It's so stimulating!

It's almost time to do your duty to pump up the economy while greening your home.

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs is quite excited about the approaching reservation period for the cash-for-clunkers home appliance program. Check it out, a special Web page that is ever-growing.

She's positively breathless about the opportunity, as evidenced by the countdown clock on the page.

Really, the motivation behind the drive is probably pure, but can't they find better writers to promote a $23 million program? How snappy is "Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program," the federal program or "Texas Trade Up Appliance Rebate Program," here in our part of the world?

The idea is to spend federal stimulus money on rebates to consumers who replace their aging, but functioning, dishwasher, water heater, central air, clothes washer, refrigerator, etc with new, energy efficient models that are ENERGY STAR® or CEE qualified?

The comptroller's office is still working out the details, but they'll start taking reservations April 5, at a time to be announced and the buying begins April 16 for a limited time. Don't jump the gun in your enthusiasm or you'll lose out on your rebate. There will be a recycling aspect that is less than clear, but I'm sure it will be more so soon. It will include a $75 bonus rebate for recycling your clunker.

The comptroller's office is so sure this will have buyers buzzing, it's establishing a waiting list for when the rebates are all reserved.

They're really stimulated.

Now spend - after April 16.

Spring unsprung in the garden

Boy, the momentum was building, but as happens every year (when will I learn) that frosty Mother Nature just had to show off who's boss this weekend.

The chilly winter afternoons lolling through the seed catalogs are passed. One frenzied weekend of making the hard choices of who will get our money for what plants and seeds (no fancy starter kits this year, just flats and seed starter) left me feeling bad..."Sorry Johnny's, I know we've been faithful to each other, but that perky new Cook's Garden got your share of the cash this year. Well, her and that High Country Gardens in Santa Fe." And the afternoons sketching what holes remain in beds as I add more and more perennials are just memories on a legal pad.

Now the action is to begin. My wife pruned like a buzz saw. I planted potted chrysantemums outdoors. We both brushed away the brown refuse of winter from the expanding green crowns of plants. All that on Saturday. Then the winds turned chilly on Sunday. We were limping around a little when we went to Lowe's to stock up on supplies for mostly outdoor chores we're planning on. As long as the product wasn't on a low shelf where we'd have to bend too far over, things were passable.

Then Monday morning got here. It was dark outside, thanks to the stupid time change. A chilly rain/snow was falling and our backs were even stiffer.

Sorry Mother Nature. My bad. But your reminders that we're another year older and the average frost date (not to mention the Easter snow storms) are still to come are fully understood. We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness.

But the next sunny Saturday can't be too far off, giving hope for more adventures. Not to mention the first seed packs have arrived. Do you think it's too early to start cukecumbers?

NOTE:
By the way, there will be a three-day seminar on "Planting the Seeds of Sustainability" this month in Amarillo. It's sponsored by the High Plains Institute for Applied Ecology, High Plains Food Bank and Wildcat Bluff Nature Center. It runs March 19-21. Check out the above link for details.

Another seed sprouts

Linda Lloyd, project manager at Mariposa ecoVillage on the west edge of Amarillo, was happy to be in the cold wind today. Predictions of snow had her worried, but the weather stayed dry so it was time to get busy.

Workers were pouring concrete from a mast high above what will become her house in the development meant to show off sustainable living. For example, her abode will be totally powered by solar panels and will have no water well.

"I won't be paying Xcel (Energy) anything," she said.

The water will come from harvesting rain.

The home is dug into a 12-foot cliff facing south to collect the warmth of the sun during winter months. The walls will have six inches of concrete lined on both sides with two and a half inches of foam.

The living area is about 800 square feet, topped with 300 square feet of office/studio space.

This is the first home at Mariposa. The hospitality center is up, made of compressed dirt blocks. And work to plaster it and complete the pressed earth floors will begin soon.

"I'm on specialist at that," Lloyd said.

Another first happened within the past few days as Mariposa started taking reservations for single-family home lots. There are 17 on offer. They measure about one acre and go for from $20,000 to $25,000.

How much do I care?

Well, there's a new way to spend time online and save the planet at the same time.

I got a press release today with a link to a nifty new beta site that allows you to enter facts about your home and find out what you can do to save energy which translates to saving money and reducing the amount of carbon you are responsible for utilities spewing into the atmosphere. It also shows you the do-it-yourself cost of changes and how your home ranks to an "average" home, whatever that is.

Just don't be in a hurry. It may look like you're about to finish the survey when - boom - there's subquestions on the topic you are on.

How'd our house stack up? It's hard to tell, but the accuracy of ratings against average should improve as more people take the survey.

Biggest saving? Install a programable thermostat at a do-it-yourself cost of from $30 to$190 dollars. Quite a spread, but supposedly it will save us $208 a year and reduce carbon by 1,848 pounds annually.

Next up? Install compact fluorescent bulbs.

But I don't get this helpful hint. Put in more attic insulation at a cost of $700 and save $22 a year. That's a long payoff in my wallet world. Besides, there's a puny 195 pounds of carbon to be saved with this move.

Hmmm

Big House On The Prairie

Sure, she looks a little rustic, but the first building at Mariposa ecoVillage is coming along.

The last I saw her, there were a few long blocks of compressed earth stacked on a low cement wall. She looked like a giant lincoln log project just getting started. She didn't have much vavoom, although there was some promise.

But this morning I checked and was impressed. The walls are complete with openings for windows and doors. The roof is on and you can see how the ceiling will have a gentle upward curve to it. The structure now looks like something. She's even a little imposing in her sturdiness out on the hill northwest of town.

The walls are still draped with what's left of black plastic sheets meant to slow down the curing of the compressed dirt blocks. But the wind this morning, and apparently before that, was taking a toll on the covering.

After a walk around, it was time to go inside. Wow, there's a big pile of dirt inside on the floor. Wait, what floor? There was only rough, bare ground. Then I remembered. Linda Lloyd, the project manager, told me even the floor would be earthen. A highly packed and polished layer of dirt, mined on site, just like the dirt for the walls. But first there are pipes to lay that will carry water heated by the sun, giving off gentle warmth from inside the "floor."

The thick, solid walls will insulate the inside of the visitors' center for the planned ecologically sound community, so people with inquiring minds this winter can feel comfortable taking in the promise of Mariposa. The idea is for the 18-inch thick walls to keep the temperature between 62 degrees in the winter and 72 degrees in the summer.

I'll give it a couple more weeks and go out to take some photos to post here for a proper sneak peek. She's still not quite ready for primetime, but she's shaping up.

Carbonated Conversations

Just back from a somewhat steamy Columbus, Ohio, and the McCormick Energy Solutions Conference.

It was a jam-packed three days on the future of energy with a constant background glow thanks to global warming. The panelists were by and large true believers and basically activists for the kill-carbon-before-it-kills-us point of view. Most were more temperate than Joe Romm of the Center for American Progress and blog author, but who isn't?

Anyway, it was thought provoking, even with a grain of salt or two. The shift in scientific thinking puts all the blame for excess carbon on human activity, and that makes more and more sense as the data comes in. But one word of caution from former astronaut, and role model for skyward-looking kids of a certain graying age, John Glenn. He said he still has scientist friends passing on the idea that the jury isn't totally out on whether global warming is part of nature's cycles. And that raises the questions of who or what's spewing the carbon dioxide many blame as the leader of the Greenhouse Gas Gang.

But then he came back with this: "If we screw it up, there's no going back...No matter what's happening in the cycles, we have to clean up the environment."

He described Earth's atmosphere as a "thin film" rather than the chunk of air in school textbooks, painting an image of something fragile and at risk.

What a guy. He and his wife since 1943 are still vital and involved and were then off to a national climate something or other.

I'll be writing here and in the Globe-News in a hopefully more coherent way about what's happening here on the High Plains in relation to the topics the experts discussed at the conference. The common thread was the quickest, easiest ways to reduce carbon are conservation and efficiency.

On that topic, a smarter grid is one way experts propose to burn less fuels that release carbon. I'm working on an update on efforts to make our stupid grid smarter here at home for my first story. The next one may be a look at how school districts are faring on the 2007 mandate to reduce energy consumption 5 percent per year.

By the way, the hospitality on the Ohio State University campus was fantastic, although I was dragging a bit from the pace by the time I got home at midnight last night. The organizers of the McCormick Energy Solutions Conference and especially the staff of the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism and the John Glenn School of Public Affairs know their stuff.

And it was a little eerie looking out my hotel window on the Woody Hayes Boulevard towards the solid, gray memorial to his legacy, the holy stadium where he did his thing that is even lit at night.

Pests and Power

Two bits of info - a plague update and a different kind of Happy Meal.

I got a bit of advice in the form of a news release from Texas AgriLife Extension about those grasshoppers that have me hopping mad. Our bit of rainy weather put them into hiding, but the 100-degree temperatures arae back and so is the plague, so I was happy to see the release until about the third paragraph.

"'Can homeowners get rid of grasshoppers? During outbreak years like this one is shaping up to be in some parts of the state, I'd have to say no,' said Mark Muegge, AgriLife Extension entomologist at Fort Stockton."

"They are some of the most difficult insect pests to control in the urban landscape," he added.

Thanks for that. But there are some resources to pass on if you are tired of feeding your innocent plants to these things.

Extension recommends integrated pest management through removing any weedy borders where they lay eggs, using several different insecticides, and choosing plants that are less tasty. (Now you tell us.)

My goal is to save what I've got because replanting the beds doesn't excite me.

Here's a link to the details.

And now about the McCharger. The Charlotte News & Observer reported a couple of weeks ago about a curbside service at a Cary, N.C., McDonald's.

Just think, you're running a little low on energy, so you whip in for a fast-food favorite. Then you remember you forgot to plug in your Prius last night. Pick the right parking place and you can feed your car thanks to McDonald's two charging stations.

The Cary McDonald's is also under review to be LEED-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. That would make it the third LEED McLocation after Savannah, Ga., and Chicago.

It ain’t easy being green

Not everybody is swooning over green.

Consider Ash Grove Cement. The Austin American-Statesman reports today that the company is suing the city of Plano because the city wants to give preference to cement companies using modern kilns that don’t pollute as much as older kilns.

“Plano adopted a cement purchasing resolution that is not only unconstitutional, but also highly prejudicial to Ash Grove,” the company said in a statement, according to the Statesman story.

We’re not talking the far more cutting-edge cement like I talked about a couple of days ago with rice hulls and what not in it. Just the same old stuff made with less mess.

The company is also suing Dallas and Fort Worth for the same reason.

Let’s see, invest in modern equipment or pay lawyers to make people buy stuff from you. What would be the smart thing to do? They’re the largest U.S.-owned cement company, so I guess they know what they’re doing.

This is going to hurt just a little

GE announced yesterday it is working on home plans for building or retrofitting homes to be net users of zero electricity. The company hopes to debut the plans by 2015.

The keys to making this work are more efficient energy-using products, management of how much energy the home uses, generation of electricity and storage of that energy. Makes sense – light bulbs and appliances that use stingy amounts of power, solar and wind generation on site and making decisions to not use power.

Wait. GE, and others promoting some smart-grid proposals, think an informed consumer will make a conscious decision to cut back on energy use if they just understand how much they are currently using. Are we talking about American consumers?

According to GE, residential housing uses 37 percent of the electricity generated in the U.S. Of that usage, appliances, lighting and heating and cooling account for 82 percent.

We already know turning off the blow dryer will cut energy consumption and so will keeping the thermostat set higher during the summer and lower in winter. Has that really changed a lot of lifestyles?

The nifty highly efficient water heaters GE is dreaming up and residential solar and wind sound good, except for the neighbors who will complain about the looks. But it will be really hard for a lot of people to quit being energy hogs.

Greenerrific

Packed with product

there's never too much green

Who'd of thunk Office Depot, seller of murdered trees by the ream, would be flexing its green muscles?

The company has redesigned its environmental Web site to better shout its credentials. It sports the Depot "global environmental vision" to "Buy Green, Be Green and Sell Green."

Greened out yet? Impossible.

How about the Green Book catalog with 2,200 of Office Depot's greenest products and tips? How about green rankings of its products from light green for refillable pens to dark green for 100 percent recycled content file folders? Well, how about the Greener Office Guide to going from "green starter" to "green leader?"

But check it out. The company's done a lot of work to communicate its position and make a little money to add to its $14.5 billion sales every year.

It's not unusual

Wow, smarmy-but-sexy Tom Jones (and Richard Burton and Anthony Hopkins for balance) and now this. The tiny nation of Wales will share some of its native riches at a conference this summer on getting rid of all carbon emissions.

This year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., will host experts discussing the buildings, food and energy use of the future at the Convergence on Zero event. It will be on June 25 and 26.

The Smithsonian is focusing on Welsh cultural traditions at the Folklife Festival, so it makes sense the country will be given a chance to show off a traditional roundhouse that is powered by the sun. Also, Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan will speak at the conference. He recently announced a plan to reduce fossil fuel use in his country by 90 percent.

The conference is supposed to host leading environmental thinkers and doers from the nation of Wales who will share their sustainability ideas and actions with the United States.

“This conference will build bridges between two countries, so different in scale yet both affected by the same challenges: climate security, energy security and economic security,” according to the Centre for Alternative Technology, which is coordinating the event.

It will be free and open to the public.

And check out the Folklife Festival site if you’re interested in all the other doings at the 2009 Wales Washington Cymru.

No Saudia Arabia of Solar

State Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas, is fond of calling the Panhandle the Saudia Arabia of wind for its potential to pump out the power. However, his bills to promote solar energy died this legislative session as did a companion bill in the Senate.

It's not as big as not renewing transportation department (sure to be revisited), but the legislators never put the solar bills up for final votes.

Swinford proposed in one bill to create a fund for rebates to homeowners installing solar by charging electric customers a small fee. The other bill would have set mandates for developing "emerging renewable energy." That means anything other than utility-scale wind farms. The mandate called for adding 3,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2020. That would have been enough to power about one million average homes.

His bills join the ban on trans fat in restaurants on the dead bill list. They just couldn't get the votes the successful bill to require training and certification of laser hair-removal technicians.

Making Green Sausage

You may not want to look too closely at this because the making of legislation or sausage can make you queasy.

Up in D.C., they're working on a greenhouse gas bill to curb the production of carbon dioxide, and there's a lot of cooks in the kitchen. In the first quarter of 2009, 140 businesses or interest groups have put lobbyists into action to represent them in the creation of the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act. That makes a total of 880 firms or groups with lobbyists involved, according to the Center for Public Integrity.

Of course, the power companies and oil and gas interests make up more than half of those. But what the heck? There's also Google, Nike and Starbucks, to name a few of the not-so-usual suspects. Then there's the American Meat Institute ("don't outlaw cow burps"), Levi Strauss and the maker of Segways (transportation without the tailpipes).

Too much?

They would probably say never enough.

There's a lot of money involved when you start talking about selling permits to pollute, better known as cap and trade, or keeping you're friends employed in Washington. The center reports the lobbyists have multiple clients. For example, 10 lobbyist firms represent 100 businesses. That's a lot of former government officials and Capital Hill staffers at work to keep the Earth from getting all crispy.

Making a case for conservation

There are all sorts of arguments for conserving natural resources. You can save the world for your grandchildren or something more practical like paying less for energy. But the main point is it's not just for those nasty granola-gobbling hippies anymore.

My e-mail is regularly jammed with messages about conservation and right now especially about curbing carbon emissions which mostly comes from using less gas, coal and such.

But not to forget injecting carbon dioxide into the ground to keep it out of the atmosphere. I just wonder about the consequences of that. What happens if you drink too much beer but can't burp?

Then there's the taxing or trading of carbon credits. Another government agency or Wall Street wannabe to help things out. That should make you warm inside.

Anyway, here are some recent takes on why conservation might be a good idea.

Apparently, it's going to be a Google world or maybe even universe. The giant search, mapping and street scene company is moving into the energy monitoring business. It hopes to roll out its Google PowerMeter by the end of the year. The device would tell homeowners or business people how much electricity they are using at any time.

Of course, it is trying to figure out how to get more of the Obama stimulus money for that because, as just a struggling little outfit, it needs some corporate welfare. Right now grants for such projects are capped at $20 million, and Google thinks that's not enough.

But the company touts the benefits of the PowerMeter through its workers who are testing early versions. According to testers, they found they were using too much energy for everything from refrigerators to pool pumps, not to mention using an electric oven to toast bread instead of a toaster. One reported saving $3,000 in electric costs on one year after using the PowerMeter to measure usage and make adjustments to his lifestyle.

That's a good argument, but, like the Ginzu knives, there's more. Google also claims that six households reducing electric usage by 10 percent would be the equivalent in carbon savings of taking one auto off the road.

In the water world, the High Plains Underground Water Conservation District released its annual measurements of the Ogallala's decline recently. The average decline in the 1,196 private wells it monitors was 1.18 feet for 2008.

That makes the 10-year average drop .72 feet per year. The district attributes the decline last year to increased irrigation pumping due to sparse rainfall. Think about an average of .72 feet per year and how long it will take before shallower wells go dry and farmers can't afford to pump from deeper wells. Maybe conservation, by farmers and civilians, might be something attractive.

The city of Amarillo will be rolling out this year's Every Drop Counts conservation campaign very shortly. It might pay for us to embrace the effort.

There goes the neighborhood

This photo from the Industrial Wind Action Group says it all. What could possibly be right about it? The middle of a pasture is one thing, but....

From the Ground Up

Lighten up

If you miss the Get Fuzzy comic that the paper deleted, check today's strip out. It's free, but you have to register. These get me through the day... usually.

As we join our fuzzy friends, they are discussing renewable energy. Bucky assures naive Satchel that wrapping a monkey in copper wire, putting it into a metal can and rolling it down stairs will create electricity, just like a battery. A revolution in energy!!!

"100% clean power from 100% filthy monkeys," Bucky declares.

I won't ruin the punch line, but poor Satchel.

From the Ground Up

Making green with green

There are plenty of products out there, and surely more on the way, to help people feel like they are living the green life. Food, cosmetics, clothing, caskets.

Caskets?!?! Of course. You find that surprising?

The Albuquerque Business Journal recently printed a quick bit about French Funeral and Cremation Services which is offering everything from "eco-friendly wicker caskets" lined with natural fabric to "professional preparation of the deceased without embalming."

Tom Antrum, general manager of French, said he thinks the market for all this will just keep getting bigger, according to the story.

I get the point. And it's not like I've really figured out the details of my own disposal. In fact, I'd tend toward the it's-somebody-else's-problem solution. But what do you think? It kind of takes your commitment to recycling to the next level.

From the Ground Up

Eco-party promises fun and smarts

Wildcat Bluff Nature Center and some partners are hosting Earth Fest 2009 April 18. The family event will have exhibitors educating on energy conservation; clean air, water and soil and recycling.

The event kind of coincides with Earth Day on April 22.
According to a news release, there will be "environmentally friendly" games (I have no idea what that means) and arts and crafts for the kids, guided hikes and other events.
Bring cardboard, newspapers, magazines and aluminum cans for recycling.
The event runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sponsors are Xcel Energy, B&W Pantex and Allied Waste. I know, a coal burner, nuclear weapons processor and a landfill operator, but they're making the effort here and it's not their only one.
The center is about three miles north of Interstate 40 on Soncy Road.
For more on the center, go to http://www.wildcatbluff.org/.