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#13
October 8th 05, 05:33 PM
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Michael Coslo wrote:
Dave Heil wrote: Mike Coslo wrote: Dave Heil wrote: wrote: K4YZ wrote: wrote: K4YZ wrote: "THOSE" cars have been pretty much standard for 20 years now... Yet they still burn gasoline and other petroleum based fuels. The fleet mileage standards are not improving. The USA imports much more energy (almost all of it in the form of oil and natural gas) than in the 1970s. My mileage standards are doing fine. I'm on my third Dodge Neon. The 2 liter engine delivers about 33 mpg on the highway. I'm tall but I have 4 or 5 inches of space between the top of my head and the roof of the car. Yes, the U.S.A. imports more oil than it produces. It looks as if we *do* have an energy policy and part of it seems to be, "Let's use theirs before we use ours". Well, if that is our game plan, we better have enough reserves to fight most of the world off. Otherwise it is dangerous brinkmanship. The countries which produce oil are interested in selling it. We're interested in buying it. I don't see any danger in that at all. There is another market these days which would be more than happy to buy the oil we purchase. We aren't the only game in town any more. We've never been the only game in town. Demand sets the price. I would like to see some leadership realizing that driving single digit fuel millage SUV's is an unpatriotic act, that building under insulated McMansions that take immense amounts of energy to heat is an unpatriotic act. Naaaah. Those who drive the SUVs are being bitten in the wallet. Sure. But they are also using up a critical strategic resource, contributing to the imbalance of trade, and other things like that. Some patriots. They're paying for the critical strategic resource. Before you write about others contributing to the imbalance of trade sell off all of your electronic gadgets which are made abroad. Will you have trouble posting with no computer? You do use only American-made ham gear, right? I know a number of pickup truck owners hereabouts, who are buying small cars. Nobody is building underinsulated anything these days. Hmm, I suggest you come up to my area after a snowstorm. On most of the McMansions, the snow is gone a few hours after the storm. The same snow on my roof would be there for a week or so. America is all about having the freedom to choose. Wisdom isn't necessaary for those choices, economics is. If I can afford to buy and heat a large, energy hog of a home, that choice is open to me. There is a wierd thing going on in my area, and I guess others as well. Conserving activities are seen as a liberal thing, and seems to be a litmus test. I knew a woman on campus that refused to recycle because "it just encourages the liberals". So we get the same thing with automobiles and house insulation. But we definitely have a lot of big houses that appear to have no insulation (or very little) in the house. I've never thought of conservation as being just a liberal thing, though you do appear to be of a liberal bent. Conservation and recycling won't appeal to a lot of people until economics necessitates it. It doesn't bother me that some folks have houses which are under-insulated any more than it bothers me that some folks drive bigger, more expensive cars. My pal W8RHM built his dream home three years ago. It is large and it has geothermal heating. The heating system was supposed to pay for itself within ten years or so. With the energy hikes of the past few years, it'll be paid off much sooner. 'RHM is now paying winter heating bills of 45-65 bucks. Those who have big, old homes will sell 'em to someone who can afford to heat them. As long as there are people who can afford to heat 'em. My prediction is that they will become white elephants. They may and they may not. Someone with a lot of cash may love 'em. I'd like to be able to afford one myself. Then again, if I had that much loot, I'd likely have enough to better insulate them. The way we are with oil and gas in recent times reminds me of the legendary lighting of cigars with 100 dollar bills. In yo' face consumption... You may feel free to paint me with that brush. Fiesty, Dave? I apologize if you think I was painting you as anything. I doubt most Neon drivers are profligate energy wasters. Feisty? No, I think you may have misinterpreted my words. I meant that I could easily be painted with that brush. I accept the label. I'm one of those. I'm guilty of "in your face" consumption of natural gas. My lease agreement with Columbia Gas provides me with 300,000 cubic feet of gas yearly. I'm barely using more than half. I'm heating a glassed-in side porch and a workshop in the barn. As soon as I get around to it, I'm adding a greenhouse lean to on the back of the barn. I've a gas conversion kit for a gasoline generator. In short, I'm going to very conspicuously use right up to that 300,000 cubic feet and I'm not going to feel any guilt over it at all. I think that one critical lesson that should be gleaned from these two hurricanes this summer is that we are incredibly vulnerable in a few important areas. under the right circumstances, losing that much oil and gas production could be a near fatal blow. That's right. We need to drill in more places. ANWAR should be hurricane proof. Nobody wants to discuss one of the real solutions to sufficient energy: more nuke reactors. The way I see it, in the not too distant future, we will make a choice: 1. Rely on Nuclear power and build a lot more plants. 2. Go back to the middle ages. Precisely. It's just about that simple. While people can conserve energy, I doubt that they can conserve enough. If you're talking about electrical energy, any of it which is produced but not consumed, is wasted energy. I can turn off my appliances and lights, but if no one else uses the electricity I'm not using, it is wasted. The US has around 300 million people right now. We will be at 400 million around 35 years from now. Can all of us cut back 25 percent in energy usage? I think I've already done that with electrical energy. I have efficient appliances and almost all of the light in my home is by fluorescent bulbs. I've installed a programmable thermostat for the a/c. And that would be to just tread water. Not to mention finding fossil fuels that will allow us to continue our present "burn rate". Pun intended. Your state and mine have quite a supply of coal and natural gas, along with pretty good supplies of petroleum. I support the alternative energy production modes. But we have to be realistic. They are a localized phenomenon, and won't likely be a major solution If a guy with a wind turbine or solar panels makes the effort, I'm for him. We can't all do it. Do you really think that the POTUS has the clout to declare that NOLA won't be rebuilt? Nope. New Orleans will be rebuilt, and will be rebuilt again, and perhaps a third or forth time, until it slips beneath the waves for good. Yep and people are free to build where they choose. Without the freedom to make choices, America wouldn't be America. I won't be rushing to buy a home in New Orleans but most of those folks wouldn't live on a hilltop in rural West Virginia. That suits their needs...and mine. I have no problem in principle with a person building their house on the lava dome of Mt St Helens if they are so inclined. I agree. However, I do have a problem if he wants me to buy his insurance or build him a new house when the present one burns up because of it's location. Again, I agree. Same goes for building that wonderful vacation retreat on a barrier island or 50 feet from the ocean. That land is transient, and IMO so is any human structure built on it All human life and all human structures are transient, no matter where they are built. Do you support paying for these peoples stupidity? (The stupidity is in my opinion - but a pretty good case can be made for it being stupid) No, I don't support my paying for it or your paying for it or government paying for it. I support the freedom to choose. That freedom comes with responsibility. Dave K8MN |
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