The most pressing challenge faced by the Ridgefield Action Committee for the Environment is not global climate change nor a depleting oil source, nor is it even the more local energy issues that have been the focus of the organization for the last year – the most pressing challenge is getting heard in Ridgefield.

With some important initiatives on the horizon regarding the town's and its residents' carbon footprint, the effort to "snowball" interest in green energy use, according to RACE co-chair Gretchen Bishop at Wednesday's meeting, makes this one of the busiest times of the year.

RACE is now forming its "energy action plan" for 2010 to improve energy efficiency, change energy behavior and increase the use of renewable energy sources, not the least bit of which is to get the word out to the public.

The organization is working with the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund to make this happen.

"Once people start understanding how much energy they use and what it takes to change that, it makes sense," said RACE member Mark Harris. "By saying, 'Here's what's been done, and here's what you can do about it,' we have a nice opportunity to promote awareness and education."

Part of this is to encourage residents to have their homes audited for energy use through the Neighbor to Neighbor Challenge between Ridgefield and surrounding towns to have 10 percent of their residents cut down on 20 percent of their energy use.

So far, Ridgefield has taken the lead because of an early surge in November.

In a RACE survey, in fact, of Chamber of Commerce businesses in Ridgefield, over half of those surveyed had positive feelings about making energy use in their business more efficient.

Taking the lead is First Selectman Rudy Marconi, who had his own home audited and fitted with energy-saving technology – RACE will be releasing a video of this process in their effort to reach out to the public.

A Jan. 6 ribbon-cutting of solar panels at the community center will be open to all and will be an opportunity for residents to learn about taking part in the challenge.

"We're trying to sow some seeds here while we put together the plan," Bishop said. "If we can get more people actively thinking about the environment and energy use, then we've done our job."