Lexington, KY - Empower Lexington, a community-wide effort, aims to boost Lexington's profile in sustainability while spreading energy efficiency to all sectors. The plan has been three years in the making, involving about 70 volunteer citizens combined with city government staff. It will help fulfill the city's commitments to voluntary climate initiatives that call for sound environmental planning with greater energy efficiency.
Last November, Tom Webb, manager of Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG) environmental programs, along with sub-team leaders, discussed the plan at one of the city buildings on Red Mile Road. About 30 people attended this one in a series of meetings intended to introduce the plan and get public feedback and input.
The first step in developing Empower Lexington, said Webb, was to establish an energy baseline using 2007 to form an inventory of county-wide fossil fuel-based consumption. The data represented all sectors: commercial, residential, industrial, transportation and waste.
Lexington was found to have used more than 4.6 billion killowatt hours of electricity (66.4 percent of total emissions), 92 million gallons of gasoline in roadway transportation (23.3 percent of emissions), and more than 7.5 million mcf of natural gas (7.8 percent of emissions). Aviation fuel and solid waste figures were also included. That data was fed into software ("Clean Air and Climate Protection," developed for the National Association of Clean Air Agencies) that calculates greenhouse gas emissions.
The greenhouse gases in the study include carbon dioxide, which accounts for about 82 percent of greenhouse gases emitted in the United States, methane, which accounts for about 10 percent, and several other gases. In 2007 Lexington generated approximately 6.5 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases. That averages out to roughly 23.4 metric tons of CO2 equivalent for each Lexington resident per year, a figure useful for comparing cities or regions in terms of carbon footprint.
The breakdown according to sectors found that the commercial sector, which included public institutions and city government buildings, accounted for 35.3 percent of total emissions. The residential sector accounted for 28.4 percent, the transportation sector for 23.3 percent, the industrial sector for 10 percent, and the waste and wastewater sector for 2.9 percent. It should be noted that LFUCG operations were found to be responsible for only 2 percent of total emissions.
After capturing that data, the next step was to establish an annual (voluntary) energy consumption reduction target.
"We set our community-wide reduction target at 1 percent a year," said Webb. "We wanted something achievable and significant that could have an immediate impact and that could be easily communicated and measured."
A challenge is to achieve this reduction in the face of a population projected by the U.S. Census Bureau to grow by 17.5 percent by 2025. But Webb points out that other factors, such as higher vehicle fuel efficiency standards, Energy Star appliances, as well as the economy and an aging population, can all be influences. He said that Empower Lexington reporting will include observations of such trends so as not to be assuming undue credit.
The third step, said Webb, was to develop the plan. That started with reviews of other community plans. Lexington's plan took a multi-pronged approach, with five sub-teams that would address the sectors: residential; industrial, commercial and institutional; land use, food and agriculture; transportation; and waste.
The last two steps are the implemen-tation of the plan and then ongoing monitoring to keep it on track.
Each of the five sector sub-teams made reports that included recommendations. Team leaders addressed the crowd.
"Utility rates are going up faster than a lot of people realize," said Scott Smith of Smith Management Group, who spoke for the industrial/commercial/institutional sector sub-team. A graph appeared on the screen showing the rising trend - not a pretty sight. He pointed out that energy efficiency avoids the need for costly new supply investments like power plants and transmission lines.
"Energy efficiency is much lower in cost than all other energy consumption options," he said.
A problem area Smith mentioned is commercial rental properties, such as trailers with electric baseboard heating an inefficient shell. Monthly rates can spike to $600, he said, which is unaffordable for tenants. Such commercial properties aren't incentivized to make energy-efficiency improvements because utility expenses fall to the renter.
For the transportation sector, Charles Schaub, LFUCG Division of Planning, said that 57 percent of carbon emissions of his sector come from passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks, while 20 percent come from heavy-duty trucks and the rest from planes and trains. His team came up with eight recommendations, which included rail service connecting Lexington to Frankfort, Louisville and Cincinnati.
Blaine Early of the law firm Stites and Harbison spoke for the land use and agriculture team and raised the concept of the carbon sequestration of nature: Each acre reforested can capture two tons of carbon per year. Other findings included: The Bluegrass has a rich and unique soil that should be preserved, along with signature farms of the region; there should be a focus on infill as 30,000 new residences arrive by 2030; and Lexington-area residents should be encouraged to support economic viability of regional farms by buying local produce.
Webb returned to the front of the room to talk about solid-waste disposal. He pointed out that in 2010 LFUCG spent $11 million in landfill disposal fees. He said that 80 percent of that waste could be redirected into recycling and compost, sparing land and putting waste to beneficial reuse.
Amy Sohner of Bluegrass Pride, speaking for the residential team, noted that the Bluegrass has the fourth lowest electricity rates in the country, coupled with the sixth highest residential energy use. After having a professional energy auditor study her home, she made changes in home efficiencies and shaved about $200 a month off of her energy bill. She said a home energy auditing kit, including an infrared camera, is available through Lexington Public Library.
"We received public comments," Webb told Business Lexington. "We are in the process of doing some rewriting. Ninety percent of the comments were positive. One person thought we had too many recommendations. Some of the folks thought that a more aggressive target would be better, but we didn't want to make it intimidating. It's a minimum of 1 percent, and we'll be encouraging people to go further."
Webb said the plan will be completed and presented to the council in the spring.
"It's all voluntary," he emphasized. "We're not mandating anything."
To read more about Empower Lexington and its recommendations, go to www.lexingtonky.gov/energy.