The Adirondack Park has long been a model for the conservation of wild nature in a lived-in landscape. But the ultimate success of this model is threatened by several challenges, such as the need to prevent environmental damage while meeting the demand for dependable, affordable, electrical power that is accessible to Park residents, businesses, and visitors. For example, over the past several decades, lakes and forests in the Adirondack region have suffered the devastating effects of acid and mercury deposition, much of it produced in conjunction with the burning of fossil fuels to produce electricity. And we are beginning to see impacts on the region from global climate change, which also results largely from energy production and use.

Producing clean power from renewable sources such as wind is one way to combat the negative effects of hydrocarbon-based electric generation, but this option is not necessarily appropriate in the Park. If, for example, wind turbines were mounted on 400-foot towers on mountaintops and ridgelines, they would mar the Park's scenic assets and undermine the framework of laws and policies that have long attracted people and economic investment to the region. For this reason, the Association announced its opposition to a proposal to erect ten wind turbines on Pete Gay Mountain (just north of Gore Mountain) this past April because those towers would compromise the Park's wild forest character, contribute little in the way of renewable energy, and set a bad precedent for the placement of towers of any kind in highly visible locations anywhere within the entire six-million-acre Adirondack Park.

So what can residents and businesses in the Adirondack Park do in the energy field that would help sustain the wild character of the Park while providing needed electricity? And what can our Association offer in this regard?

Since conserving energy and using it more efficiently is always less costly than building new capacity, we propose a concerted program of energy conservation and efficiency. Such a program will not only mark the Adirondack Park as a role model for the state and region in terms of environmental health, it will also result in lower costs for consumers, more dollars spent locally, and fewer dollars sent out of the region to purchase more polluting, nonrenewable oil and gas.

In an effort to deal comprehensively with the myriad challenges and demands of energy-related issues in the Adirondack Park, the Association is collaborating with key partners to promote and facilitate energy conservation, efficiency, sustainable technology deployment, and wise use. More will be announced about this collaboration later this summer. However, at the Association's 104th annual meeting on July 1st at the Inn at College Park, Schenectady, our keynote speakers highlighted many of the cutting edge issues and their potential solutions that we are jointly seeking to address with our Energy $mart coalition partners.

Our speakers were Charles G. Fox, Governor Pataki's Deputy Secretary for Energy and Environment, and Ann Heidenreich, Director of Community Energy Services Inc. and Coordinator of the North Country Energy $mart Communities program. The Energy $mart program is operated in the Park by the Environmental Business Association of New York State, Inc. under contract to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

Charlie Fox said that energy issues boiled down in his mind to two stark facts: The Adirondack Park is downwind of the nation's electricity generators, hence downwind of acid rain precursors, and part of an energy consuming state, therefore vulnerable to price and supply fluctuations, disruptions, and movement of tens of billions of dollars out of state to pay for nonrenewable resources. What can be done?

Renewable energy sources are one answer, he said, but only so long as they do not compromise the scenic and aesthetic beauty and environmental quality of the Adirondack Park in any way. For instance, Fox is excited about the possibilities of using waste wood from sustainably harvested private forests in the Adirondacks to fuel electrical co-generation facilities. By so doing, the revenue from these lands could be improved by selling non-merchantable timber or waste wood for use in co-generation facilities supplying electricity, steam and hot water. He is also interested in the use of biodiesel fuel from vegetable oil to help fuel our state's transportation sector. And he is excited about the possibility of employing ethanol made from low-grade wood fiber harvested from private Adirondack forests, including lands protected by state-held easements that allow sustainable forestry to be practiced. What could be better, Fox asked, than tapping the productivity of Adirondack working forests by managing them to fuel our cars with renewable energy, and keeping those energy dollars instate? Phrased another way, where would you rather have your energy come from, Speculator, New York, or Saudi Arabia?

Increasing the efficiency by which we use energy in our homes, businesses, vehicles and appliances is another critical choice we must make, he said. By so doing, we can create new jobs and prevent our scarce energy dollars from going overseas. Fox said that of the 55,000 gigawatt-hours of electrical efficiency that could be easily captured in New York State, we are only using ten percent of that today. There is enormous room for improvement, improvements that could increase our state and national security as well as the health of our environment.

Unfortunately, there are many disincentives to conserving electricity today. For example, customers in Lake Placid and Tupper Lake receive very cheap municipal power generated by the New York Power Authority's St. Lawrence hydro facilities. By law, these rates are kept to .04 cents per kilowatt-hour. This contrasts with .12 cents on average in the region, and .17 cents on Long Island. With rates so cheap, many people in these North Country communities rely on electric resistance and electrically fired hot water heating systems, which are among the most inefficient ways to use electricity.

A new 46-kv transmission line is now being proposed to improve electrical reliability in the Tri-Lakes region of the Adirondacks, where the current shortfall in electrical capacity in the winter has caused local governments in the area to temporarily ban new electrically heated homes and businesses. New electrical demands from facilities such as a planned Convention Center in Lake Placid and major housing developments proposed for the region pose great challenges unless incentives and requirements to boost energy conservation and efficiencies are built into the system.

Fox announced that a major conference on energy in the Adirondacks would be held later this year in order to build public awareness of the issues involved. He is very excited about the possibilities for working with the Association and its collaborators towards an Energy $mart Park.

Ann Heidenreich is at the very epicenter of the Energy $mart Park equation. She lives in the St. Lawrence Valley, but travels widely throughout the North Country to promote the Energy $mart Communities program. Participating communities, like Canton, Saranac Lake and Wilmington, have pledged to "plug the electrical leaks" wherever possible and to take advantage of the incentives for doing so that are made available through use of the "systems benefit charge" on our electric utility bill, managed by the NYSERDA. In turn, these communities reap the economic and environmental benefits that come from making available electricity more productive through efficiency. Fast paybacks are possible, since relatively easy and inexpensive steps can be taken to improve efficiency by about thirty percent. Ann calculates that nearly $100 million could be saved right away in the Adirondack region, with those savings retained in the 104 towns and villages of the Adirondack Park.

It all starts with a home or business energy audit, which is an assessment of the energy performance of buildings that is subsidized by NYSERDA. "You get more than you pay for," Ann said. She strongly encourages audits for existing homes and businesses and for building "Energy Star" homes whenever new construction is undertaken in the region. Energy Star homes and businesses outperform standard energy efficient homes by thirty percent. "Just orienting your new house correctly could result in major energy savings," she reminded us.

Clearly, Ann Heidenreich has a lot to teach us about how to achieve greater energy efficiency and conservation in the Adirondacks. The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks looks forward to working with her and with our other coalition partners ever more closely as the Energy $mart Park initiative continues to gain momentum.

For more information about the Energy $mart Park initiative, contact the Association's Mike DiNunzio, or await further updates on this topic on our web site, www.protectadks.org.