When it comes to conservation, conserving money is a great place to start. Nine local governments are putting that theory to work in an agreement to jointly hire an energy efficiency expert to help them cut utility costs and increase recycling.

Skagit County, Anacortes, Burlington, Sedro-Woolley, La Conner, the Swinomish Tribe, the Skagit Public Utility District, the Port of Skagit County and the Port of Anacortes all will contribute toward the salary of an energy efficiency manager. The position will be supported in part by a grant from Puget Sound Energy. The Northwest Clean Air Agency will donate office space in Mount Vernon.

It’s a smart move because what will work for one place is likely to have similar applications in others. Avoiding duplicated effort should produce effective results at an affordable cost for everyone involved.

It’s also a remarkable, too-rare instance of intergovernmental cooperation. Consider that many of these entities have frequently bickered with, rebuffed and/or sued one or more of the others — and in some cases are still at it over one issue or another.

The coalition could lay some groundwork for more complicated service-sharing arrangements in the future — cooperation that could provide better answers to the increased costs of duplicated public services in adjoining jurisdictions. Solving countywide problems could use more of this kind of thinking.

• Editorials reflect the consensus opinion of the editorial board and are written by its members: Publisher L. Stedem Wood, Editor Don Nelson and City Editor Dick Clever.