Clean Energy Springfield

One of our goals with the website here is to put together a list of what innovative energy initiatives other cities are doing. A lot of these are small affairs--how they structure incentives for incremental improvements in energy efficiency, for instance.

Today, though, I came across a startling example of what can be done. Soldiers Field, WI, town of 635, passed an ordinance mandating that all new commercial buildings would get at least half of their energy from solar power. They ramped up their thermal performance standards to twice Wisconsin's standards. They passed a solar access law, to ensure that future buildings wouldn't steal the sun from all of those solar panels.

Of course, as exciting as this is, it's actually a little depressing that it happened in 1978.

In more contemporary news, 143 towns in New Hampshire have passed a resolution calling on the US to commit to greenhouse gas reductions. The resolution is here. It has support from all sorts of groups, from the environmentalists to the American Snowmobilers Association, and including (if I read it right) Stonyfield Farm. This is particularly clever politics, given New Hampshire's privileged position in the upcoming presidential election.