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CA: Now from the Commissar of Energy... (Tom McClintock on Orwellian thermostats)
Citizens for the California Republic ^ | 01-15-2008 | Tom McClintock

Posted on 01/16/2008 2:13:20 PM PST by calcowgirl

I admit that I didn’t believe the first reports that the California Energy Commission is seriously considering a law to require homeowners to install a thermostat that can be adjusted by government bureaucrats. It seemed like “black helicopter” hysterics to suggest our government has become so intrusive that it would seek to monitor and control minute decisions like what temperature we set for our own homes.

But seeing is believing. The proposed regulations can be found beginning on page 63 at this link [PDF FILE].

The rationale for this brave new world is that government can promote energy conservation and avert blackouts by electronically entering our homes and adjusting our thermostats for us. But wasn’t that the purpose of Orwell’s vision of Big Brother: to “help” individuals lead “better” and more “secure” lives?

And why stop there? Shouldn’t government promote additional conservation by requiring microchips that will disable our major appliances when it suits officials? Shouldn’t it adjust the water flow and temperature of those miscreants who take showers that are too long or too warm? Shouldn’t it disable bank cards after too many junk food purchases to reduce obesity? And imagine all the lung cancer it could prevent by sniffing for smoke in our homes, or all the crime it could prevent by peeking through cameras in our living rooms. All are well within the reach of current technology – and, judging from the Energy Commission’s agenda, well within the appetite of California’s leftist officials.

In response to initial public outrage, a spokesperson for the Energy Commission assured a reporter that the proposal would probably be modified to allow homeowners to manually override the government thermostat setting. Then why mandate the device at all? Why not allow homeowners to decide for themselves whether their thermostats contain a government microchip and whether they wish to invite officials to control it? The answer should be obvious: the bureaucrats are trying to accomplish in two steps what politically they can’t do in one.

If there is any doubt that this has little to do with electricity and much to do with raw power of quite a different kind, consider this: according to the Energy Commission’s own figures, Californians already rank dead last among the 50 states in our per capita consumption of electricity. Indeed, the average Californian uses about half the electricity as the average American, and less than consumers in Luxembourg, Guam, the Cayman Islands and Aruba. How many more kilowatts do they expect to squeeze from California consumers?

The great and tragic irony is that a generation ago, electricity in California was clean, cheap and abundant. It was an era of hydro-electric dams and nuclear power plants that today are generating electricity for between ½-cent and 3-cents per kilowatt hour, and there was serious discussion about doing away with home electricity meters completely. After all, at 3-cents per kilowatt hour, the average household electricity bill should come to about $18 per month.

But then the California Energy Commission was created in 1974 and it began systematically obstructing the construction of new power plants. And having imposed an artificial electricity shortage by its own overbearing regulations, it now seeks to ration what’s left by setting your thermostat for you.

What can Californians do about it? The Commission will consider these regulations on January 30th. All five members of the energy commission are gubernatorial appointees, and four of the five were appointed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. They need to be flooded with protests and placed on notice that this is one vote that they can’t cast in obscurity. And the governor needs to know that voters will hold him accountable for the decisions made by his own appointees.

Click here to visit our CFCR Action Center to direct your protests both to the governor and his appointees.

We will watch the vote and report to you HOW the governor’s appointees voted.


TOPICS: Government; US: California
KEYWORDS: mcclintock; thermostats
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To: egginanest
Didn’t McClintock endorse Thompson?

yes

41 posted on 01/16/2008 4:29:05 PM PST by ElkGroveDan (I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired of all the politics in politics.)
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To: ElkGroveDan; calcowgirl

Sorry EGDan. I can’t hear you because your violin is out of tune...


42 posted on 01/16/2008 5:07:08 PM PST by tubebender
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To: bill1952
Fortunately, I’m not a serious cook. :)

Yeah, I had to laugh. My daughter (single) had a gas range and pretty much just boiled water on it. Everything else in the microwave. I tease her, say that I failed as a father by not teaching her how to cook. She takes after her mother.

43 posted on 01/16/2008 5:07:18 PM PST by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s........you weren't really there)
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To: HKMk23
I'd recommend at least TWO eyes and the business end of something that chambers .45ACP.

:-)

44 posted on 01/16/2008 5:22:32 PM PST by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: calcowgirl
Actually, the dystopia the thermostat plan bring to mind isn't Orwell's 1984, but the Terry Giliam movie Brazil in which Air-Conditioning Repairman is a subversive (and somewhat swashbuckling) hero.
45 posted on 01/16/2008 6:20:35 PM PST by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know. . .)
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To: calcowgirl

The environazis got legislation passed in Kalifornia that made the power companies sell their land holdings and hydroelectric production facilities. Now, the new owners, who have to pay down their new debt, can charge more for the power produced than ever charged before.

Too bad more consumers don’t realize this simple truth.


46 posted on 01/16/2008 6:27:44 PM PST by ridesthemiles
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To: calcowgirl

How much power does a self-cleaning oven use?

800 degrees for 3+ hours to “clean” your oven.
I don’t think they even sell a stove anymore that isn’t “self-cleaning”. I think mine has that feature, but I clean it the old fashioned way. Elbow grease.


47 posted on 01/16/2008 6:31:10 PM PST by ridesthemiles
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To: Rusty0604; calcowgirl; tubebender; ElkGroveDan; BOBTHENAILER
And if you listened this morning (which is hard to do with the signal fluctuations) they said that they're backin away from doin it just long enough to have a few public hearings, find a way to spring it on us without warning once again in the future.

You know... GovernMental IncreMentalism in EnvironMentalism!!!

48 posted on 01/16/2008 7:13:35 PM PST by SierraWasp (CA's Governor Spitzinator sucks canal water!!! He's just an opportunist!!! God save CA!!! Please!!!)
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To: calcowgirl

Please add me.

I love Tom. :)


49 posted on 01/16/2008 7:16:39 PM PST by Politicalmom (I'm the aunt of a brand-new Naval Officer. I'm proud of you, Kristi.)
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To: Politicalmom

You’re on! :-)


50 posted on 01/16/2008 7:44:08 PM PST by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: JamesP81

I live in the San Joaquin Valley. It gets hotter than Hades here in the summer. I think only the valley where Palm Springs is (Coachella?) and Death Valley get hotter.


51 posted on 01/16/2008 7:51:26 PM PST by abigailsmybaby (I was born with nothing. So far I have most of it left.)
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To: calcowgirl

Thanks. :)


52 posted on 01/16/2008 7:54:36 PM PST by Politicalmom (I'm the aunt of a brand-new Naval Officer. I'm proud of you, Kristi.)
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To: calcowgirl

BTTT!


53 posted on 01/16/2008 8:06:29 PM PST by Inyo-Mono (If you don't want people to get your goat, don't tell them where it's tied.)
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To: JamesP81

In Eastern California we have a 14,000 foot mountain range (the Sierra, highest mountains in U.S. outside Alaska) blocking ocean breezes, so it gets darn hot here - 105 is normal in July and in nearby Death Valley it hits well over 120 degrees each July.


54 posted on 01/16/2008 8:13:01 PM PST by Inyo-Mono (If you don't want people to get your goat, don't tell them where it's tied.)
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To: relee
All you have to do to get the A/C turned back on is to place a lamp that uses an old fashioned light bulb directly under the thermostat to warm it up some.

The trend in higher-end thermostats is to have the temperature sensor pointed inward, toward the middle of the wall. I have one like that and external heat sources have little, if any, impact on it. I'm going to guess that the green nazi thermostats will be recessed into the wall and heavily insulated from local user-induced heating. You would have to splice in a clandestine thermostat upstream from the 1984 one, while still supplying power and faux signal down the line. And hope they don't look too closely. The problem is that HVAC service people will be required to certify the installation on each visit. Best to just depart the state.

55 posted on 01/16/2008 8:14:30 PM PST by steve86 (Acerbic by nature, not nurtureā„¢)
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To: bill1952
What about indoor propane heaters that you attach to a regular propane tank?

if you're talking about freestanding ventless propane heaters, those have been illegal in CA for a long time. I used to sell them; couldn't ship to the mothership state.

56 posted on 01/16/2008 8:17:42 PM PST by steve86 (Acerbic by nature, not nurtureā„¢)
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To: ChildOfThe60s; bill1952
They still have gas stoves?

Where I live in north Eastern Calif., there is no natural gas so we use propane gas stoves. Electricity is too expensive and doesn't cook like gas.

57 posted on 01/16/2008 8:28:06 PM PST by Inyo-Mono (If you don't want people to get your goat, don't tell them where it's tied.)
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To: ChildOfThe60s; bill1952
They still have gas stoves?

Where I live in north Eastern Calif., there is no natural gas so we use propane gas stoves. Electricity is too expensive and doesn't cook like gas.

58 posted on 01/16/2008 8:28:38 PM PST by Inyo-Mono (If you don't want people to get your goat, don't tell them where it's tied.)
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To: ridesthemiles
How much power does a self-cleaning oven use?

Ya got me! ;-)

59 posted on 01/16/2008 9:52:00 PM PST by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: steve86
So I guess pointing a small hair dryer, set on low, at the thermostat is out of the question.

... Best to just depart the state ...

No doubt!

60 posted on 01/17/2008 2:19:40 AM PST by relee ('Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away)
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