Posted on 06/20/2008 7:58:42 AM PDT by Bulwinkle
That’s the word not from Chicken Little, but from former Maine Governor Angus King, who says he doesn’t use the term “catastrophe” lightly.
“This is a human catastrophe coming at us in the state of Maine in terms of energy supply and costs,” King said last week at a daylong seminar on harnessing tidal energy and offshore wind to confront runaway energy costs, costs he sees as a direct threat to Maine being habitable.
“This winter, the cost of fuel oil is going to more than double,” he said. “What’s being quoted now is $4.96 — $5 a gallon. That’s $1,000 to fill up your tank in the basement one time, and most people are going to have to fill up their tank six times.
“How is somebody who is making $350 or $400 a week going to pay to fill up the tank to keep warm? How are they going to pay to fill up the truck to get to work? This is, I think, the most serious crisis to ever face the state of Maine.” ...
... “This is a catastrophe,” he said. “This isn’t business as usual. This isn’t some minor little problem. This isn’t do not pass school buses or what’s the speed limit on the Interstate. This is a disaster in the state of Maine that’s coming at us.” ...
...“Eighty percent of homes in Maine are heated with oil,” he said. “The national average is 9 percent. If you do the math, 87 percent of the total energy bill of the average Maine person is dependent on oil or natural gas, and that is a particularly serious problem.”
(Excerpt) Read more at ellsworthmaine.com ...
“...something tells me we’re going to be running into a wall of NIMBYs and zoning regs. “
Exactly why we are loathe to give up the rural property and move anywhere with lots of people.
Wish we could utilize wind for electricity. We are in a valley and either have high winds or none. Then there are the battery considerations.
A friend ran the numbers for solar a few years back and concluded we are too far North with the sun at the wrong angle most of the time for it to be efficient. We looked into solar in 1999. It was too expensive with too long a payback. The battery storage was a problem, too.
We have insulated, new windows, close off part of the house all winter or just some days/parts of days, cut down on hot water useage, lowered hot water heater temperature and still, due to two home businesses (which are being negatively impacted by all this, so that is *something* that lowers usage), have about 1000 kwh of use most of the time, higher in winter when anything below zero for very long means making sure the cellar and the pipes are above freezing. It has gone from challenging to a PITA as we get older. This is a miserly sort of existence that we worked hard to not have over 34 years. Yet, one by one, our little conveniences or our few luxuries have been placed at or beyond the edge of our resources, especially with the declining consumer disposable income cutting our income and the nervous market affecting our savings/interest.
I just hope that as more and more formerly middle class Americans endure these conditions, we will force the government to change. I know it has to be impacting tax collections at every level, so they feel it, too.
True Mainers are a pretty independent lot.
Back when Jimmah and cohorts orchestrated the gas crisis in the late 70's, driving up the cost of gas and heating oil, thinking they had us over a barrel ('scuse) - Mainers rolled up their sleeves and relined their old chimney's, cleaned up or put in wood stoves and thumbed their noses at oil heat.
Then there was a vigorous movement by the powers that be to outlaw wood burning because of "pollution."
When the hue and cry against them got to loud, they switched to "ONLY the NEW air-tight stoves can be used" - knowing full well that most folk couldn't afford these new stoves.
That proposal also went down in flames (sorry, the unintended puns just keep coming) - and politicians who pushed them got their heads handed to them.
Since then, they have left us alone...except for the flat-landers who have moved to Maine and then impose their liberal 'from away' zoning laws on their neighbors - like buying land in Maine next to a dairy farm, building their house and then complaining and suing because it 'smells." (Not joking,)
see my other post - # 41 and maybe # 56
Well, there use to be a lot of believers in global warming up there...until last winter! Here's a photo taken in Aroostook County in early April.
Seems to me that each pretty much has the freedom to choose their "catastrophe zones" and the attendant problems/solutions.
But neither one negates the other. That's like saying - "Well, so you have a broken leg. Why are you complaining. I know someone with TWO broken legs".
Is that supposed to make the one broken leg hurt less?
That's the "Maine" reason I haven't sold out and moved to southern Arizona or some such place. I have been counting on it warming up.
Now I'm getting up a partition for a class action suit against the Goracle for "breach of promise."
Where's your photo?
Here's mine - I ran out of places to put all that global warming: ' -0 and we had to keep the roofs shoveled to prevent collapse
Good grief!!!
my sister Leckie up in Farmington sent me this...taken in early April up in Aroostook County
My long brown dogs do the warming for me.
I believe those are commonly known of as "caves". The temperature range is about right.
Blkame lies solely at the feet of democrats and RINO’s and the entire government. We allow these comunists to have their way in government. We allow bogus environmental claims to hamstring this Country. We do not attempt energy independance by any means. I am telling you that if something does not change, and I don’t mean nationalizing any companies or industries you rat turds, there will be a revolution or civil war.
Wow - perfect neck warmers!
Cute too...
Straight on = unfortunately, we don't have many caves in Maine...
Thank you for the doggie photo. This thread needed some cheering up after all that doom and gloom!
Try living in a house with that temp before you opine. One size does not fit all. Yes, those temps are survivable - for most. But little kids, who live in the first 2-3 feet off the floor, will be in the coldest part and the elderly, who are vulnerable to hypothermia, will suffer to the point of expiring.
As for hypothermia, I have had that, and had heat exhaustion three times subsequently the fifties are well above the danger zone.
People who did live - for thousands of years - in these temps, died like flies from pneumonia, flu, etc...
Yep all those things are caused strictly by house temperature, not viruses and bacteria. Sanitation, proper cooking proper nutrition and food preparation are also not related. and of course they had just as good a medical system as we do. Sure.
- yep. That's the solution. Go back to living like the primitives. That'll solve it.
Oh the Humanity!
BTW, It is basically a cave, just a manufactired one.
“His solutions though are way off in the future if ever and are not going to solve a thing in the near future. So what do we do in the meantime?
Even this will take time but Drill, drill, drill, nuclear power, nuclear power, nuclear power”
Some thoughts:
80% of Maine homes are currently heated by oil? Well, better find something ELSE to heat them with, pronto. Why not natural gas? Why not wood? Why not coal, even moreso than wood?
There are now “outside furnaces” that can be used for home heating. These can burn wood or coal, run automatically governed by thermostats and electric motors (for providing draft), and don’t need constant loading or tending (they still DO need such things, but at less frequent intervals).
Mainers who wish to “convert away from oil-based heat” should be entitled to deduct the entire cost of the conversion from their state income tax (amortized over a few years, if necessary). Not a portion - ALL of the costs.
Any and all state environmental laws restricting such outside home heating furnaces must be abolished. Any federal laws should be ignored - yes, ignored. Let the EPA send in their troops to force folks to freeze, and see how that goes.
Are there any oil-fired power plants left in Maine? If so, they should be permitted to convert to coal immediately, if desired. Again, any environmental restrictions standing in the way should be repealed.
Nuclear power won’t solve the immediate crisis at hand. This isn’t to say that nuke plants shouldn’t be built, they should. But that won’t do much to heat homes currently heated by oil in the short term (present to 15 years hence).
Nor will more domestic drilling, not for the near-term.
Again, the technology exists TODAY to enable homeowners to break free of oil-based heating. YES, the environment will not be as pristine if they do so on a large scale. Should folks freeze instead?
- John
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.