ENERGY - Bottom Line

[Hoosier Hillbilly]

Nuclear energy's drawbacks are glaring at the moment, but it's worth remembering that no major source of energy the United States is using comes without a heavy cost:

•Oil provides the single largest share of American energy — more than a third. Last summer's BP well blowout and spill in the Gulf of Mexico were reminders of the environmental price the nation pays for the aggressive oil exploration necessary to keep domestic supplies from declining. Even so, the U.S. imports more than half its oil, making it reliant on a volatile world market that enriches U.S. adversaries such as Venezuela and Iran.

•Natural gas provides about a quarter of U.S. energy, and the good news is that supplies are enormous. The bad news is that drawing that gas from tight rock formations means using a controversial technique called " fracking" that fractures rock deep underground so the gas can flow. Studies have shown that fracking has contaminated drinking water supplies with carcinogens and radioactive elements.

•Coal supplies about a fifth of U.S. energy and almost half the nation's electricity. Again, the good news is that America's supplies are huge. But underground coal mining routinely injures and kills miners, surface mining scars vast tracts of land in Appalachia and the West, and coal is a major contributor to air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

Wind and solar power have fewer drawbacks, but their contributions to the nation's energy production are small — less than 1% combined. That will change, but getting to the point where solar or wind equal the output from oil, coal, natural gas or even nuclear power will probably take decades.

Until then, the best approach to energy disasters is the same one applied to air crashes: Study the causes carefully, learn from the mistakes, and adopt changes to make the systems as safe as humanly possible.

BOTTOM LINE
Energy costs lives - one way or the other
including;
domestic wars
foreign wars
bald mountain tops
fires
explosions
financial panic
exploding
gauging
environmental catastrophes
etc. & etc. & etc.

[Hoosier Hillbilly]

[glow=red,2,300]Five Ways To Be Greener On St. Patty’s Day[/glow], And Save Money Doing It
Mar. 17 2011 - 2:20 pm
By CHRISTIAN WOLAN

St Patrick’s Day is a day where the Irish and the Irish at heart celebrate by going to church, drinking beer, eating corned beef and wearing green.

If 'U' forgot to wear that green tie of yours lingering in the back of you closet today, and you don’t want to get pinched, here are a few ways you can be greener while saving a little money.

1. Telecommute
More Americans are cutting out their commute by working from home. A recent study found that by staying home just twice a month, the average American can save $169 a year on gas and auto maintenance fees. That does not even include tolls and parking. And if the 10 million people who had the option to telecommute took it just twice a month, each year it would save $1.7 billion and 21 million barrels of oil.

Worried about asking you boss? Businesses also have an incentive to promote telecommuting. It increases company morale, attracts quality employees and saves on workplace, parking, and energy expenses. Since 1995, IBM has saved nearly $2.9 billion on office space needs by allowing forty percent of its employees to work from home.

2. Drive Smarter, Not Faster
Not everyone can work from home. If you have to brave the highways, and do not own an electric vehicle, you can save gas and cut emissions by driving more efficiently and keeping your car in tip-top shape. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, speeding, rapid acceleration and frequently braking can lower gas mileage by 33 percent.

Slower driving will also cut your gas usage. “You can assume that each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.24 per gallon for gas,” the Department of Energy says. To resist the urge to speed or play slalom with the other cars on the highway set your cruise control.

Upgrading your air filter, removing excess weight from the truck of your car, keeping tires properly inflated, and regularly changing oil will also offer better mileage.

3. Ditch The Bottled Water
A 16 ounce bottle of water may only cost $1, but that translates to $8 dollars a gallon. To put that into perspective, that is more than twice the cost of an equal amount of gas. A survey by the National Resources Defense Council found that Americans spend $4 billion a year on bottled water. According to the survey, that is “240 to over 10,000 times more per gallon for bottled water than they typically do for tap water.”

Though the bottle may feature a snowy mountain with a bubbling spring, the study of over 100 types of bottled water found that many of those advertisements are misleading. “According to government and industry estimates, about one fourth of bottled water is bottled tap water (and by some accounts, as much as 40 percent is derived from tap water), sometimes with additional treatment, sometimes not.”

Furthermore, the regulations on tap water tend to be stricter and better enforced than those on bottled. But if you are worried about the purity, investing in a $30 water filter and a aluminum bottle would offer handsome returns for the environment and your pocketbook.

4. Buy Used
An easy way to get greener and patch up that hole in your pocket is to buy used products instead of new ones. If you do not want to burn some shoe leather at the neighborhood garage sales, you can search Amazon, Ebay, or Craiglist for a variety of products. As long as you check the user reviews and do your homework finding deals and avoiding scams is pretty easy.

5. Wash In Cooler Waters
Believe it or not, darks are not the only clothing that can get clean in cold water. Since about 90 percent of the cost of washing a load of clothes comes from heating the water, reducing water temperature even slightly will lead to dramatic savings.

And if you happen to be in the market for a new laundry machine, consider a front-loading one. The switch can save you anywhere from 40 to 75 percent on energy costs.