Conservation Buys the Last Laugh
I hope everyone will conserve this summer and after, because I want to laugh at the guys waiting to gouge us. It may not be so hard for those of us who haven’t paid much attention to how much power we used in the past: Maybe turn off the lights or TV when not in use, and wait until we really need air-conditioning. It will be harder for those who have been conserving all along to reduce their use further. For the long run, some ideas are: solar panels on every building; meters that measure peak and non-peak use; or maybe wiring homes with an extra outlet per room for items that are always drawing power, with one switch to make it easy to turn them all off when you are gone.
It’s easy to reject the idea of energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs, but sit down and do the math. We saved the price of bulbs in the first bill. Maybe appliances that draw power for clocks could be powered by batteries. Yes, it is still using power, but another form.
Marsha Lindsey
Tustin
Amid all the brouhaha about our energy shortage, we risk losing sight of a simple truth that has been obscured by decades of East-West socialist-capitalist polarization: There is nothing wrong with recognizing that public utilities should be administered with the public good in mind. The power production elite has demonstrated an attitude of profound indifference to the interests of Californians. I say, seize the power plants, Gov. Gray Davis, and make them work for us all.
David H. Kerby
Los Angeles
Stop blaming the federal government for California’s energy crisis or demanding that President Bush find a solution. It was caused by the actions of Californians, and it is our responsibility to solve the problem. I don’t deny that out-of-staters have taken advantage of deregulation by buying up local generating plants at bargain prices, but it is not the responsibility of federal officials to find a solution.
Perhaps California might buy the plants back at the same prices and hire Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric to operate them. Perhaps there might be a law that generating plants in California are owned and operated only by California corporations or by the federal or state government.
William H. Shallenberger
Oxnard
