Archive for the ‘Energy conservation’ Category

Pickens Plan for Energy Independence Advocated

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

We had an energy lobbyist spend the night. He works for a big petroleum company, but said that he personally supports the Pickens Plan. He said the Pickens Plan for energy independence has two major points:
1. Convert all 18-wheelers from diesel to compressed natural gas.
2. Encourage wind energy by creating power-line corridors from wind sites to big cities.

He noted that other nations, in Europe, Iran and elsewhere, have millions of natural-gas cars. He said that big trucks burn a lot more fuel than cars, so converting trucks to compressed natural gas would give a lot more benefit. The US has lots of natural gas, but we don’t have much oil left.

He said that the wind turbines are economical, but we need government-approved paths for the high-voltage lines to bring the power from the Midwest toward the big cities.

He was a very nice guy…and he drove a Prius.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Energy conservation | Comments Off

Mrs. Green – Energy Conservation and Water Conservation

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

One of our recent guests was an energy-conservation fanatic. “Mrs. Green”, we nicknamed her. She was incensed that not all the lights at the Naugas were compact fluorescent lights. True, we still have a few incandescent light bulbs, but most of our lights are either compact fluorescent, floresent or LED lights. We like them because they save electricity, are high efficiency, save energy and are green and good for the environment. Our electricity usage has declined since we started replacing our incandescent bulbs with compact flourescent bulbs, and we are proud of it. And pretty soon, the few remaining incandescent bulbs will be a thing of the past.

She also was not happy with our water usage. She wants us to rip out all the toilets and replace them with high efficiency toilets…yesterday! She says that a high efficienty toilet uses less water than even a water conservation 1.6 gallon toilet, which reduces water usage and would also help our septic tanks. The idea of helping the septic tank got our attention, since it can be an expensive problem to fix a septic system out here.

Mrs. Green left in a huff, but we actually appreciate her ideas for saving the environment and going green.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Energy conservation, Environment, Going green, Septic tanks, Water conservation | Comments Off