Local Alternative Energy Solar Panel Zoning Ordinance Adopted in Monroeville by Wanda Guthrie
U.S. leadership in the global clean energy race. Monroeville is the first In Pennsylvania, municipality in our area to PennFuture has collaborated adopt a Solar Panel Zoning with the Department of Ordinance. Environmental Protection, and The U.S. Department of they have developed a model Energy has funded and ordinance and zoning code for coordinated the SunShot solar power installation on Initiative to make solar energy homes and small businesses. cost competitive with other This was a year in the making forms of energy by the end of and is now available for all the decade. Reducing the municipalities to consider installed cost of solar energy with the hope that it will lower systems by about 75% will barriers residents and drive widespread, large-scale businesses face when looking adoption of this renewable to install new systems. energy technology and restore PennFuture has involved 24
local governments in Allegheny and Beaver counties including Upper Saint Clair, Pittsburgh, and Monaca. The model ordinance breaks down many barriers to installing a solar energy system, including filing multiple forms. PennFuture Project Manager Sharon Pillar said most Pennsylvania municipalities have no regulations for solar energy systems. "The municipalities don't know really what to ask for or how to regulate the systems,"
Pillar said on NPR recently. "Sometimes [the municipalities] are not protecting themselves or their residents, or in many cases they're over-regulating and asking for things that are burdensome, particularly on the permitting process." Pillar said that because of that, more time and money are spent on installing a solar energy system on homes and businesses than is necessary. Monroeville has already adopted the model ordinance and zoning codes, but the group isn't stopping
there. Pillar said PennFuture is now looking for a second round of funding for SunShot Rooftop Challenge #2. "We're looking for municipalities to participate in that project to consider the ordinances and the permitting process, and also an online permitting process that we're looking at," Pillar said. Wanda Guthrie is chair of the Merton Center Environmental Justice and Education and Outreach Committee and a member of the TMC board.
Wind Power is Coming on Strong in Pennsylvania by Titus North Wind power is coming on strong in Pennsylvania and across the United States. Over 40% of the new electrical generating capacity installed in the U.S. in 2012 was wind-powered. This comes despite the gas boom, which is being driven by controversial hydraulic fracturing (fracking) technology (Office of Energy Projects Energy Infrastructure Update for December 2012, http://www.ferc.gov). Wind power has been the fastest-growing source of new electric power generation for several years now. In five states, wind already represents more than 10% of electricity generation, and that number is set to grow (Annual report - American Wind Energy Association). Here in Pennsylvania, more and more consumers are seeking wind electricity, and 1000 households (mostly in Pittsburgh) have joined Citizen Power’s Green Energy Collaborative in order to switch to a 100% Pennsylvania wind plan offered by TriEagle Energy. Due to the falling cost of producing wind electricity, these households actually SAVED money on their electric bills by switching to wind. So how important is wind power? Consider the fact that America's largest nuclear operator, Exelon, campaigned vigorously against the extension of federal wind production tax credits. Exelon CEO Christopher Crane told the Chicago Tribune that the rapid pace of subsidized wind-generated electric power could ultimately force it to shutter nuclear plants. "What worries me is if we continue to courtesy Akiko Morrow
Source Creative Commons 10 - NEWPEOPLE
March 2013
build an excessive amount of wind and subsidize wind, the unintended consequence could be that it leads to shutting down plants." In the wake of Fukushima, the shutting down of nuclear plants should be one of the intended consequences of building more wind farms. Mr. Crane seems to have forgotten that the entire U.S. Department of Energy was created primarily to subsidize the splitting of atoms, both for power generation and weapons production, and most of its budget since its creation has gone towards nuclear production, maintenance, and clean-up. So there is more than just a little bit of hypocrisy when a nuclear executive complains about wind subsidies. Of course, nuclear is not the only energy source that receives subsidies and special treatment from the government. Consider the cost in terms of the military budget that has been expended to preserve access to overseas oil supplies. Consider the exemptions from the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act for hydraulic fracturing enjoyed by Marcellus shale gas producers. Consider the fact that the government has been receiving belowmarket prices for coal mined on Federal lands for decades. In terms of impact on the environment and public health, there is no comparison between wind on the one hand and nuclear and fossil fuels on the other. Like all human industrial activities, the generation of electricity from wind has some impact, but through design and siting improvements these have become negligible compared to other energy resources. In the early 1990s, poorly designed and sited turbines in California’s Altamont Pass killed significant numbers of large birds. However, the modern turbines that have been constructed as part of the ongoing wind boom are higher off the ground, spin more slowly, and do not provide nesting opportunities for birds. The result is that now even the Audubon Society “strongly supports properly-sited wind power as a clean alternative energy source that reduces the threat of global warming” (policy.audubon.org). Meanwhile, nuclear power has created numerous ghost towns and no-go zones around Chernobyl and Fukushima. Frequent oil spills wreak havoc with
The Thomas Merton Center is a proud consumer of TriEagle Energy. marine ecosystems. Fracking is creating Los Angeles-style smog in rural drilling areas. And regardless of what one might think about the aesthetic qualities of wind turbines on mountain ridges, mountain top removal, which is rampant in near-by West Virginia, permanently damages both mountains and the valleys below. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the rise of wind energy is that it comes at the same time as the fracking boom. Drilling companies have come rushing into Pennsylvania in order to take advantage of inadequate environmental regulations and the absence of a severance tax on natural gas production from Marcellus Shale, with the result being a
natural gas glut that has driven down electricity prices. The fact that in such an environment there was actually more new wind generation capacity than gas generation capacity demonstrates the economic viability of wind. Just think how much faster wind and other viable sources of renewable energy could come online if it wasn’t for the all the favors that gas drillers and the rest of the dirty energy lobby weren’t extracting from our politicians. Titus North is the Executive Director of Citizen Power, Inc. For more information on Citizen Power’s Green Energy Collaborative, visit http:// www.citizenpower.com/GEC/