Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of

the upshot: what is to be done? S 213
Oberlin, which means expanding existing businesses or building
new ones. The fourth is to structure private choices so that
people have a clear incentive to choose effi ciency and renewables
over ineffi ciency and fossil fuels and to buy more locally made or
grown products.
In 2007, with outside support, the college launched two studies
to help clarify our basic energy options. The fi rst, by a Massachusetts
energy fi rm, examined smart ways by which the city could
improve effi ciency and switch to renewable energy and thereby
avoid joining in a risky, long-term commitment to a 1,000-megawatt
coal plant (without the means to sequester carbon) proposed
by AMP-Ohio. The second study, specifi cally on college energy
use, examined options for eliminating our coal-fi red plant and
radically improving energy effi ciency to levels now technologically
possible and economically profi table. We now have a factual
basis on which to build a farsighted energy policy for both the
city and the college. 4 The college commissioned a third study to
explore the feasibility of developing a new green, zero-discharge,
carbon-neutral arts block on the east side of the town square,
including a substantial upgrade of a performing arts center and a
new green hotel.
What might that future look like ten years from now? Imagine,
fi rst, picking up an Oberlin phone book or going online and
fi nding perhaps fi ve new companies offering energy services,
effi ciency upgrades, and solar installations. Imagine a city economy
that includes a hundred or more well-paying green energy
jobs fi lled with highly trained young people from Oberlin High
School, the vocational school nearby, and the college. Imagine
local businesses using a third of the energy they now use but with
better lighting and better indoor comfort at a fraction of the cost,
with the savings forming the basis for expanded services and profits.
Imagine a city that is sprouting photovoltaic (solar electric)
systems on rooftops, installed and maintained by local entrepreneurs.
Imagine the local utility (Oberlin Municipal Power and