Local Energy Advocates Of Western Massachusetts Offer Presentation On Ithaca’s Green New Deal

Local Energy Advocates of Western MA (LEA), invites the public to a presentation on “Ithaca’s Green New Deal”, to hear from representatives of the ambitious project in Ithaca, NY to transition all of its 6000 buildings to carbon neutrality by 2030.  The event will be held over Zoom on March 15, 7:00-8:30 p.m.  Preregistration is required. Register for the webinar here. Registration information is also available at the LEA website (www.LocalEnergyAdvocates.org). After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Featured speakers will be Dr. Luis Aguirre-Torres, Ithaca Sustainability Director and creator of Ithaca’s groundbreaking Efficiency Retrofitting and Thermal Load Electrification Program, and Ariel Kalishman Walsh and Clare Doyle Dowd from BlocPower, the organization tasked with running and working out financing for the building decarbonization effort. 

The Efficiency and Electrification Program aims to accelerate decarbonizing Ithaca’s building stock through low-risk investment opportunities. Private equity would be used to help Ithaca’s building and home owners pay for efficiency and electrification projects. The program will employ specialized software to analyze and prioritize buildings, as well as innovative mechanisms for the bulk purchasing of materials and appliances.  

LEA was created in 2021 to generate ideas, motivation, and strategic funding to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Western Massachusetts, increase resiliency of our local energy systems and support our local inter-municipal community choice aggregation. LEA envisions supporting diverse activities, including:

• electrification of our energy, transportation, and building sectors
• creation of local renewable distributed energy resources
• improvement of energy efficiency in buildings
• promotion of energy conservation
• education of our community and development of local energy leaders

LEA strives to benefit low-income residents in our communities and places a high priority on projects that promote environmental justice.  To accomplish its goals, LEA intends to raise funds and engage in partnerships with non-profit, for profit, and grass-roots organizations, foundations, and municipalities. 

Membership in LEA is open. The founders of LEA were among the initiators of a local effort to create an inter-municipal aggregation of electricity for Northampton, Amherst and Pelham residents.  LEA plans to continue working alongside the municipalities on aggregation and other efforts to reduce their collective GHG emissions.