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RENEWABLE ENERGY LONG ISLAND’S GORDIAN RAACKE
RAACKE’S PLANET EARTH SPINS ON RENEWABLE ENERGY
Highly respected by the public, the media and elected officials, Raacke is a significant player in the development of Long Island and New York State energy policies
STORY BY MAUREEN TRAXLER
© 2007 NETWORKING® MAGAZINE 2020 GUIDE TO GOING GREEN
Some 15 years ago, Gordian Raacke (pronounced RAH-key) was looking for a way to give back to his community and thinking about how he could apply his civil engineering background and skills in the areas of clean environment, renewable energy and conservation. While he thought he had donequite a bit of research and study — even successfully building an energy efficient, solar-powered home with his wife Gabriele — he says that his attendance as one of Al Gore’s “Climate Change Messengers” at a three-day training seminar last January was “a life changing experience.”
The overall idea he brought home was: “We need to change our way of thinking.” Raacke characterizes the feeling as “empowering” when one moves from denial that there is an energy crisis, shift toward climate change and depletion of the ozone layer, to fear that Planet Earth is doomed to destruction, to realizing that we, as individuals, can become a part of the solution.
“We need to connect the dots—we all know where the dots are— and take immediate action,” says Raacke. “It starts at home. Take the first step, a small step, say putting in a compact-fluorescent energy saving light bulb or taking a five-minute shower, instead of 20 minutes. Start anywhere, and you’ll soon say, ‘I can do this.’ You never know where you’ll end up.”
In January, Raacke traveled to Nashville, TN, for an intense and extensive crash course to become one of 1,000 Climate Change Messengers being trained worldwide. He was impressed that Gore spent almost every minute devoted to the seminar and the participants in The Climate Project, amazed at the knowledge and devotion to accuracy shown by climate change and science experts, and inspired by his fellow 199 Nashville “messenger” attendees—teachers, ministers, scientists and people from varied walks of life.
After absorbing all the information on “hundreds of PowerPoint Presentation slides with nerdy graphs,” Raacke notes that he and the others received speaker training, learning how to answer even the difficult questions, in preparation for the ten presentations they were committed to giving in their home communities.
“I’ve already delivered more than that, and I’ll keep going until I drop,” remarks an energized Raacke, executive director of Renewable Energy LI (RELI), a nonprofit organization he co-founded. At some speaking engagements, he has collaborated with the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA).
Serendipitous route to advocacy
Raacke recalls his delight in playing with tinker toys as a child and his budding interest in technology and science as a young adult in Hanau, Germany. Through his upbringing, he gained an appreciation for open space, nature and beautiful landscapes. In time, he began to realize that “energy is the crossroads between technology and science, and the natural environment and environmental issues. While we use technology to generate and use energy, some of these technologies are causing tremendous damage to our environment and planet.”
With that in mind, in 1993 Raacke and his wife set out on a quest to fulfill one of his dreams—to build his own house. They settled on a beautiful piece of property off the beaten track, received initial help from a builder, sadly took down several trees, and did most of the work themselves over the next four years. Today, their project, still a work in progress, has proved successful—he likes to point out that because of his solar electric system, his LIPA bills reflect just the basic fees. Since his electric meter often runs in reverse on sunny days, when his solar system produces more energy than he uses, Raacke regularly earns credits in his LIPA “energy credit bank.” During the winter, when he may need a bit more power than his system generates, he draws down from this credit. All in all, it means that his LIPA bill throughout the year averages less than $6 per month. In fact, at every talk he gives, Raacke is sure to pull that LIPA bill out of his suit coat pocket, surprising Long Islanders who are accustomed to utility bills well into triple digits.
Also in 1993, Raacke answered an ad in The New York Times for the position of Executive Director of the federal court-appointed Citizens Advisory Panel (CAP) formed by Judge Jacob Weinstein as a result of the settlement of a class action lawsuit against the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO). The 13-member panel had been working for about four years, but it had become apparent that the group needed to hire staff.
“Applying for the position was a stretch for me,” notes Raacke. “I had little to show on my resume other than my experience owning a small woodworking business in Manhattan prior to moving to the East End.” Nevertheless, Raacke was selected from about 20 candidates and, he adds, “It was my entry into the field.” As Executive Director, he worked with the panel on ‘not just energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, but also in representing consumers’ interests before LILCO and the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC). “We called for an open decision-making process and transparency,” he notes, “and I spent time testifying at rate increase cases.”
Raacke says, “I realized that it was not just about paying high electric rates and arguing against rate increases—the building of the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant was a tremendous expense for LILCO—but it was also about paying utility bills.”
The reason electric rates were going higher was that the cost of fossil fuels was going higher each year. Raacke began to think about ways “to help the utility and people reduce energy consumption in their homes and businesses, which could bring down bills dramatically by moving away from the use of fossil fuels and developing renewable energy sources. That got us started in fostering energy efficiency programs, conservation programs and, as an extension of that, renewable energy sources.”
Raising the banner of renewable energy
When the work of the Citizens Advisory Panel (CAP) began to wind down, Raacke lent his expertise to STAR (Standing for Truth About Radiation), an East Hampton group fighting the Millstone Nuclear Reactor in Connecticut, just 11 miles from Orient Point, and working with Brookhaven National Laboratory to see the cleanup of toxic waste at a small Brookhaven nuclear reactor.
“You can’t just say ‘no’ to nuclear reactors,” says Raacke, “you have to develop alternatives.”
Following his tenure with CAP and the completion of work with STAR, Raacke wanted to continue to focus on clean energy issues. Believing that “climate changes are threatening our lifestyles and the planet as we know it,” he co-founded Renewable Energy Long Island (RELI) with Scott Cullen, former executive director of STAR, and others.
RELI is a membership-based, nonprofit promoting clean, sustainable energy generation and use, seeking public participation in policy decisions to encourage energy efficiency and use of renewal energy sources and to protect the environment, economy and public health. RELI’s website, www.renewableenergylongisland.org, is a gold mine for anyone interested in energy, conservation and climate issues. The nonprofit not only tells you why we need clean energy, but also offers several programs to help Long Islanders become a part of the solution.
LIshines…A thousands lights
In 1999 when Raacke became involved with the solar electric program—encouraging residents and businesses to install PV (photovoltaic) solar systems on their roofs—he says there were fewer than a handful of solar systems on Long Island. Today, visitors to the RELI website will see a luminous map of Long Island showing a light for each “home and business that has put solar panels on their roofs, making clean energy, not contributing to global warming and not emitting harmful gases into the environment,” says Raacke. He notes that through its LIshines program RELI had set the 1,000 goal for 2007 and in half that time (late June 2007), he and LIPA President/CEO Richard M. Kessel celebrated the 1,000 installation at a home in Hicksville. [Homeowners and businesses who have installed PV, solar hot water or pool heating systems are encouraged to join the Long Island Solar Registry. This can be done from RELI’s LIshines webpage.]
“Making our own clean energy is not only good for the environment, but also for our pocketbooks (lowering energy bills) and for national security, keeping dollars here in the local economy and not sending our dollars to oil-producing countries, especially following the events of 9/11,” emphasizes Raacke.
Tilting at windmills and more
In his investigation of renewable energy sources, Raacke studied wind power, and says this is “the fastest growing energy sector in the world with tremendous growth in Europe, Asia and the U.S.—70,000 megawatts of wind energy capacity produced by turbines are installed worldwide. The curve is going up and continuing to accelerate.” He continues, “The U.S. had a record year in 2006 in the number of turbines installed. Utility companies all over the country are installing wind turbines because they know it helps them diversify their portfolio of energy sources and technologies, mitigate price volatility, and keep energy prices more stable.”
Raacke helped get wind power onto LIPA’s radar screen when he co-authored “Power Choices for Long Island,” a collaborative effort with the Pace University (White Plains) Energy Project. After reviewing solar panels, fuel cells, energy conservation and efficiency, and considering Long Island’s population density, the Project recommended a feasibility study of an offshore wind park.
RenewLI, another RELI program, works with New York State to meet the state’s commitment to seeing 25% of our state’s electric needs coming from renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar and biomass, by 2013. Raacke was a participant in the State Energy Department’s establishment of a Renewable Portfolio Statement, which required the boost in renewable energy sources. One of RELI’s legislative initiatives includes advocacy for the expansion of the net metering limit. (Net metering is a measure of consumption and allows excess energy produced by PV systems to revert back to the utility in return for a credit on the customer’s bill.) Proposed legislation now before the State Assembly and Senate seeks to expand the limit from 10,000 kW to 2 megawatts.
Two new RELI programs to watch for are: GreenAAA (Green Ask, Answer, Act), getting Long Islanders answers on all their green building questions, including contractor leads, and LI-CAN (Long Island Climate Action Network), which will seek to train volunteer speakers to present energy issues and initiate grassroots action on global warming and climate change through Local Action Networks (an offshoot of Al Gore’s The Climate Project).
Renewable Energy Long Island (RELI) is a membership-based, non-for-profit organization promoting clean, sustainable energy use and generation for Long Island. RELI seeks public participation in energy policy decisions to encourage energy efficiency, use of renewable energy sources, and to protect our environment, economy, and public health. Renewable Energy Long Island is at 62 Newtown Lane, Suite 103, East Hampton, NY 1193, 631-329-8888 and 877-619-5572 fax. Email info@RenewableEnergyLongIsland.org and view them on the web at www.RenewableEnergyLongIsland.org
© 2007 NETWORKING® MAGAZINE
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