By Anna Hawthorne

When students leave campus, some lights stay on.

“It blows my mind,” Martin Mudd, a UK graduate student, said.  “Actually it infuriates me because I know of a simple solution.”

Mudd, a Kentuckians for the Commonwealth member, joined three others in a panel discussion called “Powering UK’s Future — The Coal Plant and Beyond.”

The panel included Mudd, Bob Wiseman, UK vice president of facilities, David Mannino, UK College of Public Health, and Nancy Reinhart, KFTC coal plant researcher.  The panel was sponsored by KFTC, UK Greenthumb and Mountain Justice.

“If every room on campus had motion sensor lights … when you’re gone and nobody is in the room, the lights shut off,” Mudd said.  “It makes sense.”

Jonathan Beam, telecommunications sophomore said the panel made him see the simplicity of saving energy, being more aware and stopping energy waste.

“I thought Martin (Mudd) had a lot of really good comments that we could do that are very easy,” Beam said.

More than 100 people gathered in the Student Center on Thursday evening. The attendance showed UK is moving toward change, said Jessica Barnett, integrated strategic communications sophomore.

The panelists said the campus needs to start using more natural gas and less coal.

“We have to move away from coal,“ Mudd said.  “The way to do that is going to be through common sense techniques combined with genius engineering methods.”

The panelists said while waiting, there are some small things the public can do that will make a big difference in conservation, like turning lights off when leaving a room. However, they said it could be a while before this is accomplished.

“I think in two to three years we have the potential to see some major changes in our whole energy policy,” Wiseman said.  “I think we’ll have a tighter permit and tighter restrictions.”