Energy secretary's new pitch: conserve

http://www.cleveland.com/business/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1128418228199280.xml&coll=2

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Washington -- Turn down the thermostat when you're away, and insulate the crawl space. Rotate your tires and change your air filter.

It'll be good for your pocketbook, and good for the country.

You'll hear that message repeatedly this fall and winter, as a new government campaign tries to hammer home ways to save energy as well as money.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman kicked it off Monday, warning that home heating prices will soar this winter because hurricanes Katrina and Rita knocked out oil and gas production along the Gulf Coast...

have been doing all that and more for years.

About the only places I can cut back are to eat only canned or dried food (no refrigeration required) and sit in the dark from sundown to sunup.

Any other bright ideas, Mr. Government Man?


on edit: I am my own grammar policeperson

Rotate your politicians!

Shit, even Nixon was telling us to turn down thermostats.

Noone, can speak the unspeakable. We already have the answers. There are two ways to work this situation. Fewer babies, and or noncombustive means of energy conversion. So let's not talk about either of those, and see where it gets us.

The thing is, they don't need to talk at all, because we are doing the work right now. However, if financial resources, the likes of those going toward the costs of warring, were put towards funding battery research (hydrogen storage, etc.), solide oxide fuel cell manufacturing, solar research subsidization, we could get there in a very short time.

We are almost there, even after the horrid sandbagging that has occured. Even after petroleum companies bought solar and drove it into the ground.

Rotate your tires! oh my god.

Wanna bet the guys saying "buy more insulation" are right now buying up Dow Corning stock?

What about propping open windows and doors in January in the UP and Bismarck, North Dakota?

Oh, oh - I know - what about people who just like to leave their cars running all the time - I'll bet they're planning on cracking down on THAT little number!!

:eyes:

down the path to national insanity.

other gas hogs to encourage conservation?

Problem is that their time is the medieval age.

"In little more than two decades we've gone from a position of energy independence to one in which almost half the oil we use comes from foreign countries, at prices that are going through the roof. Our excessive dependence on OPEC has already taken a tremendous toll on our economy and our people. This is the direct cause of the long lines which have made millions of you spend aggravating hours waiting for gasoline. It's a cause of the increased inflation and unemployment that we now face. This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our nation. The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clear and present danger to our nation. These are facts and we simply must face them."
- J Carter July 1979

just studying the data, I can't believe there wasn't absolute revolution over the energy crisis. The economic conditions were so miserable back then, I can't believe the majority people didn't demand major change in our energy policy.