I take no credit for writing this....I don't know where it came from originally but was sent to me in an email. Having checked it out, it seems to be true.
The fun of politics...A Tale of Houses
House #1 - A 20 room mansion, plus 8 bathrooms, heated by natural gas plus a pool, pool house & separate guest house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year. The average bill for electricity & natural gas runs over $2400 per month. In natural gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times (other reports have the figure at only 12 times) the national average for an American home. The 60 to 70-year-old house is undergoing renovations to add solar panels to reduce consumption off the power grid, and energy-efficient windows have been installed. The home also uses "compact" fluorescent light bulbs and other energy-saving technology, the owners drive hybrids and participate in two programs that indirectly reduce carbon emissions. In the year since steps to make the home more energy-efficient, energy use surged more than 10%, according to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research.
This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern "snow belt" area. It's in the South.
House #2 - Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every "green" feature current home construction can provide. The house, constructed of local limestone, is 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) & is nestled on a high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F) heats the house in the winter & cools it in the summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas & it consumes one-quarter the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. The water for the outdoor pool is heated with the same system which proved so efficient that initial plans to install solar energy panels were cancelled. Rainwater from the roof is collected & funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks & toilets goes into underground purifying tanks then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers & shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.
House#3 - has never had anything that we can find written about additional energy efficiency measures or reducing the carbon footprint by the current owners.
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HOUSE #1 is outside of Nashville, Tennessee;
it is the abode of the "environmentalist" Al Gore.
HOUSE #2 is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas;
it is the residence of former President of the United States, George W. Bush.
HOUSE #3 is a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in the Kenwood neighborhood. It's the Chicago home of the current President
Yup, go ahead, blame it on Bush, again! An "inconvenient truth."
INCONVENIENT though it may be, it makes valid points. Snopes shows bias by trying to mitigate the amount of gas & electric used by home #1, stating it is used as an office for the couple who owns it. Uh, nope, not quite buying that. Snopes also shows bias by trying to say that House #2 had to be built as it was because of the area in which it is located. Uh, nope, not quite buying that either. It could have been built much as most others in the area who did not employ such planning.
Also, it's disgraceful that energy-saving features (solar, etc.) had to be installed after it was pointed out that House #1 was not following the 'global warming' preaching. The facts are what they are & it is plain that if you are going to preach to me about the energy I use, you darn well better have your own house in order first. DO NOT talk the talk until you are already walking the walk.
Last but not least in my musings is this: where does House #3 fall? On the side of pseudo-environmentalism or is it as environmentally friendly as possible? My guess is that it will get the same, un-investigated, un-questioned pass the current president has gotten from the media.
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