You're just trying to keep our Christmas/Holiday spirits bright? You're charts are quite disheartening. We have cheap electricity, right? Not. We are electrified.

BizzGrl:

Wouldn't it be a shock if the Blount County Commission, with the Mayor's blessing spearheaded an Energy Conservation / Solar, Wind Power Incentives programme for Blount County, next year? Something that would make our neighbouring Counties jealous of. As a start, 1/2 of all the Street Lights along Alcoa Hwy could be extinguished, and there would be NO increase in Darkness related Crimes. Maybe publicizing hourly Power Demand data from AUB and MUB would be a nice start, as well.

I don't mean to rain on anyone's Christmas cheer; but one thing, I did learn after working for the Dark Side for over 15 years is: never drop the Ball and keep your eye on the prize, constantly--our descendants, in this case, will appreciate it.

you must love the winterfest in sevier county....

Off the top of my head, things local government could do:

- Review all local government energy use and make cutbacks wherever possible, including BL's suggestions above re. street lights, LED traffic signals, efficient lighting/climate control in schools and public buildings, etc. etc. The City of Knoxville just recently concluded such a review and found hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings, with the most significant savings starting with LED traffic lights.

- Look into biodiesel for school buses.

- Work with local utilities to offer rebates or credits on utility bills for energy saving upgrades such as compact fluorescent bulbs, energy-efficient appliances, water heater blankets, insulation and window caulking, etc.

- Provide safe disposal/recycling for compact fluorescent bulbs.

- Review traffic signal timing to reduce idling and improve traffic flow. Eliminate traffic signals where possible and replace with roundabouts.

State government should:

- Adopt statewide mandatory energy efficient building codes.

- Offer tax credits and incentives for energy-efficient appliances, solar PV and water heater installations, and for hybrid cars.

- Adopt California vehicle emission standards and statewide inspections.

- Impose stricter point source emission controls for coal-fired power plants and other polluters

- Enact utility taxes to encourage conservation and help pay for the incentive programs

- Adopt California vehicle emission standards and statewide inspections.

Does that mean I can't drive my John Deere tractor to Walgreens? I Can't imagine how many vehicles would be taken off the road just in Blount County alone.

Randy, those are some pretty good idea's but getting the government to buy into them is the trick.

We are carbon based life forms, right? We need to stop thinking of carbon as a pollutant. It is not.

Lester

3.1 Gigawatts, yesterday. If we went 100% Solar, then:

$700 per 136W Solar Panels @ Wintertime 12 hour max daylight (68W / day)
= 456 million solar panels = $320 billion = 10,602,000,000 square feet
= 243,388 acres = 380 square miles of solar panels = 2/3 the size of
Blount County

Mind you, that's just the Solar Panels, not including the huge array of Batteries and inverters.

acc. to The Oak Ridger, TVA customers get "10 percent of its power from hydroelectric sources. About 60 percent comes from coal and 30 percent from nuclear fuel"

60% of our power requires dumping Black Coal, 7 rail cars at a time, per Plant, into a giant furnace, while 7 more cars wait in line, on a non-stop, constant, round the clock cavalcade of spewing pollution into the air. To stem the tide, Solar by itself won't work. Our addiction can be remedied by Nuclear Power, Solar Power, and by an overwhelming majority: CONSERVATION!!