Kenneth Harney’s column in the Star’s business section reports that a new generation of energy-efficient mortgages are being offered by the FHA, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae. The FHA was directed to offer a minimum of 50,000 new energy-efficient mortgages. An energy-efficient house is defined as one in which energy consumption is reduced by 20 percent after renovations. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were directed to develop new mortgage products and more flexible underwriting guidelines to reward energy conscious borrowers and builders…

There was an editorial in the local Arizona Daily Star on Sunday, June 7, that I missed. Fortunately my wife clipped it out for me. It was about transportation costs. It is also about energy, but that was not the thrust of it. The gist of the editorial was that developers don't build housing where the jobs are. They build housing where land is cheap, causing people to spend as much on transportation as on housing. In Pima County it was reported, transportation can cost 32 percent of the median income for the area....

Here we go again. Sound like Ronald Reagan? He did come from California. California did help kill the electric car known as the EV (for electric vehicle) back in 1998. At that time California mandated that 5% of autos sold in California get zero emissions by 2001 and 10% by 2008. GM developed a little electric vehicle, (the EV). They obviously had no intention of really developing and selling them. They leased them and after a bad battery was replaced by a very effective one, and after a very negative "Sales" campaign, managed to convince California they didn't work (Read Who Killed the Electric car? in this blog site). They recalled all of the EVs and crushed them. Well it's happening again.....