NOVEC offers ways to help the environment on Earth Day

Earth Day is on April 22 and the Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative urges everyone to help the environment by using energy wisely. 

“As a not-for-profit electric cooperative owned by the people it serves, NOVEC takes its responsibility to protect the environment seriously,” says Mike Curtis, NOVEC vice president of Public Relations. “It’s important to our 161,000 customers-owners. That’s why we provide to them — and anyone interested in saving energy —a wealth of information on our website at http://www.novec.com/save as we,ll as through our publications at http://www.novec.com/publications.”

Curtis says the website’s HomeEnergySuite lets consumers take a free, simple home-energy audit.

“By answering some basic questions about their houses, consumers will learn from our online calculators ways they can save energy and help the environment,” Curtis explains. “The easy-to-use Home Energy Calculator also provides a home’s environmental impact. It indicates how many pounds of carbon dioxide the consumer can save by following energy-saving suggestions. For instance, by turning the thermostat up to 78 degrees in summer, a typical 2,500-square-foot home could reduce its carbon footprint by as much as1,800 pounds of CO2 a year.” 

As an alternative to going online, NOVEC customers can talk to one of the Co-op’s energy specialists about their energy use by calling 703-335-0500 or 1-888-335-0500.

NOVEC Supplies Renewable ‘Green’ Energy
To supply customers with more renewable green energy, NOVEC opened its own biomass power plant in 2013. The Co-op also supplies solar and hydro energy, as well as all the electricity generated at the Prince William County Landfill.

Earth Day Background
Earth Day started in 1970 when the Vietnam War raged and the “younger generation” protested against the lifestyles and values of the “older generation.” In this turmoil, America’s youth questioned whether people should be driving spacious sedans with gas-guzzling V8 engines and whether industries should be permitted to release toxins unabated into the air and water.

After a massive oil spill in 1969 in California, a Democrat U.S. senator and a Republican congressman set April 22 as a day for “a national teach-in on the environment.” Approximately 20 million Americans participated, especially in schools, colleges and universities. As a result of this day, President Nixon and Congress established the Environmental Protection Agency in December 1970 and went on to strengthen the Clean Air and Clean Water acts.

Earth Day went global in 1990 and set the course for worldwide Earth summits, including the summit on climate change in Paris last December.

NOVEC Practices What it Preaches 
NOVEC has practiced in its five offices what it has preached about the environment for decades. Practices include:

• Installing programmable thermostats
• Using geothermal energy for heating and cooling at two offices
• Recycling paper, wood cable reels, heating oil, metal parts, and customers’ Christmas greens
• Replacing old appliances with efficient ENERGY STAR appliances
• Replacing all light fixtures with energy-saving fluorescent and LED fixtures, and installing automatic shut-off light switches in offices
• Distributing Arbor Day tree saplings to children for planting
• Completing a $10 million grid-modernization project that has not only reduced the number and duration of power outages, but has reduced the amount of electricity lost when transmitted to substations and distributed to customers’ homes, schools, and businesses.

“We cherish our planet and we want to do our part to take care of it,” Curtis says. “We urge everyone to find ways to protect the environment on Earth Day and every day.”

About NOVEC
NOVEC, headquartered in Manassas, Virginia, is a not-for-profit electric utility corporation that supplies and distributes electricity and energy-related services to more than 161,000 customers in Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William, Stafford, and Clarke counties, the Town of Clifton, and the City of Manassas Park. It is one of the largest electric companies of its kind in the nation. For more information, go to http://www.novec.com or call 703-335-0500 or 1-888-335-0500.