Melrose Energy Commission

Melrose Energy Commission

Melrose continues to demonstrate its love for the environment with the Melrose Energy Commission (MEC), established in September 2005 by Bob Lucien. The pro-environment goals of the Commission include fighting global warming, creating a healthier Melrose , and joining the U.S. Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement. By joining the U.S. Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement (under Cool Cities), we have agreed to meet or beat the Kyoto Protocol targets, urge both the state and federal governments to meet the Kyoto Protocol, and to urge Congress to pass a greenhouse gas reduction legislation.

The Melrose Energy Commission has reached its goal for a healthier Melrose in many ways. One way is that MEC has obtained a $340,000 grant from the Massachusetts Technical Collaborative for a solar panel to be installed on the roof of the new Melrose Veterans’ Memorial Middle School . This will provide a portion of the energy for the new school as well as act as an efficient teaching tool, in which students can monitor how much energy they saved and used. Another way that the Melrose Energy Commission has impacted Melrose is that they’ve discussed with the Melrose Public School System about including energy education into all levels of the public school curriculum.

In addition to influencing the city’s schools, The Melrose Energy Commission has done other things to assist in Melrose ’s strive to help the world around us. The Commission continues to encourage Melrosians to become members of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Source Program. MCESP members pay a small addition on their electric bill so that they can support clean and renewable energy. Parts of these funds are given to Melrose , so that Melrose can use it in renewable energy and low-income energy projects. Sign up here. Also, MEC has further reached out the community via the Victorian Fair, when they handed out energy efficiency pamphlets and other pertaining information to people. The organization writes articles spreading energy information and public outreach in the city’s newspapers as well.

Besides saving the environment, the Melrose Energy Commission has saved taxpayer’s dollars through their efforts. Over one million dollars were saved in ten years from the Street Light Acquisition because MEC analyzed and reviewed streetlight purchase study and helped the DPW in streetlight purchase savings analysis. They also did an inventory of the energy used at City Hall and are using this information to make suggestions about the energy impact. This will decrease taxpayer dollars due to Melrose taking into account the amount of energy saved.