Posted on 07/27/2004 7:43:31 AM PDT by ItsTheMediaStupid
PHOENIX (AP) - Phoenix and its suburbs, where the air conditioning is cranked up so high that office workers and shoppers get goosebumps and have to wear sweaters in the middle of the summer, are being urged to turn down the AC to avoid rolling blackouts. But it's not going to be easy to get people to change their ways. Phoenix-area utilities started asking customers to conserve energy after fires at two transmission stations earlier this month reduced their capacity to deliver electricity. One of the first energy-saving suggestions: Push the thermostat a few degrees higher. "It all starts with the air conditioner. That is the piece of equipment that is responsible for 50 to 60 percent of the total bill in the summer," said Scott Harelson, a spokesman for Salt River Project, a utility serving the Phoenix area. If customers raise their thermostat a degree, they can save 2 percent to 3 percent on the air conditioning portion of their energy bill, according to Arizona Public Service Co., the area's other large electrical utility. But in this desert city where temperatures regularly climb above a scorching 110 degrees in the summer, people just love the cold air blowing over them. It was artificial cooling, after all, that helped turn Phoenix into a booming Sun Belt city in the first place. After World War II, when air conditioning became cheaper and more available, people and corporations moved in. Between 1950 and 1995, Arizona's population grew 462 percent. By 2002, Arizona was the second fastest-growing state. Residents are accustomed to working in offices so frigid they get goosebumps. When they go to the movies, eat at restaurants or stroll through the mall, they sometimes take along sweaters. At the Phoenix hospital where 20-year-old Nataliya Biskup works, the thermostat stays at 72 degrees. "I need a jacket in there. I bring a sweater to work. I recover from work here," Biskup said while sitting outside a coffee shop in 109-degree heat. Last week, when workers tried to save power by waiting closer to game time before cooling Bank One Ballpark - the world's first baseball stadium to combine a grass field, retractable roof and air conditioning - everyone from the Arizona Diamondbacks' fans to the visiting team complained. Rick Dinneen, a kindergarten teacher, saw frosty air pouring out of the open doors at an upscale Scottsdale shopping center. "You could feel the air coming out of it," he said. "I went in there and talked to the manager. She thought I was some nut." When he asked employees at several stores to close the doors and conserve energy, he got kicked out by a security guard. Officials from the outdoor mall later apologized to Dinneen and urged shops to cut down on their energy use. Harelson, the utility spokesman, said residents and businesses are doing their part and heeding warnings to use energy efficiently. "There are seemingly small steps to take that can lead to some inconvenience and some uncomfortable moments," he said. "In the long run, it helps us keep the lights on and that's good news."
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
More proof that reporters are stupid!
old news. It was cooler yesterday and it rained last night. Still going to be hot and we may have to delay school starting in some parts of town.
Plenty of uninhabited desert there, build some PBMR reactors...throw up some transmission lines...set up some substations...hey this could be a good thing for me $$$
Paragraphs waste energy?
In other news.... a Tucson environmental group is complaining that a power line in Southern Arizona should not go up because it may be bad for all the desert creatures.
It had paragraphs when I pasted it in there. Where did they go?
We have three CE System 80 plants 50 miles west of town. It's the largest nuclear power plant in the country. It would be great to build Units 4 and 5 though.
Ode to Arizona
The Devil wanted a place on earth.
Sort of a summer home:
A place to spend his vacation
Whenever he wanted to roam.
So he picked out Arizona.
A place both wretched and rough.
Here the climate was to his liking
And the cowboys were hardened and tough.
He dried up the streams in the canyons
and ordered no rain to fall:
He dried up the lakes in the valleys,
Then baked and scorched it all.
Then over his barren desert
He transplanted shrubs from Hell.
The cactus, thistle and prickly pear --
The climate suited them well.
Now, the home was much to his liking.
But animal life, he had none:
So he created crawling creatures
That all mankind would shun.
First he made the rattlesnake.
With its forked poisonous tongue:
Taught it to strike and rattle
And how to swallow its young.
Then he made Scorpions and Lizards
And the ugly old Horned Toad.
He placed spiders of every description
Under rocks by the side of the road.
Then he ordered the sun to shine hotter.
Hotter and hotter still.
Until even the cactus wilted
And the old Horned Toad looked ill.
Then he gazed on his earthly kingdom.
As any creator would:
He chuckled a little up his sleeve
And admitted that it was good.
'Twas summer now and Satan lay
By a prickly pear to rest.
The sweat rolled off his swarthy brow.
So he took off his coat and vest.
"By Golly," he finally panted
"I did my job too well.
I'm going back where I came from
Arizona is hotter than Hell!"
bury it in the ground...
They need more windmills.
The dog ate them?
:^)
Sometimes I actually think some of these environmentalists have some odd fantasy of living like a bunch of early cavemen.
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