Did anyone think to limit the number of square feet on new home or re-model constructions?
Probably not. I doubt if it even occurred to anyone on the Pitkin County Commission. But it didn’t take me long to calculate that a wealthy Aspenite living in a 15,000 square foot bunker/home and using the mandated 40,000 BTUs of energy per square foot limit will consume 600,000,000 BTUs while a redneck tool pusher living in a less efficient 2000 square foot double-wide can expect to use far less energy—about 126,000,000 BTUs. Somebody tell me where our credibility is. And it’s a safe bet that this “redneck” lives in his drafty trailer twelve months a year, while many of these energy-efficient Aspenites spend a fraction of their time there. How can we offer praise to some extravagantly consumptive part-time homeowner? Imagine how much energy it took to construct a castle like that. Consider the natural materials, the cost to operate the heavy equipment, the energy to transport the workers to the job site (it’s doubtful that any of the contractors could afford to even live in Aspen). Th
