Kilowatt Ours - Yours and Mine

Energy conservation. There are 3 schools of thought, generally.

• 1) Why should I give up the good life


• 2) My efforts won't contribute enough to matter


• 3) I'll do what it takes to conserve

Thanks to the 3rd group, for 30+ years of effort in designing, engineering and implementing the ideas and tools available to us today, groups 1 and 2 now have what it takes to join the effort with no reservations.

Facing energy shortages, the city of Austin purchased land at the edge of town to build a new power plant. It was necessarily close, posing health issues. It was going to be quite expensive and take longer to finish than they really had time to wait. So with research and experience from the treehuggers, nerds, geeks, enviros and offgridders the city came up with a plan. They would build a power plant that required no land clearing, no construction, no pollution. They set out to build a Conservation Power Plant. Their goal was simple in thought, logistically daunting and unprecedented. Conserve as much power through community effort as would be produced by building a new power plant. Click on the image below to see the results of their effort.

The above clip is part of a longer program, Kilowatt Ours; A Plan to Re-Energize America which aired on PBS stations over the last few months, and tonight here in the Seattle area. The documentary highlights what is hard for most Americans to grasp. There are 301 million Americans. If just one room in every home in America were lit by Energy Star lighting, it would be like removing 1 trillion pounds of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
31,500,000 kWh could be saved every year if every exit sign in America were upgraded to LED bulb. There are A LOT OF US, when each of us does a small thing it turns into huge thing, a never been done before thing. During the drought and subsequent energy shortage in California in 2001, there wasn't enough time to build new power plants to avoid the crisis. So much like other leaders before him in the face of such a crisis, the Governor asked his citizens to pitch in. Raise the thermostat to 78, unscrew 1 in 4 light bulbs... and they did. What they accomplished that summer broke world records, and set them on the path leading our country to energy independence. Below is a short clip from the program;

Some quick facts:

• In the fall of 2000 over 300 million gallons of coal slurry were spilled into the Big Sandy River in Martin County, KY. Although this ecological disaster was 30 times greater than the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, very few people outside of Kentucky hear about it.
• Visibility in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has declined 60% over the last 60 years. (We need plants to breath, eat and drink. Plants need sunlight to grow) 83% of the visibility-reducing haze in Smoky Mountains National Park is from sulfate particulates from coal-burning power plants. The American Lung Association listed 10 southern cities in the Southeast among the top 25 most air-polluted cities in America. The EPA estimates that 33 million Americans in the Southeast alone live in bad-air areas.
• 40 of 50 states post statewide mercury advisories warning that fish are unsafe to eat.
• The Centers for Disease Control say that 1 in 10 women of childbearing age carry unsafe levels of mercury in their tissues.

• Compact fluorescent light bulbs use 20% as much electricity as a 100-watt incandescent bulb and last years longer too.

• New energy-efficient refrigerators are 40% more efficient than they were just two years ago.

• If just one room in every home in America were lit by Energy Star lighting, it would be like removing 1 trillion pounds of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

• A typical washing machine uses 1,000 kWh per year of electricity. An energy-efficient frontloading washer uses only 280 kWh.

• The city of Birmingham, Alabama, now saves $220,000 after upgrading all 700 street
intersections with LED traffic signals.

• When the Sumner County School System in Tennessee found that geothermal heating and cooling in a new school helped them save $5,000 per month on energy, they decided to retrofit every school in the county with this cost-cutting technology.

• Smith Middle School in North Carolina uses a technique called “daylighting” to flood classrooms with natural light.

• The Sullivan County School System in Tennessee finances their $24 million energy upgrade with the $1 million they save on energy every year.

• 31,500,000 kWh could be saved every year if every exit sign in America were upgraded to LED bulb.

So please, visit http://www.kilowattours.org/ and see what our efforts can accomplish. Sign up with their program to do your small part in a world changing effort, and save money along the way. Purchase the DVD or find the program airing on a local station and take the time to watch it. Contact your representatives http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml and tell them you want to see these sorts of money saving, job providing, clean earth policies in YOUR town and be sure to tell them to watch Kilowatt Ours - A Plan to Re-Energize America. For your wallet, for your health and for our security and independence, demand a Conservation Power Plant in every town across America.

Higher Energy Costs? Yes, Controllable? YES!

Higher Energy costs from Climate bills
April 29, 2008 - 7:06pm
By H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press Writer

"WASHINGTON (AP) - People will be paying higher energy prices under a Senate bill to limit greenhouse gases, but how much will depend on how well the country can shift away from burning fossil fuels, an Energy Department analysis said Tuesday.
The Energy Information Administration said annual energy costs could increase on average of as little as $30 or as much as 10 times that much by 2020. The projected cost increases per household ranged from $76 a year more to as much as $723 a year more by 2030.
The agency said the difference depends on how successful the country will be in replacing significant amounts of energy production from coal and oil to nuclear power as well as solar and wind energy, and how successfully it adopts conservation measures.

Overall, the report said the U.S. economy will continue to grow, but at a lower pace.""


Of course energy prices are going to go up, when was the last time they went down? Things are uncertain enough, ixnay on the aresca actictsta eh? I've seen the price of oil in my lifetime go from about $15 to what we see today, with some pretty big swings noted, but the price of the end product really never seems to go down all that much for all that long. Everything goes up in price over time, now that we've resigned ourselves to that, it's time to move on to 'Controlling' the increase.

The first best way, in my opinion, is for people to own the energy plants. Energy is just something that shouldn't be speculated on, and subject to the corporate "what is best for the shareholders" credo, it's far too integral and important to the big picture for that, as Enron and various other energy scams have taught us recently. States, counties, cities and towns should be the owners of the energy plants. Private homeowners and commercial building owners should adopt forms of energy productions, probably passive, and source the extra back into the system for credits. With local public funding and oversight, fundamental energy sources can be implemented with a focus on efficient, sustainable, dependable practices.

Local governments already have the inter-communication necessary to share pertinent project information, especially important in keeping costs down when developing new technologies. Local governments are 'Tops' when it comes to any grant available for local energy projects, especially alternative energy projects. Local governments employ local people, returning the monies we pay out in taxes to the project back to the community (back to US). Local governments that set up public utilities are mandated to act in the communities good, and would not be profit driven, keeping cost increases level with the economy, not the whim of the market (or of a couple of guys on the phone in a foul mood).

Here are some examples of local success in alternative energy:

Wind Power Produces 123% of Residential Energy Demand in Rock Port, Missouri

"Small Wind" power plants blowing strong

Searsburg Wind Power facility A limited success story, but invaluable research and experience have come from this project as well as some unexpected benefits.

Nevada's Solar One Plant

Sacramento Municipal Utility Districts Photovoltaic program. Participating customers to pay an additional $4 per month to have SMUD install a 2-4 kilowatt (kW) solar array on their rooftops. This additional cost covered only a portion of the cost of the PV systems. The remaining costs were spread across the entire customer base of SMUD.

Now imagine instead of foreign or mega-corporation ownership, that you and your neighbors own these new plants.

Conclusion on Searching for Oil, Corporations and Subsidies

I think it is a conclusion that we are not ever going to find enough oil outside of the middle east to avoid buying from the region. It is also a conclusion that Americans, even the world, are ready for and demanding alternative energy. It makes sense to me in light of these conclusions that all monies currently being spent on locating and retrieving new sources of oil by companies with - A) shareholders {in that shareholders are Americans or stakeholders in America, either as corporation or individual, and if a thing is of benefit or detriment to Americans it is of benefit or detriment to shareholders} B) Special US tax status OR receives US subsidies - should immediately be shifted away from these endeavors and either moved to alternative energy systems and production or to other non-oil related endeavors. In the case of subsidies, special tax status' and such these will be reworded to exclude oil, and cease to be assigned or assessed to any company continuing work in new oil fields location or recovery methods on any level.

As we get closer to filling our oil needs outside the middle east, the higher oil prices from these countries become as they will try to get in their perceived 'final profits'. As Venezuela is teaching us, no other country is going to allow us to plunder and pillage their lands and resources without a price, and there is no reason to believe they would settle for any less a price than their competitors are charging. I liken the strategy of the US oil companies to that of the electronic gadget market. They hold many new technologies back, releasing small improvements in 'versions' once or twice a year to maximize the sales on any given new item.

I will be very happy for the day (soon to come) when ALL subsidies to the big oil companies are dismissed. I pray for the day major corporations such as these with huge effects on our economy as a whole are by law restructured and regulated to operate in the public good. Further I believe that if utilities, energy suppliers and producers are allowed to become publicly traded they need special rules, instructions and designations to operate under the presumption that these are not 'profit' driven corporations, they are public driven and since shareholders are Americans or stakeholders in America, either as corporation or individual, and if a thing is of benefit or detriment to Americans it is of benefit or detriment to shareholders. Utility share investments should be considered stable ones moving up and down with the US economy, not one to be speculated on or manipulated.

Here is a fine example of the craziness of which I speak

" The companies aim to spend $600 million to hold an open season, or solicitation for customers to make long-term commitments to use the pipeline, before the end of 2010. After that, the companies would seek certification from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Canada's National Energy Board and then begin construction on the project, estimated to cost $20 billion to $40 billion."

Yes, you read that right. They are planning on spending $600 million dollars BEFORE even seeking certification from the Regulatory Commission or the National Energy Board. This is exactly the sort of clumsy speculation that must be addressed.

Microsoft, I tried to tell you...

"Verizon Wireless won the largest single block of nationwide airwaves offered in the Federal Communications Commission auction, paying $4.74 billion for the portion of spectrum known as the 'C' block."

Several months ago I blogged that microsoft could better spend it's money by picking up some of the nationwide airwaves coming on the auction block, due to the move over to digital of the networks later next year, rather than tossing it over for yahoo. Looks like Verizon picked up a huge bit of what was available, and just LOOK at the deal they got! I can't wait to see what things they put together to take advantage of the purchase.

Defining 'Change': Ralph Nader about his Presidential platform on Energy and the Environment

An interview with Ralph Nader about his Presidential platform on Energy and the Environment
By Amanda Griscom Little, Grist Feature 19 Mar 2008:

"Going forward, what sets your environmental platform apart from the other candidates'?


I'm basically promoting a massive conversion from a hydrocarbon-based economy to a carbohydrate-based economy. I'm not talking about corn ethanol, which has a very poor net energy- and water-usage characteristic. I'm talking about industrial hemp. I'm talking about plant life that can be efficiently converted to fuel -- like sugar cane, agricultural waste, cellulosic grasses, and certain kinds of biomass that can be grown with a spectacular ratio of energy inputs to outputs. I'm talking about a very fundamental remodeling of our economy -- a conversion from industrial-age, 19th-century technologies like the internal combustion engine to renewable, sustainable technologies of efficiency and production. We should have vehicles that get well over 100 miles per gallon. As Amory Lovins and Paul Hawken have shown, we can create far greater efficiencies in the use of our natural resources, whether it's copper, iron, oil, gas, timber, you name it."


These are the kind of bold words that define the kind of change we as a nation are looking for. We've all known for a long time now that someone is going to need step up and admit out loud and accept responsibility for initiating what must be done. It is a daunting task, but one that will reap the best benefits for our country's overall health, sustainability and national morale.
The major corporations that could have been, over the past 10 years or so, preparing for this day by developing many already proven technologies have instead spent their time purposefully not doing this sometimes going so far as to purchase patents just to set them on shelves. There is still time for these companies to jump on board, if not make way for the new companies willing to fill the need. The money will shift, there will be new 'major corporations', the jobs will remain and life in the US will move along without them, a victim of the very consumer driven economy they helped to create.

Please click on the title to read the complete interview with Mr. Nader

03/20/08 EDIT
A couple of links that will not only support Ralph's plan, but offer interactive models and scenarios that you can check out yourself :

http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/

http://www.climate.yale.edu/seeforyourself/