Keene is receiving a Bronze designation from the national SolSmart program for making it faster, easier, and more affordable for homes and businesses to go solar.
This all really started when mayor Michael E.J. Blastos jetted off to a new-fangled energy conference and came back home with what became the blueprint to set Keene on a course of economic sustainability.
We’ve met many benchmarks since those days – Drafting one of the first energy plans to manage carbon emissions, to putting a 750 kw solar array on the Marlboro St complex; resolving to reduce greenhouse gases to under 350ppm; passing Complete Streets guidelines; there are too many initiatives to name here.
Most recently, city staff is putting the spit shine on a revised city code effort that will likely favor Green Development – And, the city and the county are in their perspective corners, working on Community Power Aggregation plans that could blow the lid off the grid and it’s dependence on fossil fuel generation plants.
Many, many people have been involved over the past 20 years, and more converts on coming on board every day. The future looks bright for Keene.
But there is still the 300 pound gas elephant in the room that is poised to explode our goal to become free of fossil fuels and all of their destructive elements. Without that spector, maybe we could have pulled off a silver, or even the gold!
But here we go!
Congratulations Keene!
County Commissioner Terry Clark 