M.S.U. Considering Spending Millions on Going Green
Thursday, Nov 5, 2009 @06:24pm CST
Midwestern State University is trying to "go green," and it will soon be putting some more green into that effort. They'll likely soon spend millions of dollars on an energy conservation project.
Katie Crosbie attended the regents' meeting today -- Katie, what kinds of changes are they considering? Doug, most changes would affect the university's steam system -- which distributes heat to the buildings. The school could either upgrade the existing boiler system, or put small boilers in each building, and generate hot water in each building rather than distributing it from a central point. M.S.U. leaders and regents say "going green" is an important goal. The school's president, Dr. Jesse Rogers, says energy savings should be a priority for the city, state, country, and world.
“At first the cost of doing this will go up,” Dr. Rogers said, “but ultimately, the jobs created, the quality of our environment, will definitely outweigh what we've invested in it today."
“Anytime’s a good time to upgrade on utilities,” said Allen Goldapp
Assoc. VP for Facilities). “And it's really important now more than ever."
Dr. Rogers says energy is always a large piece of a city's budget. And he says the school has already finished a number of energy-savings projects. The facilities department estimates that this project would cost about three-and-a-half million dollars. The school would fund the project with a loan from a federal revolving fund. Regents will vote on the project tomorrow.
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