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Recently, I learned that our Utility Department allocated $2,241,700 for purchased power in 2008. Because I do not know that we are currently using any alternative energy sources, I think our city must look at reducing that amount. At the very least, we need to explore our options.

Naples recently hired an intern to study their greenhouse emissions, in an effort to lower them and while that is a good idea, on Marco it is more important that we discover ways that would reduce our energy use and also save money too.

Private industry has long used college interns with specific education in certain fields and I would think if our city approached Florida’s colleges they should be able to provide one for us. A non-profit organization called Solar Energy has workshops scheduled that we could send an intern to in order to research options, and make recommendations for the best uses here.

See at http://www.solarenergy.org/workshops/advpv.html.

This should be investigated as a cost effective way to find out what our choices are and help further the career path of a college student. Professional consultants generally are expensive and try to reach the conclusions they think you want to hear. At this point, we don’t need that.

There are government rebates for installing these “green” technologies for homeowners and possible grants for local governments. These are the kinds of actions we would like our city council to be taking.

Karen Glaub, Marco Island