1.  Take time to plan your trips, make sure that your routes are the ones that are the shortest and most efficeint.  How many of us think we know a way to get somewhere that is shorter but we have never taken a look online to confirm whether or not it really is?

2. If you can, pay the extra dollars necessary to acquire high efficiency equipment like A/C and heating units.  While you pay a premium for the equipment, most units will save you big over the life of the equipment, especially since energy costs continue to rise.

3. Make an adjustment to your heating or cooling habits, you can work and live in a comfort zone without being in an excessive cost zone.  If you are in the heat of the desert maybe you can live with 75 degrees instead of 70 degrees.  Over an entire summer if you are cooling or heating a 2,000 square foot home the savings can be substantial.  Something as simple as a fan or ceiling fan can make an effective 5 degree difference in cooling or direct heat back down to you before it escapes the room.

4. In keeping with the above, upgarde your thermostat and set it to use less energy when your are gone to work.  You can save the money that the upgraded thermostat costs you in a short time.

5. Shorten the time that your pool cleaning system runs and consider off-peak times to run motors for such purposes.

 6. Cut back on decorative landscaping that is expensive to keep in place.  Do you really need to have acres of decorative grass that requires hundreds or thousands of gallons of fresh water pumped to it for aesthetics? 

7. Unplug electronics or applicances that stay in a ”standby” mode and continue to use power.

8. Incandescent lights use more energy because they create a lot of heat.  While there are still negative feature, fluorescent lights offer a substantial savings. 

9. Check to see if you can get a tax credit for making changes.  Many utility companies offer rebates for making landscaping, thermostat or light bulb changes.  Expect the feds to participate more with major alternative energy credits for solar and other sources.

What about recycling, building ”green” and home tune-ups?  All great ideas, it takes some effort, but with energy bills potentially going through the roof everyone needs to take some time and evaluate their consumption situation.

Our environmental problems are many and deep rooted and whether you want to accept them as real or not they are on their way to your doorstep, and they will arrive in the not so distant future.  ”The Limits to Growth,” the 1972 book that modeled possible economic growth outcomes pointed to potential global problems and more recently Al Gore’s “An Incontinent Truth” focused on humanly caused carbon dioxide increases that are the cause for Global Warming.

Our meager attempts to date to change direction on the use of fossil fuels and coal in the U.S. will likely have no effect on China or other developing countries that are ramping up their pollution outputs, but as the major environmental pollution abuser we need to lead by example. 

Adjusting to small, fuel efficient autos, significantly increased utility bills and being forced to reduce our consumption will be one of the most difficult adjustments that we as Americans will have to face over the next several years.  The fact that we, as a nation, are now recognizing that environmental problems exist instead of turning away as if they do not is a positive change. 

Most people have heard about the advent of “green” buildings but there are literally millions of products that are claiming to be “green,” and you can access a list by State and by Category at United States Green Products.  Another great source of information on the “green” revolution is Yahoo.  You can find their area dedicated to this topic at http://green.yahoo.com/. 

If you want to start buying “green” now, Treehugger.com provides a Buying Guide that offers a number of alternative products.  If all you can do at this point is make the right choices, this is a great place to start.  Sending a message to businesses that the environment is important will accelerate the development of “green” products and services.

I would like to also acknowledge Tim Willard’s “The Future is Green” blog, it is full of great posts that date back from 2003, and each post includes great information on a variety of “green” topics.  If you would like to read more about climate change, fossil fuel limits, alternative fuels and other articles on environmental topics his is a great source.

If you were struggling to pay your energy costs in the past, wait until the cost of this program hit you.  Some states with large coal-based energy producers will be hit harder, and thus their customers will be hit harder.  In other words, this program will not be even handed.  If you think about whom this program will hurt the most it has to be the elderly.  Fixed incomes are not going to absorb the energy increases that will appear after the implementation of this program.

There is no doubt about the fact that we all use more energy than we should.  The changes coming from this program will begin to force Americans to deal with a new reality, and “downsizing” is going to be a fact of life for many of us.  When you think about your energy consumption in the future, think small is better.