2008 Energy Town Hall Meeting In Atlanta

Posted by Sonja Ebron

We hear a lot about energy and the economy in Atlanta, and for good reason. While gasoline prices have come down, supply is still spotty due to Hurricane Gustav, and the almost daily reports of job losses are worse than I can ever recall. National pundits blame our economic crisis on the housing bubble bust, but historical oil prices have always predicted recessions. Despite a dramatic decline in oil prices, we’re still paying three times the historical average in today’s dollars. Like all crises, this one hits Black people first. Add the impact of climate change, and it’s clear we have some difficult times ahead.

But there’s a positive side of this story. Black people have a history of making a way out of no way. This crisis will find us innovating as we’ve always done to ensure our survival. But we need to leap on the learning curve like never before. We have to learn quickly to live within our energy means. That’s why blackEnergy holds town hall meetings to share information and solutions to the twin crises of energy decline and climate change. We held two last year, at Providence Missionary Baptist Church and at Concerned Black Clergy (CBC). CBC invited us back this year to speak with 200-plus community leaders about ways to get relevant and timely information to the community.

We lined up a comprehensive program today. Sydney Roberts of Southface Institute discussed the need to hold our leaders accountable for their energy decisions, whether they were leading the nation, the state, a church or the local school board. She argued that everyone in a position of leadership should place energy efficiency on their agenda. Southface is the premier efficiency research organization in the southeast, and Sydney shared the Institute’s work and some of its findings on what works and what doesn’t in Georgia.

Wendy Bailey-Hooks at Georgia’s Department of Human Resources (DHR) told the audience how to get help with high utility bills from the federal Low-Income Heating Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). She noted that DHR received twice the usual funding this year due to the pain many consumers are feeling. Georgia’s Public Service Commission allocated even more funding to supplement the program. Janet Joseph of the Heating Energy Assistance Team described her nonprofit’s success at raising funds from the private sector to help low-income Georgians pay their utility bills. The money comes largely from natural gas marketers and individual supporters throughout the state and is dispersed through DHR and county-level community action agencies when federal funds run out.

Deryl Sessoms of the Atlanta Regional Commission shared information about carpooling and the RideSmart program, Atlanta’s effort to help workers save on transportation costs. RideSmart matches commuters who live close to each other and work in the same metro Atlanta areas. Darryl Haddock of the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance told the audience about the numerous nature preserves and other green spaces located in primarily Black areas of Atlanta and encouraged the attendees to help steward and protect them. He discussed the links between clean water and energy production and asked the audience to respect the limitations on our local sources when using water. I wrapped things up by describing the alarming predictions for winter heating costs and the current state of Georgia’s natural gas market. In the last three months, one gas supplier has left the market and another has gone bankrupt. The only new entrant is a multilevel marketer. blackEnergy has had a tough year, but our problems seem modest in comparison.

We got great questions on all these issues, and I was pleased to see the audience so engaged. Energy is boring to most people, but times are hard enough to open ears and drive the need for knowledge. I closed the program by asking each of the attendees to make a commitment on energy and the environment that could be achieved today, and to share that commitment with their table neighbors. To illustrate, I shared my decision to reuse the bottle every time I buy bottled water. (I drink a lot of bottled water, and plastic is very bad for the environment.) Several members of the audience shared their commitments with me after the program, including everything from trying a few fluorescent bulbs to getting more information about the carpool program. I felt gratified to think the message may finally be getting through.