Nuclear or Renewable? Houston we have an answer!

Melissa McGinnis interviews Laura Spanjian, sustainability director for the city of Houston. Her job puts Houston on the map as the greenest city in the United States.

Houston does a lot of alternative, natural energy. The state is actually the number one purchaser of renewable energy in the country, for all municipalities, and it's number four when you add in the private sector. Three percent of its wind energy actually comes from West Texas.

Renewable energy is so important because the more people can do things that are actually beneficial to the environment then the more that there won't be any negative consequences or something if tragedy hits.

People are not going to hear of natural disasters on wind farms or solar farms etc. with renewable energy and even with using natural gas. It's really important for people in the United States to try to find some of their own resources that are stable and won't cause a natural disaster.

For somebody who doesn't live in Houston and want to lead their city on the green path, there are so many things that they can do. Houston right now is one of the leaders in using electric cars so cities are encouraged to put in more in charging stations or buy their own electric car. If people live in a state that has good incentives for renewable energy, they can put solar or put a wind turbine on their house. An example of this is California where they have incentives for citizens that were able to cut the solar by half, so it really is affordable.

You can also do things to make your house more energy efficient. There's so many things that you can do to reduce use of youe energy. You would want to reduce things. That's all about reducing what you use, and not only were you helping the environment but you're also saving money because you're using less.

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[mphello]

@drright71 No, I'm saying YOU'RE a troll.

[drright71]

@mphello So what you're saying is you're a troll. Good luck with that. :)

[mphello]

@drright71 Also, the fact that you are anti-vegan and a meat-eater proves you are an anti-freedom anti-American terrorist who has NO business setting policy.

[mphello]

@drright71 Theory IS law, moron. And the fact that you think that about the Proven Fact and Theory of Thermodynamics shows you know nothing about practical reality. The "laws" of humans - like the constitution or the unPatrioti Act - those should be labelled shit and garbage and excrement - let alone regulations, because they are not based upon adding up real physical consequences and NOT just on what a majority of people got lucky enough to throw together.

[drright71]

@mphello First off, I did answer. I said rail was possible, but doesn't make much sense right now. Airplanes are more practical for transoceanic travel at present. But over land, air travel should be replaced with high speed rail.

Anyway, the "laws" of thermodynamics, in my opinion are flawed and should be labeled theories. I don't believe in entropy, we just haven't figured out how to get around it yet. Besides, you're misusing thermodynamics to explain a system in chaos. Bring me a steak.

[mphello]

I know a mechanic who lives in New Jersey who powers his entire house with solar. He has geothermal for heating and cooling his home. (That is NOT a power SOURCE. It IS an alternative to burning methane.) The solar runs a water splitter. He powers a car, a boat, and a motorcycle with H2.

He believes in nuclear: the nuclear reactor called the sun: safely 93 million miles away.

[mphello]

@drright71 For me, affordable is $1000.

Wait - are you the one who's not answering my questions (how to travel across oceans - you propose rail for that, too?!)?

Anyway: Second Law of Thermo guarantees that trying to make extreme localized order anywhere (e.g. nuclear reactor, feeding crops to cows and pigs rather than go vegan ourselves) WILL create much more entropy elsewhere (i.e. disorder, i.e. disasters: meltdowns, decay). We need to minimize that entropy.

[drright71]

@mphello and what fuels we do use can be grown and processed here, instead of importing it. After all, most of the oil in the ground came from plants in the first place. It doesn't take much more processing to obtain it directly from plants. Sure, pump the easy to get stuff out of the ground if you must, but leave the hard to get to and hazardous to the environment stuff where it is.

[happygalmarried]

APRIL 2, 2011

[mphello]

@drright71 At first, I was afraid you were the one who said... never mind.

Yes, yes! I agree with you 1000%! We should power as much as we can electrically, and leave that which can be done no other way (airplane across ocean, feedstock for pharmaceuticals, power farm equipment) but by oil, to consume as little oil as we can.