Renewable and Alternative Energy

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Renewable and Alternative Energy Workgroup Participants

Becki Barnhardt
Erica Christensen
K.G. Elliott
John Freeman
John Hochstein (Facilitator)
Nick Lawrence
Gary Mednick
Sheila Pounder
Jeanne Richardson
David Schuermann
Steven Sondheim (Co-Facilitator)
Lynn Strickland
Mary Margaret Ware

Plan & Process

A small committee searched the literature, brought to bear professional and avocational expertise, and consulted with others to assemble a preliminary list of candidate priorities for state energy policy (see Table). This list was organized into broad categories to facilitate discussion and to ensure an appropriate breadth of discussion coverage during the breakout session. Ten slots were intentionally left blank to accommodate candidate priorities that surfaced during the discussion. The following instructions were distributed at the start of the breakout session.

Energy Initiatives Discussion

Process & Procedure

1. Review & discuss 24 prepared items.
2. By general consensus new, or not included, items will be added to the list.
3. Multi-sort to identify perception of 5 most important items.

- vote with either 1, 2, or 3
1 = item is less important than average
2 = item is of average importance
3 = item is among the most important

- 3 rounds of prioritization (25 --> 15 --> 10 --> 5)

NOTE: ALL items identified today will be included in the final meeting report!

There was a vigorous discussion that walked through each item on the list and resulted in the generation of additional items (see Table). After more discussion, the multi-sort process began. The facilitator read an item from the list and tabulated the show-of-hands vote. The totals from each round of voting are shown in the table. Although there was at first some minor confusion about the process, and it is likely the facilitator may have made an arithmetic error or two, the results presented are a faithful representation of the process and the results. If there is no vote count shown in Round 1, the show-of-hands vote clearly indicated that this candidate did not have the support required to persist to Round 2. In later rounds, if the item should have persisted from the previous round but does not show a vote, again it received such weak support that a count was not necessary. The sequential inversion of some priorities may seem surprising, but that is the merit of a multi-sort that allows voters to reprioritize as options are eliminated. It is worth noting that everyone felt pressed for time to accomplish the assignment within the time allotted. After the third round of voting, the breakout session participants had a discussion of the results and agreed to report out the following

Top Five Priorities for Energy Policy

1. Implement incentives for industrial operations that reduce energy consumption, switch to renewable energy sources, or reduce environmental impact.

2. Require 25-year plan to reduce energy consumption, reduce environmental impact, and increase use of renewable energy sources. To be revised every 5 years with 3rd party validated retrospective of past 5 years.

3. Promote telepresence and other remote technologies to eliminate trips.

4. Develop K-12 curricular support materials and personnel to support education about sustainable energy systems.

5. Develop an efficient multimodal system that moves people and goods efficiently and maximizes the use of intermodal transportation facilities.