La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

Over half of the energy used in residential and commercial buildings goes to heating and cooling the air to keep occupants comfortable. Most of the time, cooling is achieved by using electricity to...

Power outages are rare and usually short here, but grid-provided electricity isn’t completely consistent and reliable under all circumstances. Here’s a quick guide to the world of power quality...

Could solar energy power the entire electric grid even though the sun is only up, in any given place, an average of 12 hours a day? Yes. It would be expensive to build solar power plants across every...

A few weeks ago I mentioned that lights based on light-emitting diodes (LEDs) use less energy than tungsten filament lights or fluorescent lights. LEDs also longer lasting. And, the cost of LEDs has...

Just about everyone in the U.S. has heard the words: “Close the refrigerator door.” Stereotypically, this is associated with an indecisive teenager. How important is that closed door, really? Is i...

Most residential energy consumers spend about 10-20% of their home electric budget on lighting. Significant changes in lighting technologies have made it possible to cut your lighting energy use by...

The most important thing most people can do to cut their electric and natural gas bills is reduce the amount of energy they use for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC). This is because...

Suppose you were filling your car with gas, and the pump behind you suddenly changed the price from $4 a gallon to $400 a gallon. You’d get an unpleasant surprise when you put the nozzle back on...

What can Washington state do to avoid problems similar to those Texas experienced with its energy supply during February 2021? How should our grid and utility regulations be designed to maintain...

A letter responding to one of my columns recently suggested that this column is trying to force green energy down people’s throats. Typically, I wouldn’t reply, but I think it’s important to...

The Skagit Valley Clean Energy Cooperative is a member-owned, non-profit organization founded by Terry Nelson, Mary Wohleb, John Leaver, Marylee Chamberlain and Bob Raymond to speed up the energy tran...

The February 2021 Texas energy crisis affected millions of people for up to four days. Its worst effects was where the Electric Reliability Council of Texas manages an electric grid which operates...

What caused the February 2021 Texas electric supply crisis? Prolonged, unexpected cold weather created unexpectedly high electric and gas demand. Supply systems could not keep up. If farmers grow too...

In February 2021, Texas had unusually cold weather, resulting in an electric energy supply crisis. Millions of customers were without power for up to four days, during the coldest days of the year....

Let’s update the energy independence question: Is it possible for the U.S. to develop and maintain stable supplies of energy, which are not subject to significant price volatility or the whims of...

The path to energy independence leads through "competition with oil," not "more oil." We've already seen such competition happen. In 1973, a sixth of U.S. electricity was generated using oil. Today,...

The United States can become energy independent. We can develop an energy infrastructure with stable prices low enough to support a modern, growing society. Although much of the discussion about...

Removing all limits on U.S. oil production will reduce oil prices, if other countries do not reduce their supplies to match our increased supplies. Is that energy independence? Energy independence in...

Can you replace coal-fired electric generation with solar power even though the sun isn't up 24 hours a day? Are coal mines closing because of economics, or is it just politics? As mentioned in my...

Is it possible to reduce your energy bill and carbon dioxide emissions and get air conditioning for a home that didn't have it, all at the same time? Sometimes it is. Changing your home's climate...

Your electric and gas utilities will pay you to reduce your energy use. They will pay you to pay them less. Electric and gas utilities will often pay part of the cost of buying and installing new...

Driving distances between charges (range), and charging station availability, are usually the biggest uncertainties people have about whether an electric vehicle (EV) will work for them. Both are...

By Greg Whiting Where's the electricity for electric vehicles going to come from? Why has California recently asked people to stop charging electric cars and, at the same time, changed regulations so...

By Greg Whiting What's the quickest way to significantly reduce how much you pay for energy, make the U.S. more energy independent and reduce your carbon footprint? The answer is the same for all...

By Greg Whiting Do you want more control over your electric, heat and fuel bills? More stable energy bills? A more reliable and resilient power grid? Less dependence on foreign oil? Less acid rain?...