In Sunday’s New York Times, Winnie Hu published a fascinating article on the efforts of K-12 school districts to lower their energy bills:

Energy consumption in New York City’s 1,245 school buildings is down roughly 11 percent since 2008, as motion detectors have been installed on classroom lights and unused refrigerators and freezers have been unplugged for the summer.
In Yonkers, energy savings have financed $18 million in new boilers, windows and other capital improvements that the Westchester County district could not otherwise afford.
Schools, once known as energy wasters, are embracing conservation in increasing numbers. A desire to practice the environmentally friendly principles discussed in classrooms has been heightened by soaring energy costs and tighter budgets. With the help of a growing industry of energy consultants, school officials are evaluating every detail of their daily operations, like the temperature of the swimming pool and the amount of electricity the cafeteria ovens use, and are replacing energy-guzzling equipment with more efficient models.
Supporters say that even small adjustments can pay off almost immediately. “If we tested schools in efficient use of energy, many of them wouldn’t get a passing grade,” said C. David Myers, president of building efficiency for Johnson Controls, which has joined with 60 of the 125 school districts on Long Island to reduce energy use by 20 to 40 percent annually.

In some districts, the resulting savings have been reinvested in new energy-saving equipment. Tighter budgets seemed to have encouraged spending discipline. It helps that boilers, refrigerators, and classroom lights aren’t in a position to negotiate work rules or to pool their resources to influence political outcomes. Were that the case, I assume that energy-saving efforts would be interpreted as a dire threat, and that investments in new energy-saving technologies would be condemned as a kind of war on children, for whom the continuous operation of unused refrigerators and freezers is vitally important.