Going Green

It worked!

By removing just a few loose thoughts from my head and placing them in my premiere blog entry, I freed up a couple of brain cells. Thus, I was able to accommodate a little rumination over an article I found in the January 2009 issue of Discover magazine titled, "The Post-Oil Era Begins" by Ben Hewitt. It seems that corn ethanol will not be the immediate fix to America's need for sustainable, domestically produced fuel, due to land, water and financial issues. However, hope does lie on the horizon for a 50% reduction in the reliance on gas over the next couple of decades. All we have to do is trade in our current gas guzzlers for new plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) like the Volt, a forthcoming model designed by Chevrolet. Consider the common travel necessity of the weekly grocery shopping trip. As long as the local supermarket is within 20 miles one way, the entire run will be possible sans gas. Barring all questions about what happens when the store is more than 40 miles round trip and the costs involved with such a trade in, I am ready to do the responsible thing and order my new PHEV. Sign me up.

There are some rules involved. I won't be permitted to charge my car while my neighbor is cooking supper on her electric stove, if my sister has all her lights on and her friend is running the vacuum cleaner at the same time that my husband is drilling a hole in our wall, during a heat wave when everyone is blasting their air conditioners. Apparently, with the country's current grid we will need to charge our PHEVs during off-peak hours and promise to allow the batteries to re-load at a modest 120-volt/15-amp rate as opposed to using a heftier, 240-volt/30-amp circuit. For the privilege of plugging in during peak hours of the day, at the higher voltage for a quicker charge, somebody will need to build about 160 new power plants across the nation.

That may sound insurmountable, but as Stan Hadley, a guy who helped write a report about this possibility, says, "The biggest challenge won't be building the infrastructure; it will be changing consumer habits and expectations."

Stan's quote got stuck like a bumper sticker on a wall inside my brain.

Reading the article was really just a procrastination of my need to re-stock our refrigerator, so I gathered my green shopping bags, spent several minutes scavenging around for a quarter and headed out to get more for my money at the ever-exciting Aldi foodmart. Propelled by gas in the tank of my Chevy Malibu hatchback, I caught a glimpse of my own relection in the rear-view mirror with the brain bumper sticker in the background pointing out my own wasteful habits. I wasn't first on the bandwagon to exchange plastic and paper for reusable cloth. In fact the only reason I have green totes is because the husband got them for free at a trade show. Saving at Aldi forces me to use them, since it's a bring your own bag kind of store. I began mentally logging the habits I need to break if I ever hope to become one who is making a difference toward saving the planet: turn off the water until it is time to spit when brushing teeth, turn off the water inbetween wash and rinse time during dish duty, turn off the sprinkler before a lake forms on the lawn. The pattern brought clarity. I'll work on turning off water. I'll worry about sticking to the charging at off-peak hours using the 15 amp outlet rule when I trade my Malibu for the Volt. Methinks I have plenty of time.

Heidi