Green living in Portland

[chelidon]

Pretty decent Christian Science Monitor article on green/eco-housing in Portland. Unfortunately, it points out the true fact that green housing is still largely restricted to that small minority of people who deliberately want to do it, and who have a serious amount of disposable income and are willing to dedicate it to this purpose. Until and unless green housing becomes comparable in cost to standard energy-wasting houses and apartments, or people are willing to buy a smaller energy-efficient house instead of a larger energy-wasting one, this will remain a pursuit of the educated "green elite," aka eco-yuppies.

Things may well change, though, as energy costs start to spike. Luxuries like high-efficiency refrigerators and other appliances, which cost several times as much as basic energy-wasting models, will become more popular, I'm sure. The long-term costs, particularly energy use over time, will start to get figured in there. The same goes for smaller, more energy-efficient houses. Perhaps there's a silver lining in the coming Peak Oil scenario.