Posted on 01/08/2008 6:33:45 AM PST by jdm
There is an imbalance between supply and demand in energy, and some California bureaucrats are standing around wondering what to do about it.
One says: “Run commercials asking people to conserve!” This is met with general approval.
Another says: “Make homeowners install thermostats that we bureaucrats can remotely control!” More general approval.
A third says: “Raise . . . prices?”
A roomful of angry people turns on him. “Raise prices — as a way of balancing supply and demand?!?!?! What an idiot!”
That’s California in a nutshell.
It appears that proposal number two — letting bureaucrats control homeowners’ thermostats — is indeed a potential reality. Earlier today I linked an article in the American Thinker written by Joseph Somsel warning of this possibility. Our friend Bradley J. Fikes saw my post, and spent the day checking out Somsel’s allegations and writing a Big Media piece on it. Bradley’s piece begins:
California utilities would control the temperature of new homes and commercial buildings in emergencies with a radio-controlled thermostat, under a proposed state update to building energy efficiency standards.
Customers could not override the thermostats during “emergency events,” according to the proposal, part of a 236-page revision to building standards. The document is scheduled to be considered by the California Energy Commission, a state agency, on Jan. 30.
The description does not provide any exception for health or safety concerns. It also does not define what are “emergency events.”
Sweet. Big Media is good for focusing attention on outrages like this. Once people get the idea that California bureaucrats really want to control our thermostats, it will very possibly be all over talk radio. If I’m right about that, the plan will die a quick death from there.
Congratulations to Joseph and Bradley on their excellent work. I hope it bears fruit.
I get in enough fights with my wife over the thermostat. I don’t need to fight with bureaucrats too.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Shades of President Nixon and his 68 degreees and wear a sweater....
California has been using up too much of the energy for years. Do it. This method will never come to me.
If Hillary is elected President women will control the national thermostat. Venus here we come.
If Kalifornis is using “too much” energy, charge them more for it. They will find ways to save energy if they’re paying through the nose for it. No need to control their thermostats from some building in Sacramento or a bunker in the Sierras.
Wasn't that Jimmy Carter? I vaguely remember a SNL skit with He & Rosalyn in sweaters and Miss Lilian on a bike that ran a charger hooked to the TV.
No it was President Nixon who did it first
Carter is an Algore wannabe...I invented the wheel LOL
Nixon also put the speed limit down to 55 nation wide to save lives...
That kind of thing happens all the time, already.
Oh, you can bet that if this sort of thing becomes mandatory, once the device stops communicating with the public utilities, a repair crew will be dispatched.
If it's found that the device was tampered with, you can bet that there will be a fine, and I wouldn't put it past them, criminal charges.
Mark
“Big Media is good for focusing attention on outrages like this. Once people get the idea that California bureaucrats really want to control our thermostats, it will very possibly be all over talk radio.”
Um, I hate to break it to the author, but talk radio is the antithesis of big media. Big media wouldn’t touch this story with a ten foot pole.
“...spread the cost of these idiot regs over the cost of many buildings.”
Can you explain to me how you spread variable costs via economies of scale?
Definitely going to happen. All this hype over GW isn’t for nothing. It’s designed to prepare us for ridiculous laws like that and the one about light bulbs. Only a matter of time.
First, buildings owned by the gov. Then private businesses that contract with the gov. Then all businesses, then homes where an occupant receives gov money. Then all homes.
“Can we isolate CA, let them have their own socialist economy, and let them trade with us as if a foreign entity?”
Wasn’t that the point of federalism? Of course the USSC has bastardized the commerce clause to eliminate that principle.
free dixie,sw
If I paid for it; it’s mine, and I can do what I like with it after the Inspector leaves.
Most likely, I’d beat it to S#$%! with a sledgehammer, and send the pieces to the Governor’s office along with handwritten instructions for it’s successful reinstallation as an integral part of his anatomy.
And, yes, I’d be willing to pay for that priviledge.
I call him Health Nut Huckabee.
Is there actual evidence that the libs are deliberately moving out into other states to drag them leftward, or is it that they’re just idiots who cannot leave their morally bankrupt ideologies with the states from which they flee?
I thought the double nickel was imposed to save oil. The "saves lives" argument, of course, is quite convenient for perpetrating tyranny.
So, what can we do? People have freedom of movement in this country. And whatever happened to that (yes) deliberate plan to move 20,000 libertarian conservatives into a small state and drag it rightward.
That stunt, by the way, proves your point. If we can think of such things, so can they.
Our way is superior, because we mostly leave them alone, while they, on the other hand, try to impose their will on us.
Also with young people, in an informed manner, point out the hypocrisy of socialist mind sets.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.