Evan Primakow Online

I consider myself rather politically conscious. I watch and read the news, I’ve watched many of the debates of both parties. I do not, however, see any of the candidates seriously talking about any issues that I feel would truly benefit the United States. Sure, healthcare and the war in Iraq are important, but there are more than just two issues. So, because no one else seems to be talking about them, here are a few campaign issues that I would like to see debated and discussed.

• Solar Power - This is pretty much the only energy source we have on this planet that is completely inexhaustible and it is, by far, the environmentally cleanest option. Even if we do somehow manage to exhaust the Sun as an energy source, we’ve got bigger problems, because we’ll all be dead. There are two things that the government should absolutely be doing to encourage the use of solar energy. First and foremost, there should be tax breaks for those willing to install solar paneling on their home or office building. It’s clean, it reduces the requirements for coal or nuclear power, and excess energy can even be sold back to the grid for others to use. The government should also be funding research towards improved efficiency. Instead of blowing billions of dollars in a quagmire, spend some money on research that will actually help our country and, in the long run, improve our country’s image in the world. If enough money is put towards the research, I have no doubt that solar paneling could become even more efficient and potentially lest costly to produce.
• Cellolosic Ethanol - If you’re a regular reader of this blog, then you already know I’ve talked about this before. Before I continue, I have to point out that there is only one declared candidate that I am aware of who has mentioned this publicly and talks about it on his web site: John Edwards. For that, I applaud him. Current ethanol products that fuel cars are exclusively sugar-based ethanol. This means that it is created using plants high in sugar, such as corn or sugarcane. It is inefficient and raises the prices of these crops when used as food. Cellulose, however, is found in high levels in all plants. Because of this, even the parts of the plants that were previously disposed of, such as corn stalks and leaves, could instead be used to produce fuel and the corn and sugarcane could go back to being grown for food. Not only would this hugely benefit America’s farmers, but we could rapidly become a fuel-independent country and potentially even an exporter of fuels. With government funding, cellulosic ethanol would completely replace the less efficient sugar ethanol and America could wean itself off of oil within a generation.
• National Infrastructure - If you watch the news, read the news paper, or listen to the radio, you’re aware that the I-35W bridge collapsed in Minneapolis recently. I no longer live in Minneapolis, but this was a bridge that for many years I lived only a few blocks away from and drove over to get to work several times a week. The state of this country’s interstate highways and railways is an embarrassment. I am completely failing to understand why a country the size of the US does not have a high speed rail infrastructure to rival that sprawling across Europe. Money of course needs to be invested not only in the upkeep of the existing infrastructure, but the serious funding should go towards the planning and construction of an improved national highway system and a brand new state of the art high speed rail line connecting the major cities and regions of the country.
• Election Reform - No, not campaign reform, that’s horse has already been beaten to death. I’m talking about true election reform. The electoral college is outdated and, as clearly seen in the 2000 presidential election, flawed. The current election type highly favors only a two party system, limiting the spectrum of views of a large portion of the united states. I will readily admit that I do not know enough about the different types of elections used throughout the world, so I cannot form an intelligent suggestion for how it should be fixed, but it does need to be fixed. In 2000, America voted Al Gore in to the white house. Flawed ballots, corruption, and a lazy Florida supreme court stole this honor away from him and instead gave the Presidency to the man who has done more harm to this country’s international image and wracked up more national debt than any previous president. This should not and cannot be allowed to happen again.

There are plenty of other issues I can talk about here, but in my eyes, the above are among the most important. Hopefully, some of the trailing candidates can realize that talking solely about healthcare and Iraq isn’t going to get them anywhere and that these issues deserve their voice.

The reasons for saving energy in your home are twofold. First, and foremost, it benefits the entire energy grid. If everyone is consuming less energy, less power needs to be created, which, in turn, is generally better for the environment. The second and more selfish reason is that it saves you money and everyone loves to save money.

Here are 10 great ways to save energy:

1. Replace the standard conventional incandescent light bulbs in your house with significantly lower wattage compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). They are available to replace most types of bulbs you would have in your home and as opposed to the 40-100 watts that a standard light bulb would consume, they will use only about 7-27 watts for equivalent light output. Even if you only replace the bulbs in high-traffic areas of your home where the lights are on the most, you will still have noticeable energy savings.
2. Do your electronics have a “sleep” feature? Use it. Most computers and some other electronics have a built-in feature where after a certain time of being idle they will automatically go to sleep, where they use minimal power, but can “wake up” rapidly if needed. On a computer, this is extremely helpful because it can turn off your monitor and spin down your hard disk when you walk away and are done using it.
3. Turn down your water heater. About 15% of average home energy bill is the cost of running the water heater. Turning this down even a little bit can save you at least a few dollars a month and isn’t really noticeable when you’re showering, because you’ll just turn the cold water down a little bit to compensate.
4. Staying on the topic of water, replace your shower head(s) and with low-flow shower heads and install sink aerators. They can be relatively inexpensive to buy, are easy to install, and pay for themselves pretty quickly with the savings on hot water. In our shower, we have a Waterpik that came with it and it’s great.
5. Here’s the last tip to involve savings related to hot water: Do your laundry with cold water. There’s detergent formulated specifically for cold water laundry and it does a good job. The combination of doing your laundry in cold water as well as the hot water saving techniques I mentioned above can save you a cool (pun intended) $60+ a year.
6. Buy products with the Energy Star^© logo. These products meet strict government guidelines for energy efficiency, so they’re pretty much guaranteed to shrink your energy bill as compared to the same product without the logo. You can get just about anything with this logo on it: refrigerators, TVs, cell phones, heaters, air conditioners, fluorescent lighting, and much much more.
7. Got a house with older windows and doors? Stop by the local hardware store and pick up some weather stripping for your doors and windows. During the winter, it’ll keep the hot air in and increase the efficiency of your heater and, likewise, will keep the cool air in during the summer and increase the efficiency of your A/C.
8. Check, clean, and/or replace your air filters on a regular basis. The dirtier they are, the more airflow is restricted, and the harder the heater or A/C will need to work to heat or cool your house. Not only does a dirty filter cause your equipment to work harder, but it’s likely going to shorten its life.
9. Install a programmable thermostat. It will allow you to automatically set the temperature of your house at comfortable levels while you’re home, while turning it down when you’re at work. From personal experience, I can guarantee that they’re easy to install for even the newest of homeowners.
10. Last, but not least: Turn stuff off! Not watching TV anymore? Turn if off. Done with the computer? Turn it off (or put it to sleep). Not using a room in your house at the moment? Turn off the lights. It’s not that hot outside? Turn off the A/C, open the windows, and get some fresh air.

I hope the above list is helpful to whoever reads it, if anyone even does. I will admit that I haven’t done all of these things in my home (yet), but I’ve only been a homeowner for a few months now and will slowly do my best to save any energy I can.

Everyone knows that corn ethanol is a joke. Oh, you believed all those E85 commercials? Well, it’s not as good as it looks. Regular old gasoline is able to produce about 5 times as much energy as went in to it’s production. Corn ethanol only produces about 1.3 times as much energy as goes it to it’s creation because it has to have the sugar extracted from it, then it is converted to sugar ethanol. This process makes it barely break even in it’s efficiency. The plus, of course, being that it is a renewable resource that grows here in the US and removes dependency on foreign oil. Sure, it’s nice and “green”, but it’s still got 15% regular old gasoline in it and it really isn’t efficient enough to lower the prices at the pump.

What if we could take plants like corn or pretty much any other crop and turn it in to 100% ethanol fuel that is more efficient than current corn/sugar ethanol? Enter cellulosic ethanol. Part of what makes sugar ethanol inefficient and expensive is that not all plants have a lot of sugar in them to extract and process in to ethanol. All plants, however, have cellulose. Lots of it. A company called Range Fuels has plans to build a 100 million gallon per year cellulosic ethanol plant in Georgia, using wood waste from Georgia’s forests as it’s feed stock. Range Fuels’ claim is that their ethanol will be able to produce 16 times as much energy as goes in to its production. Similarly, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is spearheading a 125 million dollar initiative to research and develop biofuels utilizing cellulose to help relieve our dependence on foreign fuels.

These technologies go beyond using sugars found in sugarcane and corn to produce the ethanol and instead use non-food plants and parts of plants, relying on the cellulose. Instead of raising the prices of sugar or corn at the grocery store because it is instead being used to create fuel, the stalks left over would instead be used as the fuel. The corn could once again do what it’s best at: give me a stomach ache and not get fully digested. It goes beyond just using things like woodchips and corn stalks to create the fuel. Almost any bio waste could be turned in to ethanol, such as grass clippings, fallen trees, and pretty much any other plant waste. Now that the fuels are starting to be produced, it is just a matter of time before all of the car manufacturers start realizing that this is the way of the future and start making all of their cars ethanol-ready.

The real question is: How long until I’m driving an ethanol hybrid plug-in that I charge in my garage next to a personal ethanol processor into which I unload my grass clippings, weeds, and other yard waste so that I can fuel my car for the week?