Obama's Nobel Prize Winner Worsens Global Warming

Barack Obama appointed Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu as his first Secretary of Energy. Among his brilliant ideas was to paint roofs white, to reflect the sun's rays back into space. So, how's that working out?

Not so well.

A misguided and flawed federal government initiative could be costing Bangor residents and business owners untold dollars in wasted energy costs — and in a small way contributing to global warming.

Maine home and business owners are being told they should use white roofs as the standard in construction of new homes and buildings. White roofs are mandated in some parts of the U.S. and promoted as an energy-efficient means of reducing air-conditioning costs, which is absolutely true.

However, what often goes unmentioned is that there is a heating penalty associated with the use of white roofs in northern cities such as Bangor.

In southern locales, the bulk of a building’s energy bill is attributed to air-conditioning costs, and thus, a reflective white roof can be used effectively to lower energy usage. But in northern climates such as Maine, where the energy used to heat a building is many times greater than energy used on air-conditioning, a reflective white roof can notably increase energy usage and overall costs.