2 houses - not sure if true or not, but something I received via the miracle of email

[Murphy3]

Subject: 2 homes


House 1:
The four-bedroom home was planned so that "every room has a relationship with something in the landscape that's different from the room next door. Each of the rooms feels like a slightly different place." The resulting single-story house is a paragon of environmental planning.


The passive-solar house is built of honey-colored native limestone and positioned to absorb winter sunlight, warming the interior walkways and walls of the 4,000-square-foot residence. Geothermal heat pumps circulate water through pipes buried 300 feet deep in the ground. These waters pass through a heat exchange system that keeps the home warm in winter and cool in summer. A 25,000-gallon underground cistern collects rainwater gathered from roof urns; wastewater from sinks, toilets, and showers cascades into underground purifying tanks and is also funneled into the cistern. The water from the cistern is then used to irrigate the landscaping around the four-bedroom home, (which) uses indigenous grasses, shrubs, and flowers to complete the exterior treatment of the home. In addition to its minimal environmental impact, the look and layout of the house reflect one of the paramount priorities: relaxation. A spacious 10-foot porch wraps completely around the residence and beckons the family outdoors. With few hallways to speak of, family and guests make their way from room to room either directly or by way of the porch. "The house doesn't hold you in. Where the porch ends there is grass. There is no step-up at all." This house consumes 25% of the energy of an average American home. (Source: Cowboys and Indians Magazine, Oct. 2002 and Chicago Tribune April 2001.)

House 2:
This 20-room, 8-bathroom house consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year. The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, this house devoured nearly 221,000 kWh, more than 20 times the national average. Last August alone, the house burned through 22,619 kWh, guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of this energy consumption, the average monthly electric bill topped $1,359. Also, natural gas bills for this house and guest house averaged $1,080 per month last year. In total, this house had nearly $30,000 in combined electricity and natural gas bills for
2006. (Source: just about anywhere in the news last month online and on talk radio, but barely on TV.)



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House 1 belongs to George and Laura Bush, and is in Crawford, Texas.



House 2 belongs to Al and Tipper Gore, and is in Nashville, Tennessee.

[capitalcity]

Who's the rockstar now?

Bush's Ranch House 'Far More Eco-Friendly' Than Gore's
By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor
March 01, 2007

([url=http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200703/CUL20070301c.html]CNSNews.com[url]) - George Bush may be a nemesis of the global green movement and Al Gore its hero, but the president's home is arguably far more environmentally-friendly than the home of the man he defeated in the 2000 election.

Bush's "Western White House" in Crawford, Texas, has been praised as "an eco-friendly haven" while the former vice-president's home in Nashville, Tennessee was criticized this week for heavy power consumption.

"In politics, people don't always practice what they preach," Marlo Lewis, Jr., a senior fellow at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), told Cybercast News Service on Wednesday.

Bush has been criticized harshly by environmentalists for his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol and its mandatory cuts on emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming.

By contrast, Gore on Sunday won an Academy Award for his documentary focusing on the impact of climate change. He recently announced a series of music concerts on seven continents in July to drew further attention to the cause.

"It's interesting that Bush seems to actually practice conservation, while Gore seems to want to buy his way out of his obligations," said Lewis, referring to the purchase of offsets for carbon emissions attributed to the high power use in Gore's 20-room mansion.

An April 2001 article in USA Today described the president's 4,000-square-foot single-story limestone house in Crawford as an "eco-friendly haven."

"Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into purifying tanks underground -- one tank for water from showers and bathroom sinks, which is so-called 'gray water,' and one tank for 'black water' from the kitchen sink and toilets," it said. "The purified water is funneled to the cistern with the rainwater."

In addition, "the Bushes installed a geothermal heating and cooling system, which uses about 25 percent of the electricity that traditional heating and air-conditioning systems consume."

As Cybercast News Service reported earlier, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research (TCPR) charged on Monday that Gore's mansion in Nashville "consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year."

"As the spokesman of choice for the global warming movement, Al Gore has to be willing to walk the walk, not just talk the talk, when it comes to home energy use," said TCPR President Drew Johnson.

David Roberts, staff writer for the online environmental magazine Grist, Wednesday criticized the analysis by the TCPR, which he described as an "attack group from Tennessee."

The center's report had been "thrown together purely for the purpose of attacking Al Gore after the Oscars," Roberts told Cybercast News Service.

It was unfair, he said, to compare Gore's electrical consumption to the national average, which "includes apartments and trailer homes and is an average across all climatic zones, some of which are quite temperate."

Gore and his wife, Tipper, "both work out of their house" and "have special security measures for an ex-vice president, all of which naturally increases the electricity use in the home," Roberts added.

Moreover, Gore "pays almost a 50 percent premium to buy the 'green power' offered from his electrical company," which generates its voltage from hydroelectric and nuclear power rather than coal, he said.

"If every national leader did as much as Al Gore does to ameliorate their impact on the climate, the world would be a much better place."

Nevertheless, Roberts conceded that the energy efficiency of the president's home in Crawford is "fantastic."

"I wish that George Bush would back public policy that is in line with what he does on his ranch," he said.

'Elitist'

Johnson of the TCPR defended his group's report against criticism from Gore's supporters.

He acknowledged that the information was obtained from the National Electric Service the day after Gore won his Oscar, but argued that "it is fair to compare Gore's [energy] use to what most Americans are used to."

"All of the niceties he may have and all the extra people he may have running in and out of his house still shouldn't mean that the person leading this environmental charge should have 20 times the electrical consumption of the average American," Johnson charged.

The CEI's Lewis said the disparity between Gore's message on global warming and his power consumption reflected an "elitist mentality."

"The average soccer mom can't afford to plant trees in the rainforest in order to remain carbon neutral," he said.

"All these jet-setters' lives consist of going to conferences in other countries by burning jet fuel and staying in posh hotels where they keep the lights on all day and so on in order to tut-tut about how wasteful the rest of us are in our use of energy," he stated.

"They always make an exception for themselves because what they're doing is so important."

[Murphy3]

wow, I actually pay less for 'green power' per month than I would using TXU.. Gore needs to shop around.

and just how large of a house do you need to work from home? That's a rather odd way to justify having such a large house. It's not like there would be such a huge need to justify it if he hadn't been on his high horse for so long about the environment....

[Flacolaco]

guys, guys.....Al Gore invented electricity, he knows whats up

[alexamenos]

i always thought that george w. bush was a closet tree-hugger, this proves it. damn hippies.

[DavidDaMonkey]

I don't have strong leanings towards either of these men, but when you are talking about politics, its a stretch to try to compare business life to personal life.

[raefformvp]

Originally Posted by DavidDaMonkey

I don't have strong leanings towards either of these men, but when you are talking about politics, its a stretch to try to compare business life to personal life.

seriously? even when you are talking about the president and former vice-president of the United States? I'll agree to disagree with you there...

that being said, we are all hypocrites in one or more areas of our lives. you would think that Gore would "practice what he preaches", but who amongst us does? I try, but it doesn't always happen. and I say we move this thread over to the political section. I hate talking about politics, and if this thread was moved, I would have an easier time avoiding it!

[Murphy3]

This is about housing..not politics..
sorry raef

[DavidDaMonkey]

Originally Posted by raefformvp

seriously? even when you are talking about the president and former vice-president of the United States? I'll agree to disagree with you there...

that being said, we are all hypocrites in one or more areas of our lives. you would think that Gore would "practice what he preaches", but who amongst us do? I try, but it doesn't always happen. and I say we move this thread over to the political section. I hate talking about politics, and if this thread was moved, I would have an easier time avoiding it!

I appreciate that you agree to disagree. I hate fights, but love discussions, so I'll explain further. I think that, unfortunately, politics is a business. In any business, and especially politics, you have to often please certain people or do certain things that are for the greater good, or at least what you perceive to be the greater good.

GW might feel he has to avoid siding with the "eco nutjobs" and Gore might feel his image would be better if he turned against the "staunch conservatives." I'm not saying any of this is good or right, but I think its just a part of the way things work.

Sorry, I get verbose when I've been drinking.

[bernardos70]

Hypocrisy! The only reason you got the email in the first place is because Al Gore invented the internet......