More people throughout Texas are becoming passionate about clean air, water and energy, and it's exciting that all of us can be part of the solution.  

Jeanne and I are working to make our home more energy efficient.  By doing so, we can help to cut back on demand from power plants. That means there's a little less of the air pollution that makes us sick and produces a thickening blanket of carbon around the planet.

Did I mention we're also saving money on our utility bills?

Some of the steps were very simple. Others were more substantial choices that we made in the course of remodeling our home.

Here are a few examples:

-          When replacing major appliances, we've chosen Energy Star appliances.

-          We joined the CPS Energy peak savers program so that our compressor cycles off at peak utilization times.

-          We're switching all of our light bulbs to CFL bulbs, which use 75 percent less energy than regular bulbs.

-          We added weather-stripping to all of our doors.

-          When we replaced our roof, we chose a silver metal roof to reflect heat and reduce our cooling costs.

If you're interested in learning more about what you can do to save energy and money visit the CPS Energy website: http://www.cpsenergy.com/content_listInternet.asp?elmt_id=13.

Be sure to check out the deal they have for discount CFL bulbs at local stores until the end of November.

If you want to learn more about saving water, take a look at the conservation tips and programs on the SAWS website:

http://www.saws.org/conservation/

The Metropolitan Partnership for Energy's Build San Antonio Green Program is another great resource: http://www.buildsagreen.org/.