227+ Comments and Counting – The Commission Based Fee Structure – It’s Bad for Buyers.
EcoTech Daily’s Daily Five – Jetson Green’s Sprawl Home Discounts, Big City LEED and Codes, + Future of Green Buildings is good knowledge
The unlucky .2% at the Foxfield Races – See some videos at cVillain
The Real Cost of Tackling Climate Change – hint: it’s more than you might think (it’s a cultural change more than anything else)
Today, the average residence in the U.S. uses about 10,500 kilowatt hours of electricity and emits 11.4 tons of CO2 per year (much more if you are Al Gore or John Edwards and live in a mansion). To stay within the magic number, average household emissions will have to fall to no more than 1.5 tons per year. In our current electricity infrastructure, this would mean using no more than about 2,500 KwH per year. This is not enough juice to run the average hot water heater.
You can forget refrigerators, microwaves, clothes dryers and flat screen TVs. Even a house tricked out with all the latest high-efficiency EnergyStar appliances and compact fluorescent lights won’t come close. The same daunting energy math applies to the industrial, commercial and transportation sectors as well. The clear implication is that we shall have to replace virtually the entire fossil fuel electricity infrastructure over the next four decades with CO2-free sources – a multitrillion dollar proposition, if it can be done at all.
In the Charlottesville region, there are currently 2,409 properties on the market – ~30% of these are vacant. Will crime follow?
That $600 “rebate”? That’s about one month of gas, thankyouverymuch.
Just noticed that the VAR is now only posting home sales data on a quarterly, rather than monthly basis on its website. Poor form on their part, I’d argue.
The report can be found here.
Now they are more comprehensive than they were in the past, however.
I’m glad to see the Real Cost of Climate Change link. I hope people read the article. I think it will bring a little perspective to some of the well-intentioned but ill-informed people that think oil, coal, and power companies are the absolute evildoers of our country. If we want to get practical and realistic, the solutions might include a very significant increase in nuclear energy, transition from coal to gas where possible, permit some wind and hydro proposals, and basic household energy efficient upgrades. And definitely get rid of the ethanol requirements and subsidies – they are not efficient and they are a major casuse of increased food prices. Experts stated such about 9-10 years ago when the mandates were being considered, but the federal government chose to go with the more vocal anti-oil crowd. My real point is that when we as groups, coalitions, and movements want something stopped, we need to have a proper and legitimate alternative ready to fill the gap (and it has to be economically feasible).
Dave