The House That New Jersey Built

Jack doesn't live in this house; Mike does.

Mike Strizki lives in the very first solar-hydrogen house in the U.S. and according to The Christian Science Monitor, "It sounds promising, even utopian: homemade, storable energy that doesn't contribute to global warming."

But the very positive profile of Strizki and his unusual new home left out the cost to other New Jersey residents.

 “The total cost, $500,000, was paid for in part with a $250,000 grant from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities,” correspondent Jared Flesher wrote on March 15.

Let's see ... a grant from New Jersey. Since New Jersey isn't a person that means the $250,000 came from taxpayers.

The money used to pay for Strizki's solar-hydrogen house in the name of protecting the environment is roughly equivalent to the electric bill for 2005 for 237 people in New Jersey.