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Monday, March 30, 2020

EPA Encourages Americans to Only Flush Toilet Paper

EPA News Release:

EPA Encourages Americans to Only Flush Toilet Paper

WASHINGTON (March 30, 2020) — Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is encouraging all Americans to only flush toilet paper, not disinfecting wipes or other non-flushable items that should be disposed of in the trash. Flushing only toilet paper helps ensure that the toilets, plumbing, sewer systems and septic systems will continue working properly to safely manage our nation’s wastewater. While EPA encourages disinfecting your environment to prevent the spread of COVID-19, never flush disinfecting wipes or other non-flushable items. These easy steps will keep surfaces disinfected and wastewater management systems working for all Americans.
Preventable toilet and sewer backups can pose a threat to human health and present an extra challenge to our water utilities and their workforce. Flushing anything other than toilet paper, including disinfecting wipes, can damage internal plumbing, local sewer systems and septic systems. Fixing these backups is costly and takes time and resources away from ensuring that wastewater management systems are otherwise working properly. EPA thanks wastewater utilities and their workforce for their courageous efforts at a time when resources may be stretched thin. Having fully operational wastewater services is critical to containing COVID-19 and protecting Americans from other public health risks. Our nation’s wastewater employees are everyday heroes who are on the frontline of protecting human health and the environment every single day.
For more information, see >www.epa.gov/coronavirus<.

U.S. EPA Honors 2020 ENERGY STAR® Partners of the Year in Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico & Texas

EPA News Release:

U.S. EPA Honors 2020 ENERGY STAR® Partners of the Year in
Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico & Texas

DALLAS – (March 30, 2020) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 6 and the U.S. Department of Energy are honoring 20 ENERGY STAR partners for their outstanding contributions to public health and the environment. These enterprises have earned ENERGY STAR Awards for demonstrating national leadership in cost-saving energy efficient solutions. They are among the 192 ENERGY STAR Award Winners nationwide honored this year as ENERGY STAR Award Winners.

“I salute the 2020 ENERGY STAR award winners,” said Anne Idsal, EPA Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation. “These leaders demonstrate how energy efficiency drives economic competitiveness in tandem with environmental protection.”

“The ENERGY STAR award winners in Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas show how energy-saving principles can be used across many different industries and business models to benefit customers and communities,” said Regional Administrator Ken McQueen. “Region 6 is proud to have these diverse organizations committed to energy savings.”

Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its thousands of partners helped American families and businesses save more than 4 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity and achieve over 3.5 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. In 2018 alone, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped Americans avoid nearly $35 billion in energy costs.

Examples of how Region 6 ENERGY STAR Award Winners have demonstrated leadership:

  • Partner of the Year: Entergy Arkansas of New Orleans, La.—For leveraging ENERGY STAR branding and content across marketing channels to exceed program goals and serve many hard-to-reach customers.
  • Partner of the Year: Energy Smart Entergy of New Orleans, La.— For exposing over 23,000 people to energy efficiency and home performance with ENERGY STAR through its Energy Smart program marketing efforts, resulting in over 570 home improvements.
  • Partner of the Year: New Mexico Gas Company of Albuquerque, N.M.— For leveraging the ENERGY STAR certification for its smart thermostat program, engaging the two largest distributors in its service territory in promoting ENERGY STAR certified commercial food service equipment, and increasing sales of such equipment by 90%.
  • Partner of the Year: Public Service Company of Oklahoma of Tulsa, Okla.— For demonstrating significant energy savings through the ENERGY STAR Certified homes program and integrated approaches for customer education about ENERGY STAR services and benefits.
  • Partner of the Year: TexEnergy Solutions/US Eco-Logic of Irving, Texas— For certifying more than 1,500 homes as ENERGY STAR in 2019, for a cumulative total of more than 52,000 since 2002.
  • Partner of the Year: Winton & Associates of El Paso, Texas—For building over 100 ENERGY STAR certified homes in 2019 and increasing consumer awareness through its participation in local television shows and the Parade of Homes.
  • Achievement in Energy Management: Memorial Hermann Health System of Houston, Texas—For achieving a 3.2% energy reduction and expanding the number of ENERGY STAR certified hospitals to 10 across its portfolio, a 90% certification rate.


About ENERGY STAR
ENERGY STAR® is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, providing simple, credible, and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed decisions. Thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations—including more than 40 percent of the Fortune 500®—rely on their partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deliver cost-saving energy efficiency solutions. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its thousands of partners helped American families and businesses save more than 4 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity and achieve over 3.5 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. In 2018 alone, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped Americans avoid nearly $35 billion in energy costs. More background information about ENERGY STAR can be found at: energystar.gov/about and energystar.gov/numbers.


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