TechnOpinion

I once read a book by Robert Heinlein called The Door Into Summer.  This was an excellent sci-fi book about time travel and the title comes from the fact that the protagonist’s cat goes door to door in his house refusing to exit into the snowy outdoors.  One day the cat finds a door into summer (think ‘time travel’).

Spring time in the Rockies has me being like the cat.  A couple of days ago we had 3 feet of snow and were trapped in our house for the better part of a day and a half, yesterday in Denver it was 78 degrees.  Such is the seasonal schizophrenia we suffer on a yearly basis.  Thus is the price we pay for living in paradise.  It is this time of year that I usually try to retreat to a tropical island somewhere and let the sun do it’s work on my skin.  But this year no such trip was planned so I was left to suffer the seasonal whip lash.  Starting yesterday I began noticing some things that are at the core, simple pleasures in my life.  Read more…

Uncategorized

I have discussed many of the external costs of power generation, but there is one that is more elusive than all the others.  Water.  It requires and immense amount of water to generate power from coal and nuclear otherwise known as thermoelectric power generation.  In this process, steam is created to activate steam-driven generators that in turn produce electricity.  This process one of the largest uses of water in the US or the world according to the USGS.  On their Web site, it states that in 2000 roughly 195,000 million gallons of water was used each day.  Of that, approximately 3,310 million gallons per day are lost to evaporation.  That amounts to 0.47 gal of fresh water lost to evaporation per Kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity comsumed.  The national average monthly usage of electricity is between 708 and 791 kWh per residence.  This does not take into account businesses of any kind, but one would have to assume it would be a much larger number.  Using figures from the IAEA, total water loss to evaporation per year in the US is, 1,815,410,000,000 gallons.  All-in-all, that’s a lot of water! Read more…

Renewable Energy

What if the key to the explosion of the alternative energy industry is not a function of incentives, rebates and mandates?  What if the key to unlocking the industry was in transforming our relationship to energy?  Read more…

Renewable Energy

There is a bit of a controversy going on about Compact Florescent Lamps and the Mercury they contain.  So, I will try to bring some clarity to the topic.  Since the cheapest Watt of power is the one we never use, it is important to have all the information. Read more…

Renewable Energy

It seems we are now declaring something of a victory in our war on terror with the arch enemy, Al Qaeda.  Really? Hmmm… Let’s look at this for a moment from another point of view.  Then we will ask ourselves the question again at the end of this article. Read more…

Opinion

We live in the greatest country on earth.  I just watched a peaceful transition of power within the most powerful government on the planet.  It is the principal of freedom that allows us to choose our leaders, but it is the people that stand for this freedom that make it possible.  It is when, as Barack Obama said this morning, we are in service of something bigger than ourselves that true leadership arises.  In focusing on my petty concerns and daily dealings I am disconnected from the world.  In practicing gratitude for my life I must look from a point of relativity to the rest of the world.  No matter where I look, I can be grateful for the amazing life I have relative to the suffering of others.  I have no interest in being a martyr, but I do have an interest of bringing value to the world; we all have something to offer. Read more…

Opinion

This is a re-post and extensive update of a Yourhub article I posted a while back.

I woke up this morning thinking about this topic.  The title of this article isn’t a question.  I am asserting that the things that stop us are of our own making and they are called ‘reasons’.  I invite you to be in this inquiry and possibly see something for yourself.  Or you could make up a reason called, ‘this is stupid, I know all this already’ and move on, possibly having missed an opportunity to get ‘un-stopped’ in some area of your life.

The example I used above may seem silly, but is it?  How often do we utter something similar to this in our owns heads or even out loud right before we stop doing or give up on something or before we even start.  Here are some more examples: Read more…

Life

Electric coops were created by the New Deal to bring electricity to rural communities.  To a large degree, they served the purpose and served it well.  Coops are member/owned and are ‘governed’ by the Seven Principals of Cooperatives… in theory. Read more…

Opinion

My blog post just prior to this one, A New Book, made reference to foreign oil and alternative energy.  I wrote this article a number of years ago and I missed my mistake.  I have seen this erroneous link made in many other publications as well.  I want to set the record straight.  There is very little relationship between renewable energy and oil unless we are talking about hybrid and electric cars or a reduction in the fuel consumed while transporting coal to power plants. Read more…

Renewable Energy