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Climate activists launch clean heating and cooling campaign

Local climate activists are launching a new campaign to educate people about the advantages of heat pump systems as a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels.

The HeatSmart Monroe campaignis an expansion of the Sustainable Rochester Homes program, which has been underway for over a year.

Abby McHugh-Grifa, executive director of the Climate Solutions Accelerator of the Genesee-Finger Lakes Region, said the installation of air source heat pumps and ground source heat pumps -- also known as geothermal heating systems -- would have a great impact on the region's consumption of fossil fuels.

"The bulk of local emissions come from transportation and from the energy we use to heat and cool buildings," she explained, "so while installing solar is a good thing and we do need to be increasing the use of renewable energy ... getting our heating systems off of fossil fuels is actually going to have a more positive impact in terms of reducing our carbon footprint."

Public awareness of these technologies is very low, McHugh-Grifa said.  

The Climate Accelerator is hosting a webinar from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. Feb. 2, in which experts will explain how heat pump technologies and how various funding programs work.

"When you get an estimate for a geothermal system in particular, there's likely to be considerable sticker shock,"  McHugh-Grifa said.

Upfront costs to install a geothermal system in a typical home could be in the range of $40,000. Federal tax credits and incentives from NYSERDA, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, may cut that cost in half, but that is still out of reach for many homeowners.

McHugh-Grifa acknowledged that equity is a real concern, and her organization is considering how policy solutions could reduce those costs.

"What do we need to be advocating for at the state level, at the federal level, to get the price of these systems down?" she asked "They have come down already, quite a bit, but there's a ways to go."

Beth Adams joined WXXI as host of Morning Edition in 2012 after a more than two-decade radio career. She was the longtime host of the WHAM Morning News in Rochester. Her career also took her from radio stations in Elmira, New York, to Miami, Florida.