WSFA.com: News Weather and Sports for Montgomery, AL.Editorial: Energy Savings

Editorial: Energy Savings

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By Collin Gaston - bio | email

  • Editorials

  • Friday, May 18 2012 7:20 PM EDT2012-05-18 23:20:53 GMT
    If you text and drive it's a matter of WHEN and not IF you will be involved in an accident. The odds are stacked against you when your eyes and hands are more focused on your cell phone than they are
    If you text and drive it's a matter of WHEN and not IF you will be involved in an accident.  The odds are stacked against you when your eyes and hands are more focused on your cell phone than they are the other motorists on the roadways.

  • Tuesday, May 15 2012 7:20 PM EDT2012-05-15 23:20:31 GMT
    On our editorial suggesting that the governor raise taxes to fund Medicaid, we received these comments: "If the budget is passed at this severely cut rate, the shortage of physicians, hospitals, and clinics
    On our editorial suggesting that the governor raise taxes to fund Medicaid, we received these comments:

  • Tuesday, May 1 2012 7:20 PM EDT2012-05-01 23:20:35 GMT
    If your commute includes I-85 in the mornings I'm sure you've noticed men alongside the roadways picking up trash and road debris and thought to yourself "who would want to do that?"
    If your commute includes I-85 in the mornings I'm sure you've noticed men alongside the roadways picking up trash and road debris and thought to yourself "who would want to do that?"

  • Friday, April 20 2012 7:20 PM EDT2012-04-20 23:20:42 GMT
    For the next sixty seconds I want you to give yourself permission to push pause on whatever you are doing and listen and reflect for a moment. I did this recently after reading an article titled "Top five

  • Wednesday, April 18 2012 7:27 PM EDT2012-04-18 23:27:31 GMT
    Representative Christopher John England (Tuscaloosa) has sponsored a bill in the Alabama legislature that would allow convicted felons of drug crimes to receive food stamps under certain circumstances.
MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) -

The Montgomery Public School System is saving energy, saving money and ultimately saving teachers jobs.

Montgomery Public Schools Energy Education Specialists had some good news last week - a report that the school system saved $421 thousand dollars in energy costs over the first six month months of the year. That represented a 15.2 percent reduction in utility costs.  These savings alone would fund approximately 7 classroom teacher positions.

Over this same six month period the school system saved over 1.7 million kilowatts of electricity and nearly 52 thousand cubic feet of natural gas preventing some 1.4 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.  What does this mean for our environment? The answer – these environmental measures had the same impact as if we removed 262 cars from the road.

The savings are the result of a contract with Energy Education, a Texas based company that has assisted over 1,100 clients produce energy savings of over $2.3 billion.  They helped the Montgomery Public School System change their human behavior, because people, not buildings, use energy.

We commend their initiative, progress and results to date and strongly encourage every school system in the state, and every state agency for that matter, to do an assessment of their energy usage and present a plan for how much they can and what they can do with the savings.

Good for the budget, good for the environment and in this case - good for our children.

We welcome your feedback.