Power You, Power Me

I liked those pink fountain pic's he took yesterday, in advance of Pittsburgh's 250th birthday celebration. At least he's doing something useful.

Here are two websites with different perspectives on the "250":
Imagine Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh 2050

Did you notice the chill in the air this past week? The chill is not just the reduced chances that someones going to notice the For Sale by Owner sign in front of me, now that mortgage companies are becoming more careful about who they lend to (though my sub-$100K value would make most home buyers swoon with the potential savings over the next 15-30 years), but from the approach of winter to the Northern Hemisphere.

Yes, the leaves are turning, the nights are getting cooler, and soon Cleveland and other North Coast cities will get their first lake-effect snowfalls, making those of us in Pittsburgh (1) wish we had a lake nearby, or (2) thanking our lucky stars that Pittsburgh is several degrees of latitude south of the North Coast.

Of course, with the approach of winter comes thoughts of heating houses, heating cars, heating humans, heating buses, heating schools, heating...well, you get the idea. Will the tanking economy make heating more expensive? Will the lack of apparent demand make heating less expensive?

Did you know that when the utilities talk about gas prices, they mean the residential price, that you and I pay, and not the "wellhead" price? I hadn't thought of it before, either.

Would it surprise you to know that natural gas prices actually go down in the winter, historically? Check out the historical ranges for residential gas...it's very interesting.

Did you know that coal, used generally for electricity generation, is classified in two categories? Yup: thermal coal and metallurgical coal. I didn't know that until he began talking abit about energy suppliers. He'd been aware of Alpha Natural Resources for awhile, as his mother had mentioned them, but he became even more aware when an old-line Cleveland company, Cleveland-Cliffs, announced a bid to buy ANR.

Here's an interesting PDF from the Department of Energy. According to the document, the price of coal generally came down about 66% from 1983 to 2003...according to the Wikipedia article, that price has quadrupled from 2003 to 2008, due in part to the rising global demand for both energy production and steel production. Although the recession that appears to have finally caught up to us (is anyone yet admitting to it?) may/will decrease energy demand worldwide...coal will remain very important in the world energy and steel production realms.

The other day, I noted one other hint to the impending winter: the smell of hardwoods being burned in fireplaces or heating stoves locally. Do you use hardwoods where you live? Does anyone still use coal in their homes? One of my fellow neighborhood houses does...he likes to think he's still in the 19th century, with that thick black smoke wafting heavily from his chimney....

Enjoy your Fall!

..HF.