Newsletter Volume 2 • Number 26
Absent leadership from top, town projects get the green light without green energy
Since 2021, the Board of Selectmen’s Energy Management Advisory Committee has made recommendations to reduce the town government’s energy usage by 20-40% to meet the energy goal of the Plan of Conservation and Development. Yet, major projects are getting the green light without including green energy. Where’s the leadership from the top?
The result is that our community is committing to decades more of polluting technologies that waste money and energy, harm public health, and increase our carbon footprint. Case in point is our schools, which in fiscal 2022 were responsible for 52% of the town government’s energy consumption and half of its carbon footprint, at a cost to taxpayers of $3.15 million. This is where we could move the needle, cutting operating costs significantly, reducing energy consumption, and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.
Natural gas prices have risen 57% in the last two years, and the Town remains vulnerable to volatile price escalations in the future. Not so with renewable energy systems.
Greenwich Public Schools are leaving money on the table by spurning federal tax benefits for schools transitioning to clean energy through the Inflation Reduction Act. Manchester, CT took advantage of federal cash reimbursements for their Bowers School, and Fort River School in Amherst, MA expects to earn over $4.6M in federal incentives for ground-source heat pumps, solar, and energy storage, making the renewable energy system less costly than one operated with fossil fuels.
Without leadership from the top, committees are left floundering.
Instead of going with renewable, high-performance technologies that save money, town leaders are choosing outdated, legacy systems for recent school projects that burn fossil fuels and taxpayer dollars. For example:
- At Hamilton Avenue School, the BET approved $3.2 million for a gas-fired boiler to replace the existing ground-source heat pump, despite recommendations of experts hired by the district who recommended fixing the existing geothermal system, which was damaged by improper operations.
- For the new Central Middle School, the town building committee spurned recommendations of a scientific and engineering consulting firm, which favored a geothermal system with a solar array, the option with the lowest initial costs and lowest expenses over 50 years.
- At Greenwich High School, the BOE committed over $20 million to a multi-phase retrofit of its old HVAC systems, including a chiller replacement that binds Greenwich to polluting fossil fuel systems.
Who’s in charge?
Our town’s professionals, especially those at Greenwich Public Schools who would be in charge of maintaining and operating these systems, say they don’t have the staff or knowledge to do so. (The damaged Hamilton Avenue School system serves as Exhibit A of that.)
Even our Democratic representatives, who all strongly support energy conservation, say they have little choice in the face of these limitations. “We have all these committees and departments working in isolation, but no comprehensive plan or leadership to move ideas forward,” one noted.
At the same time, the committees that have been formed to advise on policy, such as the Sustainability Committee and the Energy Management Advisory Committee (EMAC), have no power or authority, and aren’t positioned to interact with agencies in town that do. As one EMAC committee member put it, “It’s an excellent committee, it just doesn’t get listened to.”
This should be where our First Selectman steps in, with vision, executive authority, a plan, and leadership skills that bring town staff and committees together. He might choose to empower the Energy Management Advisory Committee, develop a plan to implement its recommendations and use his bully pulpit to make things happen.
Greenwich is failing to transition to cost effective, sustainable, and healthier energy. Our leaders are burdening taxpayers with polluting—and costly—fossil fuel systems instead of clean renewables. And time is running out.
| Volume 2, Number 26 • November 30, 2023 |
| Paid for by the Greenwich Democratic Town Committee. |
| Greenwich Democratic Town Committee P.O. Box 126 Greenwich, CT 06836 |