I often hear politicians (mostly liberals) promoting renewable energy: hydro, wind, and solar, and I hear politicians (mostly conservatives) promoting increased oil production. But – how often do politicians or news commentators talk about energy efficiency? If Americans bought more energy-efficient products, we could reduce energy consumption in this country a lot – and right now. We don’t have to wait the 5 or 10 years it takes to build a new pipeline or for new energy-efficient products to be invented and get to market. These products are available now.

Automobiles. The average automobile sold in the U.S. last year got 25 miles per gallon and sold for $47,000. However, there are lots of cars on the market that get 40 to 50 miles per gallon and that cost much less than $47,000. A Toyota Prius hybrid gets 52 miles per gallon and sells for $35,000. This car has been on the market for many years and consistently gets very high marks for reliability. A Honda Accord hybrid gets 47 miles per gallon and also sells for around $35,000. The Prius is made in Japan. The Accord is made in Ohio. And lots of companies make electric vehicles.

Companies that buy huge numbers of cars and trucks are ordering electric vehicles. They aren’t doing this to please environmentalists. They are doing it to save money. Amazon has ordered 100,000 electric delivery vans. They did this because they did the math and concluded that they would save money by buying electric vans over gasoline powered vans.

I don’t understand why the government doesn’t do more to encourage Americans to buy more energy-efficient cars. I would like to see President Biden go on TV and stand next to 2 new cars that look about the same. I would like him to say: “If you are in the market for a new car, why buy this car that gets 25 miles a gallon and complain about how much you are spending every month on gasoline when you can buy this car over here that gets 45 miles a gallon and costs the same?” Unfortunately, I don’t expect that to happen.

However, even without encouragement from the federal government to buy more electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids, it is probably going to happen anyway. In 2021, 5% of new car sales in the U.S. were hybrids and 3% were electric vehicles. However, a recent study by J.P. Morgan predicts that 38% of all new car sales in the U.S. will be EVs or hybrids by 2025. Why the big change? It’s the price of gasoline. In 2016, the average retail price of gasoline in the U.S. was a little over $2.00 a gallon. Few people expect to see that price again.

Refrigerators. There are many other energy-efficient products that the government should be promoting and that are available now. I see that in my business. Sometimes a landlord will ask me when it is better to replace an old refrigerator or pay a repairman to fix it. I tell landlords that this decision shouldn’t be made principally on the cost of the repair but the age of the refrigerator. Refrigerators have become vastly more energy-efficient over the past few decades. A refrigerator made today will use 50% to 70% less electricity than a refrigerator of the same size made 20 years ago, and new refrigerators last longer than they used to.

Pilot Lights. I don’t understand why gas water heaters still have pilot lights. I had to replace 2 gas water heaters last year. I tried to buy new ones without pilot lights but couldn’t find them. I don’t know why gas water heaters still have pilot lights. The gas used by pilot lights is just wasted energy – completely wasted energy – and a gas water heater can use 25% of its gas just keeping the pilot light lit. There is no need for this waste. The technology to light gas appliances without pilot lights has been around for a long time. Gas clothes dryers don’t have pilot lights. They stopped making gas clothes dryers with pilot lights 50 years ago. Yet, lots of new water heaters, kitchen stoves, and wall furnaces still have pilot lights.

The White Roof Project. In places where it gets hot in summer, just painting a dark colored roof white can reduce that home’s air conditioning bill by as much as 40%. It is really astonishing at how much something as simple as this can reduce a home’s air conditioning bill. When I was a child, my bedroom was under the roof. It was a black tar roof. In summer, the temperature in my room was much hotter than the temperature outside, and we did not have air conditioning. White roofs also last much longer than black roofs because they don’t get as hot. Again, why isn’t the government promoting things like this?

Years before Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, rumors circulated all over Europe that Hitler was secretly Jewish, but could that be true? In order to answer this question, you need to understand how the Nazis defined their terms. The Nazis believed that there are 2 pure races in the world, Aryans and Jews, and that everyone else in the world is of mixed race. The Nazis were never able to identify Jews or Aryans by physical characteristics so the only way you could prove that you were an Aryan in Nazi Germany was by obtaining an Aryan Certificate. In order to get an Aryan Certificate, a person had to fill out a form stating the names of his parents and grandparents and certify that none of them were Jewish. However, Adolf Hitler couldn’t do that. He didn’t know the name of one of his grandparents. Adolf Hitler’s father, Alois, was born out of wedlock, and his mother, Maria Schiklgruber, refused to name the father. At the time Maria Schiklgruber became pregnant, she was working as a housemaid in the home of a wealthy Jewish merchant named Frankenberger. He had 2 sons living in the house with him and with her. It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out what the rumors were around town. Adolf Hitler was very aware of the fact that a lot of people suspected he was Jewish, and when he came to power, he took actions designed to squash the rumors. Hitler had family records destroyed. He had people who knew his father murdered, and he had a provision put in the Aryan Race Law stating that there were 2 people, and only 2 people, who were ‘indisputably Aryan’ and were therefore exempt from the requirements of the Aryan Race Law – himself and Jesus Christ. (How could Hitler prove that Jesus didn’t have any Jewish ancestors?) In 2010, 2 Belgian journalists collected saliva samples from 39 of Adolf Hitler’s known living relatives and had their DNA tested. It showed that the Hitler family haplogroup is rare in Western Europe but common among Sephardic Jews in North Africa. That didn’t prove that Adolf Hitler was Jewish, but it did add to people’s suspicions.

Willie Hitler. This guy has always fascinated me. William Patrick Hitler was Adolf Hitler’s nephew. Most people were so afraid of Adolf Hitler that they didn’t dare say anything that might offend him, but Willie told everybody that he thought Naziism was evil, including ‘Uncle Adolf.’ Willie was born in England and had a British passport. He was, therefore, under the protection of the British government. After having dinner with Willie, Adolf Hitler told Herman Goering that he would rather have several teeth pulled without anesthesia rather than have dinner with Willie again. Willie Hitler sent several blackmail letters addressed to ‘Dear Uncle Adolf.’ Willie repeatedly asked ‘Uncle Adolf’ to help him get a good-paying job in Germany. That would have been very easy for Adolf Hitler to do. Willie stated in his letters that if ‘Uncle Adolf’ didn’t help him, Willie would be forced to sell a story to a London tabloid revealing some family secret. We don’t know what that secret was, but Willie knew all about the Frankenbergers. Willie moved to the United States just before the start of World War 2. Upon arriving in the U.S., Willie traveled around the country giving anti-Nazi lectures. After Adolf Hitler declared war on the United States, Willie tried to join the U.S. Navy. A suspicious recruiting officer asked Willie: “Isn’t your uncle Adolf Hitler?” When Willie said: “Yes, he is”, his application was immediately stamped ‘Rejected.’ After making a personal appeal to President Franklin Roosevelt, Willie was allowed to join the navy. He won a purple heart. After the war, Willie had 3 children. They live on Long Island under assumed names. Understandably, none of them want their neighbors to know that their real name is ‘Hitler.’