[ROCKMAN]

Hawk - "If the end result is sequestering more CO2 than you produce," Not even close. In 2013 Texas produced 640 million tons of CO2. What will eventually be the world's largest carbon capture facility has started construction in 2014 near Houston. The project is expected to capture 1.6 million tons of carbon dioxide annually

Got that: the largest CO2 sequestration project ever constructed in the world will eliminate 0.25% of the CO2 emissions of the largest producer in the country. And despite Texas being tied with the 4th largest wind power generating COUNTRY it hasn't reduced our ff generating capacity one Btu. So you see now why I tease folks about their childish optimism that the country will be going "green"? Between wind power and sequestration Texas is one of the national leader in the effort. Really. LMFAO!

Some here may think I'm joking that in general the folks in Texas don't give sh*t about climate change. They really don't. At least when it comes to actually taking action vs just talking about it. Just like the rest of the countrty IMHO.

[KaiserJeep]

Rock is right. If we even actually believed in AGW, versus paying lip service just until the shrill AGW fanboys shut up, we'd be expending the last of the fossil fuels to remanufacture our infrastructure and implement green energy sources in their place. But by and large, the American public does not believe in AGW and they don't believe in the peak effect for oil, natural gas, and even coal, either. So all the excess cash they have, they spend on European vacations, $100K Tesla/Mercedes/Lexus/BMW/Ferrari/etc. automobiles, fine art to hang on the walls of your FF-wasting residence (which requires large inputs of FF's to cool in Summer and heat in Winter), and "fine dining" which amounts to enough fat and sugar to shorten your life and make you sick.

I am facing this dilemma now as I house hunt in Wisconsin. Beautiful homes, many on the Western coast of Lake Michigan, but virtually all of them built to the building codes of 2012 or older. 2012 has a building code which requires a thin layer of insulation around the thermal mass of your basement masonry. In 2015, the codes toughened up so much that it's even difficult today to identify an architect or builder who knows how to build a code-compliant residence in heating zone 6 any more. I'm an engineer with 37 years experience, I have been reading the articles on code compliance in Fine Homebuilding magazine, and I am to some extent baffled by the new requirements too.

The stakes are high here. Almost every rural residence in Wisconsin has a 500+ gallon propane tank sitting next to it, and they won't be habitable if it's not filled at the beginning of Winter. Virtually every urban residence is heated via a natural gas main, and they won't be habitable in Winter without NG flowing. Most homes on the market have about 10% of the insulation I figure they need, and they are still building such homes and installing HVAC equipment to the lax 2012 standards, and measuring them with inappropriate test criteria such as LEED and Energy Star and so forth.

This is a difficult conversation to have with the wife. Building a house I think we can afford to live in for 20+ years is going to cost 50% more than buying a beautiful existing home. The best and most attractive lakefront homesites are already taken, and even today, many existing homes cost $1000/month in fuel to heat every Winter. When (as it will be in 10 years or less) that cost escalates to $10,000 a month, these beautiful homes won't be habitable at prices most people can manage. Nor will the majority of residences in North America.

I know in my heart that I need a residence that can be heated and cooled without hydrocarbon fuels being burned. There are less than two dozen such buildings (which meet the "PassivHaus" European standards) in the entire state of Wisconsin, and none are on the market. But to build another such home, in a real estate market glutted with relatively cheap but beautiful homes in beautiful locations, is a difficult sell. Especially when one's spouse wants to travel the world while we still have the money.

I can imagine many such conversations across the country, but it is an agonizing conversation to have. I'm retired, she is still working, and I feel therefore a desire to honor her wishes, as she honored mine during my 37 year working career, when I was the main bread winner.

We watched the documentary Rising Tides last week, and I recommended it to you in this thread:
http://peakoil.com/forums/rising-tides-documentary-about-sea-level-change-t72803.html
...I still recommend it. I'll try to get her to DiCaprio's Before the Flood, but I don't want her to develop fatigue about the issue.

Meanwhile I am going out for a movie with the guys I used to work with tonight, and (after the film itself) we always talk Energy Policy and Politics over first beer and then coffee.

[KaiserJeep]

Take it home guys, bring it to the deck and have a nice cool one. Summer is almost over and the cold cold cold winter will be back. As day turns to night.

As even Texans will learn, when Galveston is under water, California has more land above ground than does Texas (demoting them to second largest state in the lower 48), and the average temperatures are 20 degrees F hotter than today, both Winter and Summer.

[ROCKMAN]

"As even Texans will learn, when Galveston is under water..." When that happens a lot of rather cheap land north of Galveston will be worth many $billions. And hotter? F*ck, it's been hot here for a very long time. That's why we're one of the biggest alt energy generators on the world: keep those AC's running. And 20F wamer in the winter? Sweet: it would be like spring here with little to no heating and AC bills. LOL. And our farmers would love it: longer growing season.

[Synapsid]

KaiserJeep,

Wisconsin? KJ, Wisconsin has the same state bird Minnesota has: the mosquito. You can tell one of their mosquitoes from a Florida mosquito by the two-inch white spot between the eyes.

Might you reconsider?

And if you get farther north in Wisconsin you will find the blackflies waiting to greet you with open arms, three pairs each.

Song from the 1940s:

The black fly, the little black fly;
The black fly wherever I go.
When I die they're goin' to dine on my bones...

[KaiserJeep]

Syn, I have been in the Wisconsin Northern lakes region in the Summertime, and I have also been to Alaska, and Wisconsin mosquitoes cannot compare to Alaskan mosquitoes. But the shore of Lake Michigan is not troubled much by such pests. The area I favor is mostly former dairy pastures, now being covered by second growth timber. Door County is also nice, but pricier.

Tis a comforting thought, to be on the shore of the largest freshwater lake in the world, to have your own well/sewer/power, and to be surrounded by dairy farms and corn fields producing vehicle fuel. The "tides" are +/- 2 inches, the water level is managed by the locks and channels of the St. Lawrence seaway, there are steelhead trout to challenge your angling skills, and plentiful deer/turkey/waterfowl.

[Synapsid]

KaiserJeep,

I agree about the Alaskan mosquitoes. I didn't bring them into the discussion because my little bit of humor was originally about the Alaska mosquito not the MN/WI one.

I worked in NW Alaska, in a village without toilets so you had to use the trees on the other side of the gravel runway for toilet space. Trying to carry out what is fundamentally (no pun intended) an exercise in muscle relaxation while squadrons of mosquitoes are mapping out your circulatory system is one of the memories I'd be happy to be without.