In the face of nature’s power forces, creating tough housing that can handle nature’s extremes makes sense. Green Builder Media has just launched a web site devoted to the art and science of building homes that can withstand virtually anything. 

Chalk it up to luck, I suppose, but a few weeks back we missed the only real snowstorm to hit our corner of the world this winter because we were traveling elsewhere on business. We received email reports from folks in the neighborhood that our hilly country lane was totally impassible due to ice and wet, deep snow plus plenty of downed trees, and their daily updates indicated that the situation remained unchanged for almost a week.

Executive Summary:

In the second half of 2012, the State was considering an update of its energy code. The Code Advisory Board (CAB) was recommending a minor step up from the 2009 IECC, while the codes and standards division was contemplating an endorsement of the 2012 IECC. Then everything changed, when Superstorm Sandy struck the Northeast, and the focus shifted to recovery. But even Sandy wasn’t strong enough to wash this decision away, and in some regards, it may have brought an even bigger problem ashore.

The State Energy Code

AFTER HITTING A REEF OFF THE ITALIAN COAST AND RUNNING ACROUND at Isolo del Giglio, Tuscany, on the night of January 13th, the luxury cruise vessel Costa Concordia partially sank, requiring the evacuation of the more than 4,000 people on board. At least thirty lives were lost and more than twice that number were injured.

I AM SITTING HERE AT MY COMPUTER IN SOUTEAST TEXAS during the heart of hurricane season. As some of you know from my past blogs I’ve lived through 7.6 earthquakes and wildfires in Southern California, 4’ of flood water in my home in Cypress Texas, been chased into basements during tornado warnings and chased out of town by hurricanes & tsunamis more times than I can count.

Despite BP's efforts to cover up the extent of the devastation in the Gulf, the more we learn about what's really happening, the more obvious the solutions.

READING THE NEWS REPORTS AND INTERVIEWS ABOUT THE NIGHTMARE unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico, I found myself sinking into a deepening funk. Having lived in the region for several years, I always considered it one of the natural crown jewels of U.S. territories.

The funerals in West Virginia coal country had barely slipped from the daily headlines when another fossil fuel disaster projected itself onto our computers and television screens. We found ourselves staring into a river of crude oil spewing from an almost mile-deep well head in the Gulf of Mexico as it embarked on its inexorable journey to our southern coastline, leaving in its wake a trail of death to every living thing it touched.