The Great Recession good for drop in U.S. energy consumption in 2009

Never let a crisis go to waste.  At least the United States wasted less energy last year, and significantly increased it's use of renewable energy sources (specifically wind energy).  Too bad it wasn't an enlightened response to a long overdue change in our consumer mentality, but I'll take an economy related behavioral change. 

How much did we reduce our overall energy consumption?  We went from 99.2 quadrillion BTUs in 2008 (British Thermal Units) to around 94.6 quadrillion BTUs in 2009.  That comes out to a drop of about 5%.  According to the article from CNN, "to put that in perspective, the average room air conditioner uses about 10,000 BTUs." 

It appears that the renewable energy incentives Democrats and the Obama Administration pushed for, are working.  This also means that with this reduction in energy consumption (primarily of fossil fuel use), it also means we emitted less carbon dioxide.  Positive steps, but still a long way to go in order to effectively address our lack of a national energy policy. 

Let's see how the public utilities and energy companies respond.  Maybe they'll hold the line on rate increases or reduce them?  Probably not.

Clean, renewable wind energy could provide 20% of Virginia's power and create over 1,000 jobs!

According to an article by Ricardo Lopez of the Virginian Pilot today, a study by the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium has determined that a wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach is a viable option. Some key findings out of the study:

• Cost of a wind farm is comparable to current/traditional fuels.
• Current/traditional fuel prices will not remain the same.
• Initial cost of wind farm is high, but will pay off over the long run.
• Will not be paying fuel costs over the course of time, just maintenance and operational costs.
• Project could provide up to 20% of Virginia's energy needs.
• Project could create around 1,100 jobs.

There was initial talk about building wind farms along the Blue Ridge Mountains a few years ago, but it was met with opposition due mainly to concerns over migrations patterns of birds. The location of the wind farm off the coast of Virginia would not impact bird migrations patterns. While the aesthetic look is not great, it is a whole lot better alternative than seeing oil and gas drilling platforms off the coast and nearly zero chance of environmental disaster from fuel spills. This is just a report, but things are moving in the right direction.

Picture by: http://www.meteorologynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/offshorewindturbines.jpg