An investment firm would never use their clients’ money for a spree at the dog track. A television network would never make all of their shows audio only. So why would a green university violate the Clean Air Act?
Nearly two weeks ago, Gov. Jim Doyle’s administration acknowledged that at least five more state-run power plants are not in compliance with federal clean air regulations, according to a report in the Feb. 20 Oshkosh Northwestern.
One of these violating facilities is the heating plant on campus at UW-Oshkosh, a university that boasts about the future green academic building that “will be the most environmentally friendly and efficient building of its kind in the state.”
As we college kids like to say: Fail.
Oshkosh’s heating plant cannot be singled out though. The plants at UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse, UW-River Falls and the Mendota Mental Health Institute were also named to be plants that would have to reduce coal use and other emissions and/or use cleaner alternative fuels.
The Department of Natural Resources also stated that five additional plants, located at UW-Platteville, UW-Stevens Points, UW-Stout, UW-Superior and Winnebago Mental Health Institute, might also be in violation of the Clean Air Act as well. But more studies needed to be conducted before any definitive conclusion could be reached.
For the amount of money we are paying to attend school, Oshkosh students—and UW students in general—should probably have a better example to follow.
How are we to take pride in attending classes in a green academic building that efficiently uses energy while our heating plant is violating a federal pollution law?
To Oshkosh’s credit, the University will be introducing a new biodigester—the first of its kind in the United States—that will reuse grass clippings and wasted food in order to produce heat and energy for the University.
But in the same way that a professional sports team ditches a still-producing, aging veteran in favor of giving an eight-figure contract to an unproven rookie, UW-Oshkosh cannot rob Peter to pay Paul.
The University has been pushing a move to sustainability for the last several years, and it’s clear that reducing pollution emissions is a necessity in achieving true sustainability.
While building unique biodigesters and state-of-the-art green academic buildings is a fantastic step forward (for which University officials deserve more than a few pats on the back), Oshkosh needs to take a step back and fix a greater problem—eliminating Clean Air Act violations.
Picking around the edges of exponentially growing problems, like sustainability and global climate change, without fixing the root of the issue is counterproductive and is unlikely to work.
A doctor would never stitch up an open wound and slap a band-aid on it without first setting the broken leg.
Would any of us cover up a broken window of our car with plastic wrap or cellophane?
Maybe so, but it is only a temporary fix—it doesn’t solve the real issue at hand.
Oshkosh is one of the leading campuses in the state of Wisconsin with regards of becoming green and achieving sustainability and it reflects poorly on the campus when it fails to set an example for other state universities.
Let’s hold ourselves to a higher standard and be the first campus among those aforementioned five to fix our problem and show other universities how to properly operate.
Let’s gain the status as one of the greenest universities in the Midwest and fix our biggest problems before we create solutions to other ones.
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