Houghton County enters semifinals in energy competition

HOUGHTON, Mich. – Houghton County has reached the semifinals in a national competition to create a plan for the community to become more energy efficient.

The Houghton Energy Efficiency Team announced this week that their plan to reduce energy costs in Houghton County has been selected as one of 50 official semifinalists in the Georgetown Energy Prize competition. The next step is a two–year period where the plan needs to be implemented within the community.

Team chairman Abhi Kantemneni said the biggest challenge will be making these changes accessible to lower–income households.

“We are trying to tackle that problem here in Houghton and the solutions that emerged out of our participation in the Georgetown University Energy Prize will be translatable or replicable across most communities in the country, specifically rural communities across America,” Kantamneni said.

The team is now asking for community leaders to help implement the plan and are currently taking nominations for people to serve those positions.

Nominations can be made at houghtonenergyefficiency.com/leadership. The positions will be elected either through an online poll or at the next meeting on January 6th.