The City is getting ready to up its game in energy conservation. We’ve got ideas!
The City of Ashland appears to be getting ready to make headway on several important issues simultaneously – reducing the cost and improving the quality of life for Ashlanders who are just getting by while also moving our community along the path to net zero.
Is that possible?
It is! And we at the Ashland Climate Collaborative are excited that this conversation is underway. So we’re launching this Ashland Energy Policy blog series to help inform the conversation over the coming weeks and months.
Here’s the basic context:
Opportunity #1: A New Loan Program
Earlier this year, our electric department was approved for a $10-million, 20-year no-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Rural Energy Savings Program.
This RESP loan will allow Ashland Electric to expand its current limited offering of low-cost, on-bill financing to help homeowners and businesses make energy efficiency improvements to reduce their use of energy and their electric bill. These upgrades could include heating, lighting, appliances, and insulation, as well as conversions to more efficient or renewable energy sources. On-bill financing is a way to repay loans on your utility bill.
This program is likely to go live in Ashland in 2025.
Opportunity #2: The Conservation Program
Back in spring 2023, when the City was finalizing its 2023-2025 biennium budget (which ends June 30, 2025), the City Council identified energy conservation as an important goal and allocated $500,000 a year to be used towards conservation initiatives ($1 million total).
Fifteen months into the biennium, only $45,000 of the budget allocation has been spent. While unused funds can be rolled over into the next biennium, we urge the City to start moving forward now. Too many of our neighbors are having difficulty making ends meet.
At the Oct. 1 City Council business meeting, staff suggested some possible uses of the conservation fund. The Council approved staff’s request to purchase an EV car charger tester, and asked staff to bring back a proposal in the next month to fund a program to help as many Ashlanders as possible take full advantage of the RESP loan — especially those who are already burdened by our high cost of living.
Council suggested the possibility of using navigators to help residents and businesses find their way through the maze of technical and financial decisions associated with efficiency upgrades, and asked staff to check out programs like Energy Trust of Oregon’s Solar for All program as potential models.
Let’s End Energy Poverty in Ashland
The Ashland Climate Collaborative applauds these moves by the Council, especially the mandate to bring energy efficiency upgrades within reach for everyone, regardless of income.
The result could be a tremendous opportunity to speed up our transition to clean energy, at a very opportune time.
The Collaborative’s Electrify Ashland Now! (EAN!) Action Team has been working to develop approaches for assisting low- and middle-income Ashland households with home-energy upgrades since 2021. Replacing the use of “natural” gas (methane) furnaces and hot water heaters in our homes, along with improved insulation, is one of the best steps we can take locally to reduce utility bills, improve indoor air quality, and reduce our climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2023, Ashland residents paid $8.9 million for gas service. Switching from gas to electric keeps more revenue in our own community, supporting local services and providing local employment rather than sending it to Avista.
In this policy series, we will provide specific policy recommendations for the City of Ashland, backed up by examples of models that have worked in other similarly sized communities. Our expertise is primarily in how best to navigate the switch from gas and old-style electric systems to high-efficiency heat pump technology in our houses. We are not as well-versed in commercial transitions, but we wholeheartedly support the notion of providing assistance to our local businesses and can offer a few insights in that direction as well.
We believe that we are in a rare win-win-win position in which our City leaders can make a huge difference in the lives of current and future residents, manage load growth of our electric system, and add to the body of knowledge of how local communities can take action to reduce our climate footprint.
Let’s do this!
The Ashland Energy Policy Series is a blog series published by Electrify Ashland Now!, an Action Team of the Ashland Climate Collaborative. The Collaborative is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that serves as a hub for community collaboration to reduce our climate impact and build a more equitable and resilient Ashland.
Special thanks to Ashlanders Rick Barth, Lorrie Kaplan, Ray Mallette, Doug Piper, Ben Scott, Candace Turtle, and Mike Wright for their ongoing work on this initiative.
Click here to have each installment of the series sent straight to your email inbox.
Send an email to us at info@ashlandclimate.org to share your feedback.
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