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From Popular Science

Popular Science has a fun article “Nine of the World’s Most Promising Ecotopias.” Amazingly, one of them is in the USA – Greensburg, Kansas made the list. From the information I found there was no bogus “carbon offset.” What I mean is that they aren’t simply raising taxes to plant trees in some impoverished country. Rather, these cities (or developments in some cases) are actually building new rail, performing energy audits, and using alternative energy.

If this trend continues to grow, what does this mean to you (a suburban American)? How will it change your life? As a Christian who cares about God’s creation (the environment), that’s what I want to know!

1) You will probably learn to use public transportation at some point. Mass transportation is much more efficient than everyone driving their own pickup truck to work – one person to a vehicle. When done properly (think of the London Underground, or even the Metro in Moscow), mass transportation is every bit as convenient as driving your vehicle down the interstate. In my opinion there is a big upside: it’s generally safer than car travel, and it gives you the ability to read or relax instead of giving in to road rage.

2) You will likely learn some new energy saving habits. You’ll recycle more. You might even compost food waste to use as fertilizer in your garden (if done right it really doesn’t smell). I predict that we will move to LED light bulbs within 5 years. CFL’s will be a thing of the past. You will likely see many incentives to make energy saving improvements to your house, such as new appliances, or adding insulation. Odds are you will do it, and enjoy the savings.

3) this logically follows number two. Watch for energy providers to raise rates or service charges. They won’t be losing income, even though you consume less power. Part of the increase will be that they won’t make as much money from each individual. Another part of the increase will be higher cost of Wind or Solar power (even nuclear) as compared to fossil fuels. When your energy provider switches sources, you won’t experience any difference. You’ll probably make changes, see an initial decrease in your bill, and then watch yourself get nickeled and dimed back to about the same $$ amount on your bill.

I’m no prophet, though I am a licensed Christina minister (who cares about the environment as God’s creation). Yet, I think these steps will be taken, and results will start to show (in the leveling off of US energy consumption) within the next decade or two. Of course, by then you will have forgotten about this blog entry

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According to one news source, a Harvard study indicates that passing Cap and Trade would raise gas prices to $7 a gallon. As a Christian who cares about the environment, I’m interested in legislation like this. I’m interested in it failing.

I want to see some sort of Government incentive for using cleaner energy – not a penalty for using the one source of transportation that is widespread in our country. An incentive might allow me to not pay certain taxes for a specified amount of time if I buy an EV. There might be an incentive for energy providers that lowers the tax rate on profits from clean energy. Perhaps the best solution would be to provide a big benefit or prize for creating a new energy technology that is cost effective and could compete with fossil fuel. These are simply the musings of an intelligent person, not an expert by any means.

What I would hate to see is everyday people (especially rural people) have to triple their budget for gasoline. I use a small amount of gasoline by Texas standards, roughly $225 a month (2 vehicles, 4 tanks of gasoline a month @ $2.70 a gallon). If that price went to $7 a gallon, my cost would go to $600 a month. I couldn’t afford that. I don’t have any alternatives. There is no public transportation, and this is Texas, where it is considered “unhealthy” to be outside in the heat (at least that’s what the government says, I like exercising in heat), so walking 4 miles to the nearest grocery store is out of the question. Then there is the problem of the fact that transportation cost on goods would triple as well, meaning that every good and service that I purchase would increase in price. I just don’t see how that is a desired effect.

The kind of change I desire would be better enforcement of current rules, and maybe even to move step by step toward tougher rules on pollution. But mainly, alternative energy just isn’t cost effective. That’s the real problem. As a Christian who cares about God’s creation (the environment), I want to leave as little impact on the non-human world as possible – in fact I’d like to think my actions improve it. But the sort of legislation that Obama is calling for does not seem to match my goals.

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