Wojahn advocates energy efficiency fund

UMD for Clean Energy continued to push for the creation of a city-wide energy efficiency loan fund last night in a meeting with District 1 City Councilman Patrick Wojahn.

The fund — which the group proposed to the city council in August — would give College Park home owners the opportunity to take out low-interest loans to fund carbon footprint-decreasing home improvements.

Although members of the student group would prefer the city work directly with a bank to subsidize low-interest loans, the council is hoping to work with Edison Wright, a corporation specializing in making micro-loans to support clean energy projects. Most UMD for Clean Energy members said they would support the city’s proposal, but worry adding a third player could increase the loans’ interest rates.

“Our idea was originally that homeowners would be able to take out city-provided loans,” UMD for Clean Energy Organizational Director Laura Calabrese said. “But ultimately, we want a renewable energy loan plan at as low of an interest as possible.”

Wojahn, however, is committed to working with the company, because doing so would minimize the economic risk for College Park, which has a relatively small, tight budget.

“There have been instances when the city loaned money to residents directly,” Wojahn said. “But that drastically increased the administrative costs of the program in a way that would not be viable.”

Wojahn is looking forward to working with students to develop the plan into a piece of legislation, and later into city policy. The students’ campaign is part of a larger effort to make the city greener and make the environment a major issue in this November’s council elections. Members were optimistic the council would support this major aspect of their platform.

“The city council we have is pro-environment,” said Matt Dernoga, the campaign director for Clean Energy for UMD and a Diamondback columnist. “The importance of getting students involved is that the issues on our platform aren’t just good ideas; we want them to be priorities that get done.”

While students in the group are committed to the loan fund project, their activism also includes campaigning for a bike-sharing program in the city and reducing their own carbon footprints.

In fact, before Wojahn addressed the group of about twenty students, they each broke the ice by admitting the most environmentally detrimental activity they did in the last week — if only to make sure they practiced what they preached. Suffice it to say, none of them are putting out more than their fair share of emissions.

“I drove to New York with my dad,” said Calabrese, a senior sociology major.

“I drove with my windows down and the AC on,” junior environmental science and technology major Jesse Yurow said.

hemmati@umdbk.com