Pollution Solution tour hits Carson City

Houses that generate more power than they use, cars that get upwards of 70 miles a gallon, using wind and sun to replace power plants are no longer the stuff of daydreams according to the National Environmental Trust's Pollution Solutions Tour.

Those things are all available today - waiting for people and their governments to wake up to the damage fossil fuel and wasteful practices are causing, according to tour spokesman Eric Howard.

"What we're saying to government is let's raise the bar," said Howard.

He and other members of the tour are taking their display to 44 cities in 16 states to show people those technologies aren't exotic and experimental but practical and available.

They were greeted at the Capitol complex Tuesday by Gov. Kenny Guinn, who said he was first exposed to those technologies while president of Southwest Gas. In fact, he said Southwest converted many of its own vehicles to compressed natural gas while he was president.

Guinn said the trick is making the technology affordable to people.

"Some look very good on the surface of it but it still comes down to the cost factor," he said.

He said the tour is invaluable because it will "get people paying attention to the issue,"

But Guinn said the state's role must be to lead the way, not to try impose technologies on business and the individual when its buildings and vehicles don't measure up.

"You've got to clean up your own house," he said.

Guinn said that means taking a long look at what the state can do to reduce waste in electricity and heating fuels, vehicles and other areas.

"We can't say that to them (individuals and business) until the state's doing it," he said adding that developing a plan is the first step.

The tour is also out to encourage states like Nevada to give more incentives to people and businesses which install power saving technologies. At present, the only law on the books in Nevada is "net metering" which allows a home or business that generates power to feed it back into the electric grid when there is a surplus, in effect spinning the electric meter backward.

The Pollution Solution tour's centerpiece is their trailer, which sleeps three and generates more power than it consumes using solar panels on the roof.

"The trailer can actually send power back to the grid," said Howard.

They also brought a Honda Insight, a small gas-electric hybrid car that gets up to 70 miles a gallon, to show off along with bicycles and an electric-powered scooter.

But the exhibits also include more practical items such as new washers and driers that save up to 30 percent on water and power, solar radios, TVs and computer chargers. They demonstrated low-power compact fluorescent lights, fuel cell technology that turns a fuel such as hydrogen directly into electric power, and home insulators from high-tech energy-efficient windows to foam-filled wall structures.

The tour was headed back toward California Tuesday evening and on to Oregon and the northwest.