Dec 12 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Patrick Cassidy Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.


If residents of the Cape and Islands are going to substantially cut their use of carbon-emitting fossil fuels, it will require major adjustments in how they drive, stay warm and live.

"These are really dramatic changes," renewable energy advocate Chris Powicki said during a workshop held yesterday at the Woods Hole Research Center to announce strategies for meeting a set of ambitious energy usage goals for the region.

Powicki, president of the event's co-sponsor, Cape and Islands Renewable Energy Collaborative, laid out how the region could reduce by 50 percent the amount of fossil fuel used in the transportation sector by 2020.

The goal is one of three the collaborative crafted in a "call to action" issued almost two years ago.

The nonprofit renewable energy advocacy group also called for a 50-percent reduction in fossil fuels used for heating and a 100-percent reduction in fossil fuels used for electricity in the next decade.

The Electric Power Research Institute provided funding to analyze information from local utilities, the Cape Light Compact, businesses, and the state and federal governments to establish a baseline of local energy usage.

Although the local goals are ambitious, speakers at yesterday's workshop said they could be met.

Cutting in half fossil fuel use for transportation, for example, would require 77,000 new plug-in hybrid vehicles, Powicki said. Plug-in hybrids are not available commercially, he said.

In addition, car-free travel would have to be expanded, including the implementation of passenger rail service to Hyannis and Falmouth, expanded bus service, and bicycle paths, he said.

The use of biodiesel for ferries and trains would also be necessary, he said.

"To make this happen, we need better policies across the board," Powicki said.

To meet the goal of halving the Cape and Islands' use of an estimated 20.2 trillion Btus of fossil fuel for heating buildings and water, new buildings would have to be constructed with energy efficiency in mind and existing structures would have to be retrofitted, said Richard Lawrence of Nor'easter Consulting.

Unlike in the transportation sector, the technology to make homes more efficient already exists, he said. "What we're going to need is the workforce," Lawrence said.

Eliminating the use of fossil fuels for electricity is probably the most attainable of the three goals, Powicki said.

"Wind is the only thing we've got to meet the 2020 goal," he said.

But, as opposition to the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm and the state's ocean management plan have demonstrated, public acceptance and support is necessary if offshore wind is to play the dominant role that is a must to help the region cut its fossil fuel usage, he said.

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