It states:

We currently use natural gas to produce 22% of our electricity. Harnessing the power of wind to generate electricity will give us the flexibility to shift natural gas away from electricity generation and put it to use as a transportation fuel — reducing our dependence on foreign oil by more than one-third.

Why would we want to build the infrastructure to support natural gas-powered vehicles? Keep the natural gas as the power station where it belongs. The infrastructure to support electric vehicles has been in places for ages now and electric vehicles would account for the vast majority of driving that people do.

The answer is staring us in the face. Why do we keep ignoring it?

On the one hand I can understand this. I’d rather have good studies done for sighting and placement purposes but 2 years??? And in the meantime they don’t want to apply the same standards to say, ANWR. It’s nuts.

I think my wife and I are doing well so far. The choices we’ve made for upgrades to our house have been the best we could possibly afford, not unlike many other people, but I think for different reasons.

The Furnace Replacement

As an example when we had to choose a new furnace the first Fall that we lived in our current home we chose a 90%+ efficient furnace. I’ve talked to quite a few people since then and most, given the same choice, would have chosen the cheaper 80%+ efficient model because it was cheaper and there wouldn’t be enough of a return on the investment on the more expensive, but more efficient model. Simply put the dollars saved in energy bills wouldn’t be worth the difference in price.

In our case I chose the higher efficiency model because I think that, regardless of the money saved, it is my obligation to use less energy. I could afford the higher price and the natural resources saved was enough of a reason to make the purchase decision I did.

This is not to say that I think I am better than anyone else for having done so. I also believe that is is very important that people need to live within their means and not overstretch themselves. The lower-cost models are still far more efficient than what they would be replacing (in my case the furnace in this house was from the 1960s!) so in most cases any choice would be a win. Someone living within their means and watching what they consume is just as big of a win, if not a bigger one, for the planet.

The Windows

Another upgrade to the house we made was replacing all (well…mostly anyhow. The basement windows weren’t replaced.) of the windows on the first and second floor of the house. The old windows were the original windows from when the house was constructed in 1943. The glazing on most of them was in bad shape and they were single pane glass. They leaked air so badly that we always put the shrink-plastic over them in the winter and during really bad winds you’d see the plastic bowing out into the room every time a gust of wind came through (and the windows all had storm windows over them too.). The upstairs windows were simply just too dangerous.

They were all replace with the highest end vinyl window we could find. We got the low-e glass, argon gas filling, etc. Was vinyl the best choice from an environmental standpoint? Probably not but it was the trade-off we had to make. We couldn’t afford anything more expensive and the heat loss in winter that was cut down, plus the lower heat gain in the summer, were wins no matter how you look at it. There are no perfect choices in this type of situation but I think we made the right choice.

To be continued…

So this year we have three strings of “white” LEDs along the rooflines of the house and they actually look pretty cool. They’re definitely more of a very-cool-white variety to the point they’re almost a light shade of purple but they look pretty cool nonetheless.

I did find something even cooler at the local Menards hardware store last night though. GE is making solar-powered LED christmas lights. Had I known about those before I would have purchased them for outside because from a power use standpoint you can’t get much better than powered by sunlight Maybe next year….

On another note….it has been awhile since I’ve written here. Over the last couple of months I’ve been doing the job search thing and started my new job last week so things have been pretty busy. I’m hoping to get back into the swing of things after this week once my new routine becomes…well…routine again.