Jefferson Review

"Your Liberty is Our Interest"

April 2, 2007

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Which house belongs to the environmentalist?

 

 

HOUSE # 1:

 

A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas.  Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas.  In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR.  The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month.  In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home.  This house is not in a northern or Midwestern "snow belt," either.  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 contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is

nestled on arid 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 winter and cools it in summer.  The system uses no fossil fuels

such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required

for a conventional heating/cooling system.  Rainwater from the roof is

collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern.  Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern.  The collected water then irrigates the land

surrounding the house.  Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the

property into the surrounding rural landscape.

 

 

HOUSE # 1 (20 room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of

Nashville,Tennessee.  It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and

filmmaker) Al Gore.

 

    

HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas.

Also known as "the Texas White House," it is the private residence of the

President of the United States, George W. Bush.

 

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