Jason Pelletier writes Warren Buffett Company Debuts Line of Green Prefab Homes at Low Impact Living:
Warren Buffett isn’t the world’s second richest man for nothing. He has an unsurpassed knack for picking good companies in strong industries at the right price. Most things he’s touched have turned into gold. So it’s exciting to see that a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary called Clayton Homes has just launched a line of green prefab homes (called the i-house) that start at under $75,000 (or about $105/square foot) excluding site costs and shipping.
Clayton Homes is one of the largest manufactured housing companies in the world, having produced over 1.5 million units since 1934. They’ll clearly get the manufacturing, financing and logistics right, but can they deliver the amenities, materials and compelling designs that prospective green homeowners have come to expect from green prefab?
The first models are quite promising. Even the base version comes with a lengthy list of standard green features, including: Well-insulated exterior walls; floor and roof (R-21, R-30 and R-30 respectively);
Andersen low-e windows; Metal roof designed for rainwater collection;
No-VOC paint; High efficiency heat pump; Dual-flush toilets.
If that’s not green enough for you, then you can pick from a long list of sustainable options that includes: Two to four kilowatts of solar PV panels; Bamboo flooring; Tankless hot water heaters; Energy Star appliances. |
A note about eco-stimulus money from California:
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders wants to turn Balboa Park into a solar-power showcase by investing millions of dollars to bring clean energy to the renowned tourist destination.
The money he's proposing to use comes from the federal economic stimulus package. San Diego expects to receive more than $56 million in stimulus money, including $12.5 million in Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants.
Sanders wants to spend $5 million of that grant money for solar installations throughout the 1,200-acre park. He's expected to announce his initiative today.
By partnering with SunEdison, a Maryland-based solar energy provider, the mayor hopes to leverage that money to achieve a $30 million investment. |
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The rescue begins below and continues in the jump.
Talk about going "off the grid." gmoke gives the skinny on people power, and I don’t mean Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy, in The Human Powered Home: "One horsepower equals 746 watts. NASA rates the average long-term power output for a male adult exercising at a comfortable pace as 75 watts, or about 1/10 hp. One hour of pedaling, treadling, or cranking equals 75 watt-hours. The Human-Powered Home: Choosing Muscles Over Motors by Tamara Dean shows you how to use that power with plans and projects from converting an electric sewing machine to treadle power to generating electricity at home or on your bike."
Mark H is back with another entry in his Marine Life Series The Peacock Flounder: "...I wanted to introduce you to an absolute master in the art of camouflage. While all species of flatfishes are very good at blending in with their surroundings, few are as talented as the peacock flounder (Bothus lunatus)."
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The Overnight News Digest is posted and includes the story, Huge U.S. camp arises in Afghan Desert of Death.
A Siegel argued that Neil Abercrombie Should Support Obama's Clean-Energy Agenda: "For whatever set of reasons, Neil Abercrombie (D-HI-01), Hawaii Co-Chairman for Barack Obama's Presidential campaign, has taken a prominent position undercutting one of President Obama's core agenda items and undercutting the potential for achieving sensible energy policies in the United States. Abercrombie is a leader in the House pushing a fossil-foolish ‘bipartisan’ energy approach that undercuts efforts to move forward with a strong energy efficiency and clean energy program. In addition, Abercrombie directly attacks the very concept of Cap & Trade, something that Barack Obama campaigned on and stated as a strong priority for efforts to deal with Global Warming. It is time, Neil, to reconsider your fossil-foolish ways, end your sabotaging of progress toward an Energy Smart future, and to be working on how to make the President's agenda reality."
Salazar/Obama are starting to scare matthew fogarty: "Sometimes they are scaring me a lot such as today when they squandered the opportunity to use the polar bear ESA listing and EPA regulations to force the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions (since these emissions are clearly the greatest known cause of this species instability). And sometimes they are proving terrifying as they did on March 6th when this administration agreed to allow the de-listing of grey wolves from the ESA in Montana and Idaho. These states are already planning the outright slaughter of hundreds of wolves, exactly as these states have done every time they are allowed to do so, including just a matter of a couple years ago."
Target Global Warming found a screed on the subject from the American Enterprise Institute,AEI: You Can Think Polar Bears are Cute. Or Threatened. But Not Both: "I guess AEI thinks that anyone who thinks the polar bear is cute cannot be trusted to rationally interpret a temperature trend chart."
Amy O'Meara, policy director of economic relationsat Amnesty International USA informed us about Good News from Chevron: Toxic Waste Won't Make You Sick!: "The thousands of communities living among Texaco’s decades-old toxic waste pits in the Amazon will be so relieved! It turns out that despite decades of scientific research, long-term exposure to crude oil and drilling waste-waters causes no harm! In fact, you could use a little as facial moisturizer if you wanted. Oh, I wish I was kidding. Even for a company like Chevron, so entrenched in its own lies and cover ups, this is a new low. I have to be honest, it has taken me a few days to regain my bearings after watching a Chevron executive explain to the American public on the CBS news program 60 Minutes that exposure to crude oil contamination and toxic wastewaters is no worse than the ‘naturally occurring’ oils used in cosmetics. Not that it was the first time I have heard Chevron try to make such erroneous claims, but this was truly absurd. If only it weren’t so tragic."
alefnot provided another in his series, On the breathing of the Earth: "This post is actually (a much belated) part 2 of a series on the carbon cycle: here we look at timescales (the first deals with reservoirs: you don't have to read it, but I will be using terminology and information from it). Why are we interested in timescales? All sorts of reasons, including understanding how our planet evolved, why we have an oxygen rich atmosphere, why we have limestone and marble, coal and oil, etc, but probably the most pressing one is climate change, and how we might deal with it. So we're going to focus on that one."
Sue Sturgis followed up on her diary from earlier this week with Bush administration hid coal ash dumps' true cancer threat: "The Bush administration was reluctant to release information that suggested an alarmingly high cancer risk for people who live near landfills and lagoons used to store coal ash waste -- and now it turns out that it released only part of the data, hiding for years the full extent of the health threat from poorly regulated coal ash disposal."
ListenYankee found Monsanto to be a Subject Of Controversy In Argentina; Glyphosate Linked To Cell Deformations: "The Argentine daily Página/12 ran an article on April 13 detailing the results of an unpublished study performed by embriologist and University of Buenos Aires professor Andrés Carrasco indicating that glyphosate causes deformation in embryonic cells, and may be linked to birth defects. The chemical is the active ingredient in ‘Roundup,’ the widely used herbicide."
filmgeek83 asked for more measured eco-responses in "The Planet is Fine..."Nearly everybody in the movement is guilty of this brand of overstatement, even the patron saint, Al Gore. ‘Our world faces a true planetary emergency. I know the phrase sounds shrill, and I know it's a challenge to the moral imagination.’ This is, in fact, pure nonsense. It sounds shrill because it is. What's worse, Al Gore knows its nonsense. He's a bright guy, and he knows that the planet is not going through an emergency. This is not to say that climate change is not very real, or that it is not caused by humans, or even that we shouldn't change our ways. What I am saying is that Al Gore is engaging in a big lie. He, along with the environmentalist movement, think that their cause is so important, so life threatening, that they are justified in overstating their case and that the situation is so dire that overstatement is necessary to spur the populace into action. They are really shooting themselves in the foot."
Population explosion: The forest and not the trees was michlawa2’s parable on why people don’t make population growth more of a political issue. Sure having a ‘green’ economy, global warming, etc. is talked about. This is looking at the trees and not the forest. We need to understand that the root of our problem is population growth. No amount of recycling can save humanity nor the 200 species that go extinct everyday because of our actions. Only reducing our population and living in harmony with nature offers us any hope for survival."
xysea explained another means to get along better in a tough economy with the weekly installment of Frugal Fridays: The Art Of The Deal, aka Learn To Haggle: "Haggling is to bargain, or to wrangle, a price down to a level acceptable by two (or more) parties. This can be done aggressively, in some marketplace settings, or gently – depending on the merchant and the buyer. People can haggle over anything - goods or services, for items in good condition or slightly damaged. It helps to have a small amount of confidence, a definite idea of what your limits are in terms of price and the ability to walk away if you don't get what you want."