The Harlan Dailey Enterprise, Monday September 22 edition, featured an Op-Ed about the community energy efforts happening in Benham. 

Benham could set example in dealing with energy problem

Published:
Monday, September 22, 2008 12:35 AM EDT
While the presidential candidates endlessly debate competing energy plans, some residents of Harlan County are taking action closer to home. Through a series of conversations over the past several months, Benham residents and their friends have discussed ways to reduce the expected blow from future energy rate increases by tapping economic benefits from local renewable energy and conservation.

Can they build a windmill in the mountains above town? Can they help local businesses, churches and homeowners reduce energy bills through simple weatherization measures? Can they create a demonstration project at Benham’s historic city hall?

Kentuckians pay some of the lowest electricity rates in the nation. However, these rates are rising. Large businesses and governments around the country have recognized the future burden of energy costs as a serious issue. They have enacted low-cost fixes that will have large payoffs. The Whitesburg campus of Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Cumberland has already saved $800 a month through conservation. Yet for small businesses, towns and individuals, it is not easy to devote time or resources to investigate energy-saving options.

Benham residents Carl Shoupe and Roy Silver hope think their town could be a leader in tackling rising energy costs. Benham controls its own power supply through its power board, which could make it easier than other towns to implement any renewable energy or efficiency program. Benham is a small city, so changes in energy use should be easy to track. International Harvester built many similar houses in Benham, so the city could create an energy plan tailored for its unique housing stock. Finally, U.S. government figures show that Benham residents consume one of the highest amounts of electricity per household of any utility in Kentucky.

An exciting feature of the project is the partners they have attracted to lend support to a locally-initiated project. MACED (Mountain Association for Community Economic Development) is providing technical support to the Benham residents. They have programs that help small businesses, nonprofits and churches in Appalachian Kentucky study and fund renewable energy and efficiency projects. Shoupe and Silver are members of the local chapter of KFTC (Kentuckians for the Commonwealth). It is a statewide organization, with over 5,000 members, that hopes to learn from Benham residents to create a model to help other towns.

Shoupe and Silver have found a high level of interest among their neighbors in a project that would reduce people’s home energy bills, plus reduce the city of Benham’s expenses in purchasing power from Kentucky Utilities. In a series of conversations this summer, residents suggested a variety of ways that they were already reducing their own energy bills. These included their use of compact fluorescent light bulbs, reflective metal roofs on their houses, and adding insulation in their walls and roofs. Benham Mayor John Dodd expressed support for an energy initiative that would save the city and its residents money and suggested that a public building such as city hall or Benham’s sewer plant might be a good location to display renewable energy and efficiency.

One Benham resident suggested that a public community meeting would allow feedback about the ideas to date. The community would also decide which of several ideas to pursue first. Details about this meeting will be coming soon.

With residents, local government and community groups working together, Benham could be an example for towns around the state and nation seeking homegrown solutions to energy problems.

Jonathan Cherry
MIT

Jonathan Cherry is a Research Fellow at the Community Innovators Lab at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). A team from MIT has been working with the Benham community to better understand the city’s energy consumption and study community-owned energy projects in other towns.