News & Events
February 9, 2007
This month, Conan returns to charm you all with his riveting stories. However, this time we're trying something new. Every week we seem to get a handful of questions from our various colleagues and friends about the work we do in the region's inner-ring suburbs. We've decided to share the answers with everyone! From now on, if you find yourself thirsting for more information about redevelopment, regionalism, revenue sharing, whatever - just ask, and Conan will answer!
Power Outing
Q.
I recently moved here from California and one of the things I was so excited to leave behind was the constant brownouts. My power has gone out three times since I got here (not bad compared to L.A.), but I’m wondering what I can do to give my energy level a boost.
- Matt from Pleasant Ridge
A.
Dear Matt,
You’ve touched a wire with us at the Suburbs Alliance. We see this energy challenge as a central concern in moving our economy forward and reinvigorating interest in our cities as magnets for the creative class. There’s plenty of opportunity for economic and environmental progress in this arena and, well, we’re here to juice up the debate.
I don’t know that there’s any community in the world you can move to to escape the occasional power outage – well, any community that uses electricity anyway. In our state, most power outages are caused either by user error (did you overload that circuit with two laptops, a stereo and the microwave?) or by weather. And both of them are not subject to seasons. Winter ice storms, summer heat waves, spring tornados and fall thunder boomers all have their impacts on power infrastructure and usage.
That said, there is a lot we can do as cities and individuals to take the strain off of our energy system. In Michigan, we burn up about three trillion British Thermal Units (BTU’s) a year. A BTU is the energy it takes to raise the temperature of a pound of water one degree Fahrenheit. Almost a quarter of that energy generated is lost into the ether, through inefficient buildings, poor delivery systems or just plain wasteful habits. The impact of that waste is worsened by the source of our energy here too. Coal, natural gas and nuclear production make up the sources of more than 90 percent of our electricity. Hydro power and renewables are barely a blip on the radar.
In Suburbs Alliance communities, most of the homes were built before 1970 and have very few nods to modern efficiency and conservation strategies. My own home isn’t even insulated and you can feel the February cold through the walls. Many homes still use old hot water boilers for heating, and the in-window air conditioner is ubiquitous throughout our region. Our government buildings aren’t much better, with their flat roofs, drafty windows and 24-7 lighting. We have the opportunity, however, to modernize our delivery system, our homes and our usage.
How many mayors does it take to screw in a light bulb? We’re betting it’s one every twenty years or so after watching Dearborn Heights’s Dan Paletko take his city through an energy overhaul that saved hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars by swapping out old, inefficient bulbs for modern ones.
Where will all the power come from ten years from now? Check out NextEnergy, Michigan’s $30M project to catalyze clean, green technologies. They’re securing millions of dollars in federal grants for Michigan businesses working on new energy technologies and providing lab and R&D space for energy innovators.
And then there’s good old common sense conservation. The Sierra Club has a Cool Cities program that is urging communities to take up the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which includes simple actions like purchasing Energy Star appliances and adopting land use policies that reduce sprawl and create more walkable communities.
If you’re really interested in the next generation of energy solutions, I encourage you to attend our first-quarter Mayors and Managers Policy Breakfast later this month. We’ll be joined there by Mayor Paletko, Monica Martinez of the Michigan Public Service Commission and David Gard of the Michigan Environmental Council to talk about strategies for improving energy use and delivery to our cities.
This conversation about power is really heating up in our region, and it has implications for economic development and environmental sustainability that can help set the stage for our state’s recovery.
