Oppose the Duke Energy decoupling scam

Duke Energy successfully lobbied for the inclusion of an amendment in the House Energy and Commerce Committee to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act regarding the decoupling of electric rates.

This amendment presents a veiled attempt at another corporate bailout. Decoupling separates the profits a utility receives and the amount of electricity it sells. In theory, this removes the disincentive for a utility to encourage energy efficiency. However, in this amendment, decoupling takes most of the savings ratepayers receive from energy efficiency in the form of reduced utility bills and hands them over to utility companies. Duke is manipulating a process intended to save ratepayers money into another way to reap profits for itself.

What Duke's Amendment Does:
Duke Energy's amendment says that, in order for states to receive energy efficiency block grants from the federal government, the governor must seek favorable rate treatment for utilities in the form of decoupling. In other words, if the governor is not willing to sell out ratepayers, the state will not receive money to assist homeowners and businesses in reducing their energy bills and saving money.

Why Duke's Amendment Must be Removed:
There is nothing more important to the middle class now than saving money. It is obviously clear that issues once considered the realm of low-income families are becoming middle class issues. People can't afford their health care insurance or bills, their mortgages, retirement, the kids' educations etc, -- and Congress decides to hand windfall profits to rich utility companies?

It makes no sense whatsoever to convert ratepayer savings into utility profits under the current circumstances. It makes absolutely no sense to reward utility malfeasance through the stimulus package energy efficiency block grants to states.

Please Take Action Today:
Please call your Senator and Henry Waxman chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

• Urge them to remove the decoupling amendment so that residential and business ratepayers are not punished for saving energy.
• Tell them that affordability of utility bills is paramount to people keeping their homes and maintaining slim profit margins for small businesses.
• Tell them that decoupling is a slap in the face to people who have been suffering for years under financial duress.
• Tell them that decoupling is not in keeping with the President's message of positive change for the people, but instead reinforces continued corporate hijacking of our economy and incomes on behalf of short-term profit motive.

Abigail Adams and White House Laundry

Just to remind folks...Abigail Adams was the first woman to hang her laundry out in the White House. She used the East Room because it was large and unfinished at the time she and John moved in. For your information, the records show she hung the laundry out herself!

National Day of Action

O Christmas tree

By the time our power came back on after the ice storm, Christmas was so soon that we decided to forego a Christmas tree. But it didn't seem right to have no ornaments, no lights, nothing under which to place gifts... so we repurposed our drying rack for a couple of weeks, and it worked beautifully. The only thing missing was the evergreen scent, and if we ever needed to do this again we'd invest in a nice pine-scented candle for full effect. (PineSol just wouldn't cut it.)

You might be wondering where we dried clothes while our rack was playing tree. That's what doorknobs, backs of chairs, and windowsills are for!

Happy new year from Maura & Brian Adams in Penacook, NH.

IMBY (In My Back Yard) Groups Unite!

Let's help the garden folks get a garden on the White House lawn and maybe they will help to get a clothesline on the White House roof.

Success Stories

Project Laundry List wants to hear of communities that once were lost, but now are found; once were blind, but now see. In other words, if you or somebody you knows lives or lived in a community that changed their ordinances, rules or bylaws to allow clotheslines where they were once prohibited or severely restricted, please share your story here.

How our family of five lives (happily) ever after with no dryer

I recently wrote a tutorial on air-drying laundry, for a family of 5, all year round. There is nothing particularly notable about this except that we do live in Maine where it is winter half the year. (Not truly, it's quite lovely here but balmy in January it ain't!)

I am delighted to contribute this post to The Clothes Peg here at Project Laundry List, a site I just happily discovered thanks to Alexander visiting my blog, FIMBY.

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A friend's clothes dryer recently died and she casually mentioned to me in an e-mail "I don't know how you do this everyday!". By "this", she means hang drying all our laundry. Well, my simple to answer to that is, "I don't do it everyday, the kiddos do!"

my daughter hangs laundry in November

But seriously, our family of five doesn't own a dryer and I think it's totally manageable. Not only is it doable but I think it's pleasant to be dryer-free. Maybe you're resolving ('tis the season) to be greener this year or maybe you're like my friend with a broken dryer. Well then let me share how our family manages that most dreaded of household chores - the laundry pile.

The Story

When we bought our house almost 4 years ago it didn't have a dryer and at that point we decided we wouldn't buy one. Partly because the small laundry area of the kitchen had room for only 2 appliances and I valued having a little upright freezer more than a clothes dryer. Freezing and storing food is big priority around here, fluffy hot-air dried clothes are not. The other reason to drop the dryer was because we wanted to be more earth-friendly and going without a dryer seemed a fairly easy next step.

Lucky for us our house came with a clothesline in the back, neglected but still usable. I swear that clothesline was a selling feature for me. I had wanted to hang my laundry for years and here was my opportunity! So that was three and half years ago and we've never looked back and have never (honestly) considered buying a dryer since.

laundry shares space with garden, trampoline and tent

The Tools

Going without a dryer requires a few tools, although olden day folk would lay laundry on the grass to dry. We're not so hard core, here's what we use:

Summertime:

• Backyard T-style, imagine 2 T's in the yard 9 feet apart with 7 lines strung between them. Not working? I can't visualize very well either so I just drew this for you. Yes, I drew that work of art, then I scanned and cropped and imported... simply amazing.





• Anyway, you get the idea for outdoor hanging. There are a lot of options available for purchase or to self construct. If you're lucky and have a porch (I've always wanted an wrap-around porch, sigh) you could hang lines on that.

Wintertime (& long spells of rainy weather):

• This is when we get creative. Firstly, we have 2 large wooden racks. These are big and take up 9 sq ft of floor space each when fully opened. However they adjust in size and squish up real small to fit along a wall when not in use.


a rack being used to dry fabric

• We have a room in our house that is the designated workout, camping gear, indoor laundry hanging area. My husband works out at home, a decision made long ago to save money on gym fees, travel and to spend more time with the family. As such we own a large workout thing that he uses for weight lifting (that husband of mine he just gets finer and fitter with age *wink*). This structure serves double duty as laundry rack for hanger items, like shirts. See fancy diagram below.





• Most people don't have an in-home gym, no worries, you could use a broom laid between 2 chairs and hang all your shirts from that. I'm glad you all have an imagination because I'm not the best at drawing.





• For our family, one full load will take up one drying rack with the addition of shirts hanging on the barbell (on the weightlifting structure). The second rack is used when we run two loads of wash on the same day.

Which leads to the next point... the laundry routine.

The Routine

Summertime (or any weather warmer than winter):

• I throw a load in the washer, I use my own laundry soap, in the morning while preparing breakfast. Then during morning chores the kids and I (we homeschool) will hang the load outside. The key in the summer is to get it washed and up on the line in the morning before the afternoon when thunderstorms are more likely. We take the laundry off the line mid afternoon or before supper. If I do it alone I will fold it on the spot, kids can't manage to fold laundry in their arms yet, they need a floor space. Otherwise, we'll take it down, shove it in the basket and it will be folded and put away the next morning during chore time.

Wintertime:

• Kind of similar. Wash and hang the clothes in the morning but they dry all day and night. The next morning during chores the kids take laundry off the racks, fold and and put away. Although I love summer time laundry outdoors I love the winter routine because the kids do it all, except the actual washing. I sort, wash and take it out of the machine. The kids hang, take off the next day, fold and put away - even my clothes get put in their drawers. I've got it good! (oh yeah, and that training happened all by itself, ha!)

Regardless of the season we do an average of one full load of laundry everyday. I think that's very manageable, especially considering the kids basically do the laundry in our house. I wonder if that's the reason my son only changes his clothes once a week. Don't laugh, it's true.

The Benefits

• Hanging laundry outside forces me to get out and breathe. Obviously not in the winter, shoveling snow takes care of that. But those spring, summer and fall mornings when I step outside I feel refreshed, even if it's just 10 minutes outdoors. Of course being out there I'm usually drawn to my garden and will pick a few weeds, and then the kids will start jumping on the trampoline...


• Kind of related to the above point, hanging laundry forces us to slow down, forced simplicity. We can't run a ragged pace and be gone day in, day out and hope to "catch up" on the laundry on the weekend. Just like choosing to eat healthy, seasonal, home cooked meals requires that you're home to prepare them, hanging laundry required you to be home to... hang it. In fact, our family doesn't get behind on the laundry because if we did we'd be in a real pickle. Laundry is done everyday, takes a 1/2 hour at most including putting away, and never reaches the unsightly mound stage. Good thing, since the washer is in my kitchen and mounds of dirty clothes on the kitchen floor would look yucky.

spring cleaning laundry

• Good for laundry. I think I've read somewhere that the sun kills germs and I know clothes last longer when not heat dried, and we never shrink clothes. On that note, hanging laundry can stretch some cotton clothing but most of our stuff is outdoorsy, quick dry clothes that meet the rigors of hiking, camping and backpacking.


• Besides being better for the environment, hanging out clothes together is good for our family. It teaches the kids responsibility and is a chore that even young children can do. I think hanging laundry is just plain and simple time well spent.

Vote for the Best Idea

The Challenge

Dear folks,

Living in the north (in the winter) does pose the typical laundry problems. We have very little sunshine and most of the time our days are filled with sleet, hail, snow, rain, fog and then it repeats itself!

But I do get out there with my laundry. I have special gloves that I call my 'hanging out laundry' gloves. (The ends of the fingers are cut out!) Most of my clothes I can put on wooden racks inside the house, but sheets? I would never think of it.

Here is the winter plan for hanging out sheets when the weather is below freezing!

(1) Gather laundry, special gloves, boots, scarf, coats, and clothespins.
(2) Hurry! That is hurry to the clothesline before your laundry freezes!
(3) Hang up quickly!
(4) When freeze dried, bring in the sheets.
(5) If properly done, they will be able to stand up in your dining room or parlor!
(6) As they thaw, drape them over the bed to finish drying.
(7) Make your bed with the sweetest smelling sheets that you will ever sleep on!

Lou Ann

Lou Ann is a teacher, storyteller and writer from Northern Indiana and Ocracoke Island! Her neighbors watch her hang out laundry in all sorts of weather!