Sustainable Series: The Man In Front of Brookhaven's Clean Energy Movement

Lately we've looked at the business side of the clean energy movement, but this week the series shifts its focus back to the government side. In Brookhaven, that means looking at the actions of the Town's Clean Energy Task Force (CETF) which is chaired by Councilman Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld. 

Elected in November of 2003, Councilman Fiore-Rosenfeld serves as the representative to Brookhaven's First Council District which includes Stony Brook, Setauket, East Setauket, Old Field, Poquott, Port Jefferson Station, Terryville, and parts of South Setauket. The Councilman is a longstanding advocate for environment – one who in the past has worked closely with NYPIRG (the New York Public Interest Research Group) and New York State Assemblyman Steve Englebright – and for the past three years the head of the Town's CETF.

"We had an energy grant writer here and when the grant writer left I accepted to chair the task force," Councilman Fiore-Rosenfeld said. "I started chairing in 2007 and before chairing the task force I was an advocate on the ennvironment for over a decade."

As discussed in the second installment of this series, a CETF is a advocate effort adopted by a slew of municipalities across Long Island to take action on clean energy. Since 2004, the townships, and two counties, of Long Island that have adopted a CETF have come together three times a year as part of the  Clean Energy Leadership Task Force (CELTF) hosted by Sustainability Institute at Molley College.

"One of the biggest things to come out of the task force is that we went to natural gas garbage trucks," Councilman Fiore-Rosenfeld said. "That's a pretty significant innitiative."

According to the Town's Website, the compressed-natural-gas fueling station at the waste management center in Yaphank was open in January of 2009. With it's instillation, Councilman Fiore-Rosenfeld said any independent waste carter under contract with the Town is required to use natural gas vehicles.

"It's still a fossel fuel but burns much cleaner," said the Councilman of natural gas. "It's estimated that in the first seven years the fueling station will displace 4.9 million gallons of diesel fuel and be equivelent to taking 20,000 cars off the road."

A month before the fueling station opened in Yaphank, the Town celebrated the opening of one at its Highway Department in Coram. This project came to be with the help of government grants, and so did Brookhaven's "premiere" clean energy program.

As part of the Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Town received $4.1 million through a Federal Community Block grant. With the funds, and the help of Councilwoman Connie Kepert, the Brookhaven CETF created the 'Go Solar' and 'Green Homes' programs.

Established in 2009, each program was funded by $1.6 million of the grant. The 'Go Solar' program helps residents off set the cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) instillation. The 'Green Homes' program helps residents off set the cost of preforming energy efficient retrofits on their homes. In both programs, the Town used the grant money to pay roughly 70 percent of the cost while residents pay the remaining amount as an interest-free loan that is applied to their tax bill. The interesting element of these programs is that the cost paid by residents goes into Town Initiative Funds which allows other residents to access these programs in the future.

"There were 100 homes for solar and around 250-300 for Green Homes," Councilman Fiore-Rosenfeld said. "And this is just round one."

The councilman is also looking to the future with regard to hopefully establishing LEED standards for all municipal buildings. Though that is in the works, the Town has already scored a watershed achievement with regard to LEED standards. In the spring of 2007, the Town adopted LEED standards for large retail developments, requiring all new commerical shopping centers of 125,00 square feet or larger to obtain a green building permit.

"We are the first municipality in the Northeast to push for LEED status," Councilman Fiore-Rosenfeld said.

While that maybe true, the Town of Babylon – perhaps one of the only Towns further along in clean energy measures that Brookhaven – last year adopted LEED standards for commercial construction over 4,000 square feet, according the 2009 CELTF report composed by the Sustainability Institute. Nevertheless, Councilman Fiore-Rosenfeld said Brookhaven continues to make strides with regard to LEED standards as two current revitalization projects, one at the former Town Hall location on Route 112 and one at the Centereach Pool, are being undertaken with green building standards in mind.

Nevertheless, Councilman Fiore-Rosenfeld said Brookhaven continues to make strides with regard to LEED standards as two building projects currently underway, one at the former Town Hall location on Route 112 and one at the Centereach Pool, are being undertaken with green building standards in mind.

Sachem Patch Sustainable Series

No. 1: Introduction to the Series

No. 2: Towns of Islip and Brookhaven Already in the Green Game

No. 3: Becoming Efficient and Saving Money with National Energy Audits

No. 4: Supplying the Sun in Sachem

No. 5: 

No. 6: Vetter Environmental Sciences specializes in industrial cleaning solutions

Sustainable Series Useful Terms List