Republican insanity

I was reading the Wall Street Journal article yesterday about how the Republicans are hoping to use drilling offshore for oil as an issue against the Democrats. Have they gone insane? First it was picking a candidate like Juan McCain who ignores the conservative middle class of the party base in favor of hispandering to the illegal immigrant vote. Now they believe that the American public will vote for them if they give the oil companies what they want which is more drilling offshore. They are just nuts if they pursue this track. They do not seem to understand that oil is not the future. We have as a nation failed to understand this during previous energy crises. That's why we are paying over $4.00 a gallon for gasoline today. Second even if the Republicans allow the oil companies to drill offshore that does not mean that the oil will be used here in the United States. We have been down this road before and it leads nowhere good. As they say the very definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting different results. It seems the Republicans are insane if they think that more oil is a winning issue for them.

Saving energy? Not in the Senate.

An article in today's Washington Post points out that the Senate is about to fold on the new energy bill. Here are the money quotes:

"Democratic leaders in the Senate are planning a vote on a retooled energy bill late next week after they failed to muster enough support yesterday to prevent a filibuster of ambitious legislation passed by the House on Thursday. "

"A new version of the bill will probably scale back some elements of the House's tax package and jettison a requirement that electric utilities use renewable energy for 15 percent of their power generation, but a White House veto threat citing a broad range of objections continued to cast uncertainty over the ultimate fate of the proposed legislation. "

Hmmm Why would anybody in this country not want our utilities to use even a small amount of renewable energy?

"The failure to close debate was a victory for the major oil companies, Southeastern utilities and coal-mining firms that had opposed the legislation. "

Doh! Forget I even asked the question.

Speaking of energy

The natural gas meter for my house is located inside my house. Because my life keeps me on the go quite a bit it seems I have never been home when the meter reader comes by. So it has been a long time since the meter was read. So I went to Gas utilities website a few days later to see what the bill would be. Since I have modified my 1980's installed solar hot water system to provide heat for the house I figured that the gas company's estimated billing should give me some savings. They still had an estimated bill number for the account balance. Strange I thought the meter readers updated numbers should have been entered by now. So I tried to enter the actual gas meter numbers my self. The Gas Company's computer kicked it back saying: "According to our projections regarding usage you should have a reading of 1120-1175 ( my actual reading was 848). It refused to believe the numbers so i had to call a talk to a person and explain I have modified my solar hot water panels to provide heat into the house and have also made other solar and energy efficient changes to my fifty year old house to help heat it. She finally entered the new numbers into the computer and I receive a new updated bill with a $650 credit. Kaching! Houston you do have a problem because I have only begun to make energy efficient modifications to the rancho de BCP. My personal energy plan is about more money in my pocket and less heading to Houston and Saudi Arabia. Stay tuned!

Blog Action day. Shine on brightly!

Today some 15,000 blogs including BCP will participate in Blog Action Day. The blogs will be focusing on some type of enviornmental action. I have chosen to focus on my ongoing process to make things more efficient in my daily life and reducing my carbon foot print at the same time. Blog action Day give me a perfect opportunity to show my latest project. Modifying a classic the Tensor desk lamp located at the BCP Washington bureau news desk. Shown below. The lamps original 14 watt incandescent bulb blew out recently. Rather than replace it with another bulb of the same type. I decide to improve the efficiency of the lamp by changing it to an LED light. But, first a little historical tribute to it's inventor Jay Monroe.

"Jay Monroe, an engineer whose wife’s discontent over the strong light he needed for bedtime reading provoked him to invent a high-intensity, low-voltage mini lamp whose use spread to desks, jewelers’ worktables, limousines and far beyond, died on June 12 at his home in Sands Point, N.Y. He was 80.
His wife, Barbara, said he shot himself after he and his doctor had discussed the possibility that he had cancer.
Mr. Monroe created the Tensor lamp, then manufactured and sold it. The small, skinny lamp focused a narrow cone of high-intensity white light, making shapes, colors and objects appear sharper to the eye. Its first users were professionals like doctors and dentists, then older people and others with weak vision. It soon became an American staple, a lamp that students took to college, couples installed on each side of the bed and stamp collectors adored."-New York Times

The Tensor light even showed up as part of the excuse for the 18 minute gap in the Watergate tapes.

"Most notoriously, in 1973, White House officials attributed the deletion of part of a critical 18-minute tape recording during the Watergate scandal on a combination of hums from the electric typewriter and the Tensor lamp of Rose Mary Woods, President Richard M. Nixon’s secretary. Mr. Monroe, whose engineering sophistication extended to complicated weapons systems, doubted that claim, his wife said."

Well Monroe's innovative Tensor light shines on at the BCP desk. Thanks to my fitting of an LED array as a replacement bulb it does so more efficiently than at any time in it's life. It now uses less than 1 watt instead of the previous 14 watts with an incandescent bulb.




More BCP energy saving projects are coming. Keep checking into BCP for the latest energy improvements.

Time for new energy

As the summer winds down the Washington Post has an article about some companies exploring new clean energy technologies. I am reminded it is time for me to think about ramping up the BCP energy plan for winter. I'll be posting about it from time to time in the near future.

Save your energy President Bush

While George Bush was out visiting the latest example of our failing U.S. infrastructure with his dog and pony show. The House passed an energy bill that would among other things require utilities to get 15% of their energy from renewable sources like solar and wind. But our clueless President George Bush threatened a veto because the bill did not encourage increased drilling for oil. Ah, Mr President that is the point of using renewable energy in the first place.

I got your energy plan. Right here!

Two influential House Democrats backed away yesterday from proposals that had split members of their party and delayed debate on energy legislation that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has vowed to pass before July 4.-Washington Post

What a surprise! This is why I don't wait for Washington to solve the country's energy problems. I have my own energy policy which is to keep as much money in my pocket and put less into the wallets of the Texans and Saudis. And it is working! In fact sometimes to much. This week the BCP energy plan is to cover up the solar panels on the roof because the sun is causing too much heat to be contained in the storage tank. That is my energy plan this week.