Speakers: Mass. Must Be First In Renewable Energy
Philip Giudice, commissioner of the state Department of Energy Resources, told an audience at Thursday's 2008 Massachusetts Energy Summit that the state wants all new buildings to use zero net energy by 2030.
Giudice said the ambitious effort would be begun by state facilities and would be the culmination of several pieces of environmental legislation the state recently passed.
The energy summit was produced by the Worcester Business Journal in cooperation with National Grid.
Massachusetts' 351 towns can't be expected to tackle all the state's energy conservation efforts individually, Giudice said. He said the Green Communities Division within the Division of Energy Resources would "help get as much renewable power as possible into each community." The division is currently searching for a director for the Green Communities Division and Giudice said a candidate should be hired soon.
But Giudice said there are steps businesses, individuals and municipal governments can take to help the cause. He said those entities should collect all data on their own energy consumption, compare and "benchmark" that data against others, establish a specific action plan for driving down energy consumption and lowering energy spending and hold each other accountable "to very high standards."
"All of us have been far too comfortable with the status quo," Giudice said. "We all need to move up to another level of commitment and action to make this happen."
The summit also included an address by Mark Rodgers, director of communications for Cape Wind and wrapped up with a panel of three speakers: Ravi Datta, head of Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Fuel Cell Center; Cathy Crumbley of the University of Massachusetts Lowell Center for Sustainable Production and Karina Funk, a partner at Winslow Management Co., a Boston-based "green" investment firm.
Click here for photos from the summit.
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