Cause and Effect

With all the talk of Plum Island, I didn't get a chance to write about the green energy initiative put together by Mayor Moak.

The Newburyport Energy Advisory Committee met on Wednesday to, in the words of the press release, "study, evaluate, and make recommendations to the Mayor regarding energy conservation, energy efficiency and/or conversion to greener energy sources. This mission is consistent with an August 2006 resolution passed by the City Council in support of the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions."

Ari Herzog from the Mayor's office has a report in his blog here. He also links to an article in this week's Current.

No doubt, this is a good move by the mayor. The plight of Plum Island focuses our immediate attention on the effect of global warming, and it should. Did you see the Page 1 photo in today's Daily News? But it's wise to pursue a long-term strategy to cut energy use while saving money as well.

Read the articles if you need more, but I did want to point out one noteworthy item that didn't hit me until I read Gilliant Swart's piece.

Former Mayoral Candidate Jim Stiles sits on the committee. Now I know I'm new to town and therefore chock full of political naivete, so perhaps there's some deeper machination that I'm missing.

But my first and lasting impression, until someone convinces me otherwise, is it's a classy move by Mayor Moak to appoint his former political rival to the committee. And it's equally classy for Stiles to serve.