TO THE EDITOR:
Over the last nine months, UNC’s Energy Task Force has been carefully reviewing our Climate Action Plan, seeking alternatives to coal and innovative ideas for reducing energy use. With the task force’s work nearly completed, it’s time to consider how this task force’s goals can be translated into a statewide effort to examine energy use at the 17 schools of the UNC system.
Thanks in part to efforts here at UNC, a new state law has been passed that will return all money saved through energy conservation to that university, enabling our schools to reduce carbon emissions while saving money. But despite the tough economy, many UNC-system schools are still hemorrhaging money through wasted energy and inefficiency.
UNC’s Energy Task Force has demonstrated what can be accomplished by taking a hard look at what needs to be done on our own campus to reduce carbon emissions. The shift to clean, renewable energy needs to be led by college campuses across the country. Let’s kick-start that process with a UNC-system Energy Task Force to empower our universities to act now to move the state in a direction that is environmentally just and makes economic sense in the long term.
_Stewart Boss
Co-Chair
UNC-CH Sierra Student Coalition_
