[Rhodes22-list] Going green

[Brad Haslett]

Rummy,

We replace all our burned out conventional bulbs with "curlys" and are
probably at about the 50% mark.  They now make fluorescent spot lamps as
well but we haven't had any conventional ones burn out in quite some time.
As the mass production of fluorescent go up the price should come down.
Chinese consumers are far more conservation minded about electricity
consumption than we are because of their pricing structure.  Electricity
rates become more expensive with total usage, just the opposite of here.  I
started seeing small businesses in China switching to "curlys" several years
ago and decided then there has to be a benefit or they wouldn't spend the
money.  The CO2 output of ethanol is hotly debated.  The process of making
ethanol is a huge emitter of CO2 as well as the transportation of the inputs
and final product (all ethanol moves by truck and rail, there are no
pipelines), and of course the old bug-a-boo that the final product produces
only ten percent more energy than the energy inputs. If we ever implement a
carbon tax, the whole life cycle carbon output for ethanol won't be that
competitive.  But hey, alcohol makes everyone feel good.  Ethanol enjoys a
51 cent per gallon subsidy.  To be fair, lets apply the same subsidy to Jack
Daniels.  My biggest concern is that if governments keep passing mandated
percentages of ethanol in gasoline (very popular in corn growing states)
other more productive alternatives will get squeezed out.  The simple
economic rule is that if something is more efficient it doesn't need a
subsidy. The US Air Force just this week announced at the Paris Air Show
that they want to operate 50% on synthetic fuels (probably coal to liquid
using the Fischer-Tropsch process) by 2025.  Nearly all the biofuels and
synthetic fuel processes uses vast amounts of energy to convert one form to
another.  Nukes anyone?  There is no magic bullet in the energy business and
no free lunch.

Brad
On 6/18/07, R22RumRunner at aol.com <R22RumRunner at aol.com> wrote:
>
> In an attempt to lower our energy consumption within our house, I have
> replaced all incandescent bulbs with the energy saving flourescents. Time
> will
> tell what the payback will be, but it should be interesting. My initial
> impression is that the new bulbs are much better than the earlier
> versions. They  take
> a while to warm up to full output, but I haven't found it to be
> a  problem.
> My truck burns the new E-85 fuel. Brad claims that it's a "feel good"
> fuel,
> and I can accept that. However, the end result of burning ethanol means
> that I
> am not adding to the co2 problem with the atmosphere. I like the ethanol
> fuel. I  haven't realized any money savings to date, but that would be
> secondary
> to not  burning more than 15% gasoline which is added. My recent research
> on
> ethanol  informed me that they put 15% gasoline with the ethanol to
> prevent
> people from  drinking the stuff. Can you imagine? A gallon of drinkable
> alcohol
> for under  three dollars. We would become a nation of alcoholic drivers.
>
> Rummy
>
>
>
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