I wish some savvy reporter would ask Bush if his Crawford home is off

[Dover]

the grid. I believe he had it outfitted with the latest in ALTERNATIVE energy products. No fossil fuels for him, though the rest of us are kept dependent on these dinosaur energy sources.
I'd like to see him cornered on this.

And Texas has it's own grid, separate from the rest of the U.S. system.

[hang a left]

1. If that was the case

"alternative" energy systems. I would really be scared. It would suggest to me he has gruesome plans

[Dover]

4. Here are some links about it -

http://www.msnbc.com/news/584176.asp

http://csf.colorado.edu/envtecsoc/2001/msg00168.html

The house has geothermal heating and cooling.
Rainwater and household wastewater are reused for irrigation, and
First Lady Laura Bush says she is restoring native wildflowers and
grasses on the ranch property.

...........

Cheney's official home, the Naval Observatory in
Washington, also uses geothermal heat pumps to cut down on its energy bill."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134292670_power06.html

(and who knows what else they've installed during the recent construction of his resident bunker).

[Lisa]

2. he saves 75% on his energy bills ...

Geothermal heat pump (the same kind that Al Gore had installed in the VP residence), and grey water recycling.

I've noticed that Bush a) doesn't know how the stuff works (he flubbed an explanation in front of reporters), and b) gets all defensive when anyone asks him if he has solar power -- he goes off on a big tangent about it being "untried technology" and is quite snippy about it. (He doesn't have solar panels, but the house was designed with passive heating/cooling in mind.)

Bet it was Laura's doing -- she spent more time working on the design for the "ranch" house than he did.

I think it would be way good to see somebody challenge Bush to make the same setup affordable for ALL Americans, in order to cut down on energy and water use, create manufacturing jobs, and take the lead in new technology which could be sold overseas.

[zekeson]

7. Of course she did

She may be a tad dense - thats obvious, she married Chimpy. However, she isn't stoopid. She knows that she is gonna have to live on that ranch in disgrace while her husband serves out his time in whatever fresh hellhole of a Fed prision he gets thrown in when the American pub finally figures out the shenanigans he has been pulling. She's made it quite comfortable and efficient so that she can survive once the excess campaign contributions dry up.

[Ilsa]

3. I've heard that it is energy efficient,

maybe with some solar collectors, but details haven't been given, I bet, for security reasons.

Anyone else notice how his attention to the outage changed during the course of the evening? At first it wasn't his problem, it was just a "domestic issue", but after the inference-laden comments on the news, he is suddenly acting like he is personally going to review the engineering specs to see what went wrong.

[Dover]

8. Engineering specs.......LOL! Only if an aid cleverly incorporated that

information into a story about a goat! Once again today the country has interrupted his reading...

Dagnabbit people! Didn't you see the "do not disturb the disturbed" sign outside the Western WH door?

[SoCalDem]

5. the fallacy in your premise

There are no SAVVY reporters.. There are only stenographers and sycophants..:(

[Dover]

9. ...........sigh..................................................

..you may say I'm a dreamer....

[catzies]

6. I'd like to see him asked too, just to see him squirm.

I'm sure many Americans would like to have had the sweetheart deals he surely got to take advantage of such advanced technologies. Another example of conservative right-wing GOP ideology.

[paulsbc]

10. here in Texas

we are on our own grid :)

there is the western grid, the eastern grid, and our Texas grid.

[Dover]

11. Credit where credit is due - one reporter did pick up on the hypocrisy of

Bush's energy policies vs. his own energy choices. This was written in April of 2001 -

Bush budget trashes energy conservation
April 12, 2001
By Bill Press

Are we in the middle of a severe energy crisis? The answer is the difference between what George Bush says and what he does. On energy, he says one thing, and does another.

President Bush says today's energy problems aren't limited to California. As a nation, he insists, we're experiencing the most serious energy crisis since the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s: a warning frequently echoed by Vice President Dick Cheney and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. The solution, they argue, is to reduce our dependency on OPEC by increased domestic production and development of alternative, renewable sources of energy.

...snip...

And we're not the only ones to learn how to save money by building an energy-efficient home. So did George and Laura Bush, much more recently. Their new ranch home in Crawford, Texas, is heated and cooled by geothermal heat pumps, totally independent of the electricity grid. >>

http://www.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/04/12/press.column/