Willing to Conserve, but Only if Tree Is Bright

When it comes to surviving California’s looming electricity crisis, Michelle Dunne admits that she surges almost daily between two conflicting energy-consuming mind-sets.

On most nights, she prowls her tiny apartment like a neurotic security guard, scouting out any light that has been left on, keeping the heat so low that she often wears a coat inside. Anything, she says, to do her part to lighten the electrical load during peak hours, helping to avert a catastrophic blackout that would send her city into an eerie darkness.

But then there’s the small matter of her Christmas tree.

“I can’t help myself--I have to have those lights on,” said the San Francisco technical writer. “People feel entitled in a capitalist society. But this is a good lesson for many Americans, that God forbid, things could run out, even something as simple as electricity.”

Dunne represents the divided thoughts held by many Californians in the face of this year’s unprecedented power emergency. Worried over the image of some science fiction-styled rolling blackout, many--particularly in energy-vulnerable Northern California--are making a conscious effort to scale back their energy use.

Some have had down-to-earth talks with their children over the value of conservation, others have offered words of advice to energy-hogging neighbors who insist on flaunting neighborhood Christmas light displays that could illuminate the Transamerica Pyramid.

Still others have remained cynical. For them, each day’s declared Stage 2 emergency--when the state closes within 5% of running out of power--rings as false as predictions from Chicken Little.

Crisis Could Escalate

But state energy experts warn that those who aren’t conserving could soon be shocked by an escalation of the crisis. Even if blackouts are averted by recent regulatory moves, consumers shielded from the high power prices that utilities are paying could face big bills when a consumer rate freeze ends.

Bay Area residents know they face critical shortages in any blackout. Because of insufficient transmission capacity, utilities supplying the state’s northern reaches often must send electricity on a roundabout route from Southern California east and north through Nevada and then back down through Oregon. A Stage 2 power emergency was declared Tuesday only in Northern California when a crucial power link broke down.

As he did his Christmas shopping on a busy downtown street, San Francisco entrepreneur John Renninger had his own definition of energy saving in California.

“It’s like the old saying about the difference between a recession and a depression,” he said. “It’s a recession when it hurts other people--it’s only a depression when it hurts you. Until this so-called energy crisis hits people at home--when they turn on their light switch and nothing happens or your energy bills skyrocket--they won’t do a thing about it.”

In Fresno, residents still flock to Christmas Tree Lane--a 2 1/2-mile route along the city’s most fashionable street, where wealthy homeowners put up elaborate holiday displays and string lights on huge pine trees to light up the winter sky.

“Those lights are so bright you could see them from the moon,” said resident Ed Moore. “Someone’s not getting the message.”

That frustrates Harvey Rosenfield, president of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights: “I don’t think most people in this state even know what a rolling blackout is.”

While now protected by a rate freeze, about 24 million Californians are due soon for a rate shock as the state’s largest utilities--Southern Californian Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric--try to recoup more than $6 billion in losses, Rosenfield said.

But the dreaded blackouts could come sooner than that if utilities are unable to buy enough power.

“The denial will change when traffic signals go down and there are more car accidents, when street lights render neighborhoods dark and there’s more crime, when home medical appliances shut down, when the average light bill reaches $600 a month. Then there’s going to be a ratepayer rebellion in this state,” he said.

V. John White, executive director of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies, a nonprofit education and advocacy group, says that many Californians are now learning that they cannot take energy for granted.

“Electricity has become the lifeblood of the new economy, more important to California than water,” he said. “It fuels the computers, e-commerce, telecommunications systems and cell phones. And right now it’s in jeopardy.”

The combination of the remarkable growth of the state’s economy and the coming debate over who should pay the utilities’ $6-billion electric bill have converged upon Californians “like the Perfect Storm,” he said.

“While people don’t know the storm is coming,” he said, “the clouds are darkening.”

Still, officials say the conservation warnings are working.

“During one crisis last week, officials made urgent appeals and, by 5 p.m. they calculated, there was 1,300 megawatts worth of relief provided,” said Jon Tremayne, a spokesman for Pacific Gas & Electric. “That’s enough power to run 1.3 million households.”

Businesses and city staffs are cutting back.

In San Francisco, Macy’s department store has reduced the hours it powers the 14,000 lights on its 80-foot holiday tree in Union Square. At City Hall, officials decorated only three of the dozens of trees they normally light.

But Lucien Canton, the city’s emergency services director, said state officials might cry wolf too often: “They’re talking of declaring Stage 3 alerts now just to obtain energy reserves--instead of only in case of rolling blackouts. You can carry these things too far.”

But just in case, Richard Coons preaches energy conservation to his two children--warning them not to turn on the Christmas tree lights until after dinner and pointing out flashlights and candles.

“This has joined such lessons as ‘Don’t cross the street without looking,’ ” said the 38-year-old office building property manager. “We tell them that one day the power can go out. But I don’t really think they understand the severity of the problem.”

San Francisco lawyer John O’Reilly says that many adults don’t grasp the problem. “I drive around this city between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. and I see all these empty office buildings lit up like Christmas trees--why can’t the janitor or the last person to leave shut off the lights?” he said.

“Californians are selfish. Look at the SUV drivers. They know they’re gas guzzlers and damage the environment. But they buy them anyway.”

As she shopped with a friend, Michelle Dunne lamented that her energy-saving campaign may lead her to turn off her dog’s night light.

“Don’t worry,” consoled her friend. “Dogs can see in the dark.”

“Maybe I won’t,” Dunne said. “You have to draw the line somewhere.”