Board talks energy ideas

Seacoast Online
September 26, 2007

By Herb Perry

http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070926/NEWS/709260337/-1/NEWS15&sfad=1

YORK — Selectmen devoted Monday's meeting to hear presentations about energy efficiency, Route 1 land use violations, and a plan to reconfigure a dangerous intersection.

Eric Hopkins and Brad Hunter of the York Energy Efficiency Committee asked the board to consider joining 672 other municipalities nationwide in adhering to the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. The agreement obligates communities to reduce greenhouse gases to 7 percent below 1990 emissions by 2012.

Eleven Maine towns have signed up, including Saco, Hopkins said. Saco Councilman Eric Cote told selectmen and a large meeting room audience, "You can't lose doing an energy saving project."

Last year, Saco spent $300,000 in energy improvements, such as replacing old refrigerators, installing solar heating panels, and erecting a wind turbine, investments from which it expects to pay for themselves in three years, Cote said.

York Hospital's director of engineering, Clark James, said energy efficiency initiatives are "the fiscally responsible thing to do," adding that the hospital can spend about $250,000 less a year by implementing energy saving policies.

But the presentation was not without critics. Resident Charles Tracy asked Hopkins where he would recommend placing windmills. Acknowledging the controversy of what he was about to say, Hopkins suggested the top of Mount Agamenticus.

Thinking of other windy areas, Tracy then warned him, "If you believe the town of York would have a windmill along the coast, you'd better think again."