TUES, Nov. 29—Sustainability Summit: Your ideas on how to “Energize New Castle”
Compact fluorescent light bulbs: Not only the right thing to do to save energy, but cost-saving besides
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
by Christine Yeres
From the simplest, biggest-bang-for-the-buck changes to your household—like replacing conventional light bulbs with CFLs or insulating your house, on Tuesday, November 29 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., sustainability gets a boost from the Bedford 2020 Coalition which has been trail-blazing in home energy-efficiency for surrounding communities. Visitors from the Coalition will share their findings (chief among them: that 53% of all our energy use goes to heating and cooling our homes) and strategies for change—and even identify some funding to support it.
The town wants to hear your perspective on the direction of New Castle’s sustainability efforts. It’s being billed as a chance to brainstorm and build consensus on how the town’s business, residential, school, religious, recreational and organizational pieces can work together. Members of the town’s various volunteer boards will be on hand to be educated also. Joe Gramando, head of CCSD’s maintenance and operations, will also attend.
Pick up some advice that night on how to make your home more energy efficient if you’ve only got $50 to spend, or $100 or $1,000. Some very small changes in your habits can make very big changes to your Con Ed bill. Find out what low-hanging fruit you’re missing.
Bring your ideas and your questions.
While we change our light bulbs, one habit that Chappaqua might consider changing is its truncated view of the meaning of sustainability. This, from today’s WSJ (November 28):
“The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported recently that the U.S. jobless rate remains a dreadful 9%. But look more closely at the data and you can see which industries are bucking the jobless trend. One is oil and gas production, which now employs some 440,000 workers, an 80% increase, or 200,000 more jobs, since 2003. Oil and gas jobs account for more than one in five of all net new private jobs in that period.
The ironies here are richer than the shale deposits in North Dakota’s Bakken formation. While Washington has tried to force-feed renewable energy with tens of billions in special subsidies, oil and gas production has boomed thanks to private investment. And while renewable technology breakthroughs never seem to arrive, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have revolutionized oil and gas extraction—with no Energy Department loan guarantees needed.”
While I don’t categorically oppose fracking, I still believe that the best kilowatt is the one not spent. Insofar as we are routinely, cluelessly heating and air conditioning the great outdoors by failing to insulate (not high-tech—just plain old insulation), we’re being wasteful.
What do we value?
Jobs?
Cheap fossil fuel?
Home insulation for those who can afford it?
Or do we stop and consider the future of our children and all living beings on our planet?
The word sustainability is tossed around so easily these days. What is our definition? To the the Iroquois, they looked to the current generation of humans to live sustainably and work for the benefit of the seventh generation into the future.
Our short term thinking causes us to extract fossil fuels from the earth with no thoughts of consequences to air or water or weather.
The reality is that if we don’t start including plans for building reslience in our community, we will be facing a lot more than cold, dark houses.
They may waste energy and our money indirectly, if not directly, but the potholes of New Castle wear out our tires prematurely and may cause flats with all the associated inconvenience and unexpected costs of replacement.
How’s about a campaign for (a) residents as well as police and other town employees who cruise about town, to report potholes to a designated town office within the next week and (b) the town scheduling repairs before winter makes them worse, involving county and state as necessary?
Dear Fracking may be all right,
Before NY destroys its drinking water, I strongly suggest that you visit PA. NY Republican State Assembly member Greg Ball did and he was shocked at what he learned.
http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/2011/10/17/stop-fracking-around-ball-says-to-cuomo/
If we want to hold onto our property values, we must reject fraking in NY.
With Indian Point just 12 miles from downtown Chappaqua, do we really want to even consider fracking in NY state?
Especially in light of the fact that fracking has been shown to be the causative factor in earthquakes.
Is it better to let your inside temperature go down at night, then pump back up in the day time—or keep it always the same? Which uses less energy?
Right and left have taken far, far sides of the issue. There is some middle. Let’s see what the State’s hearings going on this week produce.
