by Jeff Ihnen | Sep 14, 2010 | Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant
The EPA since the beginning of time, when I was born maybe, has provided city and highway mileage ratings for light vehicles. Who among us users of the antiquated medieval English unit system of measurement doesn’t understand miles per gallon? Who doesn’t know...
by Jeff Ihnen | Aug 17, 2010 | Energy Rant
Is there anything as mysterious as the price of a car, especially a new one? I’ve heard the various prices so much, long ago, that I’ve pretty much blocked them out of my mind. There is the sticker price, dealer cost, factory invoice cost, blah, blah…blah, blah,...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jul 20, 2010 | Energy Rant
For this week’s publication, I was trying to think of an expensive, short-lived, duplicative, inconvenient, limited use, frivolous novelty. Did I mention expensive? After a half-hour of wonderment, the best I could do is a Homer Simpson bottle opener. But really...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jun 29, 2010 | Energy Rant
I know next to nothing, no, make that nothing about anthropology. However, on several occasions I have read that throughout the animal kingdom, every social group, pack, pod, litter, colony, team, board of supervisors, has an alpha that leads the bunch. This holds...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jun 22, 2010 | Energy Rant
I was recently reading a letter to the editor in The Wall Street Journal where the reader blasted ag biotech companies like Dow Chemical and Monsanto for creating “superweeds”. Monsanto transformed crop farming with the development of Roundup herbicide, which kills...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jun 1, 2010 | Energy Rant
It’s been about a month since I prognosticated and reflected on the BP disaster in the golf. Let’s see how things have unfolded. My predictions: Political food fight Underestimated disaster Lack of “what if” on BPs part Where is the outrage? First, I said...
by Jeff Ihnen | May 4, 2010 | Energy Rant
Like millions of people around the world, I have been following the slow nightmare that is unfolding in the gulf. Many topics and thoughts come to mind. First, our company mission is “make every project a positive experience for our clients”. It’s simple but guides...
by Jeff Ihnen | Apr 27, 2010 | Energy Rant
Back in the day when I was in the nuclear Navy, Greenpeace was not so infrequently pulling stunts like running their zodiacs up on the top of submarine hulls to make their unfounded statements of radiation releases to the environment. Since 9/11, you can bet they...
by Jeff Ihnen | Apr 20, 2010 | Energy Rant
The masses want power on demand without interruption or failure. They want it at a practically negligible cost and more so every year, they want it without emissions or other unpleasant byproducts. In the upper Midwest, energy without emissions means wind energy. ...
by Jeff Ihnen | Feb 3, 2010 | Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant
There is a running joke in our business that electrical engineers don’t know anything about energy efficiency. It is only a joke. One of the sharpest energy guys I have interviewed was a physics major who started on the ground floor of an energy efficiency...
