Helping Geneva go green

A Geneva committee's efforts to get the town to save energy and to use more renewable sources have gotten a jolt of help from the Environmental Law and Policy Center.

Organizers from the environmental advocacy group held a forum at the Geneva Public Library last week to discuss how residents can get the city to pursue renewable energy sources.

Renewable energy is one that comes from a source that can't be depleted (unlike coal, oil or nuclear-plant material). It includes wind, solar and geothermal energy. Geneva recently invested in a new coal plant in southern Illinois.

The Geneva Natural Resources Committee helped organize the forum.

The meeting "was a starting point to get people" talking about how they can encourage city officials to do things like investing in a proposed wind-turbine farm near Rochelle, said lawyer Jen Walling, a policy advocate for the Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center.

"Illinois has more proposed wind projects than any other state," Walling said, and the Rochelle area is "one of the best wind areas" in Illinois, she said. The Department of Energy's wind power map rates Ogle County, where Rochelle is located, as "fair" (areas can be poor, marginal, fair or good) .

The 20 people who attended the forum also discussed how the city could encourage the use of compact fluorescent light bulbs, which use less electricity than incandescent bulbs. Commercial utility operators such as ComEd are required by the state to offer the bulbs at reduced prices to their customers, but because Geneva runs its own municipal utility, it is not subject to that rule, Walling said.

The committee has handed out free bulbs at Festival of the Vine the last two years, and recently supplied bulbs for Egg Harbor Cafe to convert its lighting.

Darcy Costello, a member of the committee, said the advocacy group was energized by Walling's involvement. Two people who attended last week's meeting volunteered to join the committee.

Walling met with the committee Wednesday to follow up. One of her ideas was to have the city's utility department Web site offer information to consumers about how to conserve energy. Another is a possible inter-city energy conservation contest with Batavia.

"We are trying to think of other ways we can encourage energy conservation efforts," Costello said. "We can use any help and support that we can get."

The committee meets the first Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. at city hall, 109 James St. People interested in its work can contact Costello at mdjrcostello@att.net.