Communities for Safe and Sustainable Energy

Oberlin City Council Candidates Differ on Climate Actions

John Elder, OC ’53, Vice President, Communities for Safe and Sustainable Energy

October 21, 2019

The dozen candidates vying for Oberlin City Council in the Nov. 5 election offer their differing views on the city’s Sustainable Reserve Fund and its Climate Action Plan goals in a Voters’ Guide published Tuesday, Oct. 15 by Communities for Safe and Sustainable Energy. Present Council member Heather Adelman, who worked on the recent rewrite of the CAP, said, “The next frontier for the City is to look at space heating and how we can move away from natural gas.” Also running for re-election is council member Kristin L. Peterson, who stated, “What concerns me most about the plan is the possible disagreements in the community about the best way to address the plan and its goals.” Longtime council member Ronnie...

Off The Cuff: John Elder and Steve Hammond

April 6, 2018

John Elder and Steve Hammond are co-founders of the group Citizens for Safe and Sustainable Energy, an environmental group that has been working to fight the NEXUS pipeline and advocate for Oberlin’s Community Bill of Rights. Hammond is also the Pastor for Oberlin’s Peace Community Church. The group has been fighting the NEXUS pipeline since 2013, pursuing lawsuits, engaging community members, and advocating with City Council. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. How did y...

Students, Community Must Collaborate Against NEXUS Pipeline

John D. Elder, OC ’53; Vice President, Communities for Safe and Sustainable Energy

December 8, 2017

To the Editors: A big “thank you” to the Review’s Production Editor Eliza Guinn for last Friday’s front page story “Court Rules Against Construction in Ohio City, Gives Oberlin Hope” (The Oberlin Review, Dec. 1, 2017) about the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that has blocked the construction of the NEXUS pipeline through Green, Ohio. As her article points out, Oberlin has also filed a case against NEXUS and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to keep NEXUS from threatening the safety of Oberlinians. Though this fact was not included in the article, a local grassroots organization, Communities for Safe and Sustainable Energy, drafted the Community Bill of Rights and Obligations Ordinance in 2...

RECs Best Invested in Community Programs

John D. Elder, Oberlin Resident

February 24, 2017

To the Editors: The Oberlin City Council wants to establish a Community Choice Fund to receive donations from credits it would begin giving on electric bills in July. The credits would come from 85 percent of the proceeds of the sale of Renewable Energy Certificates, as voted 4–2 by council in a surprise move on June 20 of last year. However, to credit ratepayers and then hire a PR firm to try to convince them to donate the credits back makes no sense. And it’s not fair! The credits would be issued to rate payers on the basis of how much electricity they use. For the typical homeowner this would be about $9 a month. But for the large users it could be well over $100,000 a year. A homeowner can’t do much with...