Peter makes excellent points, illustrating that the greatest
gains in energy efficiency can be made right in our own Minneapolis
structures, and pointing out the roadblocks our city has placed in
the way of anyone who dares conserve energy and switch to renewables.
I write tonight from Starbuck, where we just checked and
found this fair city has no quarrel whatsoever with our installing
corn or wood burning heating inside or outside our homes and
businesses. The population here is booming, many of the new residents
fleeing Minneapolis. The only thing holding us back now is the
availability of biomass fueled heating devices- Fleet Farm is sold
out of corn stoves and the pellet and wood stoves are going fast.!
Contrast that to Minneapolis where I spent most of the week-
my block is half empty as more homes are vacated and boarded every
day. With Minneapolis effectively outlawing biofuel burning heating
about all we can do is insulate and turn down the thermostat some
more. With property values falling and vacancies rising, there's not
a lot of incentive to even insulate... Never mind spend thousands on
solar water heating only to have it destroyed by the frequent gunfire.
About this time next year much of the occupied half of the
homes in my neighborhood will empty out too. Their gas shut off as
soon as the cold weather rule expires in the spring, they'll be
getting too cold to live in. By new years frozen pipes will burst and
they'll start going tax forfeit, as more fortunate Minneapolis exiles
move to new homes in the exurbs and beyond, and the less fortunate
head south to share crowded streets and tents with Katrina evacuees.
from sustainable Starbuck,
Dyna Sluyter
Peter Vevang writes:
That idea translates to the city, there is money to be made. People
can make a living by supporting sustainable practices. Sustainable
practices are not an economic disadvantage, they are an advantage,
it is an untapped industry. If you divide up the percentage of
energy usage, 50% of the energy we use goes toward construction,
maintanance and operation of buildings. Only 20% goes towards
transportation, cars, including air travel, ships, trucking and so
on. We could completely eliminate all SUV's and replace them with
E-85 hybrids and it would only slightly dent our energy usage. The
single best way to cut back on wasting energy in the building
industry is to renovate, repair, re-use what we have, to renovate
and rebuild our existing infrastructure in a more energy efficient
way and to repair and maintain our buildings in an energy efficient
way. That is something we can do here in the city. It would
provide jobs, and it would save money for the people owning the
buildings, giving them more resources for other projects.
Farmers needed government subsidies and help inventing the
technology for ethanol, they had a development model. What we do
not have in the city is an effective re-development model, we don't
have systematic subsidies, regulatory support or support with the
technology and building process that follow a sustainable model.
Our building codes, ordinances and approval process aren't geared
toward supporting sustainable development. Our current regulatory
process was invented in the 1940's and implemented in the 50's. We
haven't changed the fundamental principles we use for 50+ years.
I think the trick to making sustainability work is to make it
economically beneficial and to have the proper support and
regulatory system in place. If you can do that, people will come to
you. You won't be in a position of forcing people to do something
they don't want to do. We will not succeed by making others fail or
punishing them. We succeed together.
Peter Vevang
Audubon
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