Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
A look at some of the positions of the presidential candidates on energy and global warming:
Republican John McCain:
—Favors building 45 nuclear power reactors by 2030. Proposes no federal spending to help build the plants, but use of government loan guarantees in existing law. Calls for opening Yucca Mountain for reactor waste and for reviving nuclear waste reprocessing, which was ended because of nuclear proliferation concerns. Argues nuclear power, which emits no greenhouse gases, will help deal with climate change.
—Favors increased offshore drilling and increased production as primary means to break dependence on foreign oil; opposes drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
—Mandatory reductions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 66 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, using a market-based cap-and-trade system that would increase energy costs.
—Supports $2 billion program to develop carbon capture and other clean coal research and development.
—$5,000 tax credit for the purchase of zero carbon emission cars; $300 million prize for improved batteries for hybrid vehicles.
Democrat Barack Obama:
—Ten-year, $150 billion fund for biofuels, wind, solar, plug-in hybrids, clean-coal technology and other "climate-friendly" measures as prime means to break dependence on foreign oil. Money to come from auctioning pollution permits under a program to address climate change.
—Mandatory reductions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, using a market-based, cap-and-trade system that would increase energy costs.
—Increase federal fuel economy requirements from 35 mpg to 40 mpg.
—Now would consider limited expansion of offshore oil and gas drilling. Opposes drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
—Proposes windfall-profits tax on largest oil companies to pay for energy rebate of up to $1,000.
—Expand federal requirements for ethanol from 36 million gallons to 60 million gallons a year with increase coming from non-corn sources, and require utilities to produce 25 percent of power from renewable energy such as wind, solar and biomass by 2025.
—$7,000 tax credit for the purchase of advance-technology vehicles; put 1 million plug-in hybrid cars on road by 2015.
