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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