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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Ethanol's Dirty Little Secrets ---

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  • From: "Greg and April" <gregandapril@earthlink.net>
  • To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Ethanol's Dirty Little Secrets ---
  • Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 20:52:17 -0600

You mean like the high up front cost?

There are plenty of work arounds for that.

A year ago last spring, my family received a new furnace free. The local utility works with a nonprofit organization to do a free heating evaluation, and air infiltration tests of the house. Because of the age and condition of the furnace, it eligible to be replaced, at low or no cost depending on the income of the family. We fell in the no cost bracket. They also provided blow-in insulation to areas of the house that had none and that we couldn't get to, and brought a crew in to seal the furnace ducts.

Had we fallen into the low cost bracket, our bill would have remained the same until the cost of the furnace was paid for by the savings the new furnace.

The same program replaced all of the old toilets with low flush toilets, and added weather stripping around all of the doors, and most of the windows than needed it, and replaced our old refrigerator with a brand new one, because the old one used more than a given amount of electricity.

What does the utility company get out it? Better efficiency of existing electrical lines, with out having to upgrade them, lower cost because if a sever cold spell comes they don't have to buy as much NG or electricity at current market prices, and lower maintance cost for existing lines. According to the people I talked to, they estimate that they save about between $15 to $50 a year in maintaince and up grade costs, per house, that goes through the program.

A program similar to this can help on a bigger scale.


Granted it would be allot cheaper with new construction, but, I would bet even the old construction could be upgraded, and if push came to shove I bet it would be.

I don't know what it is like where you live, but, here we have 2 power plants, in town. One is a coal fired plant that they have been experimenting with adding wood waste to the coal ( more electricity - for the same or less pollution ). The other is a NG/propane operation to take un-expected electrical demands so they don't have to buy more electricity at current market prices instead of buying a couple of months a head of time, when it's cheaper. Even if they only used the excess heat from the coal plant, to heat the city and county down town, your only looking at less than a mile distance for 80% of the city and major county buildings - in most cases it's only a few hundred yards from the coal fired power plant property.

If even only the city and county property, is heated, that is less tax money that is spent on fuel, and better efficiency from the entire system.

Greg H.


----- Original Message ----- From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 20:04
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Ethanol's Dirty Little Secrets ---



You don't see the glaring holes in those ideas?

paul, tradingpost@riseup.net






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