After getting the green light for green energy in the Feb. 11 student elections, Student Congress on Tuesday approved the first four appointees to the Renewable Energy Special Project Committee.
Congress elected three members -- Charlie Anderson, Stacie Nagy and Ken Varner -- to the committee, and the Graduate and Professional Student Federation elected Christine Edmonson and will nominate one more member. All four had to be OK'd by Congress.
The executive branch also will pick two committee members. Student Body Vice President Aaron Hiller said he will choose the nominees by the end of the week.
After a student-run campaign to fund renewable energy sources on campus, 74 percent of students voted in favor of the referendum, which authorizes a $4 increase in student fees per semester to fund green energy initiatives on campus. The fee increase will go into effect in the 2004-05 academic year.
"We didn't want to allocate a lot of money without a committee to oversee it," said Speaker Pro Tem Matt Liles. "The people on the committee were the people who had an integral part in getting the green energy referendum through."
Student officials said they feel confident in the abilities of the new appointees, especially Varner, who Congress appointed to serve as the chairman of the committee. "He's the man that knows everything when it comes to renewable energy," Liles said.
Varner said he has done an extensive amount of research in the field of renewable energy. "Everything I've done has been based on this one subject."
Though Varner said unofficial plans for green energy on campus include thermal solar panels on the new science building and a solar water-heating system in the Morrison Residence Hall renovation project, the committee can't start work on them until the fee increase goes into effect.
But student officials said they welcome the extra time in which to structure the committee.
Nagy said that for now, the committee will be working on budgets and will write its constitution and bylaws, as well as research what the actual implementation of renewable energy will look like on campus.
"The fact that we're held back is giving us a few years to lay a good foundation for this program," Varner said.
But he said UNC's implementation of renewable energy alone will not have a significant effect on the environment as a whole. The difference will be made in spreading the idea to other universities, he said. "I hope that it provides a good first footstep for the promotion of larger-scale renewable energy implementation."
Nagy echoed Varner's sentiments. "It was a bold step," she said. "I think the University could be the leader in cleaner energy of universities across the nation."
The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.
