Month: March 2010

Will the Yanks do it better?

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BARACK Obama has proposed a $US6 billion ($6.6bn) program to help millions of American home owners make their houses more energy efficient with government rebates of up to $US3000.

Quick learners aren’t they.

Obama’s plan includes;

… immediate rebates of up to $US1500 for upgrading their insulation, ducted heating, water heaters, airconditioners, windows, doors and roofing.

and;

Home owners who invested in a “retrofit” of the whole house to greatly reduce energy use would be eligible for rebates of up to $US3000.

Rudd’s now discredited plan cost $2.45 billion (insulation only) sounds a bit grandiose considering the variations in populations, but thats our Kev.

Still on Obama, Anthony Albanese, in his role as leader of the government in the House of Representatives, has confirmed that parliament will be specially recalled for the US President in three weeks’ time.

`The visit of President Barack Obama will of course generate a great deal of interest from the Australian public and indeed we will be honoured by his presence in Canberra on that day,” Mr Albanese said.

The last American president to address the Australian parliament was George W. Bush in October 2003.

I presume he will be better treated than Bush was seeing as how both parties are now central left and cosy as all get out.

Maybe Rudd can give Obama some tips on house insulation precesses or at least offer the services of Garrett – gets him out of our hair.

I had my house insulated but my power bill is still on the up and up without the satisfaction of my usage following a similar curve. Isn’t it supposed to save me money?

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Politics, US Politics

Wind Farms

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Image stolen from Greenpeace...

From todays Climate Change report in The Australian comes this little gem.

EARLIER this month, the first Australian order for wind turbines for 2010 was made. It was also the first in three months and just the second since the bottom fell out of the market for renewable energy market in October.

The order was for just two wind turbines, with a capacity of 4 megawatts and a likely cost of $10 million. It was made not by a commercial wind farm developer, but by a 1100-strong community group in Victoria’s Hepburn Springs, who have decided to chip in anything from a few hundred dollars each to make their shire carbon neutral, at least on the energy front.

$10 million divided by 1100 comes to $9,090.90 per man, woman and child living in Hepburn Springs suggesting anyone chipping in a few hundred dollars is a tight arse. Whether they ‘chipped in’ out of their wallets or the council spent their rates on the wind farm is neither here nor there. The point is they are up for the cost and will have a long wait before their capital expenditure is regained.

If we presume the winds at Hepburn Springs blows day and night 365 days of the year then they might get their money back just before they retire or die but it doesn’t. Weather patterns suggest Hepburn Springs is a windy town but the residents will still need base load power from the terrible coal fired power stations.

So $10,000 capital investment and periodic base load costs.

I’m obviously missing something here.

Are the residents all Greenies, mathematically disadvantaged, endowed with more money than sense or just happy to see the wind turbine supply company make a lot of money at their expense.

Maybe a Greenie dropping by this site accidentally (I wouldn’t expect them to deliberately visit) can explain in monosyllabic terms just what it is I’m missing.

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Climate Change
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