image by Rees
Hey Obama, why don't you and your administration try leading by example?
This is an excellent article.
Rees
by Don Surber
May 7, 2009
The EPA should turn off its air conditioning
The story of the week was that the average wage in 54 of the state's 55 counties is below the national average. Only one county was above the national average: Boone.
Boone County happens to be the state's leading producer of coal. Much of the coal in Boone County comes from mountaintop mining.
This upsets Washingtonians, who want West Virginia to be a nice hilly green place where the deer and the black bears play - and the people are friendly, if a little naive and uneducated.
They like us poor but proud.
The reality is that roughly two-thirds of Washington's electricity comes from coal, and according to the Washington Post, one-third of that coal comes from mining the mountaintops of Appalachia.
That works out to 22 percent (one third of two-thirds) of Washington's electricity coming from coal that was mined from the mountaintops of Appalachia.
Mountaintop mining is safer and cheaper than underground mining.
But if Washington insists on banning mountaintop mining, then Washington must lead the way and cut its use of electricity by 22 percent overnight to protect our hills.
Administrator Lisa Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency should be the first to cut her agency's power usage. She opposes mountaintop mining.
Let her cut off her agency's air conditioner. Let her agency use candles instead of electric lights. Let her lock the agency's elevators.
The EPA should set the example. If she truly believes in global warming, let her walk the talk, or in this case sweat the details. Really sweat.
Heating, ventilation and cooling accounted for 31 percent of the household consumption of electricity in 2005, according to the Department of Energy. Almost half of that HVAC consumption was from air conditioning.
So our leaders should shut off all the air conditioners in Washington. That should cut back their use of electricity by 15 percent, if my calculations are correct.
Let's make people register their air conditioners, disassemble them and keep them stored in a secure place - just like the capital city did for 30 years with firearms until the Supreme Court said it violated the Second Amendment.
There is no right to keep and bear air conditioners.
I would allow some rooms in hospitals to use them, of course. I don't want a surgeon having a sweaty palm when she is wielding a scalpel.
But if coal is evil - if coal is filthy, if coal is sick - then federal officials should be the first to turn the AC off.
We do not want our congressmen or president to get ill.
If Washington really thinks going green is so good, then let the people in the nation's capital power their lights and air conditioners with wind power.
They can line their streets with windmills - or turbines as they call them now.
The Washington Monument would be the perfect place for a few turbines.
Maintenance should be no problem. I keep hearing about all these spin doctors in Washington.
Wind turbines should be set up in the cities that use electricity but hate coal and not in the hills of West Virginia.
After all, the turbines would ruin our beautiful hills and scare the deer and the black bears.
If we are not going to be allowed to have flat land in West Virginia for aesthetic reasons, then Washington should not be allowed to mar the landscape of the state with wind turbines.
Save our trees. After all, they consume the carbon dioxide that Washington said is killing us.
And until the turbines are set in place, Washington must cut back.
I say: EPA Administrator Jackson, if you seek green, if you seek carbon capture for the United States, if you seek environmentalism: Come to the thermostat.
Ms. Jackson, turn down that thermostat. Ms. Jackson, tear down that air conditioner.
Surber may be reached at donsur...@dailymail.com. His blog is at http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber.
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