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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (172699)	8/19/2001 7:38:43 PM
From: ColtonGang	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Read my lips..........."Bush is a lame duck president!"

To: American Spirit who wrote (172699)	8/19/2001 7:38:52 PM
From: Ish	Respond to of 769667

Bet you don't read this- khou.com Bush Building Environmentally Sound Ranch House 8:55 AM September 06, 2000 FORT WORTH, Texas -- Gov. George W. Bush hopes he can one day call his ranch near Waco the Texas White House. But "green house" might be more accurate. Although he has been criticized for his environmental policies as governor, Bush is embracing environmental preservation and green technology at his 1,600-acre ranch. He'll collect rainwater, recycle dishwater, tap into the earth's thermal energy, use "passive solar" building techniques and even provide a nesting habitat for the endangered golden-cheeked warbler by the time the ranch is completed this winter. Texas First Lady Laura Bush is replanting native grasses. While the property, located 18 miles west of Waco, supports 200 head of cattle tended by a foreman who owns them, Bush is not interested in cattle, said Secretary of State Elton Bomer, a Bush confidant who's helping him build a fishing pond on the ranch. "He's interested in the wildlife; he's interested in the birds. It's his slice of nature that he's trying to protect," Bomer was quoted as saying in Tuesday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Environmental watchdogs applaud Bush's personal use of green building techniques and wildlife conservation efforts but say he should do more to make those options available and affordable to all Texans. "He has not actively pushed renewable energy," said Tom "Smitty" Smith, director of the Texas branch of Public Citizen, the watchdog group founded by consumer activist and presidential candidate Ralph Nader. Nevertheless, Smith and other environmental activists say green provisions in the electric utility restructuring bill Bush signed last year will help spur an unprecedented use of renewable energy sources. Bush makes maximum use of the sun at his ranch by harnessing what the experts call "passive solar energy." The strategically positioned, low-slung ranch house will absorb sun rays during the winter and repel heat and light in the summer. The rainwater catching system was a Laura Bush idea, inspired by a similar system at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin. Rain will roll off the metal roof into concrete troughs that encircle the home, then trickle into a 25,000-gallon cistern in a shaded area outside the governor's ranch office. "We just knew we wanted to try to collect rainwater," Mrs. Bush said, "because you know Texas is just so dry." The ranch also will recycle "gray water" from showers and lavatories, and "black water" from the kitchen sink and, yes, toilets. The recycled water will pass through an elaborate series of purifying tanks and filters before being used for irrigation. For heating and cooling and for hot water, the Bushes are installing an efficient system that uses geothermal energy. Holes are drilled into the ground some 300 feet deep, where the temperature remains a constant 70 degrees or so. A series of pipes is laid into the holes, and water is circulated between the buried pipes and a geothermal heat pump inside. The water acts as a heating or cooling element, depending on the season. Lonnie Ball, a former oil driller from Aspermont and an aide to Mrs. Bush, was recruited to pierce the soil for the geothermal system. He expects it will save about 75 percent on heating costs and 40 percent to 50 percent on cooling. The Bushes hope to attract the golden-cheeked warbler to the ranch. George W. Bush used a controversy over the songbird to accuse his 1994 opponent, then-Gov. Ann Richards, of siding with the federal government over landowners when federal officials wanted to designate parts of 33 Texas counties as "critical habitat" for the bird. Now Bush has signed a "conservation plan" with the federal government partly to protect several hundred acres containing hardwood trees in which the birds are known to nest. "I'm mindful of the endangered species," Bush said, showing news reporters around his ranch in July. "We're going to preserve a lot of old cedar, because they nest with old cedar."