Articles by Kif Scheuer

Austin City Limits: zero energy code

The city of Austin, already host to the granddaddy of all green building programs, is stepping it up further: They are looking into "adopting a series of code changes that will make all new single-family homes built in the City's building code jurisdiction 'Zero-Energy Capable Homes' by the year 2015."

Go Austin!

Wind powder

The NYT reports today that Colorado ski resort giant Vail Resorts is investing heavily in wind, "buying enough credits to offset all the power needed for its resorts, retail stores and office buildings."

Vail Resort's purchase makes them the second largest purchaser of wind credit after Whole Foods. The article states that Vail Resorts accounts for "10% of all skier visits in the nation last year." This makes their commitment a pretty significant splash on the ski scene.

Drill now, save never

The NYT has an editorial today critiquing the "Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act" the Senate is set to debate today.

The bill's stated purpose is to reduce fuel prices. But while the gulf may hold enough natural gas to affect the price of that commodity, the same cannot be said of oil. No matter where it looks, a country that consumes one-quarter of the world's oil supply while holding only 3 percent of the reserves will never be able to drill its way to lower oil prices, much less oil independence.

There's some opposition within the Senate:

Asphalt blues

"With the continuing escalation of global fuel prices, many State DOTS are beginning to experience unprecedented construction cost increases." - USDOT

Over the last year, the price of asphalt has gone through the roof, and it's hurting local road repairs and construction. I haven't seen much about this outside of local articles (examples here, here, and here).

If oil prices keep their steady march upward, road repairs are going to become a ballooning problem for local communities and state governments. Some communities are already cutting back on paving projects, or are using less cover material to stretch resources further. But as one DOT rep stated, "With paving, you can't let it get ahead of you, or you're never going to catch up ... It may not hurt you in the short term, but we're going to need to get more money to pave in the future."