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BLUE SKY PARTICIPATION Talent joins ranks of green-power cities Comment By Tony Boom for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Tony Boom for the Mail Tribune Posted Dec. 28, 2015 at 3:49 PM Updated Dec 28, 2015 at 4:14 PM By Tony Boom for the Mail Tribune Posted Dec. 28, 2015 at 3:49 PM Updated Dec 28, 2015 at 4:14 PM » Social News TALENT — The city has joined 60 other municipalities nationwide as a designated Environmental Protection Agency Green Power Community after the Talent City Council voted to emulate the support residents show for purchasing forms of renewable energy. The council last week approved purchase of 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources. The purchases will add about $1,200 to the city's electric bills over the next six months. Talent residents have the fourth-highest rate of purchase of renewable energy in the state behind Hillsboro, Lake Oswego and Corvallis. Pacific Power, which supplies Talent’s electricity, makes the energy available through its Blue Sky program. “The citizens are showing you where they want to go,” said City Manager Tom Corrigan. “Right now the city doesn’t buy (any renewable energy). We’re sort of, ‘Oh, yeah, however you produce it.’ ” Local government, businesses and residents collectively must use green power in amounts that meet or exceed EPA purchase requirements to get the designation. Participation in Blue Sky by Talent residents is four times higher than the average for other Pacific Power communities in Southern Oregon. Talent’s participation rate of 9.4 percent of customers would rank it 33rd in the nation’s 61 Green Power cities listing. Cities range in size from Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia to Park City, Utah, and Cannon Beach, Ore. There are 11 cities in the state with the designation, including Medford. EPA defines green power as forms of renewable energy that provide the highest environmental benefit with electricity produced from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass and low-impact hydroelectric sources. “I think the council decided to buy in because of the encouragement they have from their constituency,” said Monte Mendenhall, Pacific Power regional business manager. “The community as a whole shows a high degree of support toward meeting energy and sustainability and energy-efficiency goals.” Contact with the business community in Talent by local coordinator Hattie Berg helped boost Blue Sky participation, said Mendenhall. “It’s basically just to tout the recognition that they support renewable energy in the region and that it meets their sustainability goals and attracts business as a result,” said Rhonda Rasmussen, manager of Pacific Power's Blue Sky Program. “The citizens had been supporting it at a very high level, so we approached the city.” Blue Sky started in 2000, and the EPA Green Power program emerged in 2004, Rasmussen said. In the local region, residents of Medford, Jacksonville and Roseburg have shown high levels of support for Blue Sky, said Mendenhall. Medford became a Green Power city in 2014, he said. Councilman E.J. McManus initially questioned the expense because it had not been budgeted for the current fiscal year, although he said he supported buying renewable energy. There’s enough money to cover the expense over the next six months in budgets covering electricity purchases, said Corrigan, who added it can be considered in the next round of budget preparation. Tony Boom is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at [email protected] By Tony Boom for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Tony Boom for the Mail Tribune Posted Dec. 28, 2015 at 3:49 PM Updated Dec 28, 2015 at 4:14 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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