{"id":870,"date":"2012-08-19T12:26:37","date_gmt":"2012-08-19T16:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/energyrealist.com\/?p=870"},"modified":"2012-08-28T07:24:35","modified_gmt":"2012-08-28T11:24:35","slug":"summer-and-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/?p=870","title":{"rendered":"Summer and politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks back I went to a seminar organized around a German \u201cDas Haus\u201d<\/a><\/strong> exhibit.\u00a0 It features passive house approaches and technology.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For me it\u2019s just moving too slowly.\u00a0 It\u2019s wealthy enthusiasts, or enthusiastic do-it-yourselfers, driving the move to net-zero energy.\u00a0 Of course I\u2019m oversimplifying but it\u2019s the impression I\u2019m left with.\u00a0 A description of rebuilding a Brooklyn brownstone to passive house standards was fascinating, but something only a very wealthy person could afford.\u00a0 And one representative for some remarkable sealing tapes lamented that the market was driven by price rather than quality and durability.<\/p>\n

A presentation by Kim Curran, Center for Sustainable Energy, Bronx Community College<\/a>) included this slide, which I think is rather powerful (Thanks to Dr. Richard Perez for permission to use the slide, more explanation here<\/a>.\u00a0 The message surely has to be that we must go renewable eventually.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Natural gas, the \u201cnew\u201d miracle fuel has to be just a stop gap, or a fuel to even out fluctuations in renewable supply.\u00a0 Not in my lifetime I guess\u2026<\/p>\n

In the real world we have been kept busy doing energy audits in neighborhoods where new natural gas lines are coming down the street.\u00a0 Going from oil, propane or electricity to natural gas is attractive by itself \u2013 much cheaper per BTU.\u00a0 Combine that with incentives for making the house more energy efficient and installing high efficiency heating, cooling and hot water units and the proposition becomes self-evident.\u00a0 And yet less than half the people in a street get the gas line, even less go for the energy audit.<\/p>\n

Is it the word \u201caudit\u201d that turns people off?\u00a0 We\u2019ve done ourselves a disservice to let the term become so entrenched.\u00a0 Assessment or Appraisal would be so much better, all \u201cA\u201d words\u2026<\/p>\n

Speaking of natural gas and renewables gets us to politics and into this frustrating election campaign (you get enough of it I\u2019m sure \u2013 here is my breakfast reading<\/a>).\u00a0 It\u2019s not going to happen, but it would be great if someone, on either side, would start talking in ideas, have a vision, and provide some direction instead of throwing out all the usual platitudes of greatness, freedom, security, independence and so forth.<\/p>\n

How about a plan to bring all power lines underground in 50 years?\u00a0 How about replacing every school bus by safe, comfortable electric buses in 30 years?\u00a0 Naw \u2013 next quarter is what counts.\u00a0 (Why would you put power underground?\u00a0 Safety, Continuity (no massive blackouts every time a tree falls over), no NIMBY reaction because of appearance, health concerns etc., not to even mention the improvement in general happiness and well being once those poles and wires have disappeared from the skyline)\u00a0 \"\"<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another idea slide, 3 steps we need to take; individually, community, nation \u2013 pretty simple to remember (also from the Das Haus seminar, but I can’t remember who presented it).\u00a0 And once the entrenched propaganda is taken away, I\u2019m sure there is a very good economic growth story to be built around this as well.\u00a0 I guess that\u2019s the next small issue I need to tackle.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

3 steps - 2 today, 1 in the next few years<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Until then, yours realistically<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Das Haus”, gas and politics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=870"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":877,"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions\/877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energyrealist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}