Letter to the Editor
Cutting costs
Published Wednesday, June 11, 2008
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Stumble It!June 6, 2008
To the editor:
Today I read in the paper about the questioning of Gov. Palin’s plan to reduce the stress on Alaskan families by easing their energy budget for a year, while working to reduce our long-term energy consumption. When I read about the plan originally I was excited about the prospect of a little extra help come next winter.
I consider myself to be pretty environmentally conscious. Last year we knew the costs of energy were rising. We decided to sink $20,000 into new insulation, boiler and windows (which we cannot get a rebate for, since we did the work last year). We turned down our thermostats and threw on an extra blanket at night. We wore wool socks and slippers, we carpooled, we tried to consolidate our errands and be smart about our driving practices. We switched all our light bulbs to compact fluorescents after watching Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth” I was the electricity Nazi. We cut coupons, bought in bulk and switched to store brands.
I see the logic that lower cost usually leads to higher consumption, I see that forcing people to conserve by raising the prices will work.
I think that Alaskans are in different position that most of the rest of the United States!
I see that a lot of Alaskans cannot drive more fuel efficient cars because they need four-wheel drive to get up and out of their driveways, or are just plain safer traversing our slippery roads. They can only ride a bike for a few months of the year, plus a bike is great for single people, but if you have a couple of little kids, that complicates things a bit. Some folks can chop their own wood, others don’t have that option.
Alaskans are squeezed tighter by a higher cost of living, simply by logistics. I understand that there might be some details to work out, but I hope there will still be some relief for your average Alaskan come next winter, when the going really gets tough.
Community Discussion
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Take a look at www.fairbanksgas.com and watch the short slide show put together by Distant Thunder. After watching it tell me one reason why we can't have gas by October 2009.
Great plan FBSGAS! Really good information on your site.
I agree, Allyson, we can all work harder, more efficiently together to get through this energy challenge.
In the last century mankind has traveled more, concumed more, and destroyed the earth at a rate unprecidented before in history. I think we need to stop traveling so much. In fact, I can see Saudi Arabia just thinking about how Americans should stay home more. We've imported nearly every dohickie entertainment toy in the world into our homes. Stay home.
If you can't walk there, you probably don't need to go.
Taling a dog team to Chena Hot Springs is becoming a viable winter option!
Buying store brands is all well and good unless you are undercutting our locally produced products. Milk is one of those..Northern Lights is NOT the cheapest because they have smaller facilities and higher overhead. I buy it so I keep having a local option for milk if we ever get cut off again like we did after 9-11. Did everyone forget how quickly we ran out of things at the store?
The wic program saying you HAVE to buy the cheapest means all the store brands are the only option. The stores themselves lobbied for the chamges there, and yes, it helps cut costs a little for the state but, it guaranteed that any local products sold in the stores were cut out of a huge group of consumers. The best thing they did in that program is have the coupons for the farmers Market!
"If you can't walk there, you probably don't need to go."
So if I can't walk 12 miles to my job, I don't need to work at all? Do I go on welfare so I can stay home and not use my car? Or do I give up my home (with no mortage) to buy a house in town so I can walk to work and make a $1500 mortgage payment? Are my kids also expected to walk down the Richardson at -40 so they can get to school in town? If you are offering to support me and my family so I don't have drive anywhere, I'll take cash or money orders. No checks or credit please.
Seriously, moving closer to where you need to go every day is way more efficient than things like buying a hybrid car. Someone who commutes 1 mile every day in a Hummer will pay less for gas in a year than someone who commutes 20 miles a day in a Prius. You could probably afford a better house if you spent less for transportation.
Also, when and if natural gas comes to Fairbanks, I'm guessing it will be available first in the city, and some more remote neighborhoods won't have it for a few years. It will be interesting to see how things change. Maybe we won't have so many abandoned supermarkets and unmaintained houses in town, and maybe only the rich will live out of town. Maybe it will bring the community together, or maybe it will just further divide the relative rich and the poor.
h2os, sadly , no, I didn't intend to say that seriously to encompass a means to an end. You know, there are no easy answers and honestly our society is geared towards life being easy. America is priviledged to have so much.
Personally, I found living close to town and schools, stores makes a big difference. We've become so accustomed to driving whenever, where ever we want.
Bring back the railroads!!!
My point of view is such, I dont really care what gas prices are at the pump per say, we can all cut down on the amount of trips we take to town in our vehicles and budget for summer trips to go fishing and such. But......heating our homes is not something we can treat as a luxury or convenience! We here in the interior have the HIGHEST utility energy costs in the United States hands down! (GVEA and heating oil) No matter what many of us do we will not be able to reduce the amount of heating oil we use but so much no matter how much you turn down the thermostat, especially with the price rising near daily so your reduction would be overridden by higher prices. Couple this with the fact that most of us dont live anymore than 20 miles from a refinery and less than 5 miles from the supply line (the Pipeline) its just plain retarded. The state has a responsibility to its 2nd largest city and the 75,000 residents of said Borough to keep from choking them out with these ridiculously high fuel costs. This state has more money than it knows what to do with as a result of the ridiculously high fuel cost.........so Alaska....do something with the money you have become so rich with, to assist its residents with coping with that which is making the state so rich! The biggest problem we interior residents face is the fact that Los Anchorage is not feeling our pain at all! They have cheap as dirt natural gas for most of their residents toheat their homes with and they are merely whining about high gas prices at the pump like the rest of the U.S. If anyone from Alaska's government is listening.......we dont like the price of gas and diesel at the pump but everyone is feeling that pain nationwide, but a little help heating our homes would sure be nice! The idea from many that everyone in the interior can cut wood to heat our homes is not realistic or a good one.We have grown to large in poulus to act in that fashion. Anyone who has lived in Fairbanks or North Pole very long and has seen the thermal inversion in action can visualize how bad the air quality is gonna get even this coming season with the massive introduction to wood and coal fired boilers as well as the hundreds upon hundreds of wood stoves that have been installed already this summer. We wont just be choking over the high price of heating oil this winter, but we'll be choking on the toxic gases emitted from wood and coal being burned by our residents in an attempt to be able to afford heating their homes too! C'mon Alaska, get your S*#% together!
To Fairbanksgas and Distant Thunder, alhtough the idea sounds good, and should probably be investigated further, the reason why we can't have a gasline by 2009 is the time needed for compliance the National Environmental Policy Act. Even if you avoid federal lands there will be other federal actions/permits that will trigger NEPA and necessitate the development of an Environmental Impact Statement.
Dove, thank you for easing your blanket statement. I would love to bike to work, as I live fairly close, but can't since my car is required for my job. It is a great idea, it just isn't viable.
I agree with NativeAlaskan. I am committed to supporting Northern Lights & other locals so that they will/can be there if all those barges stop running!
It's called budgeting, people. We all know, and have known since last year, that this winter is going to be harsh on the wallet. Plan for it. The government is not here to bail you out, prop you up, or pay your bills.
A small investment in your house today will exponentially save you in the future. Don't own your house? Put your landlord/property manager under the gun, you're paying their mortgage at the end of the day.
High energy costs are here to stay, deal with that. It's a matter of economics. The producers have us paying $4 a gallon now, they know we'll pay that and more. Honestly, how much has this whole price thing really changed your lifestyle? What makes anyone believe they'll bring the price down and cut their profits?
Its great to see more folks conserve more,but some Al Gore fans that ram it down everyones throat,then waste more than they save. For instance;we would watch our neighbor that changed all her lightbulbs and all that,during sub-zero temperatures,leave her heated garage door open for hours while her car outside is warming up,then take her kids to and from school,car ideling for 30 minutes waiting for school to end,along with hundreds of other parents. Then watch the buses pull out with 6 kids on each one.
Just like Al Gore does not do,practice what you preach. Al Gore uses more energy then over 20 average US citizens uses. But he was successfull in ruining our economy.
My feelings for high energy costs are,if you vote democrat,shut up and pay. Or,you can stick a can of corn in your car tank.
I hear you about kids, buses, and parents driving kids to school. I never seen so many parents driving kids to school. I suppose kids from areas where buses don't serve is a reason, but it is a really high number.
Sure, akprincess. In all honesty. I don't go many places because I do have to conserve, and I have walked a lot, although I have a very nice car. Living "out" side town really does require a sustainability I can't afford. But it is what it is, and folks simply can't pack up and move.
In fact, I can't work at my favorite career, aviation,..the drive is too far,...esp at -20.
2ND on the heating fuel. I'm almost afraid to ponder at the inevitable nightmares coming this winter. It's not as though we have a REFINERY right down the road, or any OIL close by. I mean really we'd have to go at least 4 miles to get it out of the pipeline! With 42 billion in reserve, I think SOA can subsidize some heating oil.
Why does it always have to come down to Al Gore?
"My feelings for high energy costs are,if you vote democrat,shut up and pay. Or,you can stick a can of corn in your car tank."
funny...even if you aren't DEMOCRAT you still have to pay.
How does one fit a can of vegtables into the tank, anyway?
Its the democrats that will not allow us to drill any of our own oil,and not just ANWR. Its also the democrats trying to make food into gasoline.
Dove, it does start getting nasty in those below zero numbers. Fortunately since I use my car for deliveries & work purposes, I am given a small mileage stipend from my employer. Given the current price of fuel though, I make such instances as few as possible.
NEPA regulations don't apply in emergency/disaster situations, right?
After Katrina, the corps of engineers pumped the water flooding New Orleans straight into the Gulf of Mexico. That water had a lot of toxins in it, but they had to pump it out of the city, anyway. The whole region was a disaster zone, and going through the normal permitting process wouldn't have made any sense. People's lives were in immediate danger.
I don't think anyone in the Interior would argue that we're facing an emergency situation due to the cost of fuel. By building that 4" hdpe gas line quickly, we'd be averting a sure disaster.
If the feds can't see that, and insist on the NEPA process . . . hmm. What would happen if we built that gas line anyway?
It's an election year, folks. There'll be enough natural gas emanating from the candidates to fuel the entire planet for a decade.
Meantime, if you're really cold, just throw a couple of politicians on the fire. Democrats burn cleaner, since they avoid toxic chemicals, but Republicans burn hotter and longer since they tend to contain higher a fat content.
Don't burn AIP members, though. They have ammunition in every pocket, and you don't want bullets flying out of your wood stove. Also, don't bother burning Greens. They just sit there and sizzle a bit, but never actually generate real heat. That would require energy. Greens don't believe in that stuff.
You're a riot, Curmudgeon!
AlaskaDi725,
Still, I don't understand the problem some people have with finding alternative ways to gas up the cars. I'm a Dem, please drill. Fine by me. Suggesting that only democrats (because Al Gore is a democrat) are responsible for the energy crisis and that they should 'shut up and pay' is like suggesting that only citizens who voted for Bush should serve in the war. We all know how stupid that sounds. The energy crisis is not something to blame on a particular party and neither is the war (we know Hillary supported it, among a load of other dems). It's a problem that requires a solution and I am up for valuable suggestions from ANYONE, even if it means turning sweet corn into gasoline.
It's funny I hear all of the complaining of high energy prices. Look at bush alaska. They have been paying over $5 a gallon for heating fuel all last year. They always had the highest electric rates. Now it's about $7 a gallon for the Yukon villages. Then you hear smart remarks like "they choose to live there". Same goes for here now. If I only made $8 an hour, i'd probably just move to Mat Su valley or to Anchorage for the same wages and a lot less for energy costs. I don't know how some people will make it, but a lot will just move. Coal might be the only realistic answer.
I do find it quite humorous that all you hear on the news these days is "Alternative Energy" and "Conservation" you dont hear any of them talking about building another GD refinery or pumping oil from any of the hundreds of resource rich loactions in our country. But then again why would we want to cut the umbilical cord from the middle eastern countries we buy oil from, then it would be cheaper worldwide right? What are the numbers....at one time there were over 300 refineries in the U.S. (1980's) , now theres like 140. Who would of guessed that by shutting down half our refineries that there would be a crunch on the worlds oil supply at some point! Is there anybody out there with any brains leading our country?
The government is not here to bail you out, prop you up, or pay your bills.
ubersanta, I do not want Govt. propping me up, paying my way or anything else. I want us to have OUR share of the oil wealth that is being collected by the State! The State is US!! I heard recently that for every month crude oil was above 120.00 a barrel, the State was bringing in an ADDITIONAL 650 MILLION a month!! That works out to be 1087.00 a month for every Alaskan if there really are 600,000 of us left. I am all willing to take half that and put the other half in for future Alaskans or maybe even for funding the sourdoughs that are left. No Alaskan should have to go hungry or cold this winter with the State, ONCE AGAIN, US, bringing in that kind of money. Also, Listen to Fairbanksgas and Distant Thunder, they make ALOT of sense. Go Sarah Palin, you are doing a hell of a job!!
Here's another way to look at it: The government is partially responsible for this mess because they regulate the amount & where's as to drilling in our country. They are also to blame for the fact that they have not regulted the auto industry to make them build more fuel efficient vehicles. It has always been possible, but ignored.
That is also our fault for choosing to buy the gas hogs - but, I will never understand why we couldn't start doing more drilling on the homefront....
somebody please take care of us, we can't do it ourselves.
give me a break, things are good here.
Hey indabush. Go ahead and move to Anchorage. Mark Begich's property taxes will wish you were back in Fairbanks buying heating fuel! But at least you will have a fantastic new museum to visit (for a fee). And a new bike (rape) trail,and a new 60k city hall sign to look at,and..............sorry,to many to list.
I'd be willing to bet the property taxes in Fairbanks are equal to Los Anchorage,maybe even higher, but I am open to being proved wrong. Up here you can expect to pay around $1500 per 100,000