Energy Assessment of Smithtown, New York

Energy management and carbon mitigation plans, often created to address global issues, must be implemented locally. Each specific area has its own needs and problems. For this study, we used publicly available data to create an energy assessment for the Town of Smithtown, a municipality of 116,000 people on the north shore of Long Island (New York). We found that motor vehicles consume the largest amount of energy, followed by space heating for both residential and commercial-industrial purposes. Local policies probably can only modestly affect transportation energy use, although US federal policies may have significant effects over the next several decades. A local renovation financing program holds great promise to improve residential heating energy usage, and could greatly reduce energy consumption if it is expanded to cover the commercial sector. Current Town programs have begun to address immediate needs, although programs will require revision to achieve major reductions in energy use.