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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (4950)	10/29/2006 5:12:01 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 24213

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (4950)	10/29/2006 8:57:32 AM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 24213

Just cuz I like his rant Well, I enjoyed that rant too. Jives with some of my own thoughts. Back during the last big oil crunch, a couple of engineers that I knew were working for the government up here - on some teams of people who were working on research in alternative energy production and construction to optimize insulation, heat retention, etc... When oil prices went down, whichever government was in power around then just canned the whole program. Both guys said that was a big mistake as the work was really starting to yield results. Later on, one of the guys built an interesting solar-convection type of "wall" on his barn at home based on some things he and others had figured out during their research work. I stopped in there in the dead of winter one time and the barn was pretty nice and cozy inside. Can't remember how it was made, but the materials were not even very costly. Another "mistake" that i think has been made is that, at least up here, there should have been some incentive programs put in place to encourage more people to install ground-source heat pumps ages ago. I've known quite a few people who have installed them and they cut their heating costs back substantially. In our climate, heating is about the biggest expense we have, so it made sense. Now, the governments are all freaking out about how increase electrical output to keep up with demand. If they had backed heat pumps years ago, I expect the load demand would be nowhere near what it is today -- and the heat pump technology and installation probably would have become more affordable due to mass use. I suspect the same applies to solar and wind now. Both should be getting a lot more support (research and tax relief to purchasers) to encourage use of these (and other) technologies. Will it happen? Probably - eventually. However, before it does, I expect many governments will dawdle around hoping that oil will get "cheap" and plentiful again. In the meantime, the train will have left the station. It's gonna be "All aboard -- or be left behind and freeze yer butt off!!" there -- that's my own rant for the week. * btw, how's your solar working out? Do you have a way of knowing how much electricity it's producing on a day to day basis, or weekly, monthly, etc... ? ~croc