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2040 Energy, Transit Plans Adopted
Two long-term plans that identify and recommend strategies for meeting Kane County's long-term transit and energy needs were adopted June 14 by the County Board. Formal approval of both the Kane County 2040 Transit Plan and Kane County 2040 Energy Plan follows an extensive preparation and public comment process that spanned many months.
Funded primarily with Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) planning program funds, the 2040 Transit Plan is designed to be an integral component in the County's long-range comprehensive planning process. Among other things, the plan identifies existing transit conditions, documents market potential, and recommends transit system improvements and funding strategies while recognizing that transit funding is limited.
Many of the recommendations included in the Transit Plan focus on services sponsored by Kane County municipalities and employers. The plan was steered by the Kane/Kendall Council of Mayors Transit Committee, which includes municipal and County representatives as well as representatives of the RTA, Pace, Metra and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. Major medical and educational institutions, employers and social service organizations also were interviewed as part of the planning process. The complete plan is available at http://www.co.kane.il.us/dot/planning/2040TransitPlan.aspx
As approved, the plan is an update of one completed in 2005 that focused on how projected growth in Kane County would impact electricity consumption in the county. The update has been expanded to include natural gas consumption data and municipal electric utilities data from St. Charles, Geneva and Batavia. Its was funded through an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and includes analysis of countywide energy consumption and strategies for reducing consumption over the next 30 years.
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Information and key concepts included in the plan are designed to assist readers in understanding the data and identifying appropriate strategies at the county, municipal, household and business level. Rising energy consumption and costs elicit additional economic and environmental concerns for municipalities, businesses, households and other consumers. In addition, electricity and natural gas consumption in buildings is the greatest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the nation. The plan, therefore, addresses energy production and consumption as a growth management issue with the inclusion of 10 strategies designed to reduce energy costs and consumption that involve existing, readily-available technologies and simple changes in our everyday energy habits. Three strategic scenarios - conservative, moderate and aggressive - outlined in the plan illustrate the potential energy and cost savings, depending on the level of implementation. According to the draft, Kane County consumers have the potential to save up to $3.4 billion between now and 2040, and to reduce energy consumption by as much as 272 billion kBtu over the next thirty years.
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