What can we do with this?

[02roadking]

Ideas?

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-10-12/story/jacksonville_city_hall_asks_how_to_spend_federal_energy_cash

[BridgeTroll]

This should really get more attention...

Jacksonville City Hall asks how to spend federal energy cash
City has millions to spend on energy conservation throughout three years.
By Steve Patterson Story updated at 6:18 AM on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009

Have an idea?
Ideas for raising energy efficiency in Jacksonville can be e-mailed to EECBG.Projects@rsandh.com or phoned in to (904) 256-2239.  The deadline is Thursday.

With a promise in hand of federal money to conserve energy, Jacksonville City Hall wants ideas on how to spend nearly $8 million.

“Everybody’s got their ideas on energy conservation,” said Derek Igou, the city’s sustainability officer. “We’re narrowing this list down right now, and we wanted to make sure we give the public a chance to share.”

The city will have three years to spend $7.6 million on anything from energy audits in houses to installing renewable power systems on government buildings.

A separate $250,000 federal payment was used to hire a consulting company to plan an efficiency campaign. That company, Reynolds, Smith and Hills, is asking people to e-mail or phone in ideas by Thursday.

A draft plan is due to the city soon after that.

So far, a lot of the city’s focus is on making its own buildings more energy efficient.

There are ways to do that in a lot of buildings without gutting them and starting from scratch, said Tom Larson, who chairs the Northeast Florida Sierra Club Florida and works as a policy manager for the nonprofit Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Ordinary wear and tear and piecemeal repairs can cause waste in heating and air systems and other parts of a building, Larson said.

“If you don’t keep your building tuned, you lose your opportunities” to control utility costs,  he said.

He said the city recently finished that re-tuning process in the main library downtown, which only opened four years ago.

Jacksonville’s federal windfall comes from a $168 million batch of block grants the U.S. Department of Energy is distributing around Florida. Although 86 cities or counties are targeted under the program, there’s only one in Northeast Florida.

Because the Energy Department plans to have cities compete for other grants, Jacksonville can get a head start by using this money wisely, Igou said.

Igou talked in May about the potential for cutting waste in city buildings with that grant, said Natasha Chapman, organizer of a meetup group, Sustainable Jacksonville, where he discussed the project. That would save taxpayer money by lowering fuel bills as well as cutting pollution from power plants.

While Chapman said she’d like to see some money to inventory greenhouse gas emissions and plans for cutting those, she said she appreciated the value of making city buildings greener.

“I think it’s perfectly sensible for them to try to set an example,” Chapman said. “First it happens in the government sphere, and then businesses emulate it.”

Larson said he’s been encouraging city officials to get ideas from the public, and considered the reaction receptive but cautious. While he’d like more public discussion, he said there may be very practical reasons for the city to be wary of who’s giving advice.

“You’ve got profit-oriented groups circling. …  Some of them have the mouse trap in their mind  or on paper, but they’ve never built one,” he said. “We need people to be wise, but yet committed to advancing things.”

steve.patterson@jacksonville.com,
(904) 359-4263

A few suggestions to get things started...

Solar panels on all government buildings.

Fuel efficient or Hybrid police vehicles for patrolling the urban core.

Upgrade street lighting to energy efficient technologies

Cmon guys... I know there are more "green" people than myself...

[thelakelander]

From a transit point of view:

- Second part of streetcar study.  If we want a streetcar and the benefits that come with it, we have to move the thing forward.  A $1 million or so would do that.

- Amtrak DT. It would only take a couple of hundred thousand to construct no frills platforms at the Prime Osborn and somewhere between Jax and St. Augustine.  If the Amtrak/FEC project comes on line, you have a corridor already set up for limited rail commuting between DT, the Southside and St. Augustine on Amtrak's dime.  When we finally get around to full blown commuter rail (it could be a decade out), we'll already have some infrastructure, ridership and TOD in place.

Imo, anything that helps speed up the transformation of this city from the 100% auto dependent community it is today will get us further than sticking a few solar energy panels on public buildings.

[BridgeTroll]

I agree 100% Lake... I guess the question is... Does a streetcar study and moving AMTRAK downtown fit the parameters of the Federal grant money.

[Sportmotor]

Throw a HUGE Kegger!!! 

[thelakelander]

I agree 100% Lake... I guess the question is... Does a streetcar study and moving AMTRAK downtown fit the parameters of the Federal grant money.

I can't find the other thread but it mentioned the money could be used for transportation related projects.

[mvp]

Direct link to the EECBG program with all the details:

http://www.eecbg.energy.gov/

[hillary supporter]

Provide $$$ incentives for solar power in jax residencies
commit funding to motor pool for ELECTRIC vechicles
Provide $$$ incentives for ELECTRIC  vechicles to jax residents

[Sportmotor]

no one likes the kegger idea?

[JeffreyS]

Kegger kegger kegger and chips oh yeah a band. Kings of Leon maybe

[stjr]

Folks, don't we already have a thread on this subject?

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,6349.0.html

Posters can't find all the threads here but maybe our moderators could be so kind as to help to shepherd common ones together.  I have lost count over how many threads we have rehashing essentially the same comments about the $ky-high-way, commuter rail, street cars, BRT, Amtrak, 9B, Outer Beltway, and any number of other subjects.  Some subjects have so many threads they may deserve their own sub-Forums! 

It can be a bit tedious trying to participate actively and repetitively on the same subjects popping up like weeds in the garden.  It can be even tougher to recall an old post when there are so many stones to turn over.  I often have a deja vu headache.  Thanks for listening.