Environment: June 2008 Archives

A report in Sunday's Sun describes what local governments are doing about high fuel prices. The city of Naperville, for example, says its cut fuel consumption by 6 percent in recent years by reducing the number of vehicles in its fleet, buying fuel wholesale, and taking other steps. The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County is using alternative fuels. The Naperville Park District is telling workers not to leave vehicles idling.

What do you think -- are these steps enough? Remember not long ago when a whistleblower told DuPage County Board members how public works employees were filling up personal vehicles with gas paid for by county taxpayers? And that was before $4 a gallon gas. How confident are you that there are no thefts by employees taking place now?

What are you doing to cut your own personal fuel consumption? What do you think government agencies should do to reduce fuel costs?

We're in one of those stormy cycles, where just about every day it seems there are new reports of high winds, heavy rains and damage in our area.

People love to talk about the weather. How well do you think local authorities give notice about approaching severe weather? How about the aftermath--how well do the city, townships and other agencies handle the cleanup of branches, etc.

How do you find out about severe weather--TV, Internet, radio, sirens, personal digital devices? What's your worst storm experience?

Tuesday's Sun features an account about the debate over hanging laundry out to dry. In this era of going green, it's the trendy thing to do to be environmentally friendly and save money on energy costs, too. (It's ironic that something so traditional as air-drying laundry would be called trendy...)

While there's no ordinance that prohibits the practice in Naperville, many subdivisions have policies that ban outdoor laundry drying for being unsightly. Again, the trendy thing to do is to forget aesthetics, repeal the bans and let the wind and sun dry our clothes and sheets. (They smell better, anyway). Even the tony Hamptons in New York has repealed its outdoor laundry ban, and they're like Naperville on steroids over there.

What do you think? If you lived in a subdivision where the homeowners association prohibits air-drying laundry, what would you do? Encourage the board to repeal the ban? Or do you think laundry is unsightly, and you favor banning it? Let's hear what you think.