Promoting Sustainable Energy for Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard & Nantucket

Like much of the rest of the world, this region relies almost exclusively on non-renewable fossil fuels to meet demands for energy, and consumption practices generally are wasteful. It wasn't always this way. The time to change is now. The Cape & Islands Renewable Energy Collaborative exists to accelerate the transition to a sustainable energy future.

Problems. Fossil fuels must be imported from elsewhere, their global supply is finite, and the effort required to locate, secure, and deliver them to local communities will become ever more costly—in purely economic terms—as global demand grows and existing supplies are depleted. Already, energy costs here are among the highest in the continental United States.

Moreover, reliance on fossil fuels imposes growing environmental and social costs, over scales ranging from the local to the global. The use of coal, oil, natural gas, and other fossil fuels releases pollutants that adversely affect air and water quality, ecosystem integrity, and public health on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. Fossil fuel combustion is also the major contributor to the rising atmospheric accumulations of greenhouse gases that, by changing global climate, pose major threats to local communities.

	Wind turbines represent one important option for reducing regional dependence on fossil fuels.

• To help mitigate the adverse impacts—and growing threats—imposed on local communities by continued reliance on fossil-fuel-based energy sources; and
• To help realize the numerous benefits available to local communities through an accelerated transition to efficient, clean, and green energy sources

Increasing energy efficiency—which involves both conserving energy and maximizing the productivity of those resources that are consumed—represents the foundation for any sound energy strategy. Developing, purchasing, and using renewable resources to meet a growing percentage of local energy requirements represent crucial building blocks for both mitigating adverse impacts and creating benefits in Cape & Islands communities.

Renewable energy sources are continuously regenerated by natural forces, and they produce no pollutants or greenhouse gases. Countries, regions, and communities around the world are turning to renewables to reign in harmful emissions, increase security, and stake a claim in the burgeoning worldwide market for clean and green energy technology.