Frankly Speaking

Just because most on the left claim to be atheist doesn't mean that they don't have a religion. I think this pretty much dispels that myth.

Visitors to the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa won't find the Gideon Bible in the nightstand drawer. Instead, on the bureau will be a copy of "An Inconvenient Truth," former Vice President Al Gore's book about global warming.

The Gaia and the Orchard Garden, 35 miles away in San Francisco, are attempting to be the first hotels in California certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Now let me clear this up before anyone accuses me of hating good ol' mother earth. I'm all for conservation. I don't believe in wasting resources just because we can. If they can build a hotel that conserves water and electricity, and still make a profit, then I say good for them. However..

Chang said 43 cities have asked him to build green hotels. Some offer incentives to help cover construction costs, which were about 15 percent more for the Gaia. Chang said it's saving 25 percent on electricity and almost 50 percent on water, which may enable the hotel to turn profitable next month.

American Canyon slashed Gaia's transient occupancy tax by $1 million over three years. Anderson waived a $100,000 environmental impact fee, in part because a green hotel may encourage tourists to stay longer, said Scott Morgan, city manager.

So the Gaia cost about 15 percent more to construct and saves on electricity and water, but isn't yet profitable. I haven't bothered to look up when it was built, so it may still be within what could be considered a reasonable time period to turn profitable. But they also had their tax slashed by $1 million and didn't have to pay a $100,000 environmental impact fee.

But the best line in the entire article, to me anyway, was this one.

"I started thinking that there are many ways I can save water," said Chang, 62. "I changed my shower habit from eight minutes to two minutes."

Then he changed his building habits, after 10 years of developing Holiday Inn and Hilton franchises.

Two minutes? How in the hell do you shower in two minutes? Granted, I'm bald, so I shave in the shower and that takes a few minutes, but how do you lather, rinse, repeat in only two minutes?

I bet he has a certain "air" about him.

Labels: biting sarcasm, inconvenient truth