I just saw this article about a major blackout in Italy yesterday that took down the whole penninsula.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3146618.stm

It seems to me that we in the West should maybe think about our energy polcies and use a little more.

I am not saying we just need to update the grids. That is necessary but not the only problem. We need to start thinking conciously about the amount of energy we use.

From light bulbs to computers we can save by just thinking about them a little more. I have flourescent bulbs in all of my fixtures in my apartment and I figured it out when I put them in that before I switched I was using more electricity by just having my kitchen light on than I do now with all the lights on in the apartment, and the amount of visible light is the same. I am also saving money on power bills.

So what do the rest of you think on this whole subject?

Should we all take a look at our habits and conciously attempt to conserve energy or should we just make more energy available so that we can use whatever we want when we want it?

MrS

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I believe California is the most power saving state for the past 2 or 3 years, and Dick Chaney laughed at us for saying we wouldnt be able to conserve power

why can't we be responsible for generating 10- 20% of our own power?
a solar cell here and there... if we had a solid (or serious) energy policy we could offer tax breaks to those that take the iniative to preserve what we have.
In the past few months, i've dropped my energy usage dramatically just by conscious living... using one bulb in two bulb lights.. reading during the day... and keeping my monitor off unless i'm on my computer.
i still wouldn't mind having an administration that focuses its attention on the curable problems, but i guess we have to wait for 2004.

quote:

Originally posted by ResonantDrag why can't we be responsible for generating 10- 20% of our own power? a solar cell here and there... if we had a solid (or serious) energy policy we could offer tax breaks to those that take the iniative to preserve what we have. In the past few months, i've dropped my energy usage dramatically just by conscious living... using one bulb in two bulb lights.. reading during the day... and keeping my monitor off unless i'm on my computer. i still wouldn't mind having an administration that focuses its attention on the curable problems, but i guess we have to wait for 2004.

Im not sure about other states, but California does cover half of the cost for solar cell panel setup in tax cuts. also, San Francisco's city government has started setting up solar panels on top of all its government buildings.