Medford has been awarded a grant to plan and launch innovative energy consumption-reducing projects.

The Metropolitan Area Planning Council awarded Medford and seven other communities with the matching grants, which will fund two positions for the next two years to review and plan energy reducing initiatives in the city, said Amanda Linehan, MAPC Communications Manager.

The grant was announced in a press conference Friday at Medford High School. A toal of 21 communities applied for the grants, called the Local Energy Action Program - or LEAP.

Through the grant, the city will create an energy action program, which will include energy reduction goals for the city's commercial and residential sectors and strategies to achieve the goals, according to an MAPC press release.