Over 160 member of the public and municipal and county officials from Ulster, Sullivan, and Dutchess Counties attended two forums organized by CLP on Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) called “Taking Control of Our Energy Supply.”

The first forum took place at SUNY Ulster College and was co-sponsored by the Ulster County Planning Department, the Ulster County Association of Town Supervisors and Village Mayors, CLP, and Mountainkeeper. Elected officials and community members in Sullivan County attended a similar forum the following day in Bethel, which was co-sponsored by the Town of Bethel, Sullivan County Alliance for Sustainable Development, and Catskill Mountainkeeper. A summary of the forums can be found here.

The SUNY-Ulster forum included a stellar panel speaking on different models of CCA in the country: Paul Fenn of Local Power Inc., the “father” of CCA; Stephan Wollenburg, Senior Power Planner for the Cape Light Compact, an inter-municipal CCA on Cape Cod in Mass.; Philip Ferreira, who operates a CCA out of the Department of Planning in Lowell, Mass.; Brian Murphy of Colonial Power, a CCA consultancy based in Connecticut. The panel presentations began with CLP’s Jen Metzger, who gave an overview of the current energy context in New York; and was moderated by Carl Chipman, Rochester Town Supervisor and President of the Ulster County Association of Town Supervisors and Village Mayors. 

Watch the SUNY Ulster 9/29 forum here:

Watch the Sullivan County 9/30 forum here: