Association Calls For Bold,
Comprehensive Program to Create
New Energy Future For Adirondack Park
Major Role Envisioned for Adirondack Park Agency, New York Power Authority, NYS Energy Research and Development Authority, and Local Communities to Make Park a Model of Clean, Green, Climate-Friendly Energy Conservation, Efficiency, and Sustainable Use
Lake Placid, N.Y. – The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks unveils its Power for the Park report at the Annual Conference on the Adirondacks in Lake Placid on Thursday May 25, calling it a "blueprint for action" to deal comprehensively with the economic, social, and environmental challenges of energy production, delivery, and use in the Adirondack Park.
The Association's Director of Special Projects, Michael DiNunzio, authored the report and will deliver it to the Adirondack Research Consortium's annual conference at the Lake Placid Hilton. "Record-high prices for gasoline and home heating oil are hitting Adirondackers very hard," DiNunzio says, "but these are merely the most recent, obvious effects of America's addiction to oil, which in turn is part of a larger complex of energy-related problems. For example, Park residents, visitors, and ecosystems have suffered for years from the ill effects of acid precipitation and mercury contamination that result from our nation's reliance on coal for much of our electricity and from the energy-wasteful lifestyle we have come to expect as our birthright."
"If we are to move quickly and relatively painlessly into the post-carbon age," DiNunzio said, "we need the support and encouragement of government, in the form of both incentives and disincentives." The Association is calling for all new construction in the Adirondack Park to meet a certain minimum standard of energy efficiency, and is asking the NYS Adirondack Park Agency to ensure that this requirement is made an integral part of its project permitting system. For example, new homes and businesses that meet the standards of New York's Energy Star label outperform conventional buildings by at least 30%.
"Currently, the Adirondack Park Agency is barely responding to the Park's energy issues by occasionally issuing energy information requests of larger subdivision applicants. The APA issues no guidelines, makes no demands, imposes no conditions that subdividers and construction companies build to the state's own Energy Star standards. The APA is allowing new homes to be constructed that are, from an energy conservation standpoint, built like birdcages. In today's energy climate and with electric bills going literally through the roof, that is indefensible. The APA must enter the energy arena, and quickly," says Association Executive Director David Gibson.
"In fact," continues DiNunzio, "it doesn't make economic or ecological sense to do otherwise, since it's even more cost effective to use energy efficient boilers, air conditioning units, windows, and insulation in new construction than it is to retrofit existing buildings." In addition to Energy Star, a popular set of efficiency criteria are contained in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards created by the United States Green Building Council.
The availability of grants, low interest loans, and other programs offered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the New York Power Authority that promote energy efficiency should be widely applied and modified as necessary to broaden participation in communities throughout the Park.
"I think it's only reasonable to expect a minimum level of energy efficiency in the larger homes now being built in the Park," DiNunzio maintains. "After all, Adirondack residents in the Tri-Lakes have suffered with rolling blackouts and electric heating moratoria for years. They are watching as the APA and local planning boards permit vacation home owners and other newcomers to grab the lion's share of new power to heat their million dollar homes that are rated poorly for energy conservation and efficiency. It would be so much more cost effective and beneficial for the local economy to implement an array of existing and new incentive programs to help Park residents make their homes more energy efficient. We must not permit the construction of new homes and businesses that perpetuate the wasteful, energy-inefficient practices spawned in the age of cheap oil."
DiNunzio suggests that one of the first steps on the path to an "energy smart Park" should be the development of a comprehensive energy plan for the region, prepared by experts in the industry, local officials, non-governmental organizations, and Adirondack residents.
The current crisis at the gas pump is driving calls for fuel tax abatement, repeal of ethanol import duties, and even drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Association points out that these are all short-term, quick fix solutions that will not move us away from our dependence on fossil fuels and toward the use of renewable energy sources such as solar, biofuels, and small-scaled, low-impact wind and hydro projects.
DiNunzio further explains that despite our best efforts to use efficient, renewable sources of energy in our homes, businesses, and transportation systems, we will still produce a certain amount of greenhouse gas emissions, primarily in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2), thereby contributing to the problem of global warming. Adirondack forests that remain unharvested, such as the publicly owned "forever wild" Forest Preserve, store significant amounts of carbon (a process called sequestration) that might otherwise be released into the atmosphere as CO2. This raises the intriguing possibility of buying land for the Adirondack Forest Preserve, which contains a healthy mix of trees of all ages, as a way of offsetting carbon emissions and enhancing the quality of our regional environment by providing abundant wildlife, clean water, and recreational opportunities while reducing the rate of global warming.
Together, the public Forest Preserve and the sustainably-managed private forests in the Park might well sequester more CO2 than Park residents produce, thereby functioning as a net "sink" for CO2 produced elsewhere. If this proves to be the case, our landowners could eventually qualify for income from a global CO2 credit trading system, similar to the sulfur dioxide credits now traded in the United States.
According to Dr. Bill Vitek, an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Clarkson University who spoke at an Association-sponsored forum on energy last fall, the Adirondack Park could meet the challenges posed by the end of the age of oil and make a relatively smooth, carefully-planned transition to a more sustainable energy economy. Rather than suffering an economic and ecological collapse, it could instead develop into an example of a region that depends on local sources of renewable energy, that derives a thriving economy without destroying or downgrading Adirondack ecosystems, that produces and consumes a regional food supply, and that engages its inhabitants in an active and inclusive civic agenda.
"In the final analysis," says Bill Vitek, "we need to start thinking now about the best ways to prepare for the transition away from the age of oil, instead of meeting it later with panic and despair. Together, we can fashion an economically vibrant Adirondack Park without over-development or the stripping of resources, a Park in which natural ecosystems and human communities thrive together. With a bit of luck and a good deal of hard work and thought, the Adirondack Park can emerge as a model of a post-carbon community that has thrived in – rather than merely survived – the peak oil transition."
View the full text of the special report entitled Power for the Park.
The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks is a non-profit organization founded in 1901 to employ public education, citizen action, public and private partnerships and strong advocacy to protect, enhance, and sustain the wild character, ecological integrity, and mutual well-being of the natural and human communities of the Adirondack region. The Association's Center for the Forest Preserve in Niskayuna serves as an Adirondack research library and learning center.