Montpelier Town Meeting Report and Wood Pellet Pre-Buy Offer

[Sean]

Wood pellets and home weatherization took center stage at the May 29th
town meeting. The town meeting report is posted at the end of this
email, but first here's an update and offer on the pellet front.
Please help spread the word as this is a good price - could save over
$1000 compared to oil - and heating prices are expected to rise,
leaving many of our neighbors in a tough place this winter.

Wood Pellet Pre-Buy Offer

The Montpelier Energy Team is sponsoring a purchase of wood pellets
for the coming heating season. The first phase of this program is a
pre-buy offer for those people that want to lock in their price, but
do not want to store the pellets through the summer.

The details

You may purchase up to 5 tons of pellets at $250 per ton. In order to
participate, you will have to pay for your pellets, now. You do not
have to take immediate delivery and will be able to get the amount
that you need throughout the heating season at our “depot” at the
Montpelier High School. We are working to arrange for delivery of your
pellets as well for Montpelier residents. The pick ups and deliveries
will start in September and run through the heating season until April
1 (or a bit later). Purchases do not have to be in one ton increments.
Half tons will cost $125, and other amounts at $5 per 40 pound bag.

At the current time, we can only promise monthly pick-up and delivery.
If additional purchases take place later this summer and during the
fall, the schedule will expand to include more dates. What this means
is that you must plan on being available for specific dates in
September through March to either come to the Montpelier High School
and pick up pellets, or to have local civic organizations deliver your
monthly request. If the dates are inconvenient, you can pick up more
than one month’s supply.

The first purchase of pellets are mixed hardwood/softwood, very low in
dust, high in heating value as tested recently in Montpelier. As with
all wood pellet purchases, there is some risk to variable quality, but
we will work closely with the broker and manufacturer to assure that
we receive the best quality for your wood pellet stove.

The future

We will continue to seek additional supplies so that more people can
take advantage of the purchasing, storage and delivery service of the
Montpelier Energy Team. We are also seeking a financing mechanism so
that people will be able to order pellets and pay only at the time of
pick up or delivery. We must caution people that the current market
for pellets is tighter than last year and there is an expectation that
future prices will be higher than the current price.

When the first order sells out, we will continue to take names for a
waiting list as a mechanism to gauge the interest in future purchases.
We will contact those people as soon as the next order is arranged.

To take advantage of this offer, call the Montpelier Energy Team at
229-6070




Report from May 29th Town Meeting:


Second Energy Town Meeting Heats Up

Gasoline approaching $4 per gallon and fuel oil already topping that
mark have elevated the interest of Montpelier citizens in energy
issues. More than 150 turned out on Thursday night the May 29 to learn
more about Energy Team projects and how they can take action to reduce
their own energy use.

The visual highlight of the meeting was apparent next to the entrance
to the High School. Representatives from Montpelier Stove Works had
working wood pellet stoves and were there to answer questions about
their ease of operation, the future of wood pellet availability and
the comparisons between wood as a fuel and fuel oil.

Inside the auditorium, the meeting warmed up with a presentation from
Andy Boutin, the founder and President of Pellergy, a Montpelier
business that is just getting started with installing retrofit units
to convert oil furnaces and boilers to wood pellets. Lots of attendees
swarmed around Andy throughout the evening to learn more about these
conversions and to sign up to be among the first of his customers.

The meeting was more than about wood pellets. Between the outside
display of pellet stoves and the auditorium presentation, a
smorgasbord of local food was on display and available for snacking.
Produce from some of the local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
producers made a great salad and local cheeses tasted great on breads
all baked in Washington County. Local agriculture as practiced by
“localvores” is one step to reduce our overall reliance on
agricultural production thousands of miles away.

Several of the meeting attendees arrived on bicycle and two working
sessions focused on the steps necessary to make Montpelier a safer and
more comfortable biking community. A “Bike Team” formed at the first
Montpelier Energy Town Meeting held in March of 2007, and they
reported out their progress to date before diving into the nitty
gritty of actions during their working session.

Complementing the idea that we should switch to wood pellets as an
alternative to fuel oil, Paul Zabriskie of Energy Smart led a working
session on the nuts and bolts of weatherization that went far deeper
into the structure of our houses than the caulking of windows and
insulation of pipes. As a result of Paul’s discussion, more than 20
additional meeting attendees signed up for a comprehensive home energy
audit for which the Energy Team supplies a financial incentive.

The High School was more than a physical host for the meeting. To kick
the meeting off, the Statistics Class led by teacher Sue Beem provided
a fascinating review of the result of their March survey on the
opinions of Montpelier citizens towards future energy use. Just as
with the audience on hand, most local homeowners feel that city
residents will be using less fuel oil in the future – almost 20% less
on average. However, and a bit surprising given the steady climb of
gasoline prices, the survey responses suggest that we will be using
more, not less gasoline in the future.

This information is useful to the Energy Team because it tells us that
homeowners are open to new ideas about home heating efficiency and
fuel switching. And, on the flip side, we are going to have to sharpen
our tactics to get local citizens to take action on reducing vehicle
use or moving to more efficient means of transportation.

After presentations from each of the Energy Team working groups, a
series of breakouts took place. The High School Physics class led by
teacher Anne Watson presented several project results from their focus
on energy generation and use. Our future use of energy is going to
change and it is our students who will have to figure out and follow
through to get us a sustainable energy future.

Speaking of a sustainable future, the conversion to wood pellets as a
future fuel is not a certain path to long term economic and
environmental improvement. In fact, all of the wood pellets used in
Vermont are made out of state and the transportation costs to get them
to Montpelier are a factor contributing to their cost and negating
some of the greenhouse gas gains from using a renewable source.

There were several other discussions that took place at the meeting
that your faithful reporter was unable to attend. And even after the
meeting, many of the attendees had trouble leaving and spent
additional time getting more ideas for reducing their energy use on
the way back to their cars and bikes in the parking lot. While the
meeting may have come to a close, the interest in working towards
solutions for our energy issues continues.