Taking the Campaign to the Next Level

Overcoming Hurdles

Ann ElsenElsen Energy Associateshttp://ElsenEnergy.com

&David Hauck

May 31, 2008

Cool Cities WorkshopSierra Club – Maryland Chapter

BackgroundOur Perspective

Ann - Where Local Officials and Staff are Coming From

• Examples from Personal Experience • Energy Planner – Montgomery County • State/Local & Public/Private Partnerships –

Maryland Energy Administration• Outreach Coordinator – Prince George’s County

Office of Energy Services• Director of the Maryland Center for Industrial

Energy Efficiency• Executive Director – MDV-SEIA

David – Working with County/City Councils and Internal Champions

OverviewSome Common Hurdles

• Delay – the temptation to wait until the inventory is complete, wait for stakeholders to reach consensus, wait for next budget cycle…forever

• Funding – how to get it, how to start without it.

• Institutional Memory – lack if it, both for the jurisdiction and the environmental advocate – do we need to repeat the process again?

Campaign DynamicsWho is the Audience?

Locating an internal championmaintaining trust and support

Identifying decision makers The champion doesn’t necessarily have

authorityIdentifying Key Problems

The discussion: This is the right thing to do. Got that. What else do you have?

Cool Cities Process - Momentum

• Signing the Agreement is Step #1 – no time to catch your breath now

• Next Hurdles – moving through inventory and participatory process to ACTUAL reductions (Ann)

• Effectiveness of Legislation – Montgomery County example (David)

Pursuing Measures Rather than Process

Early action important because:• Renewable Energy

• 3 years lead time for measures not unusual• Energy Efficiency

• Cost of delay• Race to defer power plant/transmission

approval• Solid Waste

• Can be motivator for real economic change • Transportation

• Road and land use projects happening now

Build Accountability Into Inventory

• What is measured? (ex. kWh consumption, VMT, volume of refuse)

• Who will measure it?• When will it be measured? Monthly?

Annually? Other?• What is specific role of the Sierra Club?

Who? When?• How do we define progress/achievement?

Need quantifiable performance measures for reductions.

• Differentiate emissions reductions from “process.”

• A completed inventory or action plan is not a reduction.

Funding – the Continuous Hurdle

• Not everything costs money – avoid pitfalls of expensive planning processes, target resources to measures

• Many strategies save money – energy efficiency boosts the economy and reduces internal government utility budget, PAYT reduces MSW expenses

• Securing a revenue stream

Who has done this before?• Local Officials don’t want to invent the

wheel, or go first. • Provide examples of laws passed, measures

implemented, and/or results from other cities experience

• What are the basic elements of an action plan? Best practices?

• Can we provide a menu of options from successes elsewhere?

• Who are the keepers of institutional memory?

• How will the Sierra Club maintain and pass on records of local efforts/progress/challenges?

“Action brings good fortune.”