Morgantown's Greenhouse Gas Inventory Revealed

WBOY
15 May 2014
By Angelee Wiley

The Morgantown community gathered at the Public Library on Thursday evening to hear the first round of results regarding the greenhouse gas inventory.

Downstream Strategies project managers, Jeff Simcoe and Ben Gilmer, have been working since last summer compiling research on greenhouse gas emissions right here in Morgantown.

Their project was funded by the Appalachian Stewardship Foundation and after a year of research Simcoe and Gilmer were ready to share their first round of results.

As a part of their research they looked at five greenhouse gas generating sectors which include: electricity, stationary fuel, solid waste emissions, transportation emissions, and emissions with water and waste water treatment distributions.

This information is a baseline to find where the most emissions come from in Morgantown.

According to Simcoe as far as source based emissions "The power plant on Beechurst Avenue is by far the largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions."

Simcoe also said that as far as activity based emissions, the residential sector and commercial sector are also large emitters of greenhouse gas emissions.

According to Gilmer, the emissions from the power plant alone is about three quarters of the total emissions of all activities across all sectors of Morgantown.

Simcoe and Gilmer will now shift their focus to the second phase of the project. This next phase will focus on ways to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and will explore how residents can save money on their electric bills.

There are simple ways that anyone can do to contribute to the elimination of greenhouse gas emissions such as: switching to LED lighting, install more insulation in your home, turn the lights off when your not in the room, and unplug any appliance that is not being used.