Power Notes from Your Energy Spy

Saving the world one watt and one home at a time. Save energy, conserve power, save money.

by Don Ames

Today is National Native American Day, not a holiday to compete with Christmas, but a special day remembering the people that were civilized in the America’s before the rest of the world decided they were just Indians.

Here are a few items I have tripped over this last week that highlight the need for energy, the need to conserve energy, and the struggle to produce clean energy.

Humorist, Jimmy Tingle, recommends some great alternatives to the alternative to the alternative energy plan in an article in the Readers Digest. For one thing, Jimmy suggest we provide every prison cell with an exercise bike connected to a generator. In this way, the inmate could help pay for his wrong doings by supporting the victims electric bill. Problem is, it might actually work.

United Kingdom connects 100 wind turbines to the power grid. This is the largest wind farm that is not on land. Maybe a trend that will gain support and success as more and more wind turbines are put out to sea. There is a wind farm planned for development off the coast of Northeast United States near Cape Cod.  This ocean going wind farm highlights just one of the problems effecting the alternative power effort in the US, the permit process has taken 9 years. Just imagine how much juice a  thousand prisoners could produce by pedaling for 9 years.

Eco-fashions are taking over the world one piece of clothing at a time. What is the hottest new featured product on ebay, yep – it’s eco-clothing. So, just what is this new trend in green clothing?  When I first heard the term eco-clothing, I thought about making clothes out of paper again. We should not make the tree responsible for our clothing, after all, they are already responsible for our homes. Come to find out, eco-clothing is the new trendy trend of designing clothing to be worn frontward, backward, inside out, as a jacket, as a romper, dressed up, dressed down, over other clothing or under any clothing. One of the designers is threatening to wear the same eco-fashion for 365 days. After all, they are designed to fit any occasion. With good planning, we might witness a prisoner, wearing an eco-fashion, pedaling a stationary bike, providing power to a victim of the gulf oil tragedy.

Thank you for spending some quality time with me, come back soon, but I won’t leave the lights on for you… Don Ames