Surprise! Californians Answer the Call in Crisis

They were rooting against us in Washington, D.C., in the oil fields of Texas and pretty much all across the land. This was to be the summer in which Californians got theirs, a summer of power blackouts followed by economic collapse and maybe even moments of social breakdown. Jokes were told about hot tubs and windmills and how many Californians it might take to screw in a lightbulb in the dark.

Early calls to conserve energy were derided as too little, too late. Conservation, as the vice president of the United States so condescendingly described it, perhaps was a sign of personal virtue, but certainly it was not the stuff of serious energy policy.

No, this time the hole was too deep. There was no way Californians could escape by flipping off lights, turning up thermostats. No matter what, the so-called golden land was going to go dark--dozens and dozens of times, the experts were certain--and wouldn’t that be something to see?

Well, here we sit on July 25, pawing away at a powered-up computer, all systems go, the grid up and humming, as it has been throughout the past couple of months. What happened?

Well, many things.

The soaring prices of wholesale power finally created a policy backlash, bringing a measure of control back to what had been a runaway market. The weather has been kind, proving once again that Mother Nature is a Californian at heart. New plants have come online. And also--and perhaps this is the most important reason of all--Californians have conserved, and conserved, and conserved.

In June, according to state figures adjusted to account for weather and population increases, Californians consumed 12% less electricity than they did in the same month last year. On the hottest day of that month, the so-called peak, they consumed 14% less than they had a year ago--something like 5,000 megawatts worth, or the output of two nuclear plants.

Final figures for July, not yet released, are expected to show similar patterns. A poll earlier this month found that 83% of the Californians surveyed were trying to conserve energy one way or another. And while nobody can be sure what August will bring, it has become increasingly difficult to imagine anything approaching the original doomsday visions.

“The fact is,” said Wally McGuire, coordinator for much of the state’s multiphased conservation program, “we are conserving like crazy.”

There are many explanations given for this. Economists insist it simply was a matter of increasing rates--higher prices produce less consumption. Policymakers, in turn, cite the incentives offered to those who use less electricity or purchase more efficient appliances. Skeptics suggest the reduced consumption merely signals a slowing economy. Fear of blackouts also is mentioned.

Most likely, it was a bit of all these things together--along with one other factor that tends, oddly enough, to be overlooked: Californians did the right thing. They decided to work their way out of the hole, one light switch at a time. They came to understand that money wasted on energy was money wasted, period. They had better things to spend it on--as individuals and collectively as a state.

So they quit whining and pulled together.

They turned off unneeded lights and, on hot days, turned up thermostats.

They unplugged second refrigerators.

They purchased house fans, compact fluorescent lightbulbs and other energy-saving products as quickly as the hardware stores could stock them.

They learned to do their laundry later at night, after the hours of peak demand had passed, or save it for the weekend.

They paid attention. They made adjustments.

As McGuire said, “They got it.”

And they changed the national energy debate. Remember, heading into the summer, the accepted wisdom was that California, which already consumes, per capita, less energy than most states, could not possibly conserve any more. Instead, Californians demonstrated that there is still a lot of energy to be saved on the cheap--and if it works in California. . . .

To be honest, none of it has been all that difficult. In fact, that some of the most effective measures were so easy raised an embarrassing question: Why weren’t we doing these things all along? Just when exactly did a second refrigerator become “essential” to quality living? Who sold us on the canard that computers must be maintained in rooms cooled down to Eskimo levels?

That Californians, in a crisis, answered the call should not be a surprise. They have done it before. In fact, after the latest long drought, Californians became so adept at conservation that some water district managers started to grow nervous. They feared that the drop in demand would decrease revenue and cripple their budgets.

In the same way, those engaged in the business of selling electricity to Californians must now be worried. What would happen to their bottom lines if Californians were to keep up--or, horrors, improve upon--these summer conservation levels? Of course, they don’t believe this will happen. They are counting on Californians, once the crisis has passed, to return to their old ways, letting the lights blaze and the air conditioners thunder all through the day and night.

Just for the pure fun of it, let’s surprise them again.