Intermunicipal Regional Energy Coordinator

TRORC was approached late 2019 by six towns in the TRORC region about hiring staff support to achieve actions and programs implementing each towns’ adopted energy plan. Those towns were Barnard, Fairlee, Sharon, Strafford, Thetford and Woodstock. Following the approval by voters in each of these towns to fund this work, and the execution of an Intermunicipal Energy Agreement articulating responsibilities and roles among the towns and TRORC, the first locally funded, shared service of its kind is off and running.

In 2021, the Towns of Barnard, Sharon, Strafford, Thetford, Woodstock, Norwich, and Bradford are the seven towns that make up the IREC program.

Tasks and programs focused will be driven by a Steering Committee from the seven towns and will include the priorities of each town. Energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emission reduction and other programs that help to meet Vermont’s Comprehensive Energy Plan goals will be the focus of the work.

For more information about this program, contact Jeff Grout at [email protected].

IREC Steering Committee Minutes

2023 Minutes

2022 Minutes

2021 Minutes

2020 Minutes

IREC Climate Action Plan (CAP)

IREC Climate Action Plan Powerpoint

This IREC Climate Action Plan (CAP) is designed to move these six towns towards their goals at the community level, and, to the extent possible, to encourage partnerships among the IREC towns. It is intended primarily to serve as an action plan for each town’s respective Energy Committee, but can also be a useful tool for government officials.

Progress towards the goals in this plan will be tracked on an annual basis, and will be reported in the Town Reports of participating towns. Energy Committees and the IREC will work together to modify the plan each year as new information becomes available and new priorities are established, to identify opportunities for collaboration, and to learn from the experiences of others.

Recognizing that data do not exist at the local or even regional level to conduct a proper GHG emissions inventory for the IREC towns, the IREC CAP instead establishes goals and tracks progress using metrics that serve as proxies for GHG emissions and for which local data is more readily available. Still, many of the baseline metrics are estimates or use county-level data, and tracking progress at the local level will be difficult. Ultimately, the actions in this CAP are designed to move towns closer to the goals, even if progress cannot be easily tracked. 

Grants available to help towns and individual homeowners upgrade their utilities can be found under Climate Action Guidelines, linked here.