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Sunday, 16 August 2015

OU hires energy consultant to mixed reactions


Ohio University is at a crossroads this year for its energy policy with its selection of a new energy consultant two weeks ago.




As OU transitions away from coal as its primary resource for heating and cooling, it’s building a pipeline to accommodate the resulting increased demand for natural gas. Officials say the university is still on-track to meet a goal to be completely coal-free by the end of 2015.




Meanwhile, the university is fast approaching its 2020 deadline to source 20 percent of its total energy from renewable energy sources.




OU announced on Aug. 4th that it had selected the West Chester, Ohio-based firm, Step Resources, as a consultant to guide OU’s energy purchases for the next year (with the option to extend it for another year), OU’s Joe Lalley confirmed Thursday. Lalley is senior associate vice president of information technologies and administrative services.




Lalley said OU’s future energy purchase, with Step Resources’ help, may involve a greater mix of renewably sourced energy than currently.




Local activists have expressed concern about OU’s consultant selection process (which started last spring), as well as OU’s decision to tie itself to a fossil fuel with the natural gas pipeline. In a “Readers Forum” op-ed on page 7 in today’s issue, members of local environmental activist group, OU Climate Action Now (OUCAN), say they are disappointed that OU chose Step Resources over Delta Energy Management as a consultant.




Of three consultants “short-listed” by OU in the consultant selection process, the activists said Delta Energy Management was the best option. Local activist and filmmaker Gary “Spruce” Houser said in an email last week that Delta Energy “openly promotes a green-energy option on its website while Step Resources does not.”




He continued, “… The 25-year history of Step (Resources) points to a very central theme of always finding the monetarily cheapest option for its client – even when that energy source poses a very steep cost in terms of protecting the health and welfare of our society.” On the bright side, Houser noted, OU did not choose Brakey Energy as a consultant, which he maintains has a “demonstrable history” of lobbying against clean-energy interests in Ohio.




Lalley has said previously that natural gas is a temporary solution for OU to get off coal – the most recent estimate from OU’s Office of Sustainability in February 2015 showed that OU heated its buildings with 37 percent coal and roughly 63 percent natural gas last year.




Activists have said that natural gas is not the bridge fuel that OU makes it out to be despite the idea that natural gas produces less greenhouse gas on initial burn than coal; those activists have stated that methane leaks from natural gas hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations are a big environmental concern, among other standard concerns about fracking’s impact on local water supplies.




Lalley said Thursday during a conference call that Step Resources will help OU evaluate and prepare responses after a request for qualifications for electricity and natural gas contracts is sent out sometime this month. Lalley said he expects responses for that RFQ due back in early to mid-September, with a decision expected in October about which natural gas and electricity vendors OU will use and the mix of renewable energy involved.




Lalley said it will be the university’s decision, and not the consultant’s.




Lalley also stated that he expects electricity firms to provide estimates on how much it will cost OU to generate varying percentages of its total electricity from renewable sources. The university currently generates 5 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, Lalley said. He said he expects to see cost estimates for various mixes of renewable and non  – what it would cost OU to generate 35 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, for example, compared with costs for sourcing 50 or even 100 percent of its energy from such sources.




“We’re very mindful of our 20 percent by 2020 goal, and we also have the desire to see what we can do to accelerate that goal,” Lalley said.




Step Resource’s contract, which OU provided The NEWS, states that Step asked to be paid $49,500 for its services, or $250 per hour plus any out-of-pocket expenses. (Step estimated it would take 194 hours to perform its tasks). It’s unclear which model OU chose.




OUCAN MEMBERS HAVE VOICED concerns about the transparency of the consultant selection process.




“A profound dismay with OU centers around the issue of democratic accountability,” Houser wrote. “It is not morally defensible to on the one hand accept this substantial public money and then exclude the public from having any input whatsoever on how it is used.”




Houser said that OU previously refused to make public the names of individuals on the selection committee for the consultant selection process, and noted that university officials refused to meet with OUCAN members.




Bernhard Debatin, a professor of multimedia policy in OU’s journalism school, said that Step Resources previously has been a consultant for two other Ohio public universities that have adopted geothermal heating and cooling policies, which he views as a positive.




“I would assume that (Step’s) work with universities and their ability to include renewables into the mix, plus Step’s track record of renegotiating and reducing energy costs made them an attractive candidate for Ohio University,” he wrote.




OU hires energy consultant to mixed reactions

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