Every city and county should be doing stuff like this:Loudoun County on Tuesday passed two measures to promote energy efficiency, despite pointed opposition from two supervisors.This move is excellent, albeit a complete no-brainer. As I've written a million times, energy efficiency is by far and away the lowest of low-hanging fruits on the energy and environment front. In terms of bang for the buck, saving a watt of energy will almost always cost less - usually far less - than producing and/or purchasing an additional watt of power. Hence the concept of "negawatts," as coined by energy efficiency guru Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute. What Loudoun County is doing here is a "win-win-win," in that it: a) saves the county money indefinitely after the initial payback period (about 7 years based on the numbers reported above); b) makes the buildings more comfortable for people; and c) cuts carbon emissions, since most of the power for these buildings is generated by dirty, carbon-intensive coal. The only thing I wish is that Loudoun and other Virginia counties would do a lot more of this kind of thing. The sooner they start, the sooner the "win-win-win" begins.
The county will upgrade six of its largest energy-using facilities, including the government center, courts building, and fire and rescue training center, to lessen their effect on the environment. The total cost of the upgrades is expected to be just over $1 million.
Custom Energy Services, Loudoun's energy services contractor, projected nearly $143,000 in annual savings with the implementation of all 29 recommended measures, which include building weatherization, the installation of high-efficiency lighting, and water conservation.
By the way, you can't possibly have anyone do anything intelligent these days without some flat-earth, tin-foil-hat right wingnut ranting and raving about it. Apparently, according to ultra-nutty Republican Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio, "[this is] socialism, pure and simple." Riiiight, Supervisor, saving money and protecting the environment perfectly fits the definition of socialism -- "state or cooperative ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods." Whatever (rolls eyes).
Democratic Supervisor Stevens Miller, who is running for House of Delegates against Del. Tom Rust (R-86), pushed back against Delgaudio's ignorant idiocy, commenting that he is "tired" of those who "spout 'non-evidence and pseudo-science,'" and pointing to the source of the craziness and ignorance ("look at who it is, and decide who you want to believe"). That's not exactly a tough call right there.
