Obama wants to make the White House green.

Good on him, and when all the lights are out, the several ovens off and the masses of heaters/airconditioners are turned down/up 2 degrees then like a good leader he might just have a little time to do his job.

 

If he makes the White House green, does that mean it
is then a green house?

If I had a lot of money I could make my house even more green that
it is....

 

well its about time...

if we had listened to Jimmy Carter back in 1976, we would be probably 15 trillion dollars ( actually its about 5 trillion in principal, the rest is interest) richer right now

 

The key words in the Obama quote are, " to show people that it isn't hard"

Fact is it is quite easy, and has very little effect on lifestyle either. We use about 1/10 the amount of energy as the average house of similar size. (Not to mention that houses are too big, and use way too many resources)

CFL/LED lighting, zone heating, passive solar design in a 1880's house, demand gas water heat, solar pre-heat water. Turning off all the phantom loads like the TV, power bricks etc when we aren't using them, extra insulation where feasible, etc, etc, etc.

None of it comes as a cost, it comes at savings. My demand water heater cost perhaps twice what a conventional cost, but saves ~30-50%. Extra insulation cost a few hundred in the attic, saves that in a couple of years.

Like I have always said,, this not rocket science,,,it is not hard to do.

Icarus

 

Well said.......
I've been thinking quite a bit on Carter's energy proposals (now that energy independence is back in the news) when he was in office,especially when he greened the white house and attempted to green the rest of the government ---which if i remember correctly, included solar panels on the white house, which were torn out by follow on administrations---Carter had many poor points, but his energy policy and proposals would have made us energy independent if we would have only followed through----
regards
Froley

 

yep... reagen had the solar panels removed within the first month after taking up residency... pretty much a symbol of our attitude towards energy which is the root of nearly every problem we face today.

 

Model what you teach. Efficiency and conservation are the most cost effective ways to go. Even when energy is seemingly endless, it still takes more energy to move energy from source to user. Previous administrations modeled "just go get more" - short-term impulsive thinking.

 

IMHO, if there ever actually is an Energy Czar/Tzar, one of his/her first
initiatives should be to put workable, efficient solar collectors on every
federal building/installation; on the Pentagon's roof, on the south facing side of
the Washington Monument, in the reflecting pool on the Mall. Make a bold, clear
statement that we/they get the message... the future belongs to the efficient.

Now is the the time to "Lead, follow, or get out of the way," To "follow"
the path -- now clearly identifiable as a rut -- that got us where we are today
is not an acceptable option.

 

The easy parts are not hard :_> Unfortunately there are lots of hard things that are also necessary. Real leadership, not merely a good example, will be required to get us to do the hard things before events force us to do them.

 

The sad truth is, in the last couple of decades we have not only not done the hard things, we haven't done the easy things either. If we had started to do the easy things way back when, the hard things would now be the easy things!

Walk the walk, and lead by example! Write to your reps to encourage these examples in all our public buildings, vehicles etc!

Icarus

 

The panels were for solar hot water, not photovoltaics. Here is an interesting story about one of those panels today.

In terms of energy policy, much of what Carter was advocating has turned out to be correct as follows,

• He was right in seeking to raise the fleet auto mileage standard to 48 miles per gallon by 1995. (Even U.S. automakers admitted at the time that they could easily achieve 30 mpg by 1985.)
• Carter was right in exhorting Americans to turn down their thermostats, even if he did look nerdy in a cardigan while urging us to do so.
• He was right to encourage fuel conservation by proposing a 50-cents-per-gallon tax on gasoline and a fee on imported oil —- in effect, a floor for fuel prices.
• Invoking the pioneering spirit of the 1960s moon mission, he was right to recommend a tax on windfall oil profits to finance a crash program to develop affordable synthetic fuels.
• Carter was correct, too, in setting a goal of obtaining 20 percent of our energy from solar power by the year 2000.

Unfortunately he appeared overwhelmed with respect to the Iran Hostage Situation and Olympic boycott but as a trained nuclear engineer, he did know energy!

 

George W. Bush appears to have a personal belief in sustainability that is counter to his policies and public persona. For instance, his personal home, the Prairie Chapel Ranch, was constructed in 2001 and is a model of sustainability. Its off the grid with a passive-solar design positioned to absorb winter sunlight, warming the interior walkways and walls of the residence. Geothermal heat pumps circulate water through pipes buried 300' deep in the ground. A 25,000 US gallon underground cistern collects rainwater gathered from roof urns; wastewater from sinks, toilets, and showers cascades into underground purifying tanks and is also funneled into the cistern. The water from the cistern is then used to irrigate the landscaping around the home. Most of the construction materials used in building the home were found on site.

In 2003 while he was living in the White House, the National Park Service, which manages the White House complex, installed 9-kW solar (photovoltaic) panels on the roof of the main building used for grounds maintenance. Solar thermal systems (water heating) were also installed: one for landscape maintenance personnel while the other is for the presidential pool and spa.

 

Put green shutters on the White House--like all those old white houses in Vermont.

 

Too bad he didn't preach what he practiced. Zero leadership.

 

That has always been the Bush problem, ZERO LEADERSHIP.

 

Sure, but I can't stand sweaters.

 

- 30 mpg was low hanging fruit. I don't think the we could get fleet wide 48 mpg today without legislation mandating glorified golf carts; think "Sleeper"
- sweaters suck
- oil import tariffs - two words: smoot-hawley
- the key word is affordable. why not pour that money down some perpetual energy rathole.
- how can you be "correct" in setting a goal which isn't achievable? Oh, I know while we spend the 80's and 90's improverishing ourselves except for the sweater industry, the rest of the world left us behind using cheap energy. And our skies and water wouldn't be any cleaner. Think there are no side effects to manufacturing that many solar arrays?

 

Are you that poor at satire, or just a moron?

Brazil spent the 80's and 90's investing in alternatives and now they are energy independent, largely unaffected by the price swings we have felt in the last few years. (I am not an ethanol fan however!)

If we had invested 1/10 of what we have spend on wars of choice to protect our energy, we would be way closer to energy independence.


Icarus

You may heat sweaters and alternative energy, but I'm nice and snug in my passive solar house, with my power coming from my off grid battery bank,,,wearing a wool sweater!