The Cost of Natural Gas [was Re: The Cost of California Liberalism]

Ray Dillinger bear at sonic.net
Mon Dec 25 09:25:37 PST 2000




On Sun, 24 Dec 2000, Raymond D. Mereniuk wrote:


>In my initial message I stated the current rise in natural gas prices 
>are caused by multiple factors.  Natural gas prices were too low in 
>recent years and this caused a shortage in supply.  

<MASSIVE SNIP>

Just an observation, but most of the specific causes of this crisis 
point strongly to one general cause -- ie, there are too many people 
in California.  More than the local water supply can handle.  More 
than power can be generated for locally (unless someone builds a 
nuke powerplant, and you can already hear the Nimby's screaming...). 
More than food can be grown for without exhausting water tables to 
irrigate the central valley.  

Another general cause is that most of the current houses are built 
stupid.  In the 1940's and 1950's houses were built that were quite 
habitable without constant airconditioning.  They had basement 
windows where air could be drawn in and air was cooled in the 
basement with  scads of thermal contact with the cool earth.  There 
were open airways that circulated air drawn up from the basement 
through the first and second floor, and windows in the second floor 
where heated air was allowed to escape.  Many of them were made of 
adobe or other materials with great thermal inertia, which mediated 
the extremes of temperature.  All of these are perfectly sound 
thermodynamic principles, which have been abandoned because wood-frame 
concrete slab houses are cheaper to build and home buyers haven't 
been thinking about the cost of cooling the damn things as part 
of the purchase price.  If building codes were modified, or if 
contractors and developers  had to bear the first ten years of 
utility costs out of house prices, we'd probably see a substantial 
reduction in the so-called "need" for power.

				Bear





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