I'm very happy to see this:Loudoun County is involved in a wide range of efforts to reduce the county government's energy consumption, improve energy efficiency and raise awareness about energy conservation.To read the proposed strategy, please click here. The broad goals are to "support the County’s economic competitiveness, attract high-quality employment and investments, and respond to the impact that Loudoun’s energy use has on the environment." In addition, the strategy focuses on "reducing peak demand on the existing electricity grid in efforts to reduce the need for significant future investments."
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Loudoun County is in the process of developing a proposed countywide energy strategy. The Board of Supervisors will hold a public input session on the proposed strategy, Monday, December 14, 2009, at 7:30 p.m., in the Board Room of the Loudoun County Government Center, 1 Harrison Street, S.E., Leesburg. The draft strategy, proposed projects, appendices, and related information prepared for the Board's December 1, 2009, meeting are online:
Among other benefits of Loudoun adopting this strategy, the county "is eligible for a formula based grant amount of $2,215,600 for energy efficiency projects" under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. An example is the Loudoun County Youth Shelter Expansion, for which "architects and engineers have been tasked to create a passive solar, LEED Silver rated building that out-performs current code buildings in energy efficiency by 60%." This project is illustrative of the "win-win-win" nature of the proposed energy strategy: it will save the country money ("incremental energy investments could deliver economic returns 2% to 3% better than municipal bonds"); it will create jobs ("Drawing from the suggested methodology from the US Department of Energy - $92,000 for every job - the number of jobs calculated from this project is approximately 36 over the course of the development of the project."); it will reduce emissions of greenhouse gases; and it will "provide education in the clean and renewable energy field."
When something is all "win," I believe that is what's known as a "no brainer." And this is just one example of one project under the Loudoun County Energy Strategy. Imagine if this were done on a much larger scale: the cost savings to the county, the number of jobs created, and the environmental benefits would be much larger as well.
The only unfortunate aspect of this plan - and it's not the fault of the plan itself - is that, because Virginia is a "Dillon Rule" state, much of it has to be voluntary. In addition to "Dillon," the political reality is that much of this probably has to be voluntary, but hopefully once people see how well it's working, there will be greater understanding, community "buy-in," and political support - even from Republicans like Lori Waters - in the future. The fact is, given all the political constraints, if this strategy document is approved, it would put Loudoun light years ahead of where they are right now.
By the way, speaking of politics, it truly continues to baffle me how saving money, conserving resources, being more efficient, making our economy more competitive, protecting our national security, making counties like Loudoun more attractive to potential residents and businesses, and protecting "god's creation" could possibly be a partisan issue. Unfortunately, for whatever bizarre reason, energy and the environment have become far too politicized, and it's extremely unfortunate. Sometime in the next few weeks, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors will have an opportunity to become a model of nonpartisanship and enlightened policymaking on energy and environmental matters for the rest of Virginia. I strongly encourage them to seize that opportunity!
P.S. Great job by everybody who helped put this plan together and push it to this point!
