Windpower........back when living in holland, had 2 right outside my offfice...they put 7 meter extra on the mast, to double production. Earned their investment back in 1.5 years. The coastal provinces (60/70km wide to put it in perspective) a very strong windy place. There are now so many windmills, the people have started to protest as it is beyond horizon pollution, low suns and you have a permanent scope effect in your living room. Hi winds and the low-frequency noice becomes very bad, drumming on your windows. First parks have now been build in the sea, extra hi, many megawatts annual capacity....good guess, Texas v Netherlands of 130 by 200 miles (36000km3), probably a few thousand of these mills. Out in the mountains here, they've got a few, exentric one's like 1 bladed. Most of the time standing still....hardly any wind.

On the tax question, similar to Germany, besides VAT/Sales tax, not much tax or carburante for vehicles....still the price is almost matching those of very hi taxed like denmark, holland, uk. Most anything here is kartel or monopoly controlled. Antitrust EU commission would have a field day here, except, they're not interested to get into the morasses.

Added: Most EU countries now by law force e-companies to buy the wind power from private owners.......mostly farmers run them in northern parts of the Netherlands. e-Companies offering 'green-power' at a slightly elevated rate, if u want such a 'feel good' contract as all the feeds go into one big grid one gets its juice from.

Oh and A-power.....even the most staunchly resistant countries are turning on their heels.....10 years to plan and build a new one, so better start constructing before we are boiled in the global warmed air. The technology is so much more mature, that it can be self-controlling. No time to wait for ColdFusion dreamers.

I have my gas and electric bills equalized and pay about $220/month total. That's on a 1300 square foot house with central a/c built in the mid 70's. :) Both utilities are still publicly owned here so the prices are kept pretty reasonable.

Had a pleasant surprise last week. Spend a few hundred on insulating the various in January...mainly closing all the little cracks in the blind cabinets and spaces with plaster or acryl injection. Also put rubber flexband in door and window spaces, where not fitting 100%. We had a longer colder winter than normal. Rather than paying the 100 odd Euro for Q2, which was very mild, got a refund of 350 euro (450 USD) from the pre-payment estimates on gas. Also because the very hot summer sofar is not getting so easily into the house the electricity bill dropped quite a bit as the airco keeps up much easier......oh well if you cant get Australian rates, take measures to not spill it.

and another thing

cop for this. I pulled into a petrol station with my empty light flashing and there was no standard unleaded. Have you seen how much petrol I didn't get for my fiver !

(No photoshop required)



When he handed me the receipt I asked if it would be made from Gold Leaf

That's £4.76 a gallon or $7.44 per American Gallon (3.785 Litres)

Dave, i thought u were a SpeedStep cruncher on the train Travelling on the Binare is positively the cheapest mode of transport u can image in Italy. Driving back and forth to Rome Airport including tolls for Autostrada costs me 95 Euro. Then the long park is 18 Euro a day..yes 18 Euro, halving after 7 days...a gimme yeah . Now the train.....16 Euro return.....nothing beats that. The GRA round Rome is so congested, that a Friday afternoon return puts one 5 hours in the car, which is about the time the train takes to get me home. Opposed to British trains, they run on time (actually since Benito Mussolini times). Still, no comparison to Dutch trains in punctuality....and very nice, buy your ticket there whilst waiting on your luggage.

ciao