Government Furlough Silver Lining: Energy Conservation

Environmental Damage

Although this shutdown has caused many environmental harms including but not limited to forcing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to close 12 marine sanctuaries, causing the Department of the Interior to close all national parks and halt renewable energy projects on federal lands, and cutting the Environmental Protection Agency’s workforce by 93.5%, there still may be a silver lining we can view here...

With an estimated 1 million federal employees furloughed because of the government shutdown debacle, a tremendous amount of energy is being conserved in federal buildings, saving millions of dollar of federal tax money on electricity bills.

Building Energy Conservation

In January of 2011, WUSA 9, using the Freedom of Information Act, acquired six months of utility bills for the headquarters buildings of more than a dozen federal agencies. They discovered that it is not cheap to keep the lights on in our nation’s capitol. In July of 2010, the Department of Labor’s electricity bill topped $1 million, the Department of Health and Human Services paid a bill reaching $799,000 in August 2010, and during June of that same year the Department of Commerce paid an electricity bill of $794,000. These government buildings’ average use of energy is 39,872 kWh per month; this means that each building is responsible for 8 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per week.

Merely shutting down all 1 million computers used by the furloughed employees would save 9 million kWh per workweek. Without the lights on or computers running 8 hours per day, just think of all the electricity saved in these agencies because of the furlough.
The government shutdown has even stretched to federally owned museums; the Smithsonian has closed 19 museums and galleries, saving electricity at these facilities as well.

Daily Commute

While government employees suffering from this shutdown probably are missing their paychecks, they're probably not missing the commute at all.

By eliminating the commutes of its furloughed employees, the government will cause about 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions to be averted from entering the atmosphere every week. Without the commute of 1 million federal workers, about 10 million gallons of gasoline are saved weekly, assuming each worker uses 10 gallons of gasoline for commuting purposes per week.

Conclusion

Although the government shutdown is a tremendous disruption to environmental policy making and clean energy projects, not to mention everyday families and our daily lives, the furlough has produced a surprising amount of energy savings for the US Government.

Unfortunately, it is hard to make a dent in the nation’s 6,052 million tons of carbon emissions every year, even when you are looking at the glass half-full.