus on an energy-usage audit of all buildings owned and operated by the city, as well as the City County Building, said Madeleine Weil, the city’s deputy director of policy development and the task force’s chairwoman.
A request for proposals is being drafted now for a consultant to conduct the audit and, in turn, offer recommendations for improving efficiency among all city facilities.
“But it’s not going to be limited to that,” said Weil, who coordinated the energy and air quality programs for the city of New Haven, Conn., before joining Haslam’s staff in January.
She also plans to focus the task force’s search for efficiencies in other areas, including the city’s vehicle fleet and its garbage.
Other members of the committee represent a wealth of local expertise on the subject, Weil said, including representatives of the Tennessee Valley Authority, Knoxville Utilities Board, the University of Tennessee’s Science Alliance, the local chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
“These are some of the best experts on energy efficiency in the country,” Weil said.
Such work can make improvements in a variety of areas, such as global climate change and local air quality, “but at the same time, save money,” she said.
“And I agree with (Woodhull), and the mayor’s on board,” Weil said. “We want to aim big.”
Hayes Hickman may be reached at 865-342-6323.
© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
