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The city
and borough governments in Kodiak are teaming with a local non-profit on a
study that will tell them how much greenhouse gas emissions they’re creating,
and eventually help them develop ways to reduce and conserve energy. KMXT’s
Casey Kelly has more.
It’s called
a baseline emissions inventory, and what it does is basically look at how much
energy and waste local governments are using or creating with things like
buildings, streetlights, wastewater treatment facilities, and so on. Once
that’s done officials can look at ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Lisa
Hupp has been hired by the Alaska Marine Conservation Council to conduct the
study on behalf of the city and borough.
(Hupp 1 :29s “…does
that have on climate change?”)
Hupp’s
interest in the project stems from her work with groups like Sustainable Kodiak
and her full-time job as the environmental coordinator with the Woody Island
Tribal Council.
She’ll be using a model developed
by the International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives, or ICLEI, a
group that both the city and borough are members of. Homer recently used a
similar model to develop an action plan of its own. But Hupp says Kodiak’s
study will be tweaked to fit some of our specific needs. For example, most of
the power used by the city and borough comes from the Kodiak Electric
Association’s Terror Lake hydroelectric plant, and KEA has plans to put wind
turbines on top of Pillar Mountain.
(Hupp 2 :20s “…decreasing
our dependence on oil.”)
City
Manager Linda Freed says the city’s involvement in the project is mostly to
allow Hupp access to its records, so she can develop the baseline inventory.
The borough is doing the same.
(Freed 1 :12s “…30th
2007, this past fiscal year.”)
Freed says
it’ll be interesting to see what the study can tell the local governments about
energy use and waste, and what types of reduction measures are feasible.
However, she notes that the city has already taken some steps to reduce its
carbon footprint.
(Freed 2 :34s “…as
well as reduce our energy cost.”)
In addition
to helping with the logistics of the study, the city and borough each kicked in
500 dollars to help pay Hupp for her work. AMCC is picking up the majority of
the tab, which is about 6-thousand dollars, and there’ve been talks with Kodiak
College about contributing as well. Hupp says while the study is intended to
help local governments understand and reduce their emissions, she’s hoping that
it will eventually lead ordinary citizens to do the same.
(Hupp 3 :13s “…step
for a lot of us I think.”)
Hupp will
be working about 20 hours a week on the project and expects to complete her
work by the end of October. I’m Casey Kelly.
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