Through the SmartPower Clean Energy Communities Campaign, 20 townships and boroughs in southeast Pennsylvania have been offered a free solar panel if they meet a specific clean energy purchasing goal by Earth Day 2009—and one more community has just met that goal.

Middletown Township of Delaware County now not only purchases 20% of its municipal energy from clean energy sources, but also has 7% percent of its households and businesses purchasing clean energy.

Middletown has worked hard to become a true clean energy leader, not only in southern Pennsylvania, but across the country. As the 11^th Clean Energy Community in Pennsylvania, Middletown should be proud of its accomplishments in setting the tone for others to follow.

“When asked to join the campaign to help Middletown Township become a Clean Energy Community, I was already a PECO Wind customer,” said Debbie Timblin, township employee and a lead campaign volunteer. “However, through encouraging other people to share in the commitment and learning more about clean energy, I discovered a passion for the cause. It is amazing what people can accomplish when they care about something.”

There is, in fact, even more to the Middletown story. Yes, the township has met the campaign goals of making a 20% municipal clean energy purchase by 2010, and having 7% of its utility customers purchase clean energy through PECO Wind. Since August, though, Middletown has also signed up more households for clean energy than any other community in southeast Pennsylvania except for the City of Philadelphia. “Middletown’s clean energy marketing efforts have been phenomenal—really something for everybody who’s behind the clean energy effort to be proud of,” said Brian Wright, SmartPower Director of Programs. “They took the SmartPower playbook and ran with it.”

Wright noted how Middletown made the campaign front and center. Among the actions it took was to clearly highlight the campaign on its website, including sign up forms and articles in their newsletters and placing signs and forms around the township building. Middletown also worked to get as much media coverage of the campaign efforts as possible, and timed it to coincide with tabling and other community efforts that volunteers were conducting.

“It shows, plain and simple, that folks want to buy clean energy, and that with the right kind of marketing, they will,” said Wright.

Another note on the Pennsylvania Clean Energy Communities Campaign—as of deadline for this newsletter, two of the 20 SmartPower communities have decided to go beyond purchasing 20% clean energy. The townships of Schuylkill and Upper Dublin have decided to purchase 100% clean energy for their municipal energy use in 2009!  This level of purchase is above and beyond the 20% commitment these municipal leaders originally made. It is another example of how this campaign is expanding the voluntary clean energy marketplace in Pennsylvania.

“These communities didn’t sign up to the campaign just because they wanted a free solar panel,” said SmartPower’s Communications Manager, Andrew Voris. “These communities are truly dedicated to helping their township, borough, state and nation get Energy Smart.  They’re too fired up to just sit back after they’ve met the goals of this campaign. We’ll continue to see a lot more clean energy—and energy efficiency—action come out of southeast Pennsylvania.”

As a member of the Renewable Energy Marketers Association (REMA), SmartPower has been actively working to impact language on Cap-and-Trade legislation across the country. SmartPower has been at the table with climate leaders throughout the US monitoring the late stage developments in RGGI, recommending language for the rulemaking process in California, the Western Climate Initiative, the Midwest Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord, and finally, the pending Cap-and-Trade debate that is taking shape in Washington DC.

REMA’s primary focus has been to ensure that any Cap-and-Trade legislation or regulatory process includes language that preserves for all voluntary customers of clean, renewable energy the ability to claim the greenhouse gas emissions reductions that automatically occur with renewable energy generation. The position supported by REMA is consistent regardless of whether the Cap-and-Trade regulations are regional or national.

The Impact of the Voluntary Renewable Energy Markets

Thanks to statistics provided by Lori Bird of the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) we know that the demand created by voluntary markets for renewable energy is equal to that created by the compliance markets and the various Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS). This voluntary demand has reached 18 million megawatt hours.

The Risk to This Market from Cap-and-Trade Climate Legislation

It is important to remember that the generation of renewable electricity reduces the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced by the power sector. One of the primary reasons that individuals and businesses make voluntary purchases of renewable energy is to cause these reductions and earn credit for them. Unfortunately, Cap-and-Trade legislation could inadvertently undermine this voluntary market by failing to recognize the GHG reductions resulting from these renewable energy purchases.

The Solution

To protect the substantial environmental benefits provided by the voluntary market, REMA is working to ensure that the Cap-and-Trade program design provides a mechanism to ensure that voluntary renewable energy continue to reduce GHG emissions. To accomplish this important objective, carbon allowances should be allocated and retired for voluntary purchasers, thus reducing the total number of allowances available and effectively reducing the overall carbon cap.

REMA is currently urging regional regulators and elected officials on all levels to clearly state in any policy position paper or draft legislation the desirability of ensuring that voluntary renewable energy purchases will reduce emissions under the Cap-and-Trade program.

If guidance is not provided in legislation or regulatory rulemaking procedures, REMA believes that that the entire voluntary renewable energy marketplace is at grave risk.

For further information on REMA and our efforts to effectively represent the voluntary renewable energy markets, please visit the REMA website or contact Jonathan Edwards of the SmartPower staff.

In late November, SmartPower and its President, Brian F. Keane were once again honored as an Environmental Hero by the People’s Action for Clean Energy (PACE). SmartPower received this award at the annual PACE environmental awards.

PACE is the largest volunteer-run organization working for energy efficiency, conservation and benign renewable energy in Connecticut. PACE Environmental Awards are highly recognized in the state. In addition to Keane and SmartPower, Michael J. Guinan of All Green Magazine, Dr. Gary Ginsberg of WTIC-AM’s Greener Living with Dr. G and Connecticut legislative leader Sen. Donald E. Williams, (D-29) were also honored with awards.

“PACE is at the forefront of helping Connecticut get Energy Smart,” said SmartPower president Brian F. Keane. “To be given this award from PACE – one of the true giants in environmental action, is a sincere honor. Connecticut has always been a leader in clean energy and energy efficiency across the nation and PACE continues to lead the charge!”

As a friend of SmartPower, you’re probably familiar with our online blogs on Yahoo’s Shine magazine, The Huffington Post as well as the official SmartPower Blog at SmartPower.org. Now SmartPower has a whole new online presence by way of the many social marketing sites used to further the message of Let’s Get Energy Smart!

On the “real time” social networking web site, Twitter, you can view highlights of what SmartPower is doing and promoting throughout each day. On our Facebook and Myspace pages, readers can find out about the history of our organization and access multiple forms of SmartPower’s media tools. 

Web surfers can also check out how we are engaging today’s youth to Get Energy Smart through our ThinkMTV page, as well as view our new SmartPower Minute videos on our You Tube, StumbleUpon and GoGreenTube pages.

The number of popular—and useful—social networking sites is always growing. As they continue to sprout up, SmartPower will utilize these outlets to grow our own social network, expanding our outreach throughout the online communities. A great example are the new websites Greenopolis, and Current!. Be sure to stay on the lookout for SmartPower’s pages!

The SmartPower $10,000 Energy Smart Ad Challenge is officially out of the gates and running—with over 100 individuals who have now signed up for the contest! Additionally, the first video for the Energy Smart Ad Challenge has been submitted to the YouTube contest group—watch it here. (Also, check out last year’s winning video for the Clean Energy Ad Challenge to get an idea of the competition, here.)

The reach of the contest has quickly expanded, with high school and college instructors assigning the contest as a class projects, and inspired individuals from coast to coast making ads they think will best motivate the young people of America to get Energy Smart.

Is there a creative message maker in you? Do you know someone who can make a professional ad video (and would like the chance of winning $10,000)?  Go here to sign up, and may the best ad maker win!

The contest ends Earth Day—April 22, 2009.