Brittle Power- PARTS 1-3 (+Notes) - Natural Capitalism Solutions

Chapter Seventeen: Achieving Resilience 307umes of data showing the unimaginable hundreds of billions of dollars (thousandsof dollars per household) that our nation could lose in say, a major oilinterruption—speaks to people and communities in their own language.It is therefore not surprising that community energy planning based on efficiencyand appropriate renewable sources is now underway in hundreds, perhapsthousands, of towns, cities, and counties across America. In fact, enoughsuch efforts have been successfully undertaken in the past few years that it isnow possible to distill from experience the main elements which make suchprograms work.Creating a sustainable local economyA concerted program to make a community’s energy supplies more affordableand resilient depends above all on shared public sentiment. Informed communityfeeling engenders an irresistible excitement, an integrity and purpose,which make it possible to overcome differences and obstacles for a common goal.Guided by sentiment, people can do difficult, even heroic, things that they havenever thought of doing before. They can pick up new skills, take responsibility,stretch themselves, and take credit for success. Fully harnessing American communities’remarkable resources of voluntarism and expertise requires that theprogram’s leaders, whatever their position and style, first establish a sense of certaintyabout the direction and outcome of the effort. It also requires a deliberateinclusion of the most diverse possible views and talents, striving for the widestparticipation by all sectors of the community. The ideas and the impetus shouldcome from within the community, not be laid on it by outsiders.Communities have used many different organizing techniques for energyaction. Some of the more successful include:• A community energy analysis giving a clear picture of where the community’senergy comes from, how it is used, the present economic effect ofenergy costs, expected trends, and the community’s vulnerability to energyshocks. It is often helpful if the larger employers in the community take partin these assessments, calculating their own energy expenditures as a percentageof their profits, and estimating how energy shortages would affect theiroperations and employment. 33 Participation by a wide range of stakeholders isindeed essential if the results of the analysis are to be both technically andpolitically credible. The key ingredient is one or more people who think clearly,have access to community data, and can do arithmetic. (Several methodsfor such analysis have been developed, and specific computational patternsand worksheets are available. 34 ) The analysis provides insight into the community’spresent energy situation, how energy could be better used, what sup-