Economy slows quest for carbon neutrality

Author: Jaime Fuller

Though much has been done in the 18 months since the College announced its commitment to carbon neutrality in May 2007, new innovations will hold the key to upholding that promise by 2016 given current economic conditions, according to faculty and students already searching for creative ways for the College to meet its environmental goals.

The development that has had the biggest impact on reducing the College's carbon footprint was the decision to build a biomass plant to replace the old #6 oil-fueled heating plant. Once the biomass plant goes into operation beginning in Jan. 2009, it can potentially cut the College's greenhouse emissions by 12,500 metric tons per year. Benjamin F. Wissler Professor of Physics Rich Wolfson, who specializs in global warming research, believes this development is the biggest step that Middlebury will take in going carbon neutral.

"The heating plant is the single largest producer of carbon emissions by a factor of 10," Wolfson said. "The biomass plant, once in operation, will cut the College's carbon emissions in half."

The next largest carbon emitters are the buildings on the periphery of campus, which are not heated by the main heating plant. Because these buildings will not be aided by the new biomass plant, the administration is thinking of other ways to make the outskirts of campus conform to the College's environmental ambitions. The solar panels to be installed at 107 Shannon Street are a prime example, but Wolfson believes that solar and wind power, though admirable, are not going to considerably affect the College's carbon footprint.

"People think that by putting up lots of solar panels and windmills for electricity we'd solve a lot of problems," he said, "but Vermont gets most of its electricity from nuclear and hydroelectric energy, which has virtually no carbon emissions. If we were in Ohio, it would make a big difference because we would be getting most of our electricity from coal."

The source of carbon emissions that will prove most troublesome for the College to neutralize is faculty travel, which because of Middlebury's remote location will be impossible to completely eradicate. Wolfson said travel will most likely be cut, but in order to become carbon neutral the College will need to buy carbon offsets to atone for trips to locations far from the Green Mountains.

Wolfson said the next step the College planned to take in its quest towards carbon neutrality by 2016 was to duplicate the biomass plant, but these plans were made before the financial crisis made the administration more budget-conscious.

"It's going to cost," Wolfson said. "It's not as economically feasible as it was two months ago. We're going to have to be innovative if we want to do this by 2016."

Although Wolfson believes Middlebury is a pioneer among the nation's liberal arts colleges in its commitment to carbon neutrality, he wishes that there were another way to get there besides the woodchip-fueled biomass plant.

"Frankly, I'm a little disappointed that we need to burn something else to become carbon neutral," he said.

The nine-acre willow farm planted on College lands seeks to make the biomass plant more palatable and more sustainable. When 1200 acres of willows are fully grown, they should be able to provide a quarter of the College's heating fuel supply, which in effect replaces 500,000 gallons of the carbon-rich #6 oil.

The Sunday Night Group (SNG) has also been busy trying to deal with carbon reductions, albeit on a much larger scale. Chester Harvey '09, who was a main actor in the push to get Middlebury carbon neutral, is pleased with what the College has achieved so far, but unsure of how SNG should progress.

"We've been struggling since the carbon neutrality proposal was passed with what we should do next," he said. "We almost accomplished our goals too well, we didn't leave anything for the students to do afterwards."

He then said that since carbon neutrality was mostly in the administration's hands as far as Middlebury College goes, SNG was now focusing on the climate crisis on a larger scale.

"We've been trying to branch out beyond campus, to bring carbon reductions to the community and the state, and further out nationally," said Harvey.

As part of this branching out beyond the bubble, Lois Parshley '11 has been leading an effort to draft policy proposals that she hopes to present to Vermont legislators, using her research on Oregon's business energy tax credit program as the starting point.

"Like Oregon," Parshley wrote in an e-mail, "the state of Vermont could stimulate capital investment, conservation savings and renewable energy sources through the introduction of energy conservation and renewable energy income tax credit programs."

Parshely's goal is to finish drafting her proposal with the help of the Middlebury chapter of the Roosevelt Institution, and raise awareness among local representatives, senators and business leaders, which she hopes will lead to passage of her idea in the 2009 state legislative session. However, recent events in national politics have spurred her to make much more ambitious goals regarding her policy proposal.

"Since Obama's win last week, I have also been discussing with Professor [of International Environmental Economics] Jon Isham and [Scholar-in-Residence] Bill McKibben the possibility of taking my proposal national," she wrote in an e-mail. "I am beginning to network on the national level towards that goal."

Other nationally oriented SNG-supported initiatives include Middshift, 1Sky, 350.org and PowerVote, which all seek to make climate change a more central part of the national agenda. At the SNG meeting Nov. 9, Bill McKibben had no fears that the College would not be able to achieve its environmental goals.

"Middlebury has been the most activist college campus on climate change for about a decade," he said. "[This college] has a legacy and historical commitment to the environment and is in the lead for college campuses in the march towards carbon neutrality."