Tell your Congressman to say Yes to the Cape Wind Project

The push is on to get Cape Wind up and running. Doing so will help bring renewable energy to Massachusetts, and reduce our dependence on petroleum. I just left a message for my Congressman asking him to support the project; I urge you to do the same by clicking on the link below for more information:

http://masspirg.org/MA.asp?id=200&id4=TAFsent

Background

Cape Wind is our energy future, both practically and symbolically. It will provide enough energy to power three quarters of the Cape and Islands. It is a rare energy project that is good for the environment and good for consumers. If we build Cape Wind, we open the door to many more wind and other renewable energy projects. If we reject it, we are choosing our energy past-more fossil and nuclear power, more pollution, more energy dependence.

When wind opponents in Congress nearly killed the project last summer, we had to depend on Congressman Charles Bass of New Hampshire and Senators Domenici and Bingaman of New Mexico to stand up for the project. We can't risk that again. Without real and visible political support in Massachusetts, the project is vulnerable to continued attacks. We need members of our delegation in Congress to come out in support of the project. Congressmen Barney Frank and John Olver are the only two who have.

Thanks so much for your help!

Save energy this season; turn off your surge protectors

So, about a month ago, I decided to try a little experiment at home. Having heard from both Ideal Bite and my electrical engineer boyfriend that putting things like small appliances and electronic equipment on surge protectors and turning them off when not in use can save electricity, I decided to make a couple of minor adjustments around my apartment and try it for a month.

All I did was this: In my pantry, I have a microwave and a toaster oven that are plugged into a surge protector next to the fridge. If I'm not using either, I turn them off. In my living room, I have my DVD player, VCR, television, iPod dock and TV Antenna, as well as a lamp, plugged into another surge protector. I leave it turned off until I actually decide to watch television, then I make sure to turn it off when I go to bed.

Well, after a month of doing this, I managed to save a total of $14.67 on my electric bill. Mind you, I was gone for a weekend last month, so I do have to account for that, but even with that, I still saved an estimated 50 KWH of electricity over the course of a month just by making that one small adjustment. According to a carbon calculator provided by the World Resources Institute, that's a savings of 64 lbs. of CO2. Yay!

So there you go—a minimal amount of effort that results in huge savings both in my electric bill and my eco-footprint. Score! Now if I can just bring myself to do the same thing with my computer equipment...