My heartfelt thoughts go out to everyone in the path of
Sandy. The devastation is beyond compare
and greater in areal extent than predicted.
All of the state and local agencies reacted quickly and with greater
depth than anyone could have imagined.
Special thanks go out to all of the rescuers, firemen, police,
individuals, families, and others too numerous to recount here. And special praises to out to the orderliness
of everyone concerned. This is how
Americans behave under adversity – exemplary.
The next phase is finding shelter for all of these displaced
people. Families are the obvious go-to
places. Hotels will be the next go-to
places. But after that, where do people
turn – families out of the metro area?
What about their jobs? The next
several weeks will be spent clearing streets of debris, pumping water out of
all kinds of subway stops, commercial buildings basements, homes, etc., fixing
all kinds of communications and restoring movement into and out of the metro
area. Then months and years will be
spent on rebuilding homes, repairing all sorts of buildings and rebuilding the
shore.
Out of all of this chaos is an opportunity to replace the
old infrastructure with new infrastructure and new city plans and designs. The East Coast has been reliant on heating
oil for over a hundred years. Now there
is an opportunity to lay new natural gas lines, install solar panels on all of
the new homes and buildings that will be built, install LED street lights,
rebuild the communications and roads for more efficient and faster service. Believing in human achievement and if
politics can be laid aside, the metro area could become an energy efficient
showcase for the world.
Energy efficient ideas:
- New natural gas lines – the natural gas utilities for the NYC/NJ/PA/Maryland and Delaware could redesign routes or establish main lines that weren’t there previously. This would provide fuel-switching capabilities for consumers.
- New furnaces - the states and utilities should encourage the installation of the highest possible efficiency furnaces rather than the cheapest, least efficient furnaces. This would save on natural gas or oil consumption for heating and cooling.
- New energy monitoring equipment - Hotels and homes that need rebuilding should include some of the latest technologies that monitor home energy consumption. This would save on electricity consumption.
- LED streetlights – these tend to be expensive until economies of scale begin to take place, the electricity savings here would be excellent for local towns and cities.
- New solar panel installation - states, utilities and local authorities should extend or introduce solar panel installation incentives for the new construction of residential and commercial buildings in the metro area. There are too many incidences where local governments have too many rules on solar panel installation. Now is the time to streamline this process.
These are but a few ideas that could be implemented. This is the time to turn adversity into the future.
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