Common Sense Ideas from 'Burban Mom

Dry your clothes on what we used to call a "clothes line."

Now that you've switched your energy supplier to a renewable source, let's get started on some energy saving changes. Otherwise, you might end up with a higher bill than usual. Yes, the winds of change do cost a bit more, but by changing some wasteful habits at home, you'll actually see a significant reduction in your monthly bill.

I started rack and line drying my clothes this past spring and was amazed by how much money I saved on the electric bill. It really shouldn't come as much surprise, though, considering that a dryer is one of the most energy-sucking appliances in the home. My particular model uses about 3 kWh per load to dry. Multiply that by approximately 20 loads per month (or more) and you're looking at over a $6.00 savings for one simple change.

I'm old enough to remember hanging out clothes to dry, young enough to wonder why I stopped.

--WS

When Being a Cheapskate Kills People

Being a cheapskate is catching on in a big way--all over America, half-wits and morons are doing whatever they can to save $.03 and a half cents worth of gas anyway they can. The problem is, all of your savings are wiped out when you're dead, crumpled into the plastic morass that was your Prius, tractor trailer bed embedded in your skull.

Police and automotive experts say over-the-top attempts by some drivers to boost their gas mileage could be endangering them and other motorists.

The AAA and Connecticut State Police are warning against extreme measures in "hypermiling," a practice in which unusual techniques are used to boost vehicles' mileage.

They include rolling through stop signs to avoid braking, turning off a car's engine or shifting into neutral to coast down hills, over-inflating tires to decrease rolling resistance against pavement, and other techniques.

One action that authorities say is particularly dangerous is called "drafting," tailgating big rigs in hopes of cutting wind resistance and being pulled along in a truck's wake.

"Every one of them is illegal," Connecticut State Police spokesman Trooper William Tate said of the "hypermiling" techniques.

"But more importantly, they're extremely dangerous. Every one of them is the cause of accidents," he said.

Most accidents on secondary roads are caused by drivers who don't obey traffic signals, such as stop signs or traffic lights, Tate said. Most highway crashes are caused by tailgating and unsafe lane changes, which are often related, he said.

Never underestimate the need for Americans to be assholes. As we pointed out to you last Wednesday, there's actually a guy out there who thinks he can go 51 miles an hour on the I-95 freeway and not end up being punted into a retaining wall, and he actually has the balls to tell this to a reporter while standing next to a picture of himself and his Prius.

Hey, I'm all for hybrids and getting us into different kinds of vehicles. Til we do that, we have to be conscious of the fact that the roads aren't there for social experiments and hypermiling.

--WS

Changing the World, Right in Kansas

Chase away those Saturday morning blues and get yourself organized. Find yourself motivated and allow yourself to be inspired.

Last May, an EF 5 tornado hit western Kansas. In Greensburg, the storm leveled every building, picked up cars and tossed them into rooftops, demolished the streets, left more than two-thirds of the town’s population homeless and killed 11 people.

Out of this tragedy, an opportunity arose to reconstruct and rejuvenate not only the buildings but also the town itself. As is the story for many small farm towns, the future of Greensburg looked bleak. Even before the tornado, jobs were growing scarce and the population was shrinking by two percent every year.



To educate and motivate the townspeople to create the vision and become involved in the transformation, some residents started a community-owned nonprofit called Greensburg GreenTown. The organization offers townspeople technical counseling for green programs, an energy rater who will assist homeowners to maximize energy savings at home, as well as access to a plethora of educational materials in their library, on their website and educational classes and lectures.

Many Greensburg residents are seeing this move toward sustainability not as a push toward granola-crunching, hippie-dom, but as something their great grandparents would have supported – a wise use of what they have and independence.

The mindful reconstruction measures are bringing more than just innovative design and sustainable development to the town; the new ideas are bringing youth interest back to Greensburg. Levi Schmidt, 15, told NPR that before the tornado, he had no intention of coming back.

“I was going to go to college, and who knows where. This community was dying.” Schmidt said. “Now I'm definitely coming back, and I know a good majority of my friends are.”

The town’s efforts have garnered the attention of green savvy business interested in investing in renewable energy, such as various biodiesel companies, GM and Google, who is interested in opening a wind-powered data center nearby.

Is this the wave of the future? Is this how we should approach the rebuilding of areas in the midwest that are going to need a new plan and a new way of doing things after the flooding subsides? There are smart ways to improve each and every community and make the world around us greener. This story is proof that an American town can get knocked on its ass and jump right back up and do something smart about it.

The model we see in Greensburg should give everyone hope.

--WS